Game #0 - EXH - Robert Morris (Chicago) Thursday 11/2/17 7pm ARC

[VU2014]

I'm predicting Valpo wins by 20

[VULB#62]

I like the names on the backs.

[VULB#62]

Tevonn in his own low key way so far has made a statement - his team. 

[VU2014]

Couple thoughts:
-Tevonn looks like a man on a mission. Already 4 steal and his long range jump shot looks much improved early on in this game.
-Did anyone see that Smits post move? He didn't make it but the footwork looked really impressive.
-Bakari can really drive it to the basket
-Joe Burton was shooting it from 3 really well.
-Micah looks more confident out there
-Free throw shooting hasn't been great, but got better as the half went on

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/926251800298229760

[vu72]

Wow!  First game?  Athletic, we can really shoot it and obvious improvement from the bigs.  Bakari is the REAL deal.  He is Eric Buggs who can score from all over. This could be better than we thought. 

19-8 personal fouls, they will come unglued in the second half.

[VULB#62]

At 10:00 of the second our top rebounders are Hazen (Frosh) and WALKER  at 7. Holy cow!  This is kinda crazy.

[VULB#62]

So we are up by over 40 with less than 4 minutes. The stats really show some unexpected numbers (IMO). Wow. On face value, what does this mean? 

Golder 15 pts in 19 minutes?

[govalpogo]

Now Hiring: Valparaiso Men's Basketball Dunk Reel Editor

Full time with benefits.  Expect long nights on game days.

[a3uge]

Hope we never schedule that team again. We're super athletic and can get down the court well. I was hoping to see more half court sets, but the opponent pressed the whole game. Defensively, we didn't get to see anything either, since RM just jacked wild threes right after getting down court. It was certainly fun seeing Golder dunk all over Porter County, and Bradford's incredible improvement, but I think the team we didn't get to see the team work against a typical offense or defense.

[VU2014]

This is a really fun team to watch. Very athletic and excels in transition.

This team's offensive philosophy is completely different from past Valpo Teams. This team isn't slowly bringing the ball up the court and running offensive sets like we did under Bryce and last year team. Coach Lottich is really letting them press the ball and shoot threes. This team sort of actually reminds me of how Kampe's teams play offensively.

We held RMU to under 70 points but I didn't think we play all that well defensively. Definitely room for improvement.

This really is a whole new era of Valpo Basketball. You can see the potential with this team!

[humbleopinion]

Markus Golder!

[VULB#62]

DISCLAIMER:  RMU played another game last night. Yet........

Will our exhibition with Chicago State give us a better understanding of this team's capability?

[VULB#62]

Lets throw this out and start over against something we actually wil be seeing.

[VULB#62]

Now, after 1 meaningless exhibition, to me (who does not know squat about post play) we are loaded in the other 4 spots. But so far, our 7 footers have not yet developed into the monster factor. We need another Vashil from these two kids.

[a3uge]

Now, after 1 meaningless exhibition, to me (who does not know squat about post play) we are loaded in the other 4 spots. But so far, our 7 footers have not yet developed into the monster factor. We need another Vashil from these two kids.

I thought Linssen looked pretty legitimate. High motor, and sneaky athletic for a big dude.

[VU2014]

DISCLAIMER:  RMU played another game last night. Yet........

Will our exhibition with Chicago State give us a better understanding of this team's capability?

Chicago State isn't great but their still a D1 team. CSU should be a better team offensively then RMU. Fred Sims, Jr. is a good player.

[VULB#62]

Rested vs. rested is much better than what we saw tonight.

[vusupporter]

Interesting to look at the fact we played Robert Morris last in exhibition play four years ago in November 2013, at the start of another season with low expectations (Alec's freshman year). RMU came into that game ranked sixth in NAIA D-II, versus tonight's team, which is ranked 12th in NAIA D-II. In 2013, we win 90-82; this year, 117-69.

Does this mean anything? Probably not. But an interesting comparison.

[VU2014]

Now, after 1 meaningless exhibition, to me (who does not know squat about post play) we are loaded in the other 4 spots. But so far, our 7 footers have not yet developed into the monster factor. We need another Vashil from these two kids.

I thought Linssen looked pretty legitimate. High motor, and sneaky athletic for a big dude.

I actually liked what I saw from Smits tonight. I liked his footwork around the basket. He had 2 blocks (granted it was a against shorter and D2 opponents).

He looked more confident AND at least for tonight he kept his frustrations in check. That was an issue at times last year. He looked like he was having fun out there.

[VUBBFan]

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/926280043571089410

I hope they keep up this run and gun. It's entertaining for the fans. The most surprising thing for me was the play of Smits. I know this was only against an NAIA team, but he wasn't falling over his feet and made some nice moves. It was a big improvement over last year. Let's see if it's real.

[VUCPB alum]

Long time lurker here but my name should give you some idea of my Valpo connection. For the most part I liked what I saw but there was some concerns that I had, admittedly these were typical start of the season concerns that should easily be fixable when our guys are able to hit the film room and also my basketball IQ isn't the greatest.

First of all our defense was inconsistent for a few stretches where the opposing players were wide open on the perimeter. I noticed this especially when RM players were able to penetrate into the lane and we would have 3-4 guys collapse hard on them leaving the 3 wide open. I understand that you are supposed to collapse the lane but I feel that we collapsed harder than we should have because our guys were over hustling (not necessarily a bad issue to have). I feel that this issue will resolve itself when we learn to trust each other on defense more. Secondly I realize RM is a good team but we should not be giving up 70 points to them. Lastly, the emotions of the first game got to our guys early and sloppy turnovers and missed free throws ensued, but these issues were minimized as the game went on. As stated before these concerns should go away as the season wears on and the guys become more engaged.

Given the circumstances it's really hard to determine anything about the team right now but my biggest takeaway is that all the guys seemed to know their place in the offense and they seemed to know what the other players roles were too. The chemistry is way ahead of where I thought it would be and I think the beginning of the season will better than most of us think

[a3uge]

Long time lurker here but my name should give you some idea of my Valpo connection. For the most part I liked what I saw but there was some concerns that I had, admittedly these were typical start of the season concerns that should easily be fixable when our guys are able to hit the film room and also my basketball IQ isn't the greatest.

First of all our defense was inconsistent for a few stretches where the opposing players were wide open on the perimeter. I noticed this especially when RM players were able to penetrate into the lane and we would have 3-4 guys collapse hard on them leaving the 3 wide open. I understand that you are supposed to collapse the lane but I feel that we collapsed harder than we should have because our guys were over hustling (not necessarily a bad issue to have). I feel that this issue will resolve itself when we learn to trust each other on defense more. Secondly I realize RM is a good team but we should not be giving up 70 points to them. Lastly, the emotions of the first game got to our guys early and sloppy turnovers and missed free throws ensued, but these issues were minimized as the game went on. As stated before these concerns should go away as the season wears on and the guys become more engaged.

Given the circumstances it's really hard to determine anything about the team right now but my biggest takeaway is that all the guys seemed to know their place in the offense and they seemed to know what the other players roles were too. The chemistry is way ahead of where I thought it would be and I think the beginning of the season will better than most of us think

Giving up 69 when the other team took 75 shots is perfectly reasonable. Their higher pace of play lead to more possessions by both teams.

[VU2014]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leZnPoZBTB4

[Jordan]

This is a really fun team to watch. Very athletic and excels in transition. This team's offensive philosophy is completely different from past Valpo Teams. This team isn't slowly bringing the ball up the court and running offensive sets like we did under Bryce and last year team. Coach Lottich is really letting them press the ball and shoot threes. This team sort of actually reminds me of how Kampe's teams play offensively. We held RMU to under 70 points but I didn't think we play all that well defensively. Definitely room for improvement. This really is a whole new era of Valpo Basketball. You can see the potential with this team!

Was the tempo increase just a factor of the opponent's press? Or do we think we'll actually see some up and down play this season?

[bbtds]

And in another MVC exhibition NIU lost to Wisconsin 38-69 yesterday.

FYI, Northern Iowa is UNI. NIU is Northern Illinois.