Game #15 - MVC #4 - UIC at Credit Union 1 Arena Saturday 1/6 7pm

[talksalot]

Flames Conference Record   0-3
Beacons Conference Record 0-3

Somethings gotta give.

UIC Valley Losses: 
at Murray State 85-73
at Southern Ill 62-50
home vs Illinois State 69-64

FLAMES NET ranking is 151, overall 6-7 record

Full schedule:
Cincinnati lost by 11
wins over:  Little Rock, Loyola, non-D1,

Bahama's Tournament:
Beat Middle Tennessee 70-40 
Beat George Washington 89-79
Lost to NC Greensboro (NET 155) 58-57

Lost to Green Bay (70-68) at home
Beat Western Michigan 89-68
Lost to Incarnate Word (NET 300) 67-66 at home

Best Win:  Loyola NET 146

Looking at Personnel, in the Murray State game on Tuesday night,
#5 Toby Okani 20 points in 33 minutes on 13 shots, also had 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals

#1 Isaiah Rivera, 13 points in 33 minutes on 14 shots, (3 of 8 from deep)

Off the bench, #50 Filip Skobalj, 14 points in 22 minutes 4 of 5 from deep.

As a team, they shot 5 of 10 from 2-point range and 9-18 from 3 point range and 9 of 12 from the line.

28 P in the P, only 3 fast break points, only 8 points off turnovers.

For the Year, Comparison
              UIC      VALP
FG%      45.6%     39.8% 
3pt         37.5%    30.4%
FT %      65.4%     70.4%
REB/gm  35.9        34.7       
Shots/gm  57.6      61.0
Turnovers   176      167
assists        212      171

Home Att    1660    1377


Starting Lineup from Murray State
1  Isaiah Rivera   6-5 210 Sr Trf from Colorado State
3  CJ Jones  6-5 195 So
4  Ethan Pickett 6-4 205 Jr
5  Toby Okani 6-8 210 Trf from Duquesne
33 Jaden Brownell  6-9 230 So

Off the bench
2  Steven Clay 6-4 185 Soph from Milwaukee
50 Filip Skobalj  6-7 235 Jr Don Bosco Grad from Belgrade Serbia
54 Cameron Fens 6-10 255 So

Rivera, Okani and Pickett have started all 14 of the games.

SO... another "winnable" game.  but then again, they are all winnable.

[tiny707]

UIC: 70
Valpo: 40

[valpotx]

UIC 71
Valpo 55

[valpopal]

V. U.  62
UIC.  74

[covufan]

I just want to see a good game.

UIC    73
Valpo  69


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[NativeCheesehead]

Will be interesting to see how the team responds after the Bradley debacle.

I think it's important to keep our frustration for the way this season has gone in the right place, which is squarely directed at whoever allowed that ridiculous buyout clause in Lottich's contract extension. All my years following this awesome sport I've never heard of a buyout dropping almost a month after the season ended. Seems like both Padilla & Small have had to spend their first year(s) on the job cleaning up the mess of their predecessors. RP2's first year kneecapped before he even walked in the door.

[elephtheria47]

Unfortunately, its not uncommon.

And it really hamstrings the transfer portal and fielding a competitive team in year 1.

Any excitement or anyone who proves they can play at this level this year is just a bonus. Powell really needs to hit it hard and get some wins this upcoming offseason, and I believe he will.

[VUSWIM08-12]

Game is in 5 hours! 12 point underdogs , however, if Stafford plays maybe we can put one together  now that other players have had to score more. 8 loses in a row though. Make something happen fellas , we need it!!!

Beacons of Light 74
Flames 71

[usc4valpo]

UIC 78
Crusaders 65

[AB]

Flames 69 Valpo 72. I will be the contrarian today. I have no reason to believe this will happen other than the fact they are due for a complete game and Flames will have poor shooting. Does Cooper show up today?

[David81]

Baby Beacs 74
UIC 68

Thinkin' positive. (Not exactly my nature, but sometimes a team rebounds after getting slaughtered.....)

[VUSWIM08-12]

Tied at 62 with 7 to go ! Come on now!! Sepp has great footwork n fundamentals!

[VUSWIM08-12]

Edwards with the worst play I've seen from him all season ! Had Ola wide open on the break, selfishly took it himself , lost it out of bounds. Horrible! Now Darius turning it over , just bad...

[justducky]

Much better effort but we were outplayed when it counted.

[mj]

We blew it. Had a great chance to win and we disappeared the last 8 minutes.

[AB]

 Game wast lost when it was 53-52 and Valpo had a chance to extend the lead, but instead 3 straight turnovers. Too many missed point blank shots at the rim and no field goals the last 8 minutes of the game!  All this and UIC only won by 6 points. Flames are not that impressive, lucky to win. Cooper needs to look to be aggressive. He had no shot attempts in the final 12 minutes. Team needs to play through him more.

[vu72]

It was an improvement though Roger now knows what it takes to win in the Valley and we are a few players short.  Whether or not the current guys will mature into those needed players is a question he and his staff need to answer.  We need some help in my opinion.

[wh]

The losses don't bother me in the slightest. Let's remember that Roger inherited a completely broken program with 1 part time starter from a year ago who couldn't score. To make matters worse, the search committee slow walked the process to where the apple tree had been picked nearly bare by the time Roger accepted. I love watching our guys with their great energy and never say die attitude.

[JD24]

My question is what's happened to Schwieger? I don't know if he's sick, has an injury or has gotten on Powell's bad side but he isn't remotely the same guy we saw at the start of the season.

[usc4valpo]

I look forward to seeing how well Powell recruits and works the transfer protocol.

[tiny707]

I think RP can recruit. The question will be can he coach once he gets some dudes. Never been a head coach. We will see.

[justducky]

Roger now knows what it takes to win in the Valley and we are a few players short.  Whether or not the current guys will mature into those needed players is a question he and his staff need to answer. 

Add an inside big who can score and another versatile forward with good 3 point confidence and suddenly we are much improved. Can Manyang and Scroggins fill these needs?

My question is what's happened to Schwieger? I don't know if he's sick, has an injury or has gotten on Powell's bad side but he isn't remotely the same guy we saw at the start of the season.

Cooper has a freshman game with many of the typical freshman limitations. He has also been singled out because we have so few good scoring options. He will get better as the team gets better.

I look forward to seeing how well Powell recruits and works the transfer protocol.

I had hoped that Roger could have landed one highly sought big impact player last spring but it didn't happen. 2024-25 is a new year and a new season!

Sepp never dazzles us but his play is remarkably consistent. In his 228 minutes of freshman play he has only 9 turn overs which reminds me of Kiser in his walk on season.

[valpopal]

In this game I was struck by the contradiction in statistics between VU dominating the rebounds by a margin of 44-33 (15-8 in offensive boards); yet, Valpo's interior guys took very few shots and the team was beaten 38-28 on points in the paint. That is where the game was lost. Schwieger and Sepp each only attempted 4 shots the whole game while playing 58 minutes. I appreciate that DeAveiro has improved his game; however, something is wrong when he takes 13 shots, making only 3, while those higher percentage interior guys combined for only 8 shots (making 6). It is not like the inside shots were being blocked. Valpo actually led in blocked shots by a 7-2 margin.   

The same thing happened in the Bradley game. Darius took 12 shots while Schwieger and Sepp combined for only 6 in 54 minutes (Ojiboye took 0 shots in the 13 minutes he subbed for those two), and Valpo lost on points in the paint by a margin of 32-18. Admittedly, Bradley has better interior players than UIC, and Bradley out-rebounded Valpo. However, the unbalance of shot selection needs to be addressed. In these two games, VU has lost on points in the paint by a 70-46 margin!

[covufan]

In this game I was struck by the contradiction in statistics between VU dominating the rebounds by a margin of 44-33 (15-8 in offensive boards); yet, Valpo's interior guys took very few shots and the team was beaten 38-28 on points in the paint. That is where the game was lost. Schwieger and Sepp each only attempted 4 shots the whole game while playing 58 minutes. I appreciate that DeAveiro has improved his game; however, something is wrong when he takes 13 shots, making only 3, while those higher percentage interior guys combined for only 8 shots (making 6). It is not like the inside shots were being blocked. Valpo actually led in blocked shots by a 7-2 margin.   

The same thing happened in the Bradley game. Darius took 12 shots while Schwieger and Sepp combined for only 6 in 54 minutes (Ojiboye took 0 shots in the 13 minutes he subbed for those two), and Valpo lost on points in the paint by a margin of 32-18. Admittedly, Bradley has better interior players than UIC, and Bradley out-rebounded Valpo. However, the unbalance of shot selection needs to be addressed. In these two games, VU has lost on points in the paint by a 70-46 margin!

I didn't watch the Bradley game, but looking at box score I was surprised by Schwieger's stat line of 21 minutes, no points and no rebounds. I understand he is a freshman, but this was very different than his first several games. Sepp has really improved since his few games when he didn't play. The ball needs to go through Stafford and  Schwieger, who either create, or find open shot opportunities IMHO


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[JD24]

The Schwieger situation bares a bit more watching and I don't think it is strictly "well....he's a freshman". There was one game which was close where he did not play the last 8 or 9 mins and I felt it hurt the team. Since then he's been ineffective, not putting any minutes in, etc. He's probably the second best player on the roster assuming one assumes Stafford is the best....even though he drives me nuts....and Schwieger's either not in the game or just not doing anything?

Something's up whether it is an injury or other explanation.

Edit: Looking at the boxscores...it was the Chicago St. game in which Schwieger was sitting at the end of a close game when I thought he was needed. He had 15 and 21 vs Samford and Elon but a goose egg vs. Bradley and 5 vs UIC.