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Post by blackpantheruwm on Feb 22, 2011 10:57:23 GMT -5
Just tell your guys what we've been telling ours since January 23rd:
Your NCAA Tournament starts NOW.
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Post by bbtds on Feb 22, 2011 13:02:19 GMT -5
With "little" left to play for, I think the Loyola game will end up in a loss and essentially a fourth place finish in the HL. Sad today. That certainly is very negative thinking. I know the loss to Green Bay was extremely depressing. But Valpo has the easiest schedule remaining in the Horizon League with the 8th and 10th place teams left to play at home. Valpo does play well at home. Currently Valpo is tied for 3rd and the Crusaders have never finished higher than 4th place. What makes this year any worse than previous years? It's not as good as what we all were hoping for but better than previous years. |
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Post by valporun on Feb 22, 2011 13:33:00 GMT -5
Just tell your guys what we've been telling ours since January 23rd: Your NCAA Tournament starts NOW. Our guys should have been thinking this way since we lost to Green Bay at home. I want the last two games to be thought of as BIG NCAA WINS, but we also need the fan following to show at the ARC, even without Dick Vitale and the ESPN camera crews on hand for these games. Rally around the Crusaders and show them we want them to go far... |
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Post by stlvufan on Feb 22, 2011 13:41:17 GMT -5
With "little" left to play for, I think the Loyola game will end up in a loss and essentially a fourth place finish in the HL. Sad today. That certainly is very negative thinking. I know the loss to Green Bay was extremely depressing. But Valpo has the easiest schedule remaining in the Horizon League with the 8th and 10th place teams left to play at home. Valpo does play well at home. Currently Valpo is tied for 3rd and the Crusaders have never finished higher than 4th place. What makes this year any worse than previous years? It's not as good as what we all were hoping for but better than previous years. Amen. 4th place is our *best* finish yet in the HL, and 3rd place is still a pretty good bet. Spare me the "sinking ship" analogies. I'll tell you what this is: we all got a taste of 1st place and had it ripped from our sight and now some of us are pissed. Nothing more. I can identify with that, but I still think this program is on the upswing. I agree we have a lot to improve on. By the way, do you know what Green Bay fans probably think? "Hey, we just completed a double-upset over a team that's better than we are!" That'd be us, folks. Chew on that for awhile. It's been a LONG time since we've been in that position, and there's no reason to think we're done being in that position. I'm with blackpantheruwm. Our NCAA tournament begin NOW. Let's do this, or die trying (@ 2005 White Sox). |
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Post by milanmiracle on Feb 22, 2011 15:31:05 GMT -5
I agree that things aren't as bad as they seem. No, Valpo's not going to the NCAA's this year, but I didn't really think that was going to even be a possibility when the year began. They played well at times, but you can only overcome so much, and hide your deficiency's so well...until it comes back to haunt you.
And while Valpo's not the class of the Horizon League, they clearly aren't the bottom feeder either. This is a positive step in a long journey to become an NCAA team again. Do I want more for Valpo? Of course! I would have been just as disappointed if they won the conference and didn't make the dance. NCAA's or bust! That said, Rome wasn't built in a day and at least they show signs of progress.
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Post by rlh on Feb 22, 2011 16:04:20 GMT -5
Remember people, we are only 6 points away from having this league locked up. That's not bad considering what was expected of us before the season started. We've had a helluva season, and it's not over yet....We've lost two tough games in a row we could have just as well have won, that happens....but there's nothing we can do about it now but make the best finish we can.
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Post by blackpantheruwm on Feb 22, 2011 16:11:39 GMT -5
Just tell your guys what we've been telling ours since January 23rd: Your NCAA Tournament starts NOW. Our guys should have been thinking this way since we lost to Green Bay at home. I want the last two games to be thought of as BIG NCAA WINS, but we also need the fan following to show at the ARC, even without Dick Vitale and the ESPN camera crews on hand for these games. Rally around the Crusaders and show them we want them to go far... Here's the problem with that. Even you guys weren't thinking like this one week ago. I remember reading on here that "even if we lose this game, we're still in good shape." That's not the mindset our team has had. It's been Survive and Advance ever since you guys drubbed us. That night, at the hotel room, two of our seniors gathered every player into one room and talked to them about giving it 100% all the time, among other things. The players were inspired, and here we are. Our players haven't forgotten it because the same thing holds true now as it did then. Lose, and we can't win a title. That's what I mean about survive and advance. That's the mentality that the Valpo players need to take now. |
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Post by stlvufan on Feb 22, 2011 16:37:13 GMT -5
I agree that things aren't as bad as they seem. No, Valpo's not going to the NCAA's this year, but I didn't really think that was going to even be a possibility when the year began. They played well at times, but you can only overcome so much, and hide your deficiency's so well...until it comes back to haunt you. And while Valpo's not the class of the Horizon League, they clearly aren't the bottom feeder either. This is a positive step in a long journey to become an NCAA team again. Do I want more for Valpo? Of course! I would have been just as disappointed if they won the conference and didn't make the dance. NCAA's or bust! That said, Rome wasn't built in a day and at least they show signs of progress. I want more for Valpo, too, Milan. Just in case I haven't been clear about that (which is possible). I do believe in setting the bar high ("stretch goals" they call them in my line of work). |
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Post by stlvufan on Feb 22, 2011 16:38:46 GMT -5
Our guys should have been thinking this way since we lost to Green Bay at home. I want the last two games to be thought of as BIG NCAA WINS, but we also need the fan following to show at the ARC, even without Dick Vitale and the ESPN camera crews on hand for these games. Rally around the Crusaders and show them we want them to go far... Here's the problem with that. Even you guys weren't thinking like this one week ago. I remember reading on here that "even if we lose this game, we're still in good shape." That's not the mindset our team has had. It's been Survive and Advance ever since you guys drubbed us. That night, at the hotel room, two of our seniors gathered every player into one room and talked to them about giving it 100% all the time, among other things. The players were inspired, and here we are. Our players haven't forgotten it because the same thing holds true now as it did then. Lose, and we can't win a title. That's what I mean about survive and advance. That's the mentality that the Valpo players need to take now. Our mindset as fans is not equivalent to the mindset of the players. I don't know that they haven't been taking that very approach for some time know. Of course, that's no guarantee of a win each time. |
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Post by circle70 on Feb 22, 2011 17:02:27 GMT -5
Let me offer a little perspective as an outsider.
Several years ago, Valpo was a member of the low-major Summit League. You moved up several notches to the mid-major Horizon League. You are now in the top tier of the conference. And some of you are bitching?
My school is UIC. We are in the largest market in the conference and have one (if not the) highest Men's Basketball budget in the HL.
Yet we are finishing up our second consecutive 20-loss season and are likely to have a school-record 3rd consecutive 20-loss season next year after we lose all of our "good players" after this year.
Moral of the story: be grateful for what you have--you could be us.
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Post by rlh on Feb 22, 2011 17:42:06 GMT -5
Let me offer a little perspective as an outsider. Several years ago, Valpo was a member of the low-major Summit League. You moved up several notches to the mid-major Horizon League. You are now in the top tier of the conference. And some of you are bitching? My school is UIC. We are in the largest market in the conference and have one (if not the) highest Men's Basketball budget in the HL. Yet we are finishing up our second consecutive 20-loss season and are likely to have a school-record 3rd consecutive 20-loss season next year after we lose all of our "good players" after this year. Moral of the story: be grateful for what you have--you could be us. A little perspective is always nice. Thank you....we are all disappointed, but we need to keep things in their proper place and be thankful for what we have...and enjoy the rest...good things are still going to happen for these guys. |
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nkvu
Bench Warmer
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Post by nkvu on Feb 22, 2011 17:51:30 GMT -5
One observation I have is that their freshman center, Alek Brown really impressed me. He has started every game averages almost ten points and 6 rebounds per game and has blocked over 60 shots this season. I know Cory didn't have a very good game yesterday, but I think this Brown kid deserves some credit. It's a lot to ask an undersized post player like Cory to score down low and defend a kid more than 5 inches taller who is as obviously skilled as this kid. I wonder if we recruited him.
I think that also points again to the fact that a lot of our players are undersized for the roll they are asked to play. Cory is a 3-4 playing the 5. Rowdy is a 2-3 playing the 4. Howard is a 2-3 playing a 3-4. Rogers is a 2-3 playing a 3-4. The fact is that we seem to be good at recruiting guards, and bad at recruiting skilled bigs. How do we change this?
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pgmado
Bench Warmer
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Post by pgmado on Feb 22, 2011 18:52:25 GMT -5
I dare say the frustration that everyone is feeling is compounded by how the team actually lost the last two games. The Milwaukee game was lost on an easy-to-make shot and the Green Bay game was lost in the final seconds as well when any number of things could've changed the outcome.
Yes, the Crusaders are just six points away from having this thing locked up, but they are also three overtime wins away from being 8-8. You can only focus on the next game and the truth is, Valpo has a chance to take out some frustration over the next two games and then handle whatever comes.
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Post by vufan75 on Feb 22, 2011 19:28:51 GMT -5
As well as others, I'm disappointed in the results of the Wisconsin road trip. The stat that jumped out at me from the box score of last nights Green Bay game was our 18 turnovers. It is almost impossible to win turning the ball over that many times, and missing out on that many potential scoring opportunities. It would be interesting to go back and see how many turnovers we average per game in wins vs, losses, and how we stack up vs. other conference teams. I'm thinking without looking that we don't rank well in the turnover category. I'm sure the coaches stress reducing turnovers and valuing the basketball, just as they do shooting free throws. For some reason we struggle in this area. Hope springs eternal, so I'm hoping in our remaining regular season and then tournament games that we show improvement in this area.
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Post by vu72 on Feb 22, 2011 20:15:03 GMT -5
As well as others, I'm disappointed in the results of the Wisconsin road trip. The stat that jumped out at me from the box score of last nights Green Bay game was our 18 turnovers. It is almost impossible to win turning the ball over that many times, and missing out on that many potential scoring opportunities. It would be interesting to go back and see how many turnovers we average per game in wins vs, losses, and how we stack up vs. other conference teams. I'm thinking without looking that we don't rank well in the turnover category. I'm sure the coaches stress reducing turnovers and valuing the basketball, just as they do shooting free throws. For some reason we struggle in this area. Hope springs eternal, so I'm hoping in our remaining regular season and then tournament games that we show improvement in this area. Well, I thought I'd look up that stat and it is pretty solid. while at it, I retrieved all of them: Here you go, Valpo's rank among the Horizon League teams, YTD: Scoring: 3rd Defense: 5th FG %: 1st FT %: 8th (Ugh!) 3 pt %: 8th (Ugh!) FG % defense: 2nd Rebound margin: 6th Assists per game: 1st Steals per game: 1st Assts /TO margin: 2nd TO Margin: 1st Average Home attendance: 3rd Average overall attendance: 3rd |
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