I don’t believe Cooper received any other offer other than Valpo. Carson didn’t get any. The explanation at the time was that D1 coaches were scrambling to get the best players in the transfer portal and the likes of Cooper and Scroggins were being overlooked. I am curious what Coach Powell saw in Cooper over Carson. I wondered that at the time and I wonder now. Both had very similar numbers. Anyone have any insight?
I still have no solid clue of what Carson Schwieger can give us on the court. On the Raider Nation board Big D did post the link without comment and the only response was one of total surprise that he should get one. Just how common is it for a player like Carson to walk on and redshirt? Is it correct for me to assume that this was his choice? If so then he shows up, pays his own way, then works out and practices with the team but has no interest in getting in games and losing a year of eligibility. If he has great potential then he seems to have done a terrific job of hiding it from the Wright St fan base. I think PO and The Victory Bell should go for the inside scoop with a Scott Nagy welcome to the Valley interview.Whatever keeps Cooper and his family happy I am all game for! Carson had a year to redshirt and work on his body and his game! Rog will have him physically ready to come in for toughness moments in the valley! Will he get a lot of minutes? Probably not! However, he could come in and kick some ass on the boards
It almost seems like Carson and Cooper share the same skillset, with Carson being able to throw his weight around a bit more than Cooper can. I percieve a solid base of deception, or subbing the brothers out for one another. With the assistance of Ellis and Shaw being threats in the mid range and beyond the arc, and have displayed some skill in the assist catagory. I thin it can set up plays where both brothers come into the game to disorient defenses. Coop got his fair share of double teams when he was on the court last year. Having a carbon copy on the court is bound to break defenses if Carson can play at coops level. Carson also would be a better threat down low with his apparent ability to throw his weight around. Its like the old "Ragnarök" play that VHS football used to run back when we had 2 equal caliber qbs. No one ever knew who was running the ball or who was throwing the ball. Sure you risk injury to both guys, but its effective to disorient a defense.
So we have a new guy who apparently wasn't likely to get much in the way of minutes in a program coached by his uncle and assisted by his father and who's main attraction, since it is mentioned so often, is to his grandfather.
A second guy is a twin brother to a real find last year but who had to walk on in a program at a lower level, hasn't seen a court in a year and may or may not play at all. He's tall.
Lets hope the final scholarship is used to fill an actual weakness on the team in terms of size, want to and toughness. You know...the areas the team was essentially inept at last year.
That and that Devon Ellis can play.
If this doesn't all add up to a "boom" I don't know what does.
Even if Carson becomes Mike Oppland, we still have Dan Oppland in Cooper. If Mike would have stayed at Valpo, he would have continued to get 10 mpg, but he wanted something more and did well for himself at a lower level, and parlayed that into professional basketball in Europe. Even if Carson's ceiling is Mike Oppland, I am happy with him joining our ranks
So we have a new guy who apparently wasn't likely to get much in the way of minutes in a program coached by his uncle and assisted by his father and who's main attraction, since it is mentioned so often, is to his grandfather.
A second guy is a twin brother to a real find last year but who had to walk on in a program at a lower level, hasn't seen a court in a year and may or may not play at all. He's tall.
Lets hope the final scholarship is used to fill an actual weakness on the team in terms of size, want to and toughness. You know...the areas the team was essentially inept at last year.
That and that Devon Ellis can play.
If this doesn't all add up to a "boom" I don't know what does.
I understand the frustration, I shared in that when the Shaw announcement happened. Since then, it has come out that the staff and better talent evaluators than I am believe he can be a star and the he was the "best player on the floor" when he scrimmaged the team on his visit. So far, I have heard high praise for Cooper, Scroggins, McNair, and Shaw. The staff is 1/1 with Cooper. Maybe they go 1/4 and we suck. But they took a guy with 0 offers averaging 11/game in prep school halfway through the summer and turned him into MVC Freshman of the Year. If they believe they can get high quality production out of a 6'8 athlete that can (supposedly) shoot, I will believe them for now. If they believe they can get good production out of a near carbon copy of Cooper, I will believe them. Carson wasn't any less heralded than Cooper, built almost the same exact way, and had almost the same exact numbers (actually better) at prep school and shot 43% from deep there. I see no reason they can't turn him into at least a contributor.
McNair is a 3 star recruit who is supposed to be able to score at all 3 levels. Scroggins is described as a defensive beast (exactly what we were missing in the paint) who is physically much older than the typical freshman. His prep coach described him as an NBA talent when he reaches his potential. Maybe the answers were already there. Not to mention we will add at least 1 more player.
In the staff's mind we added:
3 shooters in McNair, Shaw, and Carson
A paint defender in Scroggins
All with 3+ years remaining. And we still have at least one scholarship to give out. Say they are unproven, sure, but so was Cooper. If the staff truly believes in who they brought in, I will too until they show a pattern of underperforming on developing players.
If Carson at VU will help to keep Cooper at VU, then it's a spot well spent. And he may be much more than that.
I see the real frustration on this board that VU is not signing some of the more prominent portal entrants, but it's unrealistic to think we have much of a chance at those guys. Instead, it's about finding the diamonds in the rough and the talented but overlooked kids.
If the 2024-25 rotation looks much like the 2023-24 rotation, then VU is in trouble. But I don't think that will happen. Among current returnees, Cooper, Stafford, Darius, and Scroggins...plus maybe the best between Williamson, Edwards, and Weatherspoon, are likely to be in the top 8-9 players. The rest will be newcomers, mostly those drawn from this year's portal signings + McNair.
Jimmie Williams, who had been offered by Valpo, has committed to South Florida.
Jimmie Williams, who had been offered by Valpo, has committed to South Florida.
Good for him. One of the only conferences in the mid major level that was ranked higher than the MVC. Glad he went to a fellow High Mid major.
If Carson at VU will help to keep Cooper at VU, then it's a spot well spent. And he may be much more than that.
I see the real frustration on this board that VU is not signing some of the more prominent portal entrants, but it's unrealistic to think we have much of a chance at those guys. Instead, it's about finding the diamonds in the rough and the talented but overlooked kids.
If the 2024-25 rotation looks much like the 2023-24 rotation, then VU is in trouble. But I don't think that will happen. Among current returnees, Cooper, Stafford, Darius, and Scroggins...plus maybe the best between Williamson, Edwards, and Weatherspoon, are likely to be in the top 8-9 players. The rest will be newcomers, mostly those drawn from this year's portal signings + McNair.
I think some on the board would benefit by taking some time to learn about how everything revolves around NIL, even at the mid-major level. Freshmen want signing bonuses, players in the portal want transfer bonuses, and returning players want retention bonuses. There’s no limit, no cap. The deeper the pockets among alumni and “friends” of the program, the more NIL money can be offered up. Lottich and Gore burned Valpo’s program down at the worst possible time. No one locally is interested in investing in Valpo players that no one knows at a program no one cares about. People were puzzled why ISU’s coach would jump ship and go to St. Louis, thinking it’s no better than a lateral - and has to be rebuilt. Did anyone happen to see that St.L’s NIL budget is $700,000; ISU’s is $300,000. Between that and a big pay raise, it’s a no-brainer. Now compare those figures to Valpo’s basically empty NIL bank, and you start get a sense of just how difficult Roger’s recruiting challenges are, and more importantly, the amazing job he’s doing putting a team together with 1 arm tied behind his back and no relief in sight.
It is a testament to Powells skill as a recruiter if he can get guys to come to VU under the notion that they arent going to be making much in terms of money
There is some crazy, though typical, speculation on the board concerning whether or not there is NIL money available to Valpo coaches. None of us, let me repeat, none of us know how much, if any, is available. How about we just wait and see how things work out?
It reminds me of the whole, "no way we get rid of Lottich, the school doesn't care and no way, with the financial situation at Valpo, will the school step up..."
And then, well, you know the rest of the story...
Last year was a storm of perfect events to have a rock bottom season. Late hire, roster was already not in a a good place and scrambled to cobble together a roster. Drake and Indiana State were NCAA tourney type teams and Bradley was knocking on that door as well. This coming season Drake, MSU, ISU, SIU rosters are gutted. This gives us a good chance to move up in conference play with our returning players and promising new players. Upgrades from Barrett, Palm and Ajiboye who were largely hot garbage. Sciarroni was a feel good story and might as well have burned a scholarship on him for half a season.
Things look more promising heading into this season and lets see how the schedule shakes out when released in September. Shaw, Carson and Ellis will have to prove on the court. The hype is overrated. Shaw is a nice sentimental feel to it, but the locals will only come out if the team is winning. If Shaw proves to live up to the "hype" then that's a bonus. I am in the wait and see camp. Cory Johnson was the best player on the team during practice but had to wait a year to prove it on the court. All the diehards on this message board are salivating for an improved season.
Last year was a storm of perfect events to have a rock bottom season. Late hire, roster was already not in a a good place and scrambled to cobble together a roster. Drake and Indiana State were NCAA tourney type teams and Bradley was knocking on that door as well. This coming season Drake, MSU, ISU, SIU rosters are gutted. This gives us a good chance to move up in conference play with our returning players and promising new players. Upgrades from Barrett, Palm and Ajiboye who were largely hot garbage. Sciarroni was a feel good story and might as well have burned a scholarship on him for half a season.
Things look more promising heading into this season and lets see how the schedule shakes out when released in September. Shaw, Carson and Ellis will have to prove on the court. The hype is overrated. Shaw is a nice sentimental feel to it, but the locals will only come out if the team is winning. If Shaw proves to live up to the "hype" then that's a bonus. I am in the wait and see camp. Cory Johnson was the best player on the team during practice but had to wait a year to prove it on the court. All the diehards on this message board are salivating for an improved season.
I think we will see a spike in attendance this year. Considering all the new and returning faces in this forum and the large publicity of certain moves. We might actually fill up the lower deck.
We were only ever going to be able to get 1 of Dilling/Williams/whatever other scoring guard we have offered. Personally, of the players that we know we've offered, I would like to land Dilling the most. Shot at a high percentage at a lower level. When you look up his name on Twitter you see a lot of opponents from his D2 conference talking about how annoying he is. I love that, we need a pesky scorer that will bother the other team.
I see him coming in at the 2 spot if he commits, so I think he'd likely come off the bench for us behind Stafford. If he commits, I think we could assume the starting lineup would be Darius, Stafford, Shaw, Cooper, and Scroggins. A second unit of McNair, Dilling, Ellis, Carson S, and Sepp would likely be nearly as good as our starting lineup was last year. Sepp was our starting center the second half of last year and now he'd be the backup, Ellis was looks like a more consistent version of Jaxon Edwards, who'd go from being our starting 3 to not even in the rotation. If they get Carson to be half as good as his nearly identical brother, he'll be an improvement over last years backup to Cooper, Ola, who was offensively nonexistent 90% of the time and could not shoot the 3. Dilling/Jahari at the 2 spot can both shoot. And then a 3 star freshman at the point. That being our second unit feels like a HUGE upgrade over last year (Jahari, Weatherspoon, Palm, Ola, and Barrett). 4 of those guys won't even be on the team or in the rotation likely.
There is some crazy, though typical, speculation on the board concerning whether or not there is NIL money available to Valpo coaches. None of us, let me repeat, none of us know how much, if any, is available. How about we just wait and see how things work out?
It reminds me of the whole, "no way we get rid of Lottich, the school doesn't care and no way, with the financial situation at Valpo, will the school step up..."
And then, well, you know the rest of the story...
WHvalpo clearly knows his stuff. Reading the board for years makes it obvious that he has insight most don’t.
In response to the post I pinned above, I actually do know the answer to the NIL budget. I won’t share that info but let’s just say that when Powell arrived, the NIL budget was smaller than a year of Valpo annual tuition. The program was a mess on so many levels.
as I said previously and WH just mentioned it, everyone expects to paid. Guys want money to return. High major guys want a lot of money to sign. It just won’t work at Valpo even when compared to the rest our league. Indiana State had a decent NIL budget (nothing outrageous), ours was maybe 1/10 of that a year ago lol.
So all involved will do their best with what we have. The fans should as well. If it takes some diamonds in the rough, then that is what it takes.
