Arch Madness 2017-18

[VUBBFan]

I attended the tournament and am still here getting ready for the final game. I went to all the games. First let me say all the games came down to the final minute. The crowds and fans were really into it.
For entertainment, they would start out most of them with a color guard and a very good singer. During timeouts there was this MC doing promotions and games and he was awesome. He really got the crowd into the game. For halftime each school had their dance team and cheerleaders perform.
The Scottrade Center is a good arena and easy to get to. I stayed at the team hotel and took the city trolley which costs $2.00 for unlimited trips per day. Our hotel was really one of the farthest ones,  but was still less than a mile away. The area had several nice restaurants and bars within walking distance.
There was a dinner and welcome meeting for VU fans at the hotel that I did not attend but I heard that the alumni maybe looking at hosting something at one of the local venues next year.
Every thing was well organized by the MVC and first class. Each team had good fan turnout. The exception being Valpo. We had the least number of fans granted we are one of the smallest schools but every one else had great turnout. Hopefully next year we have a better turnout. As such I'm going to lay off my comments about students not showing up for games.
The experience, for me was been great not only for the games but the other things around here to do.
I will definitely be back next year, hopefully with a lot more of you.
I

[VU2014]

Lot's of good conversation in here and Paul Oren joins the Harry Schroeder again. Some great basketball talk and talks about Valpo basketball.

https://twitter.com/FatherHarry1/status/970341217761419266

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9shbjJoLf0

[justducky]

Loyola dominates. They don't foul. They don't turn the ball over. They execute with near perfection.

Where will they be seeded? I don't know how but I am thinking 10.

[vu72]

So for the first time in several years we are part of a conference that is sending its very best team to the NCAAs!  I wouldn't be surprised to see the Ramblers win a game or two.  Congrats to them!   

[VULB#62]

I caught the second half and could not help but visualizing Valpo instead of either of the two playing.  I could actually imagine brown and gold scarves instead of teh maroon and goldes that were quite prominent.

On national  (really national) TV.

On a prime Sunday afternoon. 

With all the bells and whistles that the MVC brings to the game experience. 

Then I snapped out of it.  ........     

Maybe some day.

[valpopal]

Congratulations to Loyola for winning the championship! They were the best team all season and deserved a spot in the NCAA tournament. Having said that, I was very disheartened by the CBS prognostication that Loyola, with an RPI in the 20s, would not have received an at-large bid if they lost in the final, even with a 27-win record, while lesser teams in bigger conferences would have leap-frogged them. The selection process obviously is still stacked against mid-major conferences.

I hope Valpo uses the model of Loyola to move forward in the MVC. Loyola in a number of ways is closest to Valpo in stature, and they have risen in the conference the right way with a good coach, quality players, high academics, and improved facilities. In addition, I'd like to think a greater growth of rivalry between Loyola and Valpo in the future would be good for both programs as well as for the conference.

Furthermore, although I didn't attend the tournament and just watched on television, I was very impressed by the quality and professionalism displayed during the games. The level of play by teams from top to bottom was far superior to that in the Horizon League, and the Arch Madness crowds appeared to have greater enthusiasm and energy than I remember from Motor City Madness. I also appreciated that games from all rounds were available on television. Despite the difficulties for Valpo this season, I am pleased to see the Horizon League in the rear view mirror.

[VU2014]

Congratulations to Loyola for winning the championship! They were the best team all season and deserved a spot in the NCAA tournament. Having said that, I was very disheartened by the CBS prognostication that Loyola, with an RPI in the 20s, would not have received an at-large bid if they lost in the final, even with a 27-win record, while lesser teams in bigger conferences would have leap-frogged them. The selection process obviously is still stacked against mid-major conferences.

I hope Valpo uses the model of Loyola to move forward in the MVC. Loyola in a number of ways is closest to Valpo in stature, and they have risen in the conference the right way with a good coach, quality players, high academics, and improved facilities. In addition, I'd like to think a greater growth of rivalry between Loyola and Valpo in the future would be good for both programs as well as for the conference.

Furthermore, although I didn't attend the tournament and just watched on television, I was very impressed by the quality and professionalism displayed during the games. The level of play by teams from top to bottom was far superior to that in the Horizon League, and the Arch Madness crowds appeared to have greater enthusiasm and energy than I remember from Motor City Madness. I also appreciated that games from all rounds were available on television. Despite the difficulties for Valpo this season, I am pleased to see the Horizon League in the rear view mirror.

Well said valpopal. I hope the Valpo vs Loyola rivalry gets going. We need to up our game on all levels.

Arch Madness and Motor City Dumpster Fire seems like a night and day difference. I'm definitely going to attend Arch Madness next year. I've heard it's a great time.

[vu84v2]

Congratulations to Loyola. A talented team that plays as a team, plays hard, and is very well coached. They could certainly win an NCAA tourney game (or two) if they get the right matchups.

I made the point in a different thread that there were teams in which their resume' looked a lot like a good Valpo team has been in previous seasons (maybe even a little better). Loyola has one great win (at Florida), one awful loss (Milwaukee), and a fairly low SOS. I would have been shocked if they got an at-large (though they certainly would have deserved it versus a 7th place large conference team). Middle Tennessee is a similar team, so see what happens if they lose in the Conference USA tourney. Their best case is probably the opening round.

[vu72]

Congratulations to Loyola. A talented team that plays as a team, plays hard, and is very well coached. They could certainly win an NCAA tourney game (or two) if they get the right matchups.

I made the point in a different thread that there were teams in which their resume' looked a lot like a good Valpo team has been in previous seasons (maybe even a little better). Loyola has one great win (at Florida), one awful loss (Milwaukee), and a fairly low SOS. I would have been shocked if they got an at-large (though they certainly would have deserved it versus a 7th place large conference team). Middle Tennessee is a similar team, so see what happens if they lose in the Conference USA tourney. Their best case is probably the opening round.

Clearly Loyola was the best team and they put together a great group of players, no doubt.  Still, remember that Loyola's success is a relative "flash in the pan" as they have had a total of 3 20 win seasons since about 1985 and also their first appearance since then.  They graduate 5 seniors.  My guess is that we will be their equal next year, probably not at the top of the league, but their equal. There are several teams loaded with experience coming back.

[craftyrighthander]

I am fairly new to this board, but I live in St. Louis, and I attended the game against Missouri State.   I have gone to the Valley tournament off and on for years.  Here are some random observations for those who may be considering attending next year:

1. While this tourney didn't have the cache of some Valley tournaments in the past, this is still a great event.  The Valley tournament is promoted very well in St. Louis for the entire season (ARCH Madness billboards, ads in Post-Dispatch and on local TV).  The major sports radio station in St. Louis (KMOX, which has the Cardinals and Blues) has a Missouri Valley update every Sunday.  It's fun to hear Valpo mentioned in the St. Louis media every week.

2. Downtown St. Louis is very easy to navigate.

3. The Scottrade Center is undergoing major renovations over a three-summer period. Last year, the new video board were installed, and a lot of "infrastructure" was updated.  The updates during the next two summers will be "cosmetic" changes that fans will notice.

4.  Good seats are fairly easy to obtain on game day.

5. Many of the Valley schools travel well.  I also work downtown, and Friday at lunch, the school colors were on display all over downtown.

6. Valpo does not travel well, nor are Valpo fans easily identifiable.   Valpo has to make gold the color of choice, rather than brown.  Everybody from Illinois State wears red all weekend.  Everybody from UNI wears purple weekend.  Everybody from  Indiana State wears blue all weekend. etc.  You get the point

7. I was unable to make the pre-game function on Thursday, but I talked to a couple of 30-something Valpo grads who attended.  They heard that Valpo didn't sell its 250 ticket allotment, and ate those seats.   I am going to volunteer my services to the athletic department next year.   I'd be happy to recruit locals to the tourament. If Valpo hasn't sold its allotment, why not be proactive and give those tickets to Valpo alums who live near St. Louis.  Why not call some high school seniors in the St. Louis area who are admitted to Valpo, but haven't committed, and give their families some tickets (not talking about athletes, so don't go down the recruiting violation avenue).  Think outside of the box.

8. The MVC is a big step above the Horizon.   That's not to say that Valpo can't compete.   I'm beating the drum that the rest of you have been beating for years, but there needs to be a commitment to compete.    This is a very good basketball conference, not to mention sports like baseball and women's sports.  Competing at a high level in men's basketball in the MVC will raise the profile of the entire unversity.

9.  The local walk-up crowd was probably down a little this year, because the SEC tournament will be at Scottrade this week, and the local fan who just loves college basketball will probably be attending those game.  I would expect the local crowd to be up next year.

10. Give this tournament a try next year. 

[FieldGoodie05]

Nice to see a Private school win the MVC.  I recall some ppl posting on this board saying the MVC forum were not in favor of another private school (Valpo) being added to the MVC.

Announcers in the championship game said Loyola's first year was 10th place, years 2-3 were below 0.500 and year 5 was MVC Championship.

Good for them and nice to see private schools show up the publics.

[valpotx]

I would counter that Valpo travels well, but only when our team is good. 

[VUGrad1314]

Then we need to work on being a fanbase that travels win or lose.

[valpotx]

We have been in the past, but that changed over the last 5 years.  It ties into the lack of student attendance at home games, as well.

[craftyrighthander]

I should probably amend the "Valpo doesn't travel well" statement.  That was too broad brush.  I think a more accurate statement is "At this point in time, relative to our MVC counterparts, Valpo doesn't travel well."  For comparison, I look at 9th place UNI.  UNI fans probably out-numbered Valpo fans 10-1. 

[VULB#62]

We have been in the past, but that changed over the last 5 years.  It ties into the lack of student attendance at home games, as well.

Gotta go after the demo that is below gray hair and, like me, on life support.  The 30-50 demo is essential to continue the  Valpo tradition, whatever that may be now.

Most away games I have attended were clearly attended by more gray hairs than others. Flash: We will all die pretty soon.

But we all remember the exciting Valpo of the 60s and 70s. That's why we show up. Look at the crowd scenes at televised home games today.  Pretty Gray. Where are the generations after us?  In truth, gray should  be the minority at every game.

I believe it goes back to the fact that our previous administrations ( and possibly our current leadership) did not give their students much of anything to be super proud about the university except for their degree. There were great opportunities to build on occasional blips, but they went unrecognized and unacted upon 

Do recent Valpo grads leave  the campus with a deep love of the university and great memories of all the great experiences as well as the commarderie of a close-knit campus?  I wonder.

IMO, Valpo today is not the Valpo from which I graduated in 1966. It is disappointing.

[VU2010]

So many great comments here.
Thank you. Love the comments about making gold our official traveling color. Love the comments about not reaching out to people about giving those unsold tickets out. Love the comments about learning from this first year and doing better in the years to come. My only hope is that Admins and coaches listen to us. We want to support them. However, their prices are outrageous when they put events together. We were going to attend the NIT championship and wanted to ride the fan bus, but it was utterly outrageous to do so. Could've flown cheaper. Didn't end up going. Nothing is done to accommodate orus younger alumna. I too would love to help. You're right - the majority of people around us have grey hair. And don't tell me that it's this generation or that there's other things to do now. Excuses! I too like the espn 3 app but for away games! Make an environment where people are willing to pay $12 to go to the game BECAUSE of the game day experience. Involve us in the process. It's a mess right now, and I see little to no effort on their behalves to actually reach out to us and fix it. Nothing. Here's to hoping for change.

[VUBBFan]

I met a few alums from St louis and Texas at Arch Madness so there were Valpo fans from beyond Valparaiso. However, it was sad to hear that Valpo rented a big bus to transport the fans and only 9 showed up.

Our assigned section was mostly in gold but since we were in the club section we were not easily seen. On the plus side, although we were farther away, the seats themselves were supposedly more comfortable.

I encourage anyone who can, to come out next year. MVC fans are very animated and supportive of their teams and that made it, an electric atmosphere for all the games. Also from just a basketball fan's perspective the games are competitive and entertaining in themselves.

[bbtds]

1. While this tourney didn't have the cache of some Valley tournaments in the past, this is still a great event.  The Valley tournament is promoted very well in St. Louis for the entire season (ARCH Madness billboards, ads in Post-Dispatch and on local TV).  The major sports radio station in St. Louis (KMOX, which has the Cardinals and Blues) has a Missouri Valley update every Sunday.  It's fun to hear Valpo mentioned in the St. Louis media every week.

Even though Arch Madness wasn't what it has been in the past it was leaps and bounds better than Motor City Madness. The electricity and drive of the tournament comes from the passion of the fans and the majority of the fan bases are very passionate. I expected the Valpo fan base to be down from last year in Detroit because obviously expectations are different when you finish tied for first to finishing last. Talking to the staff at Scottrade Center they said they were very pleasantly surprised that Valpo fans, despite being low in number, were much better behaved than any Wichita State fans that have attended the tournament in the past. Most of the fans from other teams were also pleasantly surprised at how much better the experience is without the Wichita State fans who somehow thought they owned the Scottrade Center and downtown St Louis during Arch Madness. You could tell that the Illinois State fan base had a greater expectation of winning this tournament. They had been in the championship game the last three years but have yet to win it. ISU had the larger group of fans by about another third over the Loyola fans at the championship game. It's also evident that the city of St Louis embraces Arch Madness more than Detroit does the new Motor City Madness because of the history and tradition of the St Louis event.

4.  Good seats are fairly easy to obtain on game day.

Agree. In Detroit you could sit closer for less money but the energy that Arch Madness creates since most of the games were so close in score (other than the UNI/Evansville and the championship game) is worth it. St. Louis has a much better set up for getting to downtown St Louis from the outer areas of St Louis County on public transit than Detroit.

3. The Scottrade Center is undergoing major renovations over a three-summer period. Last year, the new video board were installed, and a lot of "infrastructure" was updated.  The updates during the next two summers will be "cosmetic" changes that fans will notice.

I noticed that the upgrades to the Scottrade Center have really enhanced it. It is very changed from when it was the Keil Center and Valpo played Rhode Island there in 1998.

9.  The local walk-up crowd was probably down a little this year, because the SEC tournament will be at Scottrade this week, and the local fan who just loves college basketball will probably be attending those game.  I would expect the local crowd to be up next year.

The talk about the SEC tournament being at Scottrade and that it wouldn't be in St Louis for another 20 years or so was causing great excitement among college basketball fans in the city since Missouri only comes to St Louis once a year to face Illinois and those tickets are extremely hard to get. One radio guy was talking about how a blue haze will fall over St Louis when the Kentucky fans come to St Louis and if Missouri faces Kentucky in the SEC tournament look out, it will be the greatest sports event in St Louis since the Cardinals' World Series games 6 and 7 in 2011.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/971449951862575106

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6RLgRcLhnk

[crusadermoe]

Speaking of a "blue haze" descending from Kentucky to St. Louis.....does anyone else remember going to the 2002 First Round game vs Kentucky in St. Louis?  It was the Jones dome in the earliest Thursday game time (11:30 am?) so I think we lost the very first game that year.  In addition to a couple  thousand in blue at tip off, Kentucky fans came pouring into the Jones at various points in the game until a couple thousand were added mid-game.  I suspect that some lived in the hills with no shot at scoring tickets at Rupp. No blue blood fan is going to be seen in public in the first round. 

It was Lubos' senior season along with others like Milo and we were a fashionable pick for an upset at #13 vs. #4 because they had faded late in the season.   But midway through the 2nd half, their bigs lke Mel Turpin and about six guys of the same size just started to pound us.  Lubos could not get off his shots against the long arms of Prince xxxx.  I am blanking on his name.   

Since that 2002 game, we had several good teams that got killed in the first round or missed the Dance.  Then Mo Kone and the guys hit rock bottom in 2006 in Kansas City.  The next good game for VU in dance was that game we played vs. Maryland.  That was solid!   

Just memories.  Some good.  Some bad.  Drawing Michigan State twice in the dance was just not right.

[nkvu]

  "Lubos could not get off his shots against the long arms of Prince xxxx.  I am blanking on his name."

Tayshawn Prince. He went on to a pretty good NBA career I believe. KY also had a guard named Bogans (I think) who was pretty up and down that season who had a good game against us. As I recall Grafs played well for us in that game.

I was the lone Valpo fan in an office full of UK fans during that game. Fortunately they were more gracious than I admit I would have been had the outcome been reversed. I suppose it was because they were more used to winning.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Obviously, the biggest factor in our poor fan showing in St. Louis this year was the extremely poor season we had. Having said that, I see two other factors, one fixable and the other that will take some time/effort:

1. I can count on less than one hand the number of appeals I saw from VU encouraging me to buy tickets for Arch Madness. There didn't seem to be much of a push institutionally to get fans down there. This can be corrected in future years.

2. Valpo has never been part of a conference tournament that is an "event," and thus Valpo fans probably associate the conference tournament with two questions: a) Is Valpo one of the favorites to win? and b) Can I get there and back easily without taking too much time off work?  With Arch Madness, you have an entire city rolling out the red carpet and treating it as a major event, with a *weekend* full of activities for fans outside of the games. It's why the fans of teams who were eliminated -- that Paul documented in his article -- stay the whole weekend. Think about VU's past tourney experiences since the program became successful - Quad Cities, Fort Wayne, Kansas City, Tulsa, host sites in the HL, then the Detroit fiasco. All were pretty much "go to the game and that's it" events, most all were weeknights for the semifinals and finals, so you didn't have much in the way of outside fanfare (I remember killing time one year at the old Mid-Con tourney going to... the John Deere Museum, with like six other fans).

All of which is a long-winded way of saying there is a level of education about Arch Madness that needs to go on with our fanbase -- that Valpo is now part of a conference with a very cool signature event that you should plan on attending no matter what, because that's what MVC fans do. Some of this will take time -- a few years of Valpo fans making the trip and then sharing their experience with other VU fans, much like Paul's article. Some of this goes back to my first point -- VU hitting its fans early and often with marketing about Arch Madness and highlighting not just the games but the entire weekend. And maybe even incentivizing fans to attend (build it in as an option on season ticket packages with a gift of some sort, get group rate airfare from Midway for those who prefer to fly in, etc.)

This is something that won't happen overnight, especially if your fans haven't had high expectations about a conference tournament. But it should something the Athletic Dept. should start trying to change perceptions about, because this is something pretty neat. (And if we get the ship righted on the court, we're going to not want to embarrass ourselves with lousy turnout in St. Louis).