Game #19, MVC #8, UIC at the ARC 3pm Saturday 1/20 - the Dunking Continues

[tiny707]

Bench Stafford and put in Jahari.

[valpotx]

Terrible defensive series by Edwards on that Rivera basket.  He was jumping at every fake...

[valpotx]

Credit to Stafford over the last 5 minutes, as he played like dog sh!t for the first 3/4 of the game, and has righted himself

[valpotx]

Also have to credit Edwards, as I don't think that he is a good 3 point shooter, but he made it when it mattered, especially after getting posterized

[VUSWIM08-12]

Ohhhhh my , finally!!

[valpotx]

Let's see if Todd jinxed Darius, in talking about his FT shooting

[valpotx]

No announcer jinx!  I know that it is not a real thing, but it does seem to coincide quite often in games.  Good win, even though UIC isn't a good team.  We showed resilience, which is all I can ask for from a young team.

[valpotx]

To put things in perspective, things could be worse, and we could be Detroit.  Holy crap, I didn't realize that they were this bad nowadays at 0-20 (0-9), and just lost to Youngstown by 40!

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401587704

[AB]

While we all acknowledge UIC, Illinois State are not very good teams (Redbirds won at MSU today!), Would a Lottich team found a way to win this kinda game last year? This team is more determined. We still have lapses on defense, leaving shooters wide open, not contesting, backdoored a few times, but we are lacking a lot of size down low and at the guard position, giving way to UIC's advantage inside on the switches.  As much as I would like to see Schweiger get more shot attempts/be more aggressive, he does a great job of staying patient and letting the game come to him. The last three game have giving the team a lot of confidence in them selves and a believe in the coaching staff/system.! Stafford can shoot you in games and out of games, but today was a team effort. I asked after the SIU game if this team had seen it's ceiling, well maybe it hasn't. Today was an example of getting the most out of your roster. IMO a great season for this squad would be to avoid the play in game. I could see us going 3-3 in our next 6 games. We are no longer in last place, lol.

[tjjvalpo]

Avoiding the play-in game is not likely. Remember, we are now a 12 team conference, so there is a full slate of games on Thursday. Only the top 4 teams get a bye.

[historyman]

To put things in perspective, things could be worse, and we could be Detroit.  Holy crap, I didn't realize that they were this bad nowadays at 0-20 (0-9), and just lost to Youngstown by 40!

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401587704

Bad time in the Motor City for Mike Davis. It's a long way from when he coached IU in the National championship game.

[mj]

That was a fun game to watch. I hope the word gets out that this is an entertaining team and we start to see more fans at the ARC.

[covufan]

Great win!  Way to stay in game, then push ahead in final minutes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[valpotx]

It might not matter to other folks, but with the remaining home games, I do now see a path to keeping our streak of .500 and above record at home.  It is something like 30 seasons in a row, and not a small thing to boast about.  We are 5-6 at home now, and have some winnable/50-50 games for the rest of the season.  I would be ecstatic to keep this alive in a down year, just as we did in the 2008-2009 season.

[Chairback]

Ola was active and aggressive.   He was the difference in the game.

Free throws and rebounds also. 

Love how the coaches keep this team engaged. 

They didn't give up and just fold like the last few years teams.   It's only going to get better and I enjoy watching this team. 

[historyman]

The difference was the 15 fouls called on UIC in the 2nd half & Valpo shot 19 for 21 free throws in the 2nd half after only getting 3 free throws in the 1st half.

[justducky]

Big first half minutes for our freshmen (sometimes all 4) but we trailed. Down the stretch we played our veteran group which is 1 frosh, 2 sophomores, and 2 juniors.  Very few turnovers by the Flames but we won the rebound game with our super short lineup.

[valpotx]

Agreed on the foul calling.  What a weird two halves with the same ref crew.  Hardly any contact was called in the first half, while all contact was called in the second half on both teams

[vu72]

Well folks, what we saw was the maturing of a basketball team.  I couldn't watch it live but just finished watching it on tape plus the presser.  What I saw was a team that could have easily folded as the much more experienced team kept hitting 3 after 3 but NOOOOO, to my surprise they kept fighting and fighting and...  WE WON!!!!!!!  A fantastic never say die effort!  We are on the right track! GO BEACONS!!

[usc4valpo]

Tjjvalpo - mentioning anything about the tournament  play in game is comedy. These guys are growing, and leave it at that.

[JD24]

Whatever we are doing to prepare for beginning of games needs to be looked into 

Letting Stafford onto the court?

[VULB#62]

One thing that has to happen in the next nine months:  Cooper has to gain 20# - 25#.  I watched him drive to the hoop and saw him being easily leveraged away from the basket by the guy who was guarding him. He missed the shot.  That will come eventually with maturity, but it can be accelerated with a strength program.

Different observation. UIC leads the MVC in blocks, I believe. Why?  From our game, our guy penetrates, a defender goes for the block, misses, but another defender is right behind and swats the ball away.  These guys have a mindset that maybe we should consider.  Of course being taller would help. 

FWIW, there was a time in the game when we went super small, but, dang, we pulled it off and didn't get crushed.

[VULB#62]

We are now in the second half of the season. It looks like there's another red shirt - Manyang.

[David81]

Some signs of 2nd half of the season improvement.

The guards are terribly inconsistent shooters from game-to-game; it seems they're either hot or they're not. They're all shooting under 40% on the season. Is Stafford sufficiently feared that keeping him out there while he's denting rims (or missing them completely) is a good coaching decision? Can the coaching staff find a way to go with the hotter hands???

[wh]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-wQDrkhw8o8&si=GXvrESn_P15s_Ntu