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Post by vu72 on Dec 28, 2010 12:22:49 GMT -5
There are several interesting sidenotes to this game. Not only was Jarrod Jones a Valpo recruit but also Tyrae Robinson from Bowman. Then there is Chris Bond from Bowman who some thought we should recruit but apparently didn't. We match up pretty well with these guys. It should be quite a game. Don't think there will be any "looking past" Ball State. If anything there will be some "let's get even" thinking after losing last year at their place. I've already mentioned what I was told about Jones and his academics, not sure about the others, but I also don't know that we DIDN'T recruit them. We might well have and they decided to go somewhere else..... rlh, read slower! I said that we DID recruit both Jones and Robinson. Don't know about Bond other than some thought we should have. My point was that it will be interesting because WE DID recruit them!! |
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Post by vu72 on Dec 28, 2010 12:26:22 GMT -5
I saw a few oddsmaker sites showing VU as a 7 point favorite tonight. I could be way off but I just don't see us winning this game by that wide a margin. I'm almost leaning towards a BSU win given how we can't seem to definitively close out games yet. Butler beat BSU by 23 at home earlier this year so it will be interesting to see how we play and match up given that Butler will be next.[/b] I wouldn't think about how badly they played against Butler any more then I would think about how good Butler is based on their loss to Evansville. Ball State beat DePaul on their floor and lost to a pretty good St. John's team by 5, also on their floor. They wouldn't lose to Butler by 23 on their floor, it would be very close. |
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Post by crusaderjoe on Dec 28, 2010 13:40:58 GMT -5
I saw a few oddsmaker sites showing VU as a 7 point favorite tonight. I could be way off but I just don't see us winning this game by that wide a margin. I'm almost leaning towards a BSU win given how we can't seem to definitively close out games yet. Butler beat BSU by 23 at home earlier this year so it will be interesting to see how we play and match up given that Butler will be next.[/b] I wouldn't think about how badly they played against Butler any more then I would think about how good Butler is based on their loss to Evansville. Ball State beat DePaul on their floor and lost to a pretty good St. John's team by 5, also on their floor. They wouldn't lose to Butler by 23 on their floor, it would be very close.[/quote] I’m not trying to gauge how good or bad BSU is by their loss at Butler. BSU is the only OOC common opponent that Butler and VU will face prior to playing each other. I'm looking comparatively at how well each of us fares respectively, at home, against the same common opponent. That is all--nothing more or less. |
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Post by zvillehaze on Dec 28, 2010 14:01:32 GMT -5
I wouldn't think about how badly they played against Butler any more then I would think about how good Butler is based on their loss to Evansville. Ball State beat DePaul on their floor and lost to a pretty good St. John's team by 5, also on their floor. They wouldn't lose to Butler by 23 on their floor, it would be very close. Not sure it will change your analysis, but Butler beat BSU by 33 and really called off the dogs in the last 8 minutes after the lead got to 30. Call it a bad day if you want, but the Cardinals didn't look very good. The fact that they're one of the best teams in the MAC just illustrates how bad the MAC is this year. If Valpo keeps playing like they have since the Toledo game, this one shouldn't be close. Good luck! |
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Post by valpofan56 on Dec 28, 2010 14:29:37 GMT -5
I'm with zvillehaze on this one. It's hard to say that Ball State was just having a bad game against Butler when they also lost to D2 University of Alaska-Anchorage. I know the RPI numbers say otherwise, but I would consider a loss to Ball State a very bad one.
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Post by stlvufan on Dec 28, 2010 15:29:05 GMT -5
And yet their RPI is 70.
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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 28, 2010 15:36:33 GMT -5
"I saw a few oddsmaker sites showing VU as a 7 point favorite tonight. I could be way off but I just don't see us winning this game by that wide a margin."
Homecourt advantage in college basketball is worth about 10 points. That means that the oddsmakers would take the RPI No. 71 Cardinals over the RPI No. 92 Crusaders by three points on a neutral court.
I'd really like for our league to finish as the ninth-ranked conference in college basketball. It will really help us with selection and seedings.
Take care of business tonight, boys.
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Post by valpofan56 on Dec 28, 2010 15:37:27 GMT -5
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Post by justducky on Dec 28, 2010 16:12:53 GMT -5
I'm with zvillehaze on this one. It's hard to say that Ball State was just having a bad game against Butler when they also lost to D2 University of Alaska-Anchorage. I know the RPI numbers say otherwise, but I would consider a loss to Ball State a very bad one. We have it both ways on this subject. If we win its big, if we lose its bigger. By the way didn't we lose to Alaska-Anchorage in a Shootout once when we had a pretty good team? I have no way to verify this and could be wrong. |
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Post by wh on Dec 28, 2010 16:14:23 GMT -5
I'm with zvillehaze on this one. It's hard to say that Ball State was just having a bad game against Butler when they also lost to D2 University of Alaska-Anchorage. I know the RPI numbers say otherwise, but I would consider a loss to Ball State a very bad one. Agreed. If we can't beat the 3rd best team in a bad MAC at home, what would that say about the prospects of beating the better teams in the HL at home? At a minimum it would take a lot of the bloom off the rose going into conference play. The MAC is ranked 18th in RPI, the Summit 23rd. The MAC has won 39% of its OOC games, the Summit 38%. We already beat the top Summit League team on their court only last week and effectively controlled IPFW at home from beginning to end. We present a lot of match-up problems for BSU on the offensive end. If we double down on Jones (the way we have been as of late) and keep him from having a big game, I think we'll be fine. I'm not trying to sound cocky or disrespect BSU in any way, but at the same time we have been playing very good basketball as of late and should go into this game with a lot of confidence. |
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Post by valporun on Dec 28, 2010 16:44:16 GMT -5
As long as we hit the smart 3s that we take, and hit the free throws throughout the game, we should be able to close this game out. Continue the solid defense, and man up when the ball is close, but DON'T FOUL because you forgot to man up. The silly reach in fouls and slaps on the arm won't help at all. Just MAN UP and force turnovers all over the court, make the traps work, don't just sit back. I want to see us close this game out, win, and go into the Butler game with the confidence that we can play great TEAM Valpo basketball.
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Post by valpofan56 on Dec 28, 2010 22:03:34 GMT -5
Great defensive effort tonight. We had Ball State uncomfortable all game.
We finally put the hammer down and stepped on the throat of our opponent to close out a game. Great to see! Although it seemed like Ball State may have given up towards the end unlike Oakland.
We still need to stop these periods of 3+ turnovers in a row. It's one thing to have an off shooting night, it's another to go long stretches without getting a shot off. If we go on stretches like that during the conference season teams like Butler, Cleveland State, and Detroit are going to grab big leads on us that may be hard to recover from.
Overall though, great effort tonight and it gives us some good momentum heading back into HL play against Butler on New Year's Day!
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Post by ValpoHoops on Dec 28, 2010 22:24:21 GMT -5
Great defensive effort tonight. We had Ball State uncomfortable all game. We finally put the hammer down and stepped on the throat of our opponent to close out a game. Great to see! Although it seemed like Ball State may have given up towards the end unlike Oakland. We still need to stop these periods of 3+ turnovers in a row. It's one thing to have an off shooting night, it's another to go long stretches without getting a shot off. If we go on stretches like that during the conference season teams like Butler, Cleveland State, and Detroit are going to grab big leads on us that may be hard to recover from. Overall though, great effort tonight and it gives us some good momentum heading back into HL play against Butler on New Year's Day! Absolutely. Finishing games isn't necessarily about scoring, but shutting the opponent down in crunch time, and we did very well tonight. Very good win heading into conference play. Oh, and 56, GO BADGERS!  |
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Post by valpofan56 on Dec 28, 2010 22:39:26 GMT -5
Oh, and 56, GO BADGERS! Ouch, that hurts. I'm sure '72 doesn't appreciate the sentiment either. The Kohl Center is an awful building . . .  |
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Post by valporun on Dec 28, 2010 22:39:54 GMT -5
They played a good game tonight. Well-rounded, but I want the momentum from this performance to show again on Saturday.
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