Game Wrap Up: Half a game

The Crusaders did me a favor tonight.  I took my 5 year old to the game hoping there would be no doubt by half time as to who would win this game.  Well, it was 43-16 at the half and we were both happy to head home!

The Half Game
Valpo attacked the basket early and often in the opening half.  KVW could not be stopped, he currently has 18pt and 10 reb (as I check my I Pod for updates.  The Saints had no chance in this one as Valpo was too big, too fast, and too athletic.  As I type this it is 74-28 Valpo, time to get Shelton some PT.

I'm a bit troubled by
* Ryan Broekhoff's poor shooting so far this season.  He is a scorer so I'm not real worried, hopefully he is just getting the misses out of the way early on this year.

* Tommy Kurth's lack of good play.  I'm not sure if he is just still rusty from not playing last year or if what he is showing is what his skill set is.

* After seeing what Cleveland State did to Vandy and now watching Detroit battle with Notre Dame the Horizon League is really showing some depth.  McCallum and gang are good...real good.  The announcers said a decision on Eli Holman is coming soon.

* Speaking of announcers...I'm not sure who was announcing the VU game tonight, but I hope that will be his time.  A three pointer is not a touchdown or a homerun (props to the student who yelled that out in the game). 

I'm encouraged by
* Richie Edwards' has been playing well, taking better shots, and hitting his freethrows.  He really looked to move the ball tonight when he didn't have a good look.  Much improved over what I saw from the stands the first few games.

* Erik Buggs continues to have a coming out party.  He attacked the rim several times with nifty moves to get by multiple defenders, found teammates for open looks (a couple open threes that were missed early on), and even hit a three pointer.

Up Next
Valpo will welcome the Akron Zips to the ARC on Friday.  

Game Preview: Home Opener vs. Holy Cross College

The Crusaders return to Valparaiso to welcome Holy Cross College in their 2011-2012 home opener.  The Saints come in having lost their first two games (they play another between the time of this post and the game on Monday) to Bethel College and Andrews University.  Game time is 7:05pm on Monday night.

Get to know your opponent
The Saints have had a rough go of it early on falling to Bethel by a point and Andrews U. by 25.  A couple guys worth watching for Holy Cross are Yama Kader (6'1'' Junior Guard) and Tayler Williams (6'8'' Senior Forward).  Kader went off for 23 points (4-7 from 3pt range) while Williams posted a double double scoring 18 points and collecting 11 rebounds in the same game.  Other then these two there doesn't appear to be much scoring on the roster for the Saints.

Holy Cross College is quite young.  Founded in 1966, Wikipedia lists only four famous alumni.  Skip Holtz the son of Lou Holtz and head football coach at USF, Jeff Smoke an Olympic kayak racer, and Rudy Ruettiger from the movie Rudy were all listed.  One more interesting note about Holy Cross is that they require all Bachelor of Arts students go on a global immersion experience.

The Game
The Crusaders should find it pretty easy going in their home opener.  I suspect we will see a pretty one sided affair by early in the second half.  Some things I will be watching for include: will Will Bogan's solid play from GSU carry over, can the team hit a higher percentage of their 3 point shots, and has the second unit continued their gelling process?  Only three weeks left until the HL opener at Butler (who lost at Evansville by 3 in OT earlier today)!


Prediction
With the way the guys played Friday night in a 90 point effort, I will throw out a score of 79-55 as my prediction with Valpo coming out the victors.  I think the entire roster is going to see plenty of playing time.