Women's Basketball 2016-2017

valporun · November 25, 2016, 07:20:23 PM

I know most everyone who posted about the women's games were putting their comments in last season's thread. Time to get this year's thread rolling...

The women beat Liberty, 70-68, at the ARC. Dani Frankin had 29 points, and no one else was in double digits scoring for the Crusaders. It was a very back and forth game, and tied until Amber Lindfors made a catch and shoot final shot with 0.8 seconds left. It was a good game. Liberty put up a struggle for the women, but they stayed in it nicely. Yes, Liberty hasn't won a game this season, but they didn't lose to equal or lesser competition. They scheduled above them to get ready for their Big South foes. They are now 0-4, but they'll win games once they get to where they aren't playing above what they can win against.

The Valpo women are now 3-2 overall, 2-0 at home, with the first home win being Monday's game against IU-Kokomo. The women definitely need to play with some more height, but they are able to run. They just need to control the turnovers. They had 19 tonight. They'll get better, but they just need to get things under control, in terms of passes and basketball IQ. They'll be ready to do some good work in the conference this season.

talksalot · November 26, 2016, 08:01:23 AM

Coach Dorow 's sister is an assistant coach at Liberty. Coach Dorow 's assistant coach is Liberty's all-time leading scorer.

bbtds · November 26, 2016, 11:49:01 AM

Quote from: talksalot on November 26, 2016, 08:01:23 AM
Coach Dorow 's sister is an assistant coach at Liberty. Coach Dorow 's assistant coach is Liberty's all-time leading scorer.

So that was a very personal game for Coach Dorow and one I sure she was very relieved to win.

Might the women's team be playing Liberty in the future?

IndyValpo · November 30, 2016, 11:49:22 AM

https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=nicole%20johanson

Has this really happened. No announcement to date and I do not think we have a scholarship available..

valpopal · November 30, 2016, 12:20:38 PM

Quote from: IndyValpo on November 30, 2016, 11:49:22 AM
https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=nicole%20johanson

Has this really happened. No announcement to date and I do not think we have a scholarship available..

I saw her when she visited and sat near her at the women's game against Indianapolis. She appeared very tall (6'5" or 6'6") and strong!

valpotx · November 30, 2016, 01:09:25 PM

We can have twin towers in both men's and women's basketball!

valporun · December 03, 2016, 03:48:41 PM

The women upped their record to 5-4 with a 73-68 victory over Eastern Illinois. At one point, the women had a 50-38 lead before almost giving it up. In fact, in the first quarter, the women had a 20-5 lead before EIU went on a 17-0 run. After that, Valpo took a good amount of control, before pulling this game out. This was a good win for the women. They'll next travel up the road a little ways to some college town called South Bend to play the #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. We'll get drubbed, but at least we won't be winless for the weekend.

Dani Franklin led the scoring with 33 points on 12-20 from the field, 3-4 from 3pt, and 6-7 from the FT line. She missed her second charity shot of the season in this game. No one else was in double figures scoring for the Brown and Gold. Freshman Caitlyn Morrison had a good game for this up-and-comer. She had 9 points on 3-7 shooting, and 8 rebounds, so she wasn't far from a double-double. Amber Lindfors didn't have a terrible game in her return from the ankle injury that kept her out of the Evansville game on Wednesday night. She had 4 points and 8 rebounds.

valpotx · December 03, 2016, 09:38:31 PM

We are 4-3

talksalot · December 04, 2016, 12:53:03 PM

Notre Dame is #1 for a reason... Not for the faint of heart.

http://www.espn.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2940656/gameId/400912026/

First Quarter: 34-7
Second Quarter: 38-16
at the half: 72-23... Irish shooting 71% from the field. Valpo has 20 turnovers/ ND leading rebounds... 19-9

valporun · December 05, 2016, 09:20:28 AM

They were also more athletic, quicker, and older in court years than we were. We definitely took our drubbing, but whatever this team does the rest of December, they really need to work on the turnovers, and find one or two others who can do some major scoring with Dani Franklin.

IndyValpo · December 05, 2016, 01:30:50 PM

We had to scramble to keep the ending score at down 60. If they had wanted to it could have been over 100 easy. The disparity in talent was that great. ND only had 9 healthy players and short of pulling players from campus (think Bryce Drew vs. IU-Kokomo) this was about as expected.

vu72 · December 07, 2016, 01:20:23 PM

The Ultimate spin!!

Donchetz, Schofield Post Career Bests in Loss to No. 1 Notre Dame

Makes it sound like we played great, two people setting personal bests but ultimately fell to No. 1

The reality: We lost by 60 and those career bests were for 10 and 8 points respectively. We are very young and have turned the corner to some extent. In this case however when we turned the corner we were broadsided by a Mack Truck!!

talksalot · December 08, 2016, 02:04:51 PM

and ND's 60-point win over Valpo knocked them OUT of the #1 ranking... and then they fall to Yukon by a dozen...it's that Valpo Curse again...

jack · December 09, 2016, 09:33:33 AM

Regardless of who the opponent is, until we can start winning some of the turnover and rebound battles, it's going to be a struggle this season.

talksalot · December 09, 2016, 11:34:57 AM

This Saturday... we have 8-5 Grace College Lancers coming in 1:30pm TIP in the ARC...

Series Notes: The Crusaders and Lancers have met on seven prior occasions, but the most recent showdown between the two squads occurred during the 1984-85 season. The Crusaders own a 6-1 all-time edge in a series that began in 1973-1974.

Worth Noting

With a victory, the Crusaders will have a winning record this late in the season for the first time since 2008-2009, when they were 9-7 through 16 games.

Valpo can get off to its best nine-game start since 2005-2006 and equal its best nine-game start since 1999-2000, when the team started 6-3.

The Crusaders can move to 4-1 at home, their best home start since 2012-2013, when then first-year head coach Tracey Dorow guided the team to a 5-1 record at home to begin the year.

Valpo can capture its fifth nonleague win, which would be the most since 2012-2013 and equal the most since joining the Horizon League. With still two non-league games remaining, Valpo would have already matched the most non-league victories since 2006-2007, when the Crusaders notched six non-conference triumphs in their final season in the Mid-Continent Conference.

The Crusaders have had a better shooting percentage than their opponent in seven of their eight games this season, with the only exception coming on Sunday at No. 1 Notre Dame.

Sophomore Allison Schofield connected on two 3-pointers on Sunday against the Fighting Irish and finished with a career-high eight points.

The Crusaders have not won the turnover battle against a Division-I team this season.

talksalot · December 10, 2016, 04:38:22 PM

OK 20+ point win over Grace this afternoon. Had a brief chat with Grace Coach Scott Blum after the game; he had fond memories of his days in the Brown and Gold.

the Crusaders got on the bus after the game and autograph session... heading to Bloomington for an afternoon game tomorrow against the 6-3 Hoosiers. (1pm central).. IU beat NoKy 100-49 on Thursday. Their losses are to Auburn, Western Kentucky, and NC State.

talksalot · December 11, 2016, 01:46:27 PM

Down 42-22 in Bloomington at the half...

IndyValpo · December 20, 2016, 07:21:51 AM

We finished the non-conference season with a bad home loss to Bradley last night.

We do have five wins so far....2 non D1's and Chicago State, Liberty and Eastern Illinois all with RPI's over 320. We have 3 losses to teams with RPI's between 260 and 274. Two of those at home.

Sitting here today, I do not see where we will have much improvement record-wise.

As of 2016 we have turned over all the assistant coaches and the entire team. There seems to be one constant

Vinny · December 20, 2016, 09:45:49 AM

Looking solely at RPI, it may be awhile before the Crusaders get back into the win column. Maybe at YSU (1/14)? Maybe at home against NKU (1/20)?

What the heck is going on?

covufan · December 20, 2016, 10:43:08 AM

Quote from: IndyValpo on December 20, 2016, 07:21:51 AM
We finished the non-conference season with a bad home loss to Bradley last night.

We do have five wins so far....2 non D1's and Chicago State, Liberty and Eastern Illinois all with RPI's over 320. We have 3 losses to teams with RPI's between 260 and 274. Two of those at home.

Sitting here today, I do not see where we will have much improvement record-wise.

As of 2016 we have turned over all the assistant coaches and the entire team. There seems to be one constant

Quote from: Vinny on December 20, 2016, 09:45:49 AM
Looking solely at RPI, it may be awhile before the Crusaders get back into the win column. Maybe at YSU (1/14)? Maybe at home against NKU (1/20)?

What the heck is going on?

Using Massey ratings of all of women's college basketball, here are some totals before and after Dorow:

Year Massey Ranking Record
08 190 14-16
09 137 16-14
10 276 9-21
11 278 7-24
12 262 10-21

Dorow:

13 262 11-20
14 443 6-25
15 421 6-24
16 318 10-21
17 409 5-6 so far

Dorow has had some good recruiting classes the last three years, but they have not shown great improvement yet this season. I think Dorow needs to win at least 6 conference games and one or two games in the tournament to be able to show any improvement. According to Massey, that isn't very likely.

Oh, and Dorow's twitter feed shows that she also retweets Joel Osteen

StlVUFan · December 20, 2016, 11:32:09 AM

Quote from: covufan on December 20, 2016, 10:43:08 AMOh, and Dorow's twitter feed shows that she also retweets Joel Osteen

FWalum · December 20, 2016, 12:10:00 PM

Watched the second half of last nights game and found myself screaming at the monitor. As a former coach it was very hard to watch. They really need our support and I hope they improve in conference.

IndyValpo · December 20, 2016, 12:58:33 PM

Quote from: FWalum on December 20, 2016, 12:10:00 PM
Watched the second half of last nights game and found myself screaming at the monitor. As a former coach it was very hard to watch. They really need our support and I hope they improve in conference.

Where to start....a few examples
1. Against a press our out of bounds play (everytime) run 2 players straight to the baseline and hope they are open
2. In a tradition started in the Freeman era our PG races down the floor with no plan once she gets there
3. Time after time we passed up wide open 8-10 footers to barrel into the lane against taller opponents throwing up wild shots

talksalot · December 20, 2016, 01:08:04 PM

Read and Digest this...and have a Merry Christmas.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2016-17/15993/donchetz-overcomes-every-obstacle-emerges-as-key-contributor-for-valpo-womens-basketball/#.WFlyc1MrIdU

IndyValpo · December 20, 2016, 01:13:20 PM

Quote from: talksalot on December 20, 2016, 01:08:04 PM
Read and Digest this...and have a Merry Christmas.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2016-17/15993/donchetz-overcomes-every-obstacle-emerges-as-key-contributor-for-valpo-womens-basketball/#.WFlyc1MrIdU

Great article, great kid!