If given the choice between keeping Schmidt and Jefferson, I think I’d choose Schmidt.
He might have matchup problems but he’s a smart, gritty player. He makes the most of his abilities. Maybe he’s not a starter on a better team, but Schmidt has shown that he belongs in an MVC team rotation.
I have the greatest respect for Tyler so I will word this carefully. BUT---- We are an 11th place Valley team with a 6 -14 record for real reasons. Is it coaching? I don't think so so let me try to take it position by position. The 5 position I will assign 7th of 12 only because our fake center (Cooper) is playing out of his true 4 position and does ok for someone who doesn't belong there.
I will lump Sepp, Ellis and Shaw into the 4 position category and will realistically rate them either as 11th or 12th best (last) in the conference.
Jumping to the #1 and #2 positions I will lump McNair, Wright, DeAveiro and Monegro all together under one Valley number grade. Maybe because of the 2 freshmen and their group low turnover numbers I can group rank them at 9th or 10th in the Valley?
This leaves us with the #3 position which primarily has belonged to Schmidt. Despite his efforts our team group play at the #3 position is nearly as bad as our #4 position and I'll leave it at that.
By ranking our players in this fashion is there anyone left on the team that I haven't insulted? 
A difficult though honest evaluation. Justus and others show potential but too little to add to the rating. Fairly done.
I have the greatest respect for Tyler so I will word this carefully. BUT---- We are an 11th place Valley team with a 6 -14 record for real reasons. Is it coaching? I don't think so so let me try to take it position by position. The 5 position I will assign 7th of 12 only because our fake center (Cooper) is playing out of his true 4 position and does ok for someone who doesn't belong there.
I will lump Sepp, Ellis and Shaw into the 4 position category and will realistically rate them either as 11th or 12th best (last) in the conference.
Jumping to the #1 and #2 positions I will lump McNair, Wright, DeAveiro and Monegro all together under one Valley number grade. Maybe because of the 2 freshmen and their group low turnover numbers I can group rank them at 9th or 10th in the Valley?
This leaves us with the #3 position which primarily has belonged to Schmidt. Despite his efforts our team group play at the #3 position is nearly as bad as our #4 position and I'll leave it at that.
By ranking our players in this fashion is there anyone left on the team that I haven't insulted?
I don't disagree with the evaluation and I believe the hole at 3 is as big as it is at 5 assuming Cooper is where he belongs as a 4. The lineup at the beginning of the year had Ellis and Shaw in there and neither of them did much after Ellis' early season success. I'm guessing that Powell thought this is where his 3 would come from. We ended up with Sepp playing far too much out of necessity giving the team a black hole on offense for the most part. Eventually ended up playing 3 guards and not big guards either.
I think a lot of players were asked to perform a role they are not physically built to play. Sepp and/or Cooper inside. Whichever guard was trying to handle the other teams wing and sometimes a 4th guard trying to play the other teams 4. Tough ask all around but that speaks to some on the roster just not performing when asked.
So here are some interesting though depressing stats. The reality is our men's and women's teams are fighting the same battles--lack of size, coupled with not great three point shooting. They are eerily similar.
Men: In conf. play only, we are dead last in rebound margin and 10th in 3 point shooting.
Women: In conf. play only, we are dead last in rebound margin and 10th in 3 point shooting.
Now that's sumpin! The reality is that if you are going to play small ball you have to have small ball shooters.
Both teams have improved their respective records both in conference and overall. If we expect more then we need to style or players to change.
Anyone else heading down on Thursday? I like our star players over anyone else playing Thursday, so I'm hopeful we'll be playing into Friday Night.
I will be there for the whole tournament. I bought my tickets and made my hotel reservations when we were 3-2 in conference play. I have gone almost every year. Regardless of how Valpo has done, it’s a great tournament.
Re watched UIC game. The comeback occurred with Carson on the floor. Hope they give that a thought tommorro in the rematch
We’ll know the answer sometime after 8:30 tonight. Hope you’re right - anything to give this team an edge.
GOTTA GET TO FRIDAY!
Looks like Shaw is back as well. Hopefully he can hit a few threes.
Tonight's game, to me, is a bit of a bellwether moment for the program. A loss and Valpo's gone no further than last year. A win and progress of any meaning is being made. It's only one game but an important one in my view.
Yeah...they're better but being a bit better than sub mediocre (where we seem to be) rather than being sub mediocre (lat year) isn't really much in the way of progress. A win advances the movement a bit more.
We have a good group of about a dozen of us in 117 for the afternoon session. Definitely familiar faces from prior years.
