Ben Boggs

[vu72]

From all reports it appears the long awaited eligibility of Ben Boggs will start with the Oakland game.

So who has seen him practice?  What should we expect from him?  Is he a scorer?  A defensive stud?

At 6'4" he should add to our scoring ability and be more difficult to cover than the smaller Jay Harris or Will Bogan.

Brandon Wood told me some time ago that Boggs really has game. We'll see.

[valpopal]

When Ben was in high school, he broke his leg the beginning of his senior season; yet, on the basis of the performance during his first three years (averaged 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game as a junior; 16.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists as a sophomore, 13.0 points and 6.0 rebounds as a freshman: first team All-State, All-Region and All-District as a sophomore and junior), he was highly ranked by ESPN as one of the better shooting guards in the country, and he was recruited by Virginia Tech.

Though I wish Ben was redshirting so that we'd get to see him for two full years, if his biography is an indication of his potential at Valpo, he should contribute quite nicely when placed on the court this season.

[valpo84]

My ACC friends tell me this was a huge pick up for Valpo.

[valpotx]

I really am happy he will play this year, as he only missed 10 games.  We need him with Vashil and Dino not eligible this year.

[lowposter]

VU is running into a big numbers game with the redshirt situation.  He pretty much has to play this year.  Even tho he has missed a month of the season, the meat of the schedule is the conference and that is what is critical.  With a few games this month, hopefully he will be ready to roll.

lowposter

[wh]

Since we're grasping at straws, here's what chairback said about Ben Boggs after watching the open practice for season ticket holders:

Boggs is better than Bogans.  Boggs is also better than Kurth.  I would put Kurth and Bogans even with Kurth being slightly better.

If this is true, he should make an immediate impact.  Let's hope so.

[FWalum]

Has something official been announced? My understanding was that Ben and Bryce were going to talk this weekend and make a determination, but that Bryce was leaning towards using him this year. I was told that he has played very well in practice and that he would help considerably. However, nothing was official.

[vu72]

Nothing official at this point, just speculation on my part.  Given our depth issues it would make sense but we'll just have to see.

As for chairback's analysis of our guys, let's hope his thought that Boggs is better than Bogan or Kurth is more accurate than when he thought Kurth was better than Bogan!   

[milanmiracle]

Since we're grasping at straws, here's what chairback said about Ben Boggs after watching the open practice for season ticket holders:

Boggs is better than Bogans.  Boggs is also better than Kurth.  I would put Kurth and Bogans even with Kurth being slightly better.

If this is true, he should make an immediate impact.  Let's hope so.

I don't know that I would hearald being better than Kurth as any big deal...If Bogans is behind Kurth...um...

[milanmiracle]

Since we're grasping at straws, here's what chairback said about Ben Boggs after watching the open practice for season ticket holders:

Boggs is better than Bogans.  Boggs is also better than Kurth.  I would put Kurth and Bogans even with Kurth being slightly better.

If this is true, he should make an immediate impact.  Let's hope so.

I don't know that I would hearald being better than Kurth as any big deal...If Bogans is behind Kurth...um...

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

[wh]

Since we're grasping at straws, here's what chairback said about Ben Boggs after watching the open practice for season ticket holders:

Boggs is better than Bogans.  Boggs is also better than Kurth.  I would put Kurth and Bogans even with Kurth being slightly better.

If this is true, he should make an immediate impact.  Let's hope so.

I don't know that I would hearald being better than Kurth as any big deal...If Bogans is behind Kurth...um...

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

Bogans being behind Kurth was chairback's impression after observing their first practice.  Obviously, things didn't shake out that way. 

[valporun]

Why was Tommy Kurth being so overhyped here? Did he have high school numbers that were huge against teams that didn't/couldn't defend him, so they just let him take his shots whenever/wherever he wanted? At best, he looks like a D-II or D-III guard. He's slow and scrappy with possessions for an uptempo D-I game.

[vu72]

Tommy had a rating of 83 by ESPN coming out of high school and was ranked 91st nationally at point guard by the same service.  Just think how far our program has come remembering that tommy started almost every game as a freshman.  He is a "gritty" player who can bear down defensively if needed and will provide needed depth should any injury (like Erik) come along.

[sectionee]

Let me start off by saying I'm not a Tommy Kurth fan.  Last year I wasn't a Jay Harris fan until about 3/4 of the way through the year now that has all changed.  My hope is that with the addition of Ben we will see Will move to back up Erik and Jay or Ben will be our starting 2 guard and we won't have to see much of Tommy.  I just haven't seen anything positive from him this year; poor shooting, turning the ball over, and I'm not sure when he has bore down and defended anybody this year.  Hopefully Kurth is just working off the rust from sitting and can be a positive provider sooner rather then later.]

I'm interested to see how quickly Ben is able to gel during the games with his teammates.  I assume he has been practicing and playing open gym with the guys, but I have to believe live game situations are much different.

[valpo84]

Let's take a step back and maybe ease up a little on Kurth. He played a lot his freshman year due to a ton of injuries to our guards. That was not the plan. Second, Kurth was out last year so for anyone sitting out of live games for a year, it can take a little time to work back into game speeds. I think we will see that with Boggs for a couple games. Third Tommy's minutes are substantially reduced and so he isn't getting the "reps" necessary to work out the rust and hence his limited minutes are magnified and he may be pressing. Plus, isn't he banged up from a couple games ago. We need every person on this roster to play to their capabilities. We need a few minutes a game of a PG who doesn't turn the ball over and gets the ball to the right people in the offense. As we saw last year, depth in this conference is important and when we were gelling mid-conf season, everyone was healthy. As we hit the end and the wheels feel off, we had injuries and fatique from players having to play too many minutes during critical stretches. That's my big concern already. I think the loss to IPFW was in part a result of the OT game against Butler. We've had 2 (?) OT games already and how many did we have last year? Those minutes add up. Look not every one on a roster is going to compete for All-Horizon teams. Some, however, are critical to a team because you may need them for 8-10 minutes a game or for a spot start or two. We are a different team from last year's as people are still adjusting to a new coach, new teammates, loss of "seniors," and new roles plus distractions from who's eligible, who's not, who's hurt. A good book to read about the ups and downs of season to season, and the interplay of some of these factors is Feinstein's old book on the '78 Duke team and the years preceding and post that.

[milldew72]

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

I've always thought the same thing.

[FWalum]

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

I've always thought the same thing.

I am not saying anything either way on this one. I do think it is interesting how quickly we all seem to forget that at the beginning of last season people were wondering if Buggs was going to play much because we had just come off of a season with Kurth running the point adequately in a lot of people's opinions.

[valpofan56]

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

I've always thought the same thing.

I am not saying anything either way on this one. I do think it is interesting how quickly we all seem to forget that at the beginning of last season people were wondering if Buggs was going to play much because we had just come off of a season with Kurth running the point adequately in a lot of people's opinions.

Unfortunately that was before Kurth turned into a walking turnover with no shot and who is a step slow on D.

[bbtds]

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

I've always thought the same thing.

I am not saying anything either way on this one. I do think it is interesting how quickly we all seem to forget that at the beginning of last season people were wondering if Buggs was going to play much because we had just come off of a season with Kurth running the point adequately in a lot of people's opinions.

Unfortunately that was before Kurth turned into a walking turnover with no shot and who is a step slow on D.

Kurth never shot much at all even when he was starting his freshman year. He has never done much in the scoring department since high school.

[milanmiracle]

From what I've seen of Kurth, he's a decent walk on who happens to be on scholarship.

I've always thought the same thing.

I am not saying anything either way on this one. I do think it is interesting how quickly we all seem to forget that at the beginning of last season people were wondering if Buggs was going to play much because we had just come off of a season with Kurth running the point adequately in a lot of people's opinions.

I was never a fan of Kurth as he was a liablility on offense from day 1. He wanted to be a Jake Diebler clone but wasn't nearly as good on D. Add in the fact he refused to shoot, and you had somebody who didn't bring much to the table other than not turning it over. Since that's gone, he doesn't bring much to the table at this point.

[hoopfan22]

We sure are letting Kurth have it in here.

[valpofan56]

We sure are letting Kurth have it in here.

He deserves it. He is getting a full ride for his college education.  Any other student would have their academic scholarship yanked if they were as severly underperforming in the classroom as Kurth is on the court. I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

[sectionee]

He deserves it. He is getting a full ride for his college education.  Any other student would have their academic scholarship yanked if they were as severely under performing in the classroom as Kurth is on the court. I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

+1   

[valpopal]

He deserves it. He is getting a full ride for his college education.  Any other student would have their academic scholarship yanked if they were as severely under performing in the classroom as Kurth is on the court. I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

+1   

I have never been a Kurth fan, and I am pleased we now have enough depth that his presence on the court should be a last resort. However, I am also mindful that these players are all in their early twenties and student-athletes who also seem to conduct themselves well as citizens of the community. Indeed, those I have known off the court have been great representatives of Valpo, and Kurth seems to fit that profile as well.

Sometimes the best contributions made by a player may be seen outside the game, during practice or in everyday support for teammates. Indeed, I am told Cameron Witt apparently continues to display those characteristics even after being dropped from the team. These are not professionals, and Kurth doesn't even have any hope for an opportunity to eventually play for a team in Europe, so I will give a bit more slack in the harshness of my rhetoric when levying any criticism, and I feel empathy for him in his situation, as I did for Witt.

I simply wish all the players in the rotation ahead of Kurth good health, as I'm sure he does, and I will wish Tommy the best when he is called upon to play.

[vu72]

He deserves it. He is getting a full ride for his college education.  Any other student would have their academic scholarship yanked if they were as severely under performing in the classroom as Kurth is on the court. I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

+1   

I have never been a Kurth fan, and I am pleased we now have enough depth that his presence on the court should be a last resort. However, I am also mindful that these players are all in their early twenties and student-athletes who also seem to conduct themselves well as citizens of the community. Indeed, those I have known off the court have been great representatives of Valpo, and Kurth seems to fit that profile as well.

Sometimes the best contributions made by a player may be seen outside the game, during practice or in everyday support for teammates. Indeed, I am told Cameron Witt apparently continues to display those characteristics even after being dropped from the team. These are not professionals, and Kurth doesn't even have any hope for an opportunity to eventually play for a team in Europe, so I will give a bit more slack in the harshness of my rhetoric when levying any criticism, and I feel empathy for him in his situation, as I did for Witt.

I simply wish all the players in the rotation ahead of Kurth good health, as I'm sure he does, and I will wish Tommy the best when he is called upon to play.