Post by arsenal926 on Jan 7, 2016 23:37:25 GMT -5
Seems like we're a team who may have bought into our own hype a bit too much. Despite what the general public still thinks,
www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/3zwhy9/who_are_some_mid_major_teams_you_all_could_see/
this is a team who needs to earn back everything they threw away Monday night. Good news is we're back on the big stage. Aside from 1 half against Virginia, our performance in the "big" games has been seriously fantastic.
While I'd like to win the regular season championship, it's truthfully nothing more than a banner and a nice stat to throw in the game notes.The next 16 games are about securing a top 2 seed and developing toughness. Being tough isn't beating Valpo, it's beating Valpo and waking up 40 hours later to put a smackdown on UIC.
As far as mid-major games go, it doesn't get much tougher than beating Valpo.It also doesn't get much better than Valpo-Oakland. This is going to be a pretty fantastic stage for us. Aside from being on ESPN2 the only thing going on during those 2 hours is a crappy NBA game. There's going to be a big audience tomorrow night.
Looking on ticketmaster I think we'll have a legit 3800 people at the game.
On to the game
After returning nearly everyone, this is likely the best team in Valpo's history and one of the best defensive teams in the country.
Here's this for a stat: Valpo has allowed >1.00PPP on 3 occasions. They are 0-3 in those game. Their other 10 games they've been freakishly good. (ranked #2 ! in defensive efficiency)
For Oakland, we've been held below that mark once this season.(Virginia)
Point being, if we can score on Valpo they are a pretty mediocre offensive team (150 Kenpom, 1 worse than YSU)
Probable Starters
Alec Peters- Having pretty much an identical season to last year. Shoots 45% from deep, 88% from the line, and 46% on 2 point fg's. For a player who may have NBA potential, Peters has a tendency to disappear for long stretches of time. In last years game, Hayes was able to take Peters down on the block and draw a couple fouls on him early. I would not at all be surprised if we spend the first 4 minutes running every play for Hayes trying to have that situation play out again. Defending Peter's may be a bit trickier. For the last 2 years we've been able to put Dante Williams on Peters and pretty much contain him for the most part. This year I expect Hayes to get the tough defensive match up. SDW probably has the strength, but he'd still be giving up a good 30 lbs and 3 inches. Peters is one of my favorite players to watch and will easily be the best player not named Kay Felder to play in the O'Rena this year.
Keith Carter- Took a couple years, but the 6-0 guard seems to really be finding a groove as Valpo's point man. They don't ask him to do much heavy lifting, but he's typically good for an efficient 12 pts 4 assists.
Tevon Walker- Nearly single handedly beat us at the O'rena last year. Tevon Walker's ability to penetrate the lane is probably #1 on the long list of things our defense struggles with. This will be a good match up for Martez Walker/ Nik Daniels. Both are good enough on ball defenders that they Tevon Walker shouldn't be able to overwhelm us like he did last year. That being said, he's the player I'm most scared about.
David Skara- Was injured for a while during the early part of the season and has recently been inserted in the starting lineup. When you watch him play he looks like an incredibly smooth scorer, but he just doesn't get that many shots. Really good player. He's my lock for the role player who 's likely to randomly shoot 12 for 12 on 3's against us.
Vashil Fernandez- Rightfully granted his senior year, Fernandez is pretty much the same player he was last year. Controls the paint and is the reason Valpo can play so aggressive on Defense. As always, if Percy shows up this match up should go fine. If Gibson continues playing the way he has the past couple expect a defensive rebounding debacle.
Role Players
E Victor Nickerson- 6-8 guard type. Very similar to Tim Bond of EMU. He hurt his wrist and I'm not sure if he's playing tomorrow night.
Shane Hammink- Transfer from LSU who's played a much larger offensive role over Valpo's last 3 games. Shoots nearly 65% on 2's and doesn't really pass the ball all that much.
Darien Walker- relegated to the bench and has had a pretty awful senior year. Shooting about 25%. Don't be fooled though, he was a good player last year. He's my second pick for unexpected player to destroy us.
Jubrill Adekoya- 6-7 backup center who does a great job rebound the ball. He's a player I'd hope XHM could emulate for his first couple of years before he develops an offensive game. This is a game where I don't think Brechting will be able to do much. I'd imagine Kampe will try to play XHM whenever Adekoya is in.
www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/3zwhy9/who_are_some_mid_major_teams_you_all_could_see/
this is a team who needs to earn back everything they threw away Monday night. Good news is we're back on the big stage. Aside from 1 half against Virginia, our performance in the "big" games has been seriously fantastic.
While I'd like to win the regular season championship, it's truthfully nothing more than a banner and a nice stat to throw in the game notes.The next 16 games are about securing a top 2 seed and developing toughness. Being tough isn't beating Valpo, it's beating Valpo and waking up 40 hours later to put a smackdown on UIC.
As far as mid-major games go, it doesn't get much tougher than beating Valpo.It also doesn't get much better than Valpo-Oakland. This is going to be a pretty fantastic stage for us. Aside from being on ESPN2 the only thing going on during those 2 hours is a crappy NBA game. There's going to be a big audience tomorrow night.
Looking on ticketmaster I think we'll have a legit 3800 people at the game.
On to the game
After returning nearly everyone, this is likely the best team in Valpo's history and one of the best defensive teams in the country.
Here's this for a stat: Valpo has allowed >1.00PPP on 3 occasions. They are 0-3 in those game. Their other 10 games they've been freakishly good. (ranked #2 ! in defensive efficiency)
For Oakland, we've been held below that mark once this season.(Virginia)
Point being, if we can score on Valpo they are a pretty mediocre offensive team (150 Kenpom, 1 worse than YSU)
Probable Starters
Alec Peters- Having pretty much an identical season to last year. Shoots 45% from deep, 88% from the line, and 46% on 2 point fg's. For a player who may have NBA potential, Peters has a tendency to disappear for long stretches of time. In last years game, Hayes was able to take Peters down on the block and draw a couple fouls on him early. I would not at all be surprised if we spend the first 4 minutes running every play for Hayes trying to have that situation play out again. Defending Peter's may be a bit trickier. For the last 2 years we've been able to put Dante Williams on Peters and pretty much contain him for the most part. This year I expect Hayes to get the tough defensive match up. SDW probably has the strength, but he'd still be giving up a good 30 lbs and 3 inches. Peters is one of my favorite players to watch and will easily be the best player not named Kay Felder to play in the O'Rena this year.
Keith Carter- Took a couple years, but the 6-0 guard seems to really be finding a groove as Valpo's point man. They don't ask him to do much heavy lifting, but he's typically good for an efficient 12 pts 4 assists.
Tevon Walker- Nearly single handedly beat us at the O'rena last year. Tevon Walker's ability to penetrate the lane is probably #1 on the long list of things our defense struggles with. This will be a good match up for Martez Walker/ Nik Daniels. Both are good enough on ball defenders that they Tevon Walker shouldn't be able to overwhelm us like he did last year. That being said, he's the player I'm most scared about.
David Skara- Was injured for a while during the early part of the season and has recently been inserted in the starting lineup. When you watch him play he looks like an incredibly smooth scorer, but he just doesn't get that many shots. Really good player. He's my lock for the role player who 's likely to randomly shoot 12 for 12 on 3's against us.
Vashil Fernandez- Rightfully granted his senior year, Fernandez is pretty much the same player he was last year. Controls the paint and is the reason Valpo can play so aggressive on Defense. As always, if Percy shows up this match up should go fine. If Gibson continues playing the way he has the past couple expect a defensive rebounding debacle.
Role Players
E Victor Nickerson- 6-8 guard type. Very similar to Tim Bond of EMU. He hurt his wrist and I'm not sure if he's playing tomorrow night.
Shane Hammink- Transfer from LSU who's played a much larger offensive role over Valpo's last 3 games. Shoots nearly 65% on 2's and doesn't really pass the ball all that much.
Darien Walker- relegated to the bench and has had a pretty awful senior year. Shooting about 25%. Don't be fooled though, he was a good player last year. He's my second pick for unexpected player to destroy us.
Jubrill Adekoya- 6-7 backup center who does a great job rebound the ball. He's a player I'd hope XHM could emulate for his first couple of years before he develops an offensive game. This is a game where I don't think Brechting will be able to do much. I'd imagine Kampe will try to play XHM whenever Adekoya is in.
