Yeah. This is Evansville on a hot afternoon. 🙄
Just a bunch of excuses.
And what has happened to our free throw shooting
Officially halfway through the conference schedule and welcome to a tie for 10th/11th place, exactly where the preseason polls predicted. As I said in the preseason thread, there was "a great opportunity to move up in standings this year more than others, since just about every other conference team was decimated by graduations and transfers, as well as a couple of coach departures. The league nearly became a blank slate.... Nevertheless, Valpo's offseason additions were underwhelming, at least on paper."
As I suggested then, following a benefit of the doubt first season and my admiration for Coach Powell, "the wisdom of recruiting and coaching decisions this season will be determined solely by results." I recognize there is still half of a season remaining, but sadly thus far, nothing seems to counter those depressing preseason predictions.
This was just a bad game all around. I am still struggling to understand why we refuse to go big. We have other options... how bad are those options?
I do think we definitely have more talented players than last year. And most of our team are underclassmen- this is exciting for the future but also sometimes our youthfulnesss shows and it can be very frustrating. They are getting valuable experience, for example I'm sure All Wright will learn from this multiple offensive charge calls. If Roger is able to keep the good guys it will show he is indeed building a culture and togetherness that will really show in the next couple of seasons. Yes we have some glaring deficiencies, particularly size inside, and we need another reliable 3 point shooter so if Schmidt has an off day we have someone else to go to, but we are definitely better than last year and this year's foundation is much better than last year's.
And looking at some of the stats it's pretty impressive we only lost by 10
Coaching staff has it's work cut out for the rest of the year as the team has lost it's mojo. More talent and depth this year. Trending to the bottom three at the moment. Good with the bad with All Wright, Why we did not pressure them the whole second half and speed up the game. Ellis?
Idk what all the dooming is about. There will be ebbs and flows to a season. Personally, I set the goal for this year at 13 win. It still looks like we will get to that and probably surpass that. We won SEVEN games last year, we are clearly much improved.
Evansville was just hot today. One guy we likely game planned to leave open from deep shot 4-5 from three in the first half. They shot 63% for the game as a team that shoots 29%. Take it on the chin and move on. We are a mid rebuilding team, not a good team yet, and there is nothing wrong with that (for now. Next year my expectations will be slightly higher, just like they raised from last year). That is just where we are in the rebuilding process. We will have surprising positive games (Win vs UNI, competitive with Bradley and Drake at home) and disappointing losses (CSU, Evansville). I don’t think any other results have been too surprising.
as far as Louth and Lucas, every time they have come into the game they haven’t even looked like college level players. I don’t blame coach for not playing them.
I finally reviewed the stats and agree that it is surprising that we finished down only 10. We shot poorly from everywhere (even free throws) while the Aces were lights out in all categories. We were also out rebounded 36-31 and perhaps most telling is our being blocked 9 times with many of them coming from behind off of our penetration. In other words some of those blocks erased high % FG attempts. I'm very impressed with the play of the Aces.
Why is the Schwieger 3 point shot looking like trash again?
Absolutely pathetic showing tonight, and a REALLY bad loss. I had such high hopes a few games back, and that is now all gone for the rest of the season. Our D-1 players can't make wide open 3's like our opponents can. It used to be a hallmark of Valpo for a good 20 years, that if we were given a wide open 3, you should go ahead and count it, but that has gone away over the last few years. I also can't stand how easy it is to get our guys to jump on a pump-fake. Any mini-shot fake immediately gets our guys to just bail out on the shot, so that an easy pass or drive is then wide open. Cooper never looks like he has a firm grip on the ball when he is taking a 3. There were several where it looked like the ball was already coming out of his hands, as he goes forward, and for a guy like Turnbull, that is an easy shot to block when it is so far in front of your body. We're playing too much AAU ball and not enough team ball. Such a shame. I know that Powell can turn us around, but today was a huge step back.
Missed the game but checked the Box Score stats. Valpo took 20 more shots than EU over the game’s 40 minutes (70 to 50) making 27. EU made 29 of theirs. Does that translate to VU playing a fast paced game with a lot of undisciplined shooting vs. EU being more deliberate and shooting in a more disciplined manner? Did we show any effective half court game that worked the clock or were we impatient and just chucked up a lot of bricks as soon as we crossed mid court? Also noticed zero minutes for either Louth or Scroggins - again. Just curious and trying to understand what the game looked like.
Absolutely pathetic showing tonight, and a REALLY bad loss.
Exactly...and a loss which cannot be dismissed as "oh well Evansville was just hot". No. It was pathetic.
I had such high hopes a few games back, and that is now all gone for the rest of the season. Our D-1 players can't make wide open 3's like our opponents can. It used to be a hallmark of Valpo for a good 20 years, that if we were given a wide open 3, you should go ahead and count it, but that has gone away over the last few years. I also can't stand how easy it is to get our guys to jump on a pump-fake. Any mini-shot fake immediately gets our guys to just bail out on the shot, so that an easy pass or drive is then wide open.
A good deal of the defense is lazy. Valpo seems to be ready for one or two passes but gives up some real too easy stuff too often.
Cooper never looks like he has a firm grip on the ball when he is taking a 3. There were several where it looked like the ball was already coming out of his hands, as he goes forward, and for a guy like Turnbull, that is an easy shot to block when it is so far in front of your body.
There are posts about the roster getting better over last year. Some of the players this year are better than the players from last year. That's true. The problem, to a great degree in my view, is that the best player on the team and one of the holdovers from last year is not better and I look at him as worse. Schwieger is weak with the ball in nearly all ways. He took at least a couple of shots near the rim where he's backing away from the basket instead of going to the basket because there was a big bad defender there. His outside shot looks attrocious. I don't know what happened there. He needs to get tough when the game gets tough. He doesn't seem to be that guy.
We're playing too much AAU ball and not enough team ball. Such a shame. I know that Powell can turn us around, but today was a huge step back.
I'm not saying Powell can't but I think too many have a lot of blind faith that he can. Much of the opinion on the board is still one of hope rather than ones of evidence.
Missed the game but checked the Box Score stats. Valpo took 20 more shots than EU over the game’s 40 minutes (70 to 50) making 27. EU made 29 of theirs. Does that translate to VU playing a fast paced game with a lot of undisciplined shooting vs. EU being more deliberate and shooting in a more disciplined manner? Did we show any effective half court game that worked the clock or were we impatient and just chucked up a lot of bricks as soon as we crossed mid court? Also noticed zero minutes for either Louth or Scroggins - again. Just curious and trying to understand what the game looked like.
I don't think any further beating about the head is needed for us to understand that the two big guys either can't really do anything at the moment or Powell is a fantastic non-recognizer of what he's got on the roster. Let's hope it is the former as the latter has more lasting problems potentially.
Yes. Valpo was playing an offense which seems to be run the ball over half court and take the first shot somewhat remotely available. The other guys make us work on defense which has an attention span of 2 or 3 passes.
I don't think Powell wants to run a half court game all that much.
One big question is what happened to Devin Ellis? He was the best player on the roster for 3 or 4 games at the start of the season and he's just an absolute zero now. His skillset....an athletic inside player who's not afraid of getting hit in the head once in a while....is sorely missed. I think his minutes have been taken by Sepp. I'm not sure that this was the right move if so.
Valpo still needs more overall talent, and Powell is doing an admirable job. They are getting better, but anyone believing they would compete at the top of the MVC is delusional.
if only Valpo has a D2 transfer like Bennett Stirtz…
@jd24 It seems that “patience” is not a characteristic of this team then - i.e., absence of a deliberate half court game on O and short attention span on D.
Drake plays deliberately, keeps control of the ball. Not flashy but disciplined. That’s McCollum and has been for a long time. I really dislike Wardle back from when he was at GB, but he also demands discipline and can be a bastard. But his Bradley teams win. As I recall, all three Drews coached discipline basketball as well with multiple offensive sets and working the ball into the last 10 seconds of a possession for decent %age shots.
When a team is short on talent, isn’t the key keeping games close enough to squeak by with a W, and doesn’t that require patience and a more deliberate style?
And BTW, I read some comments on MVCFans regarding some of the Valley’s poorer shooters, and one commenter even noted how much Coop’s outside shooting technique has deteriorated.
Easy for everyone to be a Monday morning quarterback, but yes more talent is needed especially down low, All Wright is doing to much one on one and not involving his teammates enough. I recognize he has a lot of upside and has moments, but he's shooting to much. All coaches have a system and can be stubborn to a degree but we don't have the same roster he had at Gonzaga, where they could get away with quick shots. Too many quick shots in our offense is the same as a turnover. Fine if we are making them, but we aren't right now. Need to adjust. Maybe press more and speed teams up, our roster is full of small quick guys.
Powell mentioned he recruited one of the Aces bigs. Why didn't he land him? Ellis....puzzling why he's not playing more. At the very worst he rebounds almost as good as Sepp, but has more offensive skill. McNair's minutes are very inconsistent, he might as well play a lot more, season is halfway over, prolly our fastest player on the team and maybe our best defender
SIU game is winnable Tuesday, but they have been a phoenix of late, resurrecting themselves from the dead. Powell is going to find out how to get the most out of the roster he has right now and get the mojo back. Play Ellis a lot more! Put backs rebounds defense
Sadly the crowd turnout Tuesday will be dismal. I hope I am wrong!!
