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Post by wsuraider09 on Jan 22, 2016 22:58:55 GMT -5
Valpo fans are melting down. High hopes of an at large bid just got thrown out the window with this loss to us tonight. If we would have made half our layups we would have buried this team. When we play at the Arc I hope we come up with the same results. Hilarious they thought they would have been an at-large team. I hope we sweep them. Then beat them a third time in the HL Tourney. They are nothing special. Fernandez is a fish out of water at center. I've watched Valpo all season. They play extremely tough at home (small arena, students close to basket, rowdy, etc.) They had an off night from Peters and lost a guy due to injury. Our defense came to play at the end when we went to zone, but we were down with 3 minutes and change to play...Valpo is a better team then they showed today. I wouldn't get cocky about beating them at the ARC. We need someone else to knock them off in all reality. We beat a very good team tonight. #1 in midmajors currently, and was getting AP votes. This team is no pushover. Let's call a spade, a spade. Valpo is a very good team, and is still the favorite to win the league. We always put up good fights at home to league leaders...We just played the better 3:00...we could have just as easily played the crappier 3:00.
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Post by ohiopirate on Jan 22, 2016 23:29:06 GMT -5
I questioned the leadership on this team earlier this year - said we really missed Steven Davis and his passion. I think we've found some quality leaders on this team. Joe T may not do any one thing spectacularly well but he does so much right on the court. I'm going to enjoy watching what he does with some confidence down the stretch of his senior season. Everyone has settled into roles and kudos to Coach Donlon for finding the right rotations.
Great crowd tonight. Great win. We aren't going to be under the radar to anyone in the league the rest of the year.
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Post by Raider3G on Jan 23, 2016 0:57:26 GMT -5
Does the announced attendance include the free student tickets?
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Post by Tipp City Raider on Jan 23, 2016 1:01:37 GMT -5
Does the announced attendance include the free student tickets? yes
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Post by Raider3G on Jan 23, 2016 1:04:21 GMT -5
Great win. Glad I could be there for it. Joe T. and Alstork are great leaders for this group. I get the points about not getting too cocky about a rematch, but truth be told the guys left about 20 points on the floor in wide-open layups and bunnies. We hit half those this game isn't close and the only thing Valpo had in the first half was a guy averaging 7 pts a game going for 15. And in terms of Peters having an off night, I don't buy that. He hit his open shots, which were mostly threes (4 of 7). Problem for him was WSU kept pushing him far from the rim, and really made him work hard for those 14 points and any open shots he did have. It was really more the D than it was him not hitting anything, IMHO.
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Post by paulkris on Jan 23, 2016 10:42:15 GMT -5
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Post by twizman on Jan 23, 2016 10:43:35 GMT -5
Hilarious they thought they would have been an at-large team. I hope we sweep them. Then beat them a third time in the HL Tourney. They are nothing special. Fernandez is a fish out of water at center. I've watched Valpo all season. They play extremely tough at home (small arena, students close to basket, rowdy, etc.) They had an off night from Peters and lost a guy due to injury. Our defense came to play at the end when we went to zone, but we were down with 3 minutes and change to play...Valpo is a better team then they showed today. I wouldn't get cocky about beating them at the ARC. We need someone else to knock them off in all reality. We beat a very good team tonight. #1 in midmajors currently, and was getting AP votes. This team is no pushover. Let's call a spade, a spade. Valpo is a very good team, and is still the favorite to win the league. We always put up good fights at home to league leaders...We just played the better 3:00...we could have just as easily played the crappier 3:00. Oh, I get all that. I don't think saying "I hope we sweep them" is being cocky. Fact of the matter is, they are a good team, the best team in the Horizon League, but they were never a team that was going to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Their fans were being unrealistic if they thought they were THAT good. They're a good team, perhaps very good. But you need to be "great" if you are going to be a mid-major team that makes the NCAAs with an at-large bid. I've said all along that WSU is the second-best team in the HL and that's why last night wasn't a big surprise to me. I agree that winning at Valpo will be very difficult, but we're playing with house money now. Even our own fans never expected we'd be sitting here at 6-1 in the league right now, let alone the rest of the league. We were supposed to be "mediocre" this year. We sent a loud message last night. Also keep in mind, we've blown out some decent teams. Bowling Green is 12-6 and we ran them off our court. Yes, we've won some close games (none closer than Detroit) but we've also destroyed some solid teams like BG, Murray State, dominated the second half at NKU. (Also crushed Cleveland State and Youngstown State, although neither of them are "decent teams.") So, we're watching a good WSU team that is definitely the biggest threat to Valpo making the NCAAs. Valpo's only chance at making the Big Dance is to win the HL Tourney ... and I don't think they want any part of facing Wright State on a neutral court. Did you see a talent gap last night? I sure didn't. There are time you win a game and say, "Wow, they were more talented than us, but we just found a way to win." That's not the case with WSU v Valpo. Two very evenly-matched teams IMO. Would they have been evenly-matched in early December? Probably not. But we've found our stride and are playing very well. This is one of the best rosters we've ever had. We have guards that can shoot from outside and drive to the rack. We have a legit center for a change. Decent overall depth (although the lack of a true backup center hurts, but I'll take actually having a good starting center for a change). Valpo has been put on alert. This isn't going to be the cakewalk through the HL they expected.
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Post by twizman on Jan 23, 2016 10:49:31 GMT -5
Good article (excellent insights from Donlon after the game) but did you also find it funny that someone wrote a newspaper article off just listening to the game on radio? He didn't even watch the ESPN3 feed? I credit him for admitting it in his piece, but I did find that funny. Seriously, thanks for posting though. Everyone should read Donlon's comments.
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Post by rock70 on Jan 23, 2016 10:59:44 GMT -5
Great win. Glad I could be there for it. Joe T. and Alstork are great leaders for this group. I get the points about not getting too cocky about a rematch, but truth be told the guys left about 20 points on the floor in wide-open layups and bunnies. We hit half those this game isn't close and the only thing Valpo had in the first half was a guy averaging 7 pts a game going for 15. And in terms of Peters having an off night, I don't buy that. He hit his open shots, which were mostly threes (4 of 7). Problem for him was WSU kept pushing him far from the rim, and really made him work hard for those 14 points and any open shots he did have. It was really more the D than it was him not hitting anything, IMHO. I agree with 100% ecb and just a few more observations: - Other then Mortensen's 2 minutes Billy stuck with his seven man rotation with everyone playing 21 minutes or more. It seems to me that once he decided to basically hang his season on his 7 best players is when we took off as a team. Other then maybe Mitchell their is a significant drop off in talent after our top seven. As I've mentioned before several of the guys who don't really play much just need to get stronger and fill out before it will be their turn to contribute next year. - How big is it that Michael Karena was able to play 32 minutes! With Valpo's size it was critical that Michael and JT stay on the floor. In order for us to be competitive we need Michael to play 25 to 30 per game. I was actually impressed how Billy keep giving Michael several short breathers throughout the game to keep him fresh and in my opinion helps keep him from committing silly "tired" fouls. He might of only scored 6 points but his interior defense was solid. He has really developed some nice post moves! - Yoho is a player I thoroughly enjoy watching play! He is such a complete player. He has nice post moves, solid 3 point shooter and he can hit the mid range jumper ( a lost art IMO ). He is ask to guard the other teams post players and usually gives up several inches but still does a solid job. He is another player we need 28 - 32 minutes a night from and last night he gave us 35 minutes with a solid line of 18 pt, 6 rebounds, 2-4 from the 3's and 4-4 on FT's. I only hope his knees hold out for his senior year. Don't be surprised to see him only play 20 minutes Sunday versus UIC to help rest his knees. - When Benzinger is hitting his perimeter shot it opens up the lanes big time for our other players! Grant has been on a roll of late and given us a huge lift. With Joe and Mark in foul trouble Grant stepped up and gave us 36 minutes and hit his usual clutch shots last night. - Joe and Mark both were in foul trouble the 2nd half but boy did they come up big for us again! Joe is such a complete player ( 21 pts, 14-16 FT's, a team high 8 rebounds ) and Alstork is IMO the most gifted player on the team. Mark scores in a variety of ways and just brings a physical presence to the team. How clutch was his 3 ball from the corner last night?? - Biggie is still the player that I most appreciate. Coach Brown said on his post game comments last night that is was Biggie's play during our 16-0 run that lead us with his penetration. He just has such good court vision and seems to get just as much joy out of an assist as scoring. His dribble penetration and ability to dish the ball are invaluable to this team. - Is Mark Hughes going to be good or what? For a freshman he plays with such poise! I can't wait to see him develop these next 3 years. I appreciate Mark's work rate when he is on the court!
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