3/18/14 - 7:05pm CT: Valpo vs. Columbia Game Thread - First Round CIT

[VULB#62]

Welcome Filippo.  Quite a scouting report.  Thanks. 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Two separate but related thoughts, LAA.

Ah, ok.  Thanks. 

It's all really hard to say, but with Valpo being the home team and having been in the post season recently, I just think Valpo wins. Sorry Lions.

Thanks for this detailed post.  Obviously Rosenberg seems like a guy for whom the new rules were a huge boon--with that one glaring exception.

Hard to blow a 3 pt lead with 5 sec.  That one hurts.

Obviously with 3 double-digit scorers, missing one will hurt.  Hope that dude's ok.

[a3uge]

How good can they be? They couldn't even win a conference tournament game.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

How good can they be? They couldn't even win a conference tournament game.

[valpopal]

I think an unknown in this game will be the number of fouls called, especially against our big men. Since Columbia has players that are good at drawing fouls and who shoot free throws well, I hope we have refs that are not going to revert to the early season when numerous fouls were called.

In addition, we've seen too many offensive fouls called on Valpo's inside screens. We already are going to be shorthanded with Bobby and Jordan out, and who knows if Yeo or Chadwick will be back to full health. If Vashil, Moussa, and Jubril run into foul trouble, Valpo could be in a difficult position.

[talksalot]

well, plus the fee for refs, and talksalot's exorbitant per diem : )

That, and 99-cents will get you a small coffee at Speedway, a warm bottle of water from the unplugged fridge in the media room, and the thin-crust Papa John's Pizza - Better Ingredients, Better Pizza.

For those curious, none of the 4 of us at the table (Clock Operators, Dot and myself) have ever been paid for working the table.... goes to show how hard it is to fire a volunteer!

[LaPorteAveApostle]

You're easily worth 100 times what they're paying you.  Maybe a thousand!

[usc4valpo]

In 1979 Penn and the great Tony Price made it to the Final Four, winning the East Regional.  Less than 5000 fans were at the Eastern regional championship game  in North Carolina as NC, NC State and all the East powerhouse schools were out.  Out of 10 seeds, #9 Penn defeated #10 seed St. Johns.  The

[usc4valpo]

Please give Dot my best - what a wonderful lady!!

[talksalot]

Can't get enough about Columbia?  Here is a link to their "Game Notes" going into last weekends home games with Penn and Princeton.

http://www.gocolumbialions.com//pdf9/2655240.pdf

[VULB#62]

Great stuff.  Gotta stop Rosenberg as Filippo said earlier.

[usc4valpo]

Dude, the discussion was whether Columbia would be nervous to play in a postseason game. When I referred to the stadium, I was actually referring that they were not facing an NCAA powerhouse at a huge arena, which is not their usual surroundings.  The Ivy League and the Horizon League are similar in basketball competition, arena size (not age, some of the gyms in the Ivy League are classically old) and  attendance. 

[talksalot]

Crusader's are going Ivy in the CIT
Holy Cross @ Brown on Tuesday night~!

Murray State's press release says they will be playing Missouri State
Missouri State's web site says they will be playing Middle Tennessee State
Perhaps a split squad?

Pacific travels to Phoenix to play Grand Canyon University.

[bbtds]

Here is a link to the 2014 CIT guide

http://collegeinsider.com/CIT2014/CIT_Guide_2014.pdf


One thing I had forgotten about since 2011 was that Iona, the team that beat Valpo so badly in the first round of the 2011 CIT, went on to play in the CIT championship game against Santa Clara. The Gaels lost 76-69 to Santa Clara on March 20, 2011. (page 16 in CIT guide)

Just the video you wanted to view. Interviews with Iona coach amd players after beating Valpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k3QitBzIvg


The following teams received an invitation to the 2014 CIT and will participate.

School             Conference         Overall record   Conference   record
Brown              Ivy League          15–13                    7–7
Canisius              MAAC                   21–12                   14–6
Chattanooga      Southern Conference   18–14           12–4
Columbia              Ivy League          19–12                    8–6
East Carolina      Conference USA   17–16            6–12
East Tenn St      Atlantic Sun           18–15            10–8
Grand Canyon      WAC                   15–14            10–6
IPFW              Summit                   24–10            10–4
Holy Cross      Patriot                   19–13            12–6
Missouri State   Missouri Valley           20–12             9–9
Murray State      Ohio Valley           18–11            13–3
Neb–Omaha      Summit League           16–14             5–9
Northern Colo.   Big Sky                   18–13             11–9
Pacific              West Coast           15–15             6–12
Quinnipiac      MAAC                   20–11             14–6
San Diego      West Coast           16–16              7–11
USC Upstate      Atlantic Sun           19–14              11–7
Valparaiso      Horizon League           18–15              9–7
VMI              Big South                   20–12             11-5
Wright State      Horizon League           20–14             10-6
Yale              Ivy League           15–13              9–5


21 of the 32 teams have already been selected.

Confirmed first round match-ups:

March 18
Columbia at Valparaiso
Holy Cross at Brown
Chattanooga at East Tennessee State
Wright State at East Carolina

March 19
Murray State at Missouri State
Pacific at Grand Canyon
Quinnipiac at Yale

[LaPorteAveApostle]

I've never been so happy YouTube failed to embed before.

Not to change the subject (just to get that taste outta your mouth), I noticed that if the Post has someone covering us this game, it won't be Steve Gorches--they laid him off and he was lucky to latch on with the Times, although not likely in the same position. His twitter 'bio' is remarkably honest about the situation:
https://twitter.com/SteveTGorches

[talksalot]

... the web-post I mentioned earlier from Mid-Tenn about playing MoState has been taken down from the MTSU site.  Mo State still does not recognize who their opponent will be.  Murray State says they're playing in Springfield.

love it when a plan comes together.

[Filippo2014]

Just a couple more thoughts occurred to me.

Columbia does not offer athletic scholarships. I should think that all of Valpo's rotation are on athletic scholarships. Just to make that clear, none of Columbia's players are on scholarship. You are not likely to see a lot of tattoos on these players, either. But it also makes for a pretty long bench because you are not restricted as to how many guys on the team. They are essentially all invited walk-ons. 

As a matter of fact, when Coach Kyle Smith took over the job four years ago, he thought the Ivy League was just an exalted Division III league. Smith is known for his preparation. He was top assistant to Randy Bennett out at St. Mary's for 8 years. St. Mary's was nipping at Gonzaga's heels all that time, and was the one team that gave Gonzaga fits.

The best place to read about Columbia's men's basketball team is Columbia's newspaper, the Columbia Spectator. I am not allowed to post external links here on your forum site, but if you put Columbia and Spectator all as one word and add the dot com into your browser, you should arrive in the right place and you will see some pretty good articles there about the Columbia.

If you want to read more about Alex Rosenberg, Google the New Jersey Star Ledger Alex Rosenberg basketball, and it will take you to a pretty nice article about Columbia's junior forward.

To listen to some interviews with Coach Kyle Smith, try Columbia's radio station, WKCR dot org and look under archives.

The Ivy League Digital network has games in their entirety but to view anything but highlights, you would need a $16 subscription.

The Ivy League does not have a post season league tournament. They consider their 14-game season as a 14-game tournament.

[Pgmado]

As much as Columbia doesn't give scholarships, players can get quite a bit (nearly 100 percent) of financial help from the school. I spoke to a player recently who was recruited to an Ivy League school and they illustrated that while they wouldn't be on scholarship, they weren't going to have to pay for anything.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Exactly.  In fact, in the very near future, the top Ivies will be in the position to offer everyone who is accepted the ability to attend free (at least tuition free), due to the size of their endowments.

Which is kind of funny, because that's how it used to be at several well-off schools--e.g. Creighton was free from 1878 to 1924 due to the extraordinary largesse of the Creighton brothers.

So it's not like these are some hardy go-getters just out there for love of the game either

[usc4valpo]

You get financial aid to an Ivy League school based on financial need, academics and the overall student resume.   In the Ivy League, student athletes have insane test scores and GPAs coming out of high schools, and/or they have various connections to get in.

[valpo84]

Good book on Ivy League athletics and recruiting/scholarships/etc. is "Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League." Getting a little older but good primer.

[valpopal]

Should have a decent turnout by the student section since spring break is over and there are rarely exams or papers due the Wednesday of the week after spring break. Extended weather report calls for clear skies with temperatures in the 50s. Plus, it doesn't hurt that students attending the game will get free pizza.

[talksalot]

Students might come out.
Students, come to the game against Columbia early on Tuesday and Coach Bryce will buy you pizza! He'll personally ask you to come tomorrow during lunch in Founders'.

[govalpogo]

When I was in school they did the free pizza gimmick a couple of times...one game every student walked a way with a full pie.  It doesn't always work   Hopefully this year will be different!

[historyman]

Exactly.  In fact, in the very near future, the top Ivies will be in the position to offer everyone who is accepted the ability to attend free (at least tuition free), due to the size of their endowments. Which is kind of funny, because that's how it used to be at several well-off schools--e.g. Creighton was free from 1878 to 1924 due to the extraordinary largesse of the Creighton brothers. So it's not like these are some hardy go-getters just out there for love of the game either

Valpo wasn't free but it wasn't too expensive back in 1859.

In 1859, citizens of Valparaiso were so supportive of the placement of the college that they raised $11,000 to encourage the Methodist Church to locate there. Students paid tuition of $8 a term (three terms per year), plus nearby room and board around $2 a week.