100th meeting. Both have lost 4 in a row coming in. Not a good matchup for VU - EU has size and athleticism at the 5. Their three bigs (two 6-10 and one 6-11) all scored in double figures in their 3 point home loss to Belmont. And their 6-7 guard came down with 9 RBs and dealt 11 assists.
Aside from the thinking that any 5 guys on the court is a tough matchup for Valpo for which there is an element of truth to, I don't see how this should be a tough matchup for Valpo. Evansville has lost to teams Valpo has beaten and lost to teams who've beaten Valpo by greater margins so the size doesn't seem to help all that much considering this front line is probably amongst the biggest if not the biggest in the conference.
While the conference beyond maybe 4 programs is fairly evenly matched, a loss by Valpo to Evansville would be an indicator that things really haven't improved all that much.
@jd24 Basically, I had only one point to make in my post: We don’t match up well with how EU plays down low and that will be the challenge. I didn’t indicate that the game is unwinable. My point is valid and that has been echoed by many on this board and even Roger himself — too often we get outplayed down there.
Though none of their bigs appear to be classic rim protectors, just based on their last games against Belmont and then UIC on Wednesday [In brackets] as an example, here’s what Coop and Kaspar are up against down there.
Their 3 bigs:
>> shared 62 playing minutes [59 minutes]
>> scored 33 of Belmont’s 82 points - 40% [22 of 67 - 33% ]
>> shot 69% (11/16) from the floor, (60% from the arc 3/5) [ 49% (8/17) - 20% (1/5)]
>> grabbed 10 RBs (out of 33) [9 of 30]
>> committed 53% (8/15) of the PFs [10% (2/19)]
>> accounted for 100% of their blocks (though only 4) [100% - 2]
They’ll muscle Coop out of comfortable shots and are prepared to share a lot of fouls down low because they can. The game will need to be won by our other three position players on the court. There we are more evenly matched, so it’ll come down to which team has a better shooting afternoon and limits their turnovers (duh 🙄).
