Valparaiso (13-14, 4-10 MVC)
Game #28 - Wednesday, February 14 - 7 p.m.
at Loyola (21-5, 11-3 MVC)
Gentile Arena (4,963) - Chicago, Ill.
Next Up in Crusader Basketball: The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team looks for back-to-back victories on Wednesday evening, as the Crusaders make the short trip to the North Side of Chicago to face Loyola. The Ramblers enter Wednesday’s contest having won 10 of their last 11 games.
Last Time Out: A 16-2 run late in the second half broke open a tight game as Valpo claimed a nationally-televised win at the ARC on Sunday afternoon over Illinois State, 74-58. Sophomore Bakari Evelyn led all players with 22 points, the second-best effort of his career, while Markus Golder added 16 points off the bench in the winning effort.
Following the Crusaders: Video - The Valley on ESPN3 - Jordan Bernfield (PxP) and Stephond Robinson (Analyst)
Radio – WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso) - Todd Ickow (PxP) and David Huseman (Analyst)
Head Coach Matt Lottich: Matt Lottich (37-23) continued the Valparaiso University men’s basketball program’s run of success in his first season as head coach of the Crusaders, and is poised to keep the program at a high level as he enters his second season in charge in 2017-2018. In his first season at the helm, Lottich guided Valpo to its fifth Horizon League regular season championship in the last six years as he led the Crusaders to 24 wins and an at-large berth into the NIT.
Series Notes: Loyola holds a 35-15 advantage in the all-time series against the Crusaders - a series which dates way back to 1922. Prior to this season, the two squads had not met since February of 2013, as the Ramblers departed the Horizon League for the Missouri Valley Conference following that season. Loyola claimed the first meeting between the two programs as MVC opponents back on Jan. 21, 70-54, despite a then-career high 14 points from Derrik Smits. The Crusaders have won the last four matchups between the two teams at Gentile Arena, however.
@ValpoBasketball...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo was selected to finish in sixth place in the MVC preseason poll, finishing just 12 points behind Southern Illinois for fifth place.
- Valpo has not finished worse in the final standings than its preseason projection in the last seven years.
- Senior Tevonn Walker represented the Crusaders among the preseason All-Conference honorees, earning Second Team accolades.
...looking back at last year
- The Crusaders are coming off of their third consecutive Horizon League regular season title and their fifth in the last six years, posting a 14-4 mark within league play and a 24-9 record overall.
- The regular season was highlighted by a win over #21 Rhode Island at the ARC - the program’s first win over a ranked opponent since 1998 - and wins in Las Vegas over Alabama and BYU to earn the MGM Grand Main Event title.
- Valpo earned an at-large bid into the Postseason NIT for the second time in program history, falling at Illinois in a first-round matchup. The NIT berth extended the Crusaders’ string of postseason appearances to seven straight seasons.
- Alec Peters was named an NABC Third Team All-American and an AP Honorable Mention All-American and claimed the Horizon League Player of the Year award.
- Peters closed out his career as the Crusaders’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder.
- Shane Hammink was a Second Team All-League selection, while Tevonn Walker was named to the league’s All-Defensive Team.
...notes from Illinois State
- Valpo led by two points at halftime and never trailed in the second half.
- The Crusaders’ lead was just 51-49 with 7:25 to play before they embarked on a 16-2 run, scoring on six of their next seven possessions - including three 3-pointers from Bakari Evelyn.
- Evelyn scored a game-high 22 points, the second-highest output of his career and the third time in the last five games he has reached at least 20 points.
- Markus Golder went 7-of-10 from the floor for 16 points off the bench, just two points off of his career best.
- Tevonn Walker and Max Joseph both scored in double figures and added five assists and three steals apiece as well.
- John Kiser played 30 minutes off the bench and paced Valpo with nine rebounds to tie a career high as the Crusaders out-rebounded Illinois State 36-32.
- The Crusaders limited the Redbirds to 37.9% shooting, including just a 26.7% clip (8-of-30) from the 3-point line.
...notes from Evansville
- An 8-1 spurt from the Crusaders late in the first half helped Valpo claim a 32-31 lead at the half.
- Valpo led by as many as six in the second half and was still up 43-40 with 12:29 to play before going scoreless for a stretch of nearly seven minutes.
- The Crusaders had three attempts to tie or take the lead in the final two minutes, but were unable to capitalize on any of the three.
- Sophomores Bakari Evelyn and Markus Golder tied for team-high honors with 15 points.
- Sophomore Jaume Sorolla set new career highs with four blocked shots and three steals.
- The Crusaders were unable to overcome a foul line disparity for a second straight game, as Valpo was just 5-of-5 from the stripe while Evansville was 16-of-23 from the free throw line.
...looking ahead
- Valpo closes out the 2017-18 home slate with two more home games in the next week.
- The Crusaders return to the ARC for a matchup with Bradley on Saturday night before hosting UNI on Senior Night next Tuesday evening.
...on the road
- The Crusaders sit at 2-11 in true road games this year following their loss at Evansville last Wednesday.
- Valpo had finished above .500 in true road games in four of the last five seasons, including a 7-6 mark in such games last year.
- Prior to this stretch, the Crusaders had not finished above .500 on the road in the previous 10 years.
@RamblersMBB
- Loyola sits atop the MVC standings at 11-3 in conference play - owning a two-game lead over Southern Illinois - and is 21-5 overall.
- The Ramblers have won 11 of their last 12 games dating back to Jan. 7, with the only blemish in that stretch a two-point road loss at Bradley.
- Five Loyola players average double figures in scoring, paced by 14.3 ppg from Clayton Custer, who also hands out four assists per contest.
Strength of The Valley
- This season’s iteration of the Missouri Valley Conference has proven to be the Crusaders’ most challenging conference slate in recent history.
- The MVC is currently ranked eighth in conference RPI and ninth in KenPom this season.
- Each of the other nine MVC programs is ranked 168th or better in RPI and 161st or better in KenPom.
- Last year, six of Valpo’s nine league opponents ranked lower than the lowest MVC opponent this season in both RPI and KenPom.
Thievery
- One area where this year’s Crusader squad has excelled is in the steals category, as Valpo is averaging an MVC-best 7.9 steals/game - a mark which ranks 22nd nationally.
- The Crusaders are on pace for their highest steals/game average for a single season since the 2002-03 squad recorded 8.8 steals/game.
- Leading the way in the steals department is Tevonn Walker, who ranks second in the Valley with 1.9 steals/game and is on pace to crack Valpo’s single-season chart in the category.
- Walker has 44 total steals this year, while Max Joseph has 43 and Bakari Evelyn 39 - the Crusaders have not had three players tally 40+ steals in a season since the aforementioned 2002-03 campaign (Ali Berdiel-57; Stalin Ortiz-56; Greg Tonagel-41).
On the Brink
- While the Crusaders are still looking for their first road win in MVC play, they have been highly competitive in most of their road contests.
- Valpo held a one-point halftime lead at Evansville in its last road game and led by as many as six points in the second half.
- The Crusaders have now been tied or led at hafltime in five of their seven MVC road games this season.
- Overall within MVC play, home teams have won at a 71.4% clip - the second-highest percentage of home victories within conference play, trailing only the Ivy League.
Moving Up the Charts
- Tevonn Walker moved into Valpo’s career top-20 in scoring in early January.
- Walker surpassed Chuck Kriston (1960-63) for 17th position in the Jan. 31 win over Indiana State and now has scored 1,330 career points.
- Next up for Walker is Milo Stovall (1998-2002) in 16th position, who finished his career with 1,345 career points.
- Walker also moved into Valpo’s career top-10 in steals versus Indiana State as well and now ranks ninth with 146 career steals, just four behind Jamie Sykes for eighth position.
Defending the 3-Point Line
- Valpo has been strong in defending the 3-point line this season, as its opponents have connected at just a 30.5% clip from distance - a mark which ranks 12th nationally.
- Eight times this year, Crusader opponents have shot 25% or worse from 3-point range.
- Valpo had held its opponents to six or fewer 3-pointers in nine consecutive games before Illinois State connected on eight last time out - the Redbirds shot just 26.7%, however, as they needed 30 attempts.
We Are Young
- The Crusaders feature nine underclassmen on their roster.
- The active squad boasts two seniors, six sophomores and three freshmen.
- Valpo ranks 251st nationally in Ken Pomeroy’s experience metric, which weights the experience of each player based on minutes played - the Crusaders’ ranking is the lowest in The Valley.
Valpo in the Valley
- A new era begins this year for Valpo men’s basketball and the athletics department and University as a whole, as the 2017-18 year is Valpo’s first as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- The Valley is renowned for its men’s basketball success on the national stage. Since the year 2000, The Valley has earned 33 bids to the NCAA Tournament – 18 automatic bids and 15 at-large berths – and has posted 27 tournament victories.
- Since 2010, 12 MVC programs in the NCAA Tournament have combined for 16 victories.
- The Crusaders are looking to carry over the success they’ve had in the past two-plus decades into The Valley.
- Over its last 13 years as a member of the Mid-Continent Conference (1994-2007), Valpo claimed nine regular season and eight tournament championships.
- Then, in a decade as a Horizon League member (2007-2017), the Crusaders won five regular season and two tournament titles.
Non-Conference Success
- The Crusaders ended non-conference play with nine wins, missing out on double-figure victories in non-conference action for just the second time in the last six years.
- Valpo owns a 60-23 (.723) record in pre-league action over the last six years.
Third-Best Start
- The loss to Purdue capped the Crusaders’ open to the 2017-18 season as the third best in program history.
- Valpo ended up 8-0 to start this season - the only two starts in program history better than 8-0 both came from teams which boast renowned monikers.
- The World’s Tallest Team (1944-45) won 11 straight contests to open that season en route to a 21-3 record.
- The best start all-time by a Crusader squad came from the Victory Five (1923-24), which won its first 22 games of the year and finished the season 24-4.
- The 8-0 month of November marked just the second perfect month for the Crusaders over the last 70 years (minimum three games played).
- The only other month where Valpo posted an undefeated mark came in February of 1998, as the Crusaders went 7-0 - a streak which eventually extended to a total of 13 straight wins as Valpo advanced to the Sweet 16.
Winning Big
- The first five of the Crusaders’ wins this season all came by at least 20 points, the first time in program history that Valpo has won five straight by 20+ points.
- The Crusaders’ first four wins of the year all came by at least 25 points, the first four-game winning streak in program history where all four wins came by 25+ points.
- The 25-point win at SIUE marked Valpo’s largest known margin of victory in a road opener (dating back to the mid-1940s when sites are denoted within the all-time results).
Developing Pros
- Valpo has had an entire team’s worth of talent from the past five years go on to professional basketball careers.
- Most notably, Alec Peters was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the 54th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and is currently on a two-way contract with Phoenix and the Northern Arizona Suns of the G-League.
- Peters is currently averaging 17.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game for the NAZ Suns and has appeared in nine games, scoring 16 points, for the Phoenix Suns.
- E. Victor Nickerson (2016) has also seen time in the G-League with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
- Ryan Broekhoff (2013) highlights the Crusaders’ international pros who have graduated in the last five years, as he currently stars for Lokomotiv in Russia’s VTB United League and the EuroCup.
- Shane Hammink (2017) is playing for Bilbao Basket of Liga ACB in Spain - the top division - while Jubril Adekoya (2017), Vashil Fernandez (2016) and Kevin Van Wijk (2013) are all playing for CB Peñas Huesca of LEB Oro - Spain’s second division.
- Lavonte Dority (2014) is playing for Den Helder Suns in the Netherlands, while Jordan Coleman (2014) has played for Omnia Basket in Italy’s second division.
