At Valpo

[jwa123]

You may not be crazy but you are indeed crazzy.

when Valpo joined the league I told everyone that Valpo would beat us on a regular basis and you all thought I was crazy. Unfortunately is true , they have less Talent, less bench, but they still beat ISU that's one thing to do with coaching head coaching I love Dan but it's time for him to go.

 

[SgtHulka]

Reeves was having a bad game, yet still managed to get it together late

Jr was a turnover machine

Please note for when we meet again not to bite on Kirkkes shot fake and drive. Take your chance with the jumper

Another coffin nail game

 

[Dmills]

A couple questionable calls at the end - the Chatman travel, Reeves drive to the basket no call, the late foul call on potential jump ball, the rebounding foul on the box out (where our guy may have been a little out of position). Seems like we are not getting many calls late in games the last 2 games. However, there probably isn't a much better example of a game where it never should have been left in the refs hands than this one. Between our mistakes and bad luck at times, we were the reason we lost this game.

Here is an incomplete summary on why we lost:

Second game in a row where Reeves missed his "signature" floater driving on the baseline near the end of the game. Tough luck on that.

We had only 5 made 3s the whole game. At least 2 of those came from Strong in the first half. Another 2 came from Reeves in the last 3 minutes of regulation. They combined for 5-14. The rest of the team shot 0-7. To me, that shows that we lacked some of the ball movement that we had particularly against UTSA and Ball St. but even against Wisconsin as well. There may have been a few missed ones we normally make, but I don't think our players were in as good of a position to make those shots as they generally have been.

We had AT LEAST 7 missed layups by my estimates.

We had 17 turnovers compared to 10 for Valpo. Tough game for Fleming with 7. I think he will be ready to go for Loyola, but really a tough game for him. In addition, while I am not sure if the turnover numbers would have been any better with Freeman in the game, the pace we played at was noticeably much slower compared to the UTSA game. I recall many times where we were able to push the ball and get baskets in transition that game.

We shot 9-14 from the free throw line compared to 16-16 for Valpo. I believe the graphic displayed during the game had Valpo and ISU just about even at around 72% on the season. Unfortunately, Valpo almost certainly had their best free throw shooting game of the season.

Basically, the point I'm trying to illustrate is we had a lot of things go wrong to still be in this game at the end. What this means? I don't know. It was a game we should have won by 10. Frustrating loss. No moral victories to take away from this one. We lost it, move on, come back better on Wednesday.

 

[Bird Friend]

We had AT LEAST 7 missed layups by my estimates.

We missed 8 in the first half alone. I was too depressed to keep count in the 2nd half.

 

[MadBird]

We missed 8 in the first half alone. I was too depressed to keep count in the 2nd half.

Box score shows 9 in first half, 6 in second half. It was pretty damn sad.

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Yep, everything you bring to the board, same old same old

Yep.
Sorry, I have higher expectations than you, Timmy, Soxfan, et al.
Enjoy beating Quincy, squeaking by Chicago State, and celebrating close losses to average P5 schools.
My youngest just got accepted at Univ. Of Arizona. So glad to finally have a connection to a team that actually wins. Go Wildcats.

Adios!

 

[The Beak]

Box score shows 9 in first half, 6 in second half. It was pretty damn sad.

we make half of those missed layups and Valpo shoots their season avg from the FT line and birds win by 20. incredibly frustrated by this loss, but also remember we would have lost by 20 or more in the past few seasons once a team got up on us by 9. i'm still not sold on coach, but this is a much different team than the last 2-3 years.

 

[cubird]

Dmills spot on. Bottom line is you better win most of your home games. Valley home teams swept today!

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

Dmills spot on. Bottom line is you better win most of your home games. Valley home teams swept today!

Agreed and work that means we must win on Wednesday

 

[Birdfriend72]

And Valpo 16-16 from the line. That's remarkable.

Remember what you guys say about a win? A loss is a loss! Doesn’t matter why- it’s a loss that shouldn’t happen! Until they get consistent with the play this is a Thursday night program like it or not! Good teams seem to find a way to beat bad teams!

 

[SgtHulka]

Yep.
Sorry, I have higher expectations than you, Timmy, Soxfan, et al.

Pretentious blowhardedness. I'm going to step out on a ledge and guess your shit actually does stink and you just have Covid and have lost your smell

Knew it was going to be a struggle when Reeves missed 2 wide open threes and 3 of 4 free throws to start the game

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Valpo played a really nice game, especially on defense and from the line. Birds had their chances but a lot of credit to the Beacons. Conference seasons will be a real grind.

 

[isuquinndog]

My only comment from the game.,

DUNK THE F'ING BASKETBALL

Onward to a really tough game vs Loyola. I think most of us would be thrilled going .500 in conference and right now, we've won all our home games an lost our road games. .500. Hold serve at home, try and steal one on the road. I'd like to think we can win @UE so hold serve at home and you go 10-8 and you aren't playing Thursday.

Now, Loyola at home is going to be super tough so for this to work, going to have to play best game of the year.

 

[DaveBird10]

My only comment from the game.,

DUNK THE F'ING BASKETBALL

Onward to a really tough game vs Loyola. I think most of us would be thrilled going .500 in conference and right now, we've won all our home games an lost our road games. .500. Hold serve at home, try and steal one on the road. I'd like to think we can win @UE so hold serve at home and you go 10-8 and you aren't playing Thursday.

Now, Loyola at home is going to be super tough so for this to work, going to have to play best game of the year.

So much this! Birds didn't play well at all yesterday. Missed free throws, layups, and turnovers cost the Birds the game. Win your home games and win a few games on the road.
I look at the MVC and so far home teams have swept, everyone is 1-1 in conference. Other then @Loyola and @Drake idk if any game worries me or is a loss. There's not a lot of road games where if the Birds play good they can win. Win your home games and knock off a road game or 2 and you are there with 10-11 wins.

 

[The Beak]

Remember what you guys say about a win? A loss is a loss! Doesn’t matter why- it’s a loss that shouldn’t happen! Until they get consistent with the play this is a Thursday night program like it or not! Good teams seem to find a way to beat bad teams!

Not sure what you're referring to here. Valpo not great, but also not "bad." This was a disappointing loss, no moral victory here. Just pointing out that this year is not last year or the year before, and for the moment the arrow is pointing up. This team can beat any MVC team, unlike last year. And to get ahead of you, in case you missed it in my earlier post, that doesn't mean I'm a fan of coach.

 

[Birdfriend72]

Not sure what you're referring to here. Valpo not great, but also not "bad." This was a disappointing loss, no moral victory here. Just pointing out that this year is not last year or the year before, and for the moment the arrow is pointing up. This team can beat any MVC team, unlike last year. And to get ahead of you, in case you missed it in my earlier post, that doesn't mean I'm a fan of coach.

At this point- I won't mention fire Dan again. I have said it numerous times. I will make comments when I feel like we have underperformed. This was a game we had to win. Valpo along with Evansville are games we have to take on the road. There are a few games at home I anticipate will be close if we play well (shoot the 3 well) and maybe get beat by more than 10 if we don't. One of those games is coming up Wednesday night. In order to avoid Thursday night in St.Louis we must pick a few of those road games off.

 

[ISU86]

Losing yesterday should not have been a surprise given, in November and December, we were more of than not lauding the importance of finally having a point guard, and we start January without that player. Unlike Wisconsin, Valparaiso had three days to pivot and prepare.

Whether or not Fleming Jr. actually had the dreaded 'rona or not, he was definitely a half-step slow and out-of-sync. Essentially that took us from our core eight down to six - which highlighted another issue, lack of a trusted bench. Andrews, Kotov, Ndaiye, Sissoko (even if available yesterday his playing was doubtful), Washington (excluding yesterday out of necessity) ... five scholarship players, none of which seem to have done enough to make the staff feel comfortable giving them extended minutes. We have even seen two occasions (at Eastern Michigan, at Wisconsin) where walk-ons (Miller, Johnson) were on the court ahead of them at critical times.

Plus McChesney and Schmitt need to be perceived as enough of a viable scoring option that defense s need to do more than token guard them.

Despite all of this (and the missed point-blank ere (USE THE GLASS)), the game went into overtime and was there for the taking.

There are positives, but also still negatives. Half empty or half full?

I think the needle, at least for the overall season, is still pointing up. Beyond that, given the transfer portal, NIL, etc. I am not sure how many, if any (including ours), non-P5+BE schools can be considered sustainable going forward. Too much potential roster rebuilding every year to maintain consistency.

Here's hoping three more days for Fleming Jr. to get healthier (and a Ramblers team that has not playec a game in twenty-five days) works in our favor.

 

[cubird]

Think the problem was no practice time for Fleming. He has not had that many turnovers since last year. He needs to simplify his game until he gets his rhythm back. Hopefully, 3 days practice with team will get it back.

 

[gobirds85]

This was a winnable game and we didn't get it done. I believe the team is getting better and has a shot of staying out of Thursday night. Nice to see the rebounding pick up but we need to keep that up. Might also want to stop playing down to the competition and win games we should be winning.

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Think the problem was no practice time for Fleming. He has not had that many turnovers since last year. He needs to simplify his game until he gets his rhythm back. Hopefully, 3 days practice with team will get it back.

One of those turnovers was a wrap around pass to Schmitt...may have worked if it hit him in the chest.