We are in way better shape than last year and miles from Lottich teams...If we can keep these guys together and add a true big man we could fight for the top spot next year
That may be the case right now. But I can't imagine any scenario where Cooper and All return next season. Someone is going to pay them next season and there's no way VU will be able to match. Unfortunately, that's the reality of college basketball right now.
This wasn't the game I thought we might get. Sepp plays only 15 minutes, Shaw struggles defensively, and 10 TOs. BUT--- With a little better ball handling, a couple extra rebounds and normal free throw shooting this game might go to the wire for a win despite us not having a BIG on the roster.
I'm wondering if what Pettigrew will bring us might have changed this Bradley outcome? It gets old losing all these games because of the physical match ups.
The idea that this team is not improved from last year should not be taken seriously.
I think some on here are confusing two separate questions. First, is this year's team better than last year's team?
I didn't dispute that. The won-lost record is a bit better, the team has a second freshman-of-the-year candidate, and they finished in 11th place rather than 12th place. The NET ranking has gone up from the 300s to about 225. All movements in the right direction, as minimal as they might be.
However, the second question, the one which I was posing, is whether the program within the conference objectively made real distinct progress this season as we look forward.
Valpo finished last among teams returning next year. They also underperformed the already very low expectation of 10th place in the preseason poll, something many on this forum thought was an "insult" and expected better, insisting Valpo should clearly exceed but did not. Our NET ranking is only a handful above Missouri State, the last place team that had only two conference wins. Additionally, even though most teams in the conference needed to completely reload this season, some also starting from scratch by adding new coaching staffs, they managed to do so with better overall recruiting and standings results than Valpo. Finally, attendance numbers did not improve and even seem to have declined. Our game against Belmont attracted only 750 and the attendance for senior night with a usually good drawing Bradley in the house only managed 1500.
Basically, as we look forward, we are back to square one, the same place we were last season, hoping key players stick around in this NIL/transfer portal atmosphere and that the coaches can recruit even better this time around, especially finding inside players that have size and strength.
RP talk and prayer post game was great. To say we havent improved alot this year is absurd. This bradley team beats last years team by 30. Valpo played poorly in stretches agree 100%. Just make free throws and this game is tight. Bradley is sooo much better athletically in person. Basically duke deen hit 4 threes in a few minutes and won the game. Cooper got mauled still gets no respect. We have a hole or Two - to say progress isnt happening and hope is unfounded seems skewed to me.
The team is better. The talent at least runs deeper to some degree. The question I think a lot of us have is will this work in an environment in which rosters are essentially reconstructed every year. Thus other teams have retooled themselves this year and Valpo is actually further down the food chain from where they were last year even tho' the team does seem to be a bit better.
Agreed Jd24. We are better but may still be comparatively in the same hole... I was hoping for .500 conference and a win in st louis. Ill probably have that as a goal next year even if we keep guys and add what we need. As discussed ad nauseum its hard very hard for VU to keep pace in light of it all. But its usually been watchable this year.
Has anybody actually quantified the freakin NIL numbers of all the MVC schools we are competing against??? What’s Valpo’s numbers?
We all assume we are in the NIL basement. Is that true? (Probably).
Whats the “NIL gap”? hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands?
Personal POV: it pisses me off big time that an 18 yo MBB player sitting in a freshman survey course could be making more than his PhD professor.
Has anybody actually quantified the freakin NIL numbers of all the MVC schools we are competing against??? What’s Valpo’s numbers?
We all assume we are in the NIL basement. Is that true? (Probably).
Whats the “NIL gap”? hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands?
Personal POV: it pisses me off big time that an 18 yo MBB player sitting in a freshman survey course could be making more than his PhD professor.
I definitely don't know all the real numbers, especially for the current year, but when Ben Krikke transferred for his 5th year I believe Valpo was able to offer him 50K to stay. Rival Bradley offered him 150K. And he ended up at a Big 10 school assumably getting much more than that. But the fact that we have MVC teams offering our players 3x what we can offer is extremely frustrating. Just pure guesswork, but I imagine we rallied some 25-50k for Schwieger and Stafford each this year, just based on the Krikke offer. Does Stafford still get all that with sitting out all year? Not sure. Need more of a contract about production/play time IMO. Anyway, as die-hard as I am and want Wright and Schwieger to stick around for another 1-2 years, the money is absurd. Can go sit on the bottom of the bench at IU and get 120K+ (their center Ballo allegedly gets 1M). I'd like to see mid-major BB do something similar to football with the non-scholarship league but maybe a capped/zero NIL or something. Again though, this would still incentivize players to transfer up when they could, but at least we would have the same playing field in the MVC.
So much of college BB is now so professional, so I say……
1 - Sign Pettigrew to a two-year deal with renewal options
2 - Re-sign Coop, All, Justice and Jeff to multi-year contracts
3 - Offer one-year contracts, with options, to Kaspar, Stafford and Shaw
4 - Trade a package of Scroggins, Louth and another unsigned player for one top Big with two years of eligibility; sign him for two years
5 -Release or offer one year contracts to the rest of the remaining roster players.
6 - Recruit at the HS level and in the portal to fill gaps with free agent one year contracts
PLUS: Include in all contracts 1) a buy-out clause to compensate VU should a player enter the portal and 2) incentive/penalty clauses that determine final payouts.
Oh, if only it was that easy.
It all depends on the character of the kid, in my view. Unless you have definite possibilities at playing professionally, it doesn't look good on a future resume to show that you couldn't stick to a university, and just chased dollars every year. What are you really learning in jumping from school-to-school? I think that getting Carson at Valpo was huge, not only because he has a lot of potential, but I have to believe it keeps Cooper closer than if Carson was still at Wright State. With All, I have no idea. He seems to really enjoy and appreciate Powell, but he also has a very competitive streak, and I could see him testing the waters.
A Murray State fan posted numbers, and researched it, a while back but I don't remember exactly where. I wrote the rounded numbers downHas anybody actually quantified the freakin NIL numbers of all the MVC schools we are competing against??? What’s Valpo’s numbers?
We all assume we are in the NIL basement. Is that true? (Probably).
Whats the “NIL gap”? hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands?
Personal POV: it pisses me off big time that an 18 yo MBB player sitting in a freshman survey course could be making more than his PhD professor.
1. UNI - Reportedly over 1m in NIL funds, and with their capitol projects for their main sports only going up*. Add in their scholarship club and other various contributions they are pushing 4.5-5 million in total support
2. Indiana State - NIL is about 550-600k. Add in all other sources and it's 3-3.5 million in total support
3. SIU - NIL is about 550-600. Add in all other sources and it's 3-3.5 million in total support
4. Murray State - NIL between 400-450k. Add in all other sources and it's about 2.5 million in total support
5. Illinois State - NIL between 350-400k. Add in all other sources and they are about 2.5 million in total support
6. UIC - NIL between 125-150k. Add in all other sources and they are about 800k-1m in support.
7. Missouri State - apparently does not have an existing/known NIL
Then there are private schools, which are much harder to find numbers in. Belmont appears to not have an known NIL collective either.
Bradley and Drake are right in the UNI region, with Bradley likely in front of UNI and Drake right behind. Best case for Evansville, based on everything we know about their program, school size, and so on is UIC on the high end. I'm guessing Valpo is somewhere closer to Evansville and UIC than even Illinois State, let alone Bradley, Drake, and UNI.
*UNI just had a brand new stand-alone courts practice facility approved by their Board of Regents. A 15 million dollar project that was fully funded by private donations and will house both basketball programs and volleyball. They are also over halfway through privately raising over $50 million for their football stadium. They are completely gutting the inside and putting in all new seats, putting in club suites, etc. that will be done by this fall, and then the final phase they are working towards is blowing out the entire west wall of the building to expand concourses, add restrooms, offices, lounge areas, and so on. I've also read that they are nearly done completely privately funding a practice facility for their wrestling program that will be about $7m. That is roughly $75 million privately sourced in the matter of about a year and half to completely revamp and upgrade the facilities of their main sports. This isnt't the thread for it, but it is hard to see how Valpo fits closer to UNI (or Drake, Bradley, and Belmont) when it comes to supporting programs. Even Evansville, even if it's at the bottom of the league year after year, has facilities and support above us.
