I would hope negativity towards the coaches/players isn't impacting the team. The players are playing their butts off and Powell is putting his heart and soul into this. No Stafford, and VU takes a top-50 team to the brink. They certainly made Valpo proud tonight.
The best thing, I see is the improved depth of the team. Last year, if Stafford and or Cooper were off, no chance of hanging in there. Remember the Belmont game at home. Yowsa! Not having Stafford hurts, but we do have a log jam at guard. Is he better than what we have combined now?. Schmidt is clearly the most high IQ player on the team, and guy who knows how to get buckets. Yes rebuilding can happen over night if you have an experienced coach such as Drake or Holtzman at DePaul. Powell has not arrived just yet.
Thoughts on the game. Obviously Drake has confirmed they have the best player in the league with ice water in his veins. We still have not quite figured out how all our pieces fit together on offense/we haven't got everyone to click at the same time. We did run some good dribble drive action in the second half. Good to see Shaw wake up, Schmidt was fantastic. Drake plays well as a team, has an identity, but they are really only a one trick pony running everything through Stirtz. Similar to when Tony Bennett played for his dad @ UWGB. Darius, Cooper, Justice and Ellis were no shows tonight. All Wright shows flashes, Monegro shoots to much, Ellis looks lost on offense. Is he a back to basket player, dribble drive or mid range game? This ain't the MEAC anymore, its the MVC. He needs to focus on rebounding and put backs full stop.
Teams are keying on Cooper, the film is out there. Now it's up to him to figure out how to impact the game with out scoring or add another weapon to his offensive arsenal. Compare Coop to Ryan Broekhoff's soph year for development.
We have more upside as a team this year and many more winnable games in conference. 8-10. conference wins is reasonable
This offense makes me yearn for Matt Lottich.
I just don't get it -- what do they practice all day if they don't run an offense? If you look off the ball all you see is 4 guys standing in place and watching. Occasionally you will see a guy on the other side of the court jogging. There are no off ball screens, aggressive cuts towards the hoop, or misdirections. Its like watching a bad middle school team.
Wanting a Lottich offense is the stupidest thing I’ve heard on this forum in a very long time , give us proof @vok22. We just played our best game in awhile(that might make me a Lottich simp, wait def not) Lottich and MLB WERE ONE OF the worst thing to happen Valpo athletics since the 80s, dumb dumb comment!!
I didn’t think using a little hyperbole would illicit THIS strong of a reaction. I am obviously happy we moved on from ML. My intent was to point out I am a little dissapointed in what we’ve gotten from RPJ so far. His offense is still spotty - to say the least - in year two.
If our “best game in a while” was at home against a fellow MVC team that shot poorly from three — I damn sure hope we’d win that game. I’m done with looking for improvement. This was not against Kentucky or Duke, this was a conference opponent at home and our “best” still isn’t good enough.
—also, I commented this in the first half down 12. The second half was probably our second best half of the year.
Our second half defense was great and only 2 second half turnovers. Meanwhile for the whole game Schwieger, DeAveiro and Sepp combined for a total of 2 points in 63 minutes of play. Is there more to the Cooper Schwieger story? Preseason all conference candidates are supposed to show a little bit of something on the stat line.
@justducky Cooper's playstyle is very 1 dimensional. Its easy to look at film and pick up on flaws. He has to find new ways to play.
If you arent encouraged you arent watching. The depth is solid. Where the program was 12 months ago compared to now... definitely the right direction. There is a body of work forming this year where I believe the minutes might be distributed differently going forward. Some here mentioned drake played poorly... maybe Valpo contributed to that. Did we play great? Not really but I never felt outmatched as it felt sometimes last year. Feels like some here dont want to acknowledge the positive. Is it better to be right there or get drilled by 30? Its a different world than 1998 or even a few years ago. We will win some of these this year. We will be a tough out when we dont win. And getting alot of minutes from youngsters... I do hope attendance has an uptick it is starting to be deserved. Flaws aside these guys are playing hard. Hope they start getting vocal support. And if RP does read the forum I hope he knows many are starting to notice improvement.
@justducky Cooper's playstyle is very 1 dimensional. Its easy to look at film and pick up on flaws. He has to find new ways to play.
I think your comments are getting 1 dimensional so both you and Coop are starting to greatly disappoint me. 
You 2 have to get back in your grooves and pick up the pace.
@justducky Dont know where the insults are coming from but he is a major component of film now. He is going to get keyed up on and people are going to find ways to counter him. He isnt 7' 4" Zach Edey who can get away with 1 dimensional play because he is just larger than everyone else. If you would notice. A lot of times when he gets the ball, defenses crash in to swat it away. He has relied a lot on hooks. Which is fine, if you can get the ball up to execute a hook. He wouldnt be so 1 dimensional if his 3 ball was working, which its not.
I only saw the last ten minutes of the second half, but there were two things that stood out (both have been previously mentioned): depth and team defense. An additional positive, in my view, is that Coach Powell stayed with the players who led the comeback down the stretch.
I needed to sleep on this one and now that I have why don't we talk about this game from a different direction.
Our starting 6' 10" center was held scoreless in 25 minutes of play with only 3 rebounds. He also did not play down the stretch when it was crunch time. My initial thought response was that we really need to find or develop a center so that Cooper can move back to forward but what if Schwieger CAN be successfully converted. Wouldn't our team upside potential suddenly be enormous?
I had no idea our team defense could function that well particularly with Shaw and Schmidt playing that many minutes. The Isaiah Shaw that took the floor yesterday looked like a totally different player.
Let's take a breath here. Cooper was voted first team all MVC in the pre-season poll. It is not surprising that teams are scouting him more intensely this year, and designing their defense to stop him. This is especially true if he is playing somewhat out of position by necessity.
Great players find ways to contribute but neither Coop or Darius gave us much. Despite this our roster of newcomers kept us in a close game with a good team and that alone is reason for optimism.
I'll watch the replay before making further comment.
I actually thought it was a great college basketball game. Our starters didn’t produce, but our bench did.
I was surprised on how many shot clock violations we forced. That says a lot.
I do not think we are going to have many games where our starters are complete duds. Cooper will turn it around.
I am very impressed with All Wright and no doubt is our point guard of the future. I hope we can hold onto him.
one change I would like to see is less minutes for Jefferson. He is forcing shots and I don’t think he’s been defending well. I actually prefer McNair.
I really like the responses from Schmidt in the post game about how he talks about how many college basketball games he has played. You can tell he is experienced and has been in many different basketball situations already. This is nothing new for him.He doesn’t get rattled and seems to know what needs to be done.
I also have complete faith in Coach Powell. It’s just a matter of time before it comes together
The postgame presser was really great. Powell loves this town, this school, and this team. He has seen this program at its peak, and he chose to come back to the program when it is at its worst. I only hope that people take a chance on him and spend 15 dollars to see the program he is trying to build.
