A first half mirage from the ARC. Bruins caught napping on defense, Valpo long over due on made shots. Lets see what the second half brings us 56 points?????
Hung 56 on em first half...lessgo...what was total against murray? 56 all game? I dont know what Im watching but I like it.
Put up 41 points in ~12 minutes on a MVC opponent. Didn't think these guys had it in them!
The boys came to play today. They’ve dropped plenty recently and have looked lost. But they showed up today and we know they can compete with anyone. We’ll hope it continues and they represent VU in a positive light. Belmont is talented and they will have a tough trip home getting blitzed by a VU team who looked below them. Props to the fans who made it out tonight weather kept many away.
Valpo offense was near flawless and we still only won by 15. Meanwhile Belmont shot 15 of 29 from 3, with only 10 TOs and has to be wondering what just happened. Wow!
Confidence can be contagious but other than that I'm not sure what we take from this game to apply to the rest of the season.
Totally missed the game and had to do a double take on the box score.
Tale of the tape???
Coop 27 and 13 (but only 1-1 on threes 😱). So, we had an inside game??? Nah. Couldn’t be?
Tyler off the bench instead of starting = 16. Could that be the answer to fatigue?
Slightly different three G two F starting line up. Tougher matchup for defenders? Also, did Darius’s longer presence calm and stabilize the play?
More time for Justis to contribute. Building for the future?
TEAM only shot 96% from the line. Did Virgil’s spirit pay the team a visit before the game?
101 points in an MVC game. Unheard of?
Just wondering.
Concur...101 points is a crazy number. I'm fairly certain most MVC coaches are doing a double take tonight. Unpredictable conference this year except Stirtz executing, I mean Drake closing out games.
Terrible loss by Bruins. Belmont came in expecting to have an easy win and I don't blame them. We've not played well at all lately. They did a horrible job of stopping dribble drive penetration by our guards and closing out/contesting our shooters. At the same time, we were making everything we threw up from 3. The three to end the half by Schmidt and Cooper's long bail out 2 in the second half. Just seeing the ball go in, gave the team confidence, as they drove and cut harder.
Our defense was not great by any stretch of the imagination but Belmont dug to big a hole and this was our hottest shooting game all year. My only hope is that some of this new found offensive confidence carries over to the next couple of games. Not ready to say any wall has been knocked down and the team returns to its early season form. We still can't guard in the paint or from three. The next five games are favorable, but who knows tonight could have been a one off and we could just as easily loose the remaining 5. Finishing above 500 would be a nice step in the right direction to give the die hards some level of optimism in the off season.
Ellis is toast, didn't even play tonight. 2-1 odds he announces transfer in March.
One thing no one seemed to mention is that Valpo was able to get back to the line tonight. 25-26 from the charity stripe. Need to get back to the line more often. Free points and momentum killer.
Great ball movement and playing as a team leads to wins. Hopefully we see this style moving forward, and less of the isolation bs that led to the 9 game losing streak
I’m gonna quote myself here.
Tyler off the bench instead of starting = 16. Could that be the answer to fatigue? ✅
Slightly different three G two F starting line up. Tougher matchup for defenders? ✅ Also, did Darius’s longer presence calm and stabilize the play? ✅
TEAM only shot 96% from the line. ✅ Did Virgil’s [Sweet] spirit pay the team a visit before the game?
In reading Paul’s TVB article just now, he quoted Roger a lot and he said essentially these changes made a big difference. He went on and on about Darius. Truth be told, I wondered why Darius’s minutes were shrinking, instead of increasing during the losing streak. I think Roger kinda lost sight of how much glue that kid brings to the team concept and started thinking just score, score.
Great, complete team win.
Our defense was not great by any stretch of the imagination
Belmont scored a lot of points, but I was pleased with our defensive intensity. This was not a game where our defense played tough for twenty seconds and then relaxed. Darius put pressure on the ball full court and didn't let up. It seemed to be a focal point for the team as the bench cheered effort throughout the shot clock.
Belmont just has some great shooters.
The difference last night was that in spite of our defensive effort, while they were shooting lights out, we also shot lights out, which is not typical for us as we are near if not at the bottom of the conference in 3 point shooting. The big difference (no pun intended) was that, unlike others in the Valley who have a 6'10" 270# Dick the Bruiser type, we were able to match them physically and in fact out-rebound them.
A great showing, the team may have played as well as they can, especially on the offense: 57% on field goals and 56% from the 3-point line. Add 25-26 from the free throw line and only 9 turnovers. As Coach Powell pointed out in the postgame conference, too bad only 755 people got to see it in person and cheer the players.
Additionally, this performance showed what happens when the opponent doesn't have an imposing inside presence. Valpo out-rebounded Belmont 35-25 and scored 40 points in the paint to Belmont's 26. Schwieger had enough freedom to get 27 points and 13 rebounds plus 3 blocks. The guards were able to penetrate and draw fouls. Belmont's guards had to help out inside, so Valpo got more open 3-point attempts. As various posters on this forum have mentioned, and Coach Powell has acknowledged, the crucial weakness is an inability to match against an opponent's powerful big man, which was noted as far back as the summer after recruiting for the roster was completed.
2 of Belmonts "Big Men" have been out for 2 weeks with a sickness. If these guys played, this game would have looked very different. Belmont is one of the few teams Valpo can match on defense. Belmont is one of the most lopsided teams in basketball with an Offensive Efficiency rating of 55 and a Defense Efficiency rating of 302.
