Some breathing room!

[SanityLost17]

With everyone back next year plus the addition of two quality bigs, there's little doubt we will be favored to win the league.  It will be interesting to see if Butler or anyone else can leapfrog us.  This year is an unexpected bonus.

I realize this is off topic, but your comment got me thinking... 

We have two quality big men that will be in the mix next year.  Plus, Edwards has played extremely well in the last 3 games. (not to mention in the Butler game earlier this year)  Do we ever get to the point where we have Van Wijk and Edwards starting at the 5 and 4 with Broekhoff at the 3 position? 

[zvillehaze]

With everyone back next year plus the addition of two quality bigs, there's little doubt we will be favored to win the league.  It will be interesting to see if Butler or anyone else can leapfrog us.  This year is an unexpected bonus.

Congrats on the season ... with the remaining schedule, Valpo is clearly in a great position to host the tourney.  I'm not ready to look to next year yet, but I'm OK if you want to proclaim Valpo as the favorites.  Given the recent play of Butler's young guys and additions coming next year, I think they'll be right in the mix also. 

[FWalum]

With everyone back next year plus the addition of two quality bigs, there's little doubt we will be favored to win the league.  It will be interesting to see if Butler or anyone else can leapfrog us.  This year is an unexpected bonus.

I realize this is off topic, but your comment got me thinking... 

We have two quality big men that will be in the mix next year.  Plus, Edwards has played extremely well in the last 3 games. (not to mention in the Butler game earlier this year)  Do we ever get to the point where we have Van Wijk and Edwards starting at the 5 and 4 with Broekhoff at the 3 position? 

I think that Broekhoff playing the three next year is almost certain.  Remember, Bobby Capobianco did not come to VU to sit on the bench. I expect there to be major competition among the "bigs" next year when you add Capobianco and Fernandez into the mix.

[justducky]

And we can stop rooting for Butler now

+1

Agreed. I find rooting for Butler to be physically painful. Besides that, if I try to hold my nose and cheer at the same time I sound just like Todd Ickow.

[valpotx]

It's absurd to think that we won't be competing again next year for the title.  Butler fans are so delusional, it gives me my laughs for the day just to go on their forum and take in some of their 'smug' 

[sectionee]

Congrats on the season ... with the remaining schedule, Valpo is clearly in a great position to host the tourney.  I'm not ready to look to next year yet, but I'm OK if you want to proclaim Valpo as the favorites.  Given the recent play of Butler's young guys and additions coming next year, I think they'll be right in the mix also. 

Both teams have impact players sitting on the sidelines this year who will have huge rolls next season.  This year has been a fantastic surprise, and the best is yet to come.

[historyman]

Well, Youngstown cut off a little of our air but Valpo is still in first place by 1/2 game. We need to concentrate on UIC next. Kevin Van Wijk can get some revenge on Cleve State by heaping it on UIC. Then beating the Vikings at Valpo in the HL tourney. 

[valpotx]

Just need to worry about UIC, then Loyola at home.  If we win those, the Butler game is just for bragging rights, as I can't see CSU beating Milwaukee/Green Bay at their places, and Detroit/WSU at home.  If we go 2-1, and they go 3-1, we are hosting. 

Also, I still love reading the Butler board, and how they think they are now in the same league as a Duke or a North Carolina.  Yes, you had two runner-up years, but you firmly belong in the HL.  The Big East is not calling you ever, so suck it up.  Outside of T&F/CC, the vast majority of your sports are the same as most other teams in the league.  The main reason I turned down the baseball scholarship offer from Butler for Valpo was due to the cockiness of the students I met in my visit years ago (even cocky in 1998-1999 for my visit).  Both schools provide a good education, but being humble is apparently an undervalued trait in Indianapolis...

[sectionee]

http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2012/02/road-ahead.html
Here is a look at the top 6 teams and their remaining schedules for conference play.

[valpopal]

The Youngstown State game was very disappointing, but it demonstrated the importance of winning the conference to gain home court advantage and secure at least an NIT invitation. Any team in the top half of the league can get hot and win the tournament, especially the one playing on its home court. The tournament will be tough in any case; however, if we earn the double bye, home court, and the security of an NIT invitation, the tone and atmosphere would be a lot better than having to travel to Cleveland or elsewhere for an all or nothing tournament.

[bbtds]

Both schools provide a good education, but being humble is apparently an undervalued trait in Indianapolis...

XLVI Super Bowl City, Final Four every 5 years or less, Indy 500, IU & Purdue within an hour & half drive, Super Bowl winner, Carmel is the third richest city of it's size in the country, Fishers is the third largest "non-city" in the country, most stone monuments in a city outside of DC, second most populous state capital, Brickyard 400, 23rd largest MSA in the country, home of the first Union station, etc. etc. etc.

I will agree with you that there are parts of Indy that are extremely anti-humble (maybe even arrogant). Butler is included in that arrogant section. Of course my section in the southwest section of Indy is certainly not arrogant!!!   

And Carmel including sections of Hamilton County...........don't even get me started.

On a serious note this is true of Indy.....from Wikipedia:
A University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee study recently concluded that Indianapolis is the least segregated city in the northern United States, with 25% of the population living on a city block with both white and black residents.

Indy was the only large US city that did not have rioting after the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is mostly attributed to Robert Kennedy being in Indy on the day of the assassination while campaigning for President and following his usual procedure spoke in a mostly African American neighborhood and told the audience of the assassination and gave this part of the speech:

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy's_speech_on_the_assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

[justducky]

With everyone back next year plus the addition of two quality bigs, there's little doubt we will be favored to win the league.  It will be interesting to see if Butler or anyone else can leapfrog us.  This year is an unexpected bonus.

I realize this is off topic, but your comment got me thinking... 

We have two quality big men that will be in the mix next year.  Plus, Edwards has played extremely well in the last 3 games. (not to mention in the Butler game earlier this year)  Do we ever get to the point where we have Van Wijk and Edwards starting at the 5 and 4 with Broekhoff at the 3 position? 

I think that Broekhoff playing the three next year is almost certain.  Remember, Bobby Capobianco did not come to VU to sit on the bench. I expect there to be major competition among the "bigs" next year when you add Capobianco and Fernandez into the mix.

At the start of this season I said that if come February Capobianco is sitting at the end of the bench wondering where his 2012-13 minutes are going to come from, then we should be in great shape to finish this one strong. With the dramatic improvement that Edwards has shown this season I would think that Bobby is woking very very very hard both in and after practice.
As for Sanity's original question I think we would already be looking at some moments when Kevin, Richie and Ryan are all on the floor except how then do you substitute. Next year we will not have that problem.

[StlVUFan]

Oren tweets that 1 more conference win should clinch a dbl bye! Panther fans not pleased with the officiating tonight.

Not quite, I think.  If CSU finishes in 1st but loses to Butler, Butler, YSU, and Valpo can all end up 12-6, and Butler wins the tiebreaker (3-1 to 1-3 to 2-2).

No solace here, but upon further review, if Paul Oren was thinking "1 more conference win TONIGHT", then he was right (for all the good it does now).  It still holds, though.  A Valpo win AND a YSU loss clinches the double bye for Valpo.  Obviously, that could have happened last night.