It is looking like Carson Schwieger might pick up many of the minutes we had assumed would go to Coulibaly and Scroggins. There are unanswered pluses and minuses if true but he should be viewing it as his best path to playing time.Rez I was speaking to the idea Cooper was in foul trouble and Bonsu was having his way in paint-maybe this was a time for Scroggins or Louth to get some minutes... with Sepp ill etc. I guess those two are literally coming in only in complete blowouts...
I was going to mention this above. The difference being that Carson is more of an outside threat. He's probably taking minutes away from Shaw at the moment. Shaw looks like he may play himself out of the rotation completely barring a turnaround.
Sepp was having some trouble defensively yesterday with a matchup problem. Ideal situation for a player such as Scroggins or Coulilaby to get some time. They didn't. Add in the fact that neither has smelled playing time other than in garbage time indicates that there is no intention of playing these two guys absent a complete disaster. So, either Powell is a poor talent evaluator or these two guys aren't all that good.
When Sepp had trouble, Ellis subbed in. And Ellis balled out. I still stand by my point that Louth and Scroggins are just caught between guys who are performing well. I actually tip my cap to Sepp considering he allegedly got 0 sleep and was losing all his New Years Eve food the previous night. I wouldn't step into territory of "Poor Talent Evaluator" as almost every other get Powell has had has proven to be great. Please be careful with erroneous statements such as Poor Talent Evaluator
Teams need guys like Kasper and he is a bit of glue guy like Kiser, does the things that don't show up in the box score aside from rebounds. Fair comp to Kevin VW, but Sepp doesn't seek out as many scoring opportunities. Kevin didn't mind contact in the post, Buggs fed him some great passes.
No doubt the team is lucky to win last night and MSU prolly lost it more than we won it with their missed free throws, but at the same token we had an opportunity to really extend the lead multiple times and we took quick shots or got bad looks and thats the same as a turnover. Bears have better shooting guards, Brady had a 27 points in another game. As the season goes we will hopefully figure out how to close games better. The Bears message boards were having a meltdown over the missed free throws and how the two Link Academy players Wright and Cooper were killing them. Why didn't Conzo go after Wright, & Cooper, they played down the road in Branson etc......
Last year, we found multiple ways to loose a majority of the games in the final 10 minutes. Lack of depth and or less talent. If Stafford wasn't hitting, we had no-one else to depend on guard wise. Darius filled it up more last year, out of necessity but he's ok with being a defender, and distributor. Ellis, I think could have played more in the second half after his good first half. Would he have had better luck guarding their post guy better than Kaspar?
Shaw seems to be the odd man out right now. Don't know what the issue is.
Things are slowly looking up and their isn't a real dominant team in the Valley this year. Only SiU will be a dog, no pun intended. They could go winless in conference play, other than that, their are no guaranteed wins week to week. Most teams have some type of glaring weakness.
Valpo needs to figure out how to close out games, but what no one seems to be looking at right now is that the FT percentage at home vs away is a glaring issue. The guys are too used to the church setting at the ARC that when any team brings noise they falter. FTs lost us the Bradley game, and they damn near lost us the MO ST game. Needs to be cleaned up. All in all, I do think this team is better than the team that played Liberty, and better than the team that played Cleveland St. The issues we are seeing is a shorter list than the issues in non conference. I do hope Shaw can figure it out as when he has been good. He has been really good. If not maybe Schmidt is the go to for a 3 point shot for the time being. Coops form is also still broken, but he has figured out how to knock down the shot with that form so I'll just let that be
I watched the 6 minute Carson Schwieger segment again to better evaluate his defensive play. Most of that time was in zone so I didn't learn everything I wanted to know but his play wasn't bad and his foot speed looks equal to Cooper. He is 6' 8", 230 lb and has a reputation for being able to hit 3's. Yes those talents might steal enough minutes from Shaw and Sepp and Cooper to make him a low minute rotational player higher in the pecking order than Scroggins or Coulibaly. Am I missing something with this assessment?
Valpo needs to figure out how to close out games, but what no one seems to be looking at right now is that the FT percentage at home vs away is a glaring issue. The guys are too used to the church setting at the ARC that when any team brings noise they falter. FTs lost us the Bradley game, and they damn near lost us the MO ST game.
I am pleased by the free throw performance this season. Even in the two times you mention, one could argue Valpo's free throws kept them in the games, making 6 more than Bradley (11 more during regulation and 91% 10-11 in the 2nd half) and 5 more than Mo St (73%-37%). The total percentage in each game was a respectable and above average 73%, though we have been spoiled by the season's 79.5% overall thus far, but shooting at home is normally better for most teams. Still, last I looked Valpo is in the nation's top 5 in free throw attempts per game at 23 and 13th in the nation in free throw percentage. Hard to complain about those numbers.
I watched the 6 minute Carson Schwieger segment again to better evaluate his defensive play. Most of that time was in zone so I didn't learn everything I wanted to know but his play wasn't bad and his foot speed looks equal to Cooper. He is 6' 8", 230 lb and has a reputation for being able to hit 3's. Yes those talents might steal enough minutes from Shaw and Sepp and Cooper to make him a low minute rotational player higher in the pecking order than Scroggins or Coulibaly. Am I missing something with this assessment?
That's the way I saw it.
Sepp was having some trouble defensively yesterday with a matchup problem. Ideal situation for a player such as Scroggins or Coulilaby to get some time. They didn't. Add in the fact that neither has smelled playing time other than in garbage time indicates that there is no intention of playing these two guys absent a complete disaster. So, either Powell is a poor talent evaluator or these two guys aren't all that good.
When Sepp had trouble, Ellis subbed in. And Ellis balled out. I still stand by my point that Louth and Scroggins are just caught between guys who are performing well. I actually tip my cap to Sepp considering he allegedly got 0 sleep and was losing all his New Years Eve food the previous night. I wouldn't step into territory of "Poor Talent Evaluator" as almost every other get Powell has had has proven to be great. Please be careful with erroneous statements such as Poor Talent Evaluator
If these two guys could play, they'd be out there. It's not as if Valpo loaded in the middle defensively.
Conference road win. My glass is more than half full today.
I saw the same stuff on MO States message board that Burnee was seeing. It seems both Powell and MO state have ties to Link Acadamy, but in recent years, it seems like Powell's friendship has overtaken the MO state friendship. Hopefully this remains true as some of the best guys to come to the program in the Powell era are Link Year guys. It may prove fruitful to keep that relationship strong. Makes guys rethink leaving when you have a good relationship with a coach even before attending. I have also seem too many highlight reals of JT Pettigrew than I can count this kid plays like a 3-4 star should.
@vok22 Your post is thoughtful and inspiring. I’m feeling some new energy. 
An obvious but nice development is we are head scratching on why some guys cant get minutes... maybe in exhibitions or garbage time they show signs so we would like to see more... Boys this means we have a semblance of depth and competition for minutes. This is a good thing. If it was traditional pre portal we wouldnt be expecting Scroggins as a redshirt freshman to be contributing... hopefully keep this group together and maybe things get special. It also seems the competition could be ongoing with Pettigrew committed. Footnote: Im not against seeing Carson challenge Shaw for time- bigger body and if he can stroke it at a rate similar to or better than Shaw its just another rotational weapon. Ill tell ya its going to be hard to uproot Sepp out of any minutes...this kid just does stuff. I love Mcnair making a difference almost every time he gets a chance. Lessgo! Im pumped will be at UNI and Indiana state games...hope results dont get me un pumped
Also Valpo #177 latest NET
Regarding the negative: In my previous post-win post, I criticized our inability to stop a string of 12 straight made FGs and Roger not calling a TO to break that momentum. But it should be noted that during that string, we were able to sporadically respond, so it was a not a 24-0 run. But it was still a lot of Matador Defense. That alone should have generated at least a 30 second TO to get the team back on the same page.
Regarding the positive: (1) Ain’t it great that when you win, especially on the road in the MVC, we can pick apart the performance and say “hey guys, good game but ya gotta do better cuz you can.” And (2) look at the gradual increase in a single game string of posts by more than just a couple of die-hards. Ya think things are finally changing ?
And things are definitely changing dramatically in the MVC. UIC dumped Drake and Belmont. VU took Drake and Bradley to the limit and won at MOST. Eville has two MVC blowout MVC wins. ISUb took BU to OT. Crazy!
A road win as 5 point dogs I’ll take any day.
We only have 1 player averaging more than 30 minutes per game, 7 players between 17 and 27 minutes and another at 11 minutes. We are deeper than in the past. The tough part for Powell and the next three players (Carson, Scroggins and Louth) is developing these players and finding time for them to contribute. The players need to show something in practice, then when they get 5 minutes, impress so that Powell has to play them.
Nine or ten players deep with a starter from last year out with an injury is a good place. This team and the new starting lineup are finding their gritty groove
