12/29, 7PM CST: Milwaukee Game Thread

[valpo04]

Our second HL game, Milwaukee comes to the ARC at 9-4 and 2-0 with wins over Loyola and UIC.  They also handled IUPUI 62-49 but only beat NIU by 2.

Too bad we have back-to-back home HL games during winter break.

[valpotx]

I will predict that we win it in the last 2-3 possessions being at home:

Valpo 74
Milwaukee 71

[valpopal]

Early Vegas odds have Valpo favored by 1.5, the same as the spread in the Oakland game that we lost by two; however, I will hope for a better ending this time:

Milwaukee  65
Valpo         69

[sectionee]

This will be a great game!  I'm concerned with Kelm, Haarsma and Meier but I think we can get the first two in foul trouble.  Let's hope we can play some better D this evening!

[dylanrocks]

This will be a game in the high 50s or low 60s, folks.

Milwaukee allows opponents to shoot 39.4 percent from the field and 25.2 percent from downtown (fourth in the nation).

By the way, I'm still waiting for Kyle to pick up his first foul in the Marquette game.

(Those of you who watched the Valpo-Ohio State game know how that goes.)

[StlVUFan]

This will be a game in the high 50s or low 60s, folks.

Milwaukee allows opponents to shoot 39.4 percent from the field and 25.2 percent from downtown (fourth in the nation).

By the way, I'm still waiting for Kyle to pick up his first foul in the Marquette game.

(Those of you who watched the Valpo-Ohio State game know how that goes.)

Oh yeah.

[dylanrocks]

By the way, STL, good luck this season outside of tonight and Jan. 28.

You guys know that I root for you the rest of the year. Love the Drews.

[vuweathernerd]

based on recent play, i'm not so optimistic about tonight. hopefully we can recapture the fire that we played with through the butler game. but i see milwaukee pulling away in the end on free throws, 72-65.

[StlVUFan]

By the way, STL, good luck this season outside of tonight and Jan. 28.

You guys know that I root for you the rest of the year. Love the Drews.

Thanks.  Bordering a couple dozen Panther fans here already, keeping your seat warm for you

[valpopal]

1-17 from the three point line!  It's those damn gray unis: burn them! 

[valpofan56]

This team has become completely pathetic in a very short period of time.  Richie Edwards is awful. Ben Boggs is equally awful. If he is this bad why didn't we wait to use him and hope that maybe over the summer he could turn himself into a decent basketball player?

[sectionee]

http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/game-wrap-up-what-went-wrong.html

Edwards is ok when he isn't flopping on defense or shooting from anywhere outside 6 feet.  I think we have regressed a bit here.

[vuweathernerd]

boggs is not awful. milwaukee played a very solid defensive game from about 10ft and outwards. we had some success slashing through their man and getting to the bucket early, but they buckled down on that as the game went on. their guards played tight on our 3pt shooters, rarely leaving them open. granted, it didn't help that we didn't hit the open looks that we did have. honestly, i think you have to credit milwaukee's defense for causing headaches, and wonder why we didn't adjust to it and find ways to get more open shots.

that said, i do agree with ee that we've regressed some since the butler game. we're gonna have to kick it into a higher gear if we want to compete for the title this year.

[humbleopinion]

This was just a strange game.  When will we ever again see a half-time stats line of Buggs with ten points and no fouls?  In the second half they sagged off of him and our dribble penetration ended.  And again, when will we ever see one for seventeen from the three point line.  Our defense was pretty solid (except giving Meier too many open looks in the first half), the ball just wouldn't  go through the hoop.  I'm ready to shelve this game as a blip that should be forgotten.  I hope the boys can regain their shooting confidence in time for Green Bay.

[vu72]

I thought our defensive effort was the best we've seen this year.  If we go 2 for 19 instead of 1 for 19, we win.  That, in and of itself is reason to be positive.  We won against Akron going zero for whatever.  We aren't shooting very well but with the defense we showed we don't have to. 25% from the 3 will do it--IF, we play defense like we did.  Amazing how well we can play with Erik actually on the floor for the entire game.

How often will we see Bogan, Boggs and Harris put up a combined ZERO points?

Oh yeah, let's leave the gray uniforms in the closet.  We now are 0-3 wearing them.

[vu84v2]

Frankly, this was a poor performance.  Milwaukee did not play well and really has no one outside of Meier and maybe one other player.  Outside shooting (with multiple wide open looks) was terrible, but so was the rebounding (other than Broekhoff) and the free throw shooting.  Edwards looks lost - two of his baskets were point blank layups after good passes and his third was a prayer left handed shot.  Not to mention that when he came into the game he missed a 17 footer by three feet and then got burned on the defensive end (good quick yank by Bryce).  The offense was not good for the entire game, but horrendous when Buggs was not on the floor.

[covufan]

We can't lose these kinds of games at home and be competitive in the HL.  The Akron, Duquesne and Butler games are what we as fans expect from this team, but maybe this is an up and down year, with many newcomers and new head coach and coaching philosophy.  I'm looking forward to watching this team grow, and steal an away game or two.

[valporun]

I'm not sure that we're having "up and down year" yet, covufan, but I do feel that we need to find another scorer. If this means give one of 'B guards' the green light to shoot, then I'm all for it. Richie needs to be more of an inside force, not shoot the ball from all over, regardless of having the shot or not. It was great having Buggs on the floor the whole game, and picking up some of the slack from Ryan and Kevin having some early struggles from having all the defensive focus on them. Glad that Ryan continued being Ryan, and letting the IUPUI game be a blip in the season. I wish that every game Ryan got a double-double would ignite Bogan, Boggs, Edwards, or Harris to be just as productive.

From this loss, we need to realize that we need to be more physical against Green Bay tomorrow, not in terms of committing more fouls, but in continuing to get the ball inside, and having Bogan, Boggs, or Harris get a hot hand. More than Ryan, Kevin, and Buggs doing all the work, we need someone else to step up/adjust their game to help take slack off the main three guys doing a lot of the veteran work.

[Crusader03]

I'm not sure that we're having "up and down year" yet, covufan, but I do feel that we need to find another scorer. If this means give one of 'B guards' the green light to shoot, then I'm all for it. Richie needs to be more of an inside force, not shoot the ball from all over, regardless of having the shot or not. It was great having Buggs on the floor the whole game, and picking up some of the slack from Ryan and Kevin having some early struggles from having all the defensive focus on them. Glad that Ryan continued being Ryan, and letting the IUPUI game be a blip in the season. I wish that every game Ryan got a double-double would ignite Bogan, Boggs, Edwards, or Harris to be just as productive.

Could not agree more....it's like we're grooming him to be Cory v.2.0.

[vu72]

I'm not sure that we're having "up and down year" yet, covufan, but I do feel that we need to find another scorer. If this means give one of 'B guards' the green light to shoot, then I'm all for it. Richie needs to be more of an inside force, not shoot the ball from all over, regardless of having the shot or not. It was great having Buggs on the floor the whole game, and picking up some of the slack from Ryan and Kevin having some early struggles from having all the defensive focus on them. Glad that Ryan continued being Ryan, and letting the IUPUI game be a blip in the season. I wish that every game Ryan got a double-double would ignite Bogan, Boggs, Edwards, or Harris to be just as productive.

Could not agree more....it's like we're grooming him to be Cory v.2.0.

If he ends up being anywhere close to Cory, the coaches will wet their pants.   

[valpopal]

I just noticed that Detroit lost to UIC (63-59) last night the same way Valpo lost to Milwaukee (57-55): poor 3-point and foul shooting. Detroit was 0-10 from the 3-point line (UIC was 10-22!) and 13-21 from the foul line. Valpo was 1-17 from the 3-point line and 10-17 from the foul line. If Valpo or Detroit just made a total of 2 three-point shots for the entire game (merely one per half), each probably wins. Frustrating!

[Crusader03]

I'm not sure that we're having "up and down year" yet, covufan, but I do feel that we need to find another scorer. If this means give one of 'B guards' the green light to shoot, then I'm all for it. Richie needs to be more of an inside force, not shoot the ball from all over, regardless of having the shot or not. It was great having Buggs on the floor the whole game, and picking up some of the slack from Ryan and Kevin having some early struggles from having all the defensive focus on them. Glad that Ryan continued being Ryan, and letting the IUPUI game be a blip in the season. I wish that every game Ryan got a double-double would ignite Bogan, Boggs, Edwards, or Harris to be just as productive.

Could not agree more....it's like we're grooming him to be Cory v.2.0.

If he ends up being anywhere close to Cory, the coaches will wet their pants.   

We'll agree to disagree.  Cory was a fine player, but not what we need from a post.  With Bogan, Harris, Broekhoff, Boggs and Kenney in the fold, do we really want perhaps our second toughest player to turn into a jump-shooting, pump-faking, outside-in player?  We have plenty of shooters...we need guys who can attack and score in the paint.

[vu72]

Well '03, I see your point.  Cory was not a banger, but still very effective.  In the Horizon, which is a smaller league, guys like Butler's Smith could not keep up with Cory.  He lit them up.  Still, I understand what you think is a better role for Richie.  I do think we are being a little hard on him, as he is playing about half the minutes Ryan plays and still is scoring at almost 9 ppg and shooting 42.5% overall and 25% from the 3.  Having a big who can on occasion hit a 3 keep the defense from sagging too much and can help guys like Erik slash to the hoop.  I'd love to read FWAlum's take on Richie.

[blackpantheruwm]

I think your poster who gave credit to our perimeter defense had it right.  In the replay, I counted three wide open three-pointers taken by Valpo, and they made one of them.

Milwaukee is one of the best defenses in the country, folks.  Here's a few teams, their average and what they scored on Milwaukee:

IUPUI, 73.7 ppg: 49
Texas Southern, 50.7 ppg: 38
Michigan State, 77.1 ppg: 68
UALR, 63.9 ppg: 54
Loyola, 56.1 ppg: 41
Wisconsin, 67.9 ppg: 60
Marquette, 78.5 ppg: 64
Valpo, 73.6 ppg: 55

Without that uncontested bucket at the end, Valpo would have scored 53.  Our defense has just been very good this year, and our offense dictates the possessions.  We recognize that while we can get hot shooting (87 on DePaul), we're not the best shooting team and we dictate a much slower pace to mitigate the amount of shots (possessions) each team gets. And while I don't think Valpo would go 1-for-17 every night from three against us, I would be surprised if they ever got to, say, 8-of-17.  It's just what we do; we take away team's opportunities to shoot.

We'll see what we do with Butler tomorrow, who likes to play the same pace we do.  They are much, much better since they took Hopkins out of the lineup.  He's just not there yet.

[wh]

As usual, I walked away from last night's game being thoroughly impressed with Ryan's play.  He is amazingly efficient at both ends of the court in terms of making the most of his opportunities.  That said, I think he needs to be featured more on offense.  He is our only player that is a threat to score both inside and outside, he hits 50% of his shots, and yet he only averages 10 shots per game.  That simply is not enough shots for a player of his caliber.  As others have said, we did a good job last night of patiently working the ball inside to take advantage of Kevin's strengths, but it seems that we seldom run a set specifically designed to get Ryan the ball in a position to score.  Just a thought...