This year's theme: so what if Valpo is really down now, I can still enjoy March basketball, right?
Here's the thing about me. When I go to a tournament, I don't just go to see Valpo play. That comes in handy when the Beacons are going through down times (both Men's and Women's programs are really struggling right now).
1. The friends we meet along the way
Ever since I started going to conference tournaments, I have had opportunities to chat with fans from other teams in whatever conference Valpo is in. At least once every year, I would be sitting in my seat watching one of the games, and end up talking with another fan. For that matter, other Valpo fans were also there taking in the entire tournament just like me, so I almost always had someone to share any "wow" moments with. Back in the Mid-Con days (2002-2007 for me), there were always at least a few Valpo fans I could hang out with in between sessions. One year, we even opened it up to fans of other teams. Conference tournaments are a great opportunity to meet fans from other teams. They often turn out to be really interesting. It helps a little if you can attend all games in person (hint, hint, Horizon League).
Sometimes, you meet fans online and then get to hang out with them at the site of your conference tournament (not to mention during regular season conference games, depending on how well fan bases travel). This year was no exception.
At Arch Madness, I was assuming it would just be me and a few Valpo friends enjoying the games, but on Friday, I happened to notice someone I know online (@BHartyNMSU) tweeting out pictures from the Indiana State-Belmont game that was going on. After confirming he was indeed in the house, I went to his section to meet him in person for the first time. He was a fellow subscriber to Kyle Whelliston's Mid-Majority website (2004-2014, now resurrected under a different URL). I have met several fellow subscribers at similar tournaments, and always treasure the connection. If you zoom the picture a bit, you will see that he is a New Mexico State fan. I discovered that he retired from employment with the university, and was planning to attend the WAC tournament in Vegas after Arch Madness was over.
My next stop was in Indianapolis for the Horizon League semifinals and finals at Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where I once again shared the games with some friends from Green Bay who I met back in 2014. They have been to every conference tournament involving the Green Bay Phoenix for the past 30+ years. This year they were heartbroken again because their women's team lost in the title game (the men's team just hired a brand new coach).
I also said hello again to the podcast hosts (BobMcDonald - @bobmcdonald and Matt Dudek - @horizone_matt) at The HoriZone Roundtable, a website that does a fantastic job of covering the Horizon League in an age where the traditional outlets are covering mid-major basketball less and less. One of their writers does a bang-up job of covering Cleveland State Women's basketball and tries his best to cover Horizon League Women's hoops in general. This will continue to be an annual trip for me. On Championship Tuesday, I was even able to grab a late lunch with Matt at a nearby restaurant since there is a 4 hour gap between title games.
My next stop was Moline, Illinois for Hoops in the Heartland (MVC Women's tournament). Last year's Tax Slayer Center is now Vibrant Arena. This one continues to be a challenge for me, as both times I've been to this tournament I've basically been by myself. However, this year, I did get to say hello to the Valpo sports beat writer (Paul Oren - @TVBOren), whose The Victory Bell newsletter is very good and reasonably priced.
Furthermore, at least some of the basketball is very good. Newcomer Belmont came in as the 2 seed after finishing in a tie for first (they were picked preseason to win the regular season title).
My final stop was Dayton for the First Four, and the chance to gather again with more fellow mid-majority subscribers. This year's traditional dinner at The Pine Club on the Dayton campus required a table for 8.
I forget some of the names, so in the interest of fairness, I won't identify anyone's name, but that's all on me. First guy on the right runs a local pizza restaurant and has some great sports stories to share (he's squinting, not crying). To his right is a Loyola-Chicago fan who I bumped in to at the First Four in 2016 and became fast friends with. Next guy on the right is a guy who I believe lives in the Cincinnati area and has recently adopted the Northern Kentucky Norse as his team (though I believe he is a longtime Xavier fan). Finally at the end on the right is the brother of the Loyola fan.
First on the left is a guy with two work phones, and I'm sorry I don't remember anything else about him. To his left is yours truly (not to be confused with Santa Claus). The remaining pair on the left are friends of the Xavier/Norse guy. This is really the highlight of the trip for me every year.
The next night I was able to join two of these guys and a new friend for dinner at the Oakwood Club for another great dinner, followed by two more basketball games at the arena.
The Tuesday games were both exciting. The Wednesday games were kind of boring, but getting to sit with these guys made it all worthwhile. That's me in the back - you can only see my head. The guy on the left was a new friend who came with the pizza entrepreneur (who is in front).
All in all, sharing the experience with friends makes it all worthwhile, and I look forward to doing it for as many years as I can.
2. Thrilling games to watch
Note: There were some exciting WBB games in Indy that should be listed here. The truth is that I did not find them as memorable because I don't appreciate WBB as much as MBB - something I am still working on.
Indiana State 94 Belmont 91 (3/3 Quarterfinal Arch Madness)
These two teams played only once during the regular season (MVC plays a 20-game schedule with 12 teams, so you play home-and-home against 9 of your rivals and single games against the other 2). That game was played during the final week of the regular season, and Belmont won 89-88 in a thrilling comeback at home.
Apparently, that was a preview of this game. The first media timeout happened at 13:42 in the first half. No one came close to a shot-clock violation. Talk about a clean game! The Trees built two separate 6 point leads, but Belmont erased the lead each time.
The rest of the first half still saw Indiana State into the bonus, and a few dead ball turnovers, and we still got all our allotted media timeouts in, but the entire first half was still exciting. Halftime score: ISU 49 Belmont 44.
The second half was the Cooper Neese show for the first 10 minutes, draining 3s from all over wide open or under pressure. He was perfect or near perfect from behind the arc. And ISU needed every single one of them. When the Trees denied Ben Shepherd the ball, other Belmont players hit the big shots to keep the Bruins in the game. Eventually, Belmont decided to focus on denying Neese the ball, but other Sycamore players filled the gap for him. Neese still hit 2 more threes, one with a Belmont player's hand in his face at the top of the key.
If you were a Belmont fan, the end of the game was marred by a very questionable blocking foul call that you thought should have been a charge. As a neutral observer, I thought it was the wrong call. Seeing it on replay recently, I still think it was the wrong call. But I'm sure Sycamore fans had calls that looked wrong to them, too. All in all, it was a fantastic game.
Bradley 71 Indiana State 70 (3/4 Semifinal Arch Madness)
This game was more of a grinder game than the Belmont-ISU game. The Sycamores did start out this game on fire from behind the arc, jumping out to a 9-2 lead and then on matching Bradley's first 3 with their 4th 3 and hearing the whistle blow, we thought it was going to be an and-one, but they got Courvoisier McCauley for a flop, which seemed iffy. Bradley converted the free throw and then hit another 3 and we had a ball game.
From that point on, Bradley was the mouse and ISU was the cat. Every time the mouse felt safe, the cat redoubled its efforts to catch the mouse. There were a few lead changes in the first half, but the only lead change in the second half almost sealed the win for the #5 Sycamores. Almost.
ISU was briefly bottled up well trying to drive the lane, but they adjusted. Bradley tightened up their defense of ISU's 3 point shooters. After the first 4, ISU went 4 for 18 the rest of the way. Bradley's paint points seemed to come easier, but ISU battled for their fair share of points at the rim.
On re-watch, the CBSSN announcers marveled at how Bradley led by 1 in spite of the fact that Rienk Mast had been held scoreless.
In the second half, ISU shot 12.5 % from behind the arc, but they got to the free throw line a lot more to keep them close (and they only missed one FT out of 14). Bradley had their way in the paint in the early part of the half and kept threatening to pull away, but Robbie Avila did his own damage in the paint on the other end. Bradley got it up to 11 with about 13 minutes to go. From that point, ISU did the "gain one point per minute" thing and worked their way back from the brink of elimination. Most of their free throws came off of drives to the basket. Actually, they still trailed by 7 with 4 minutes to go, but they ramped up the rally to make up the difference. Robbie Avila was a beast in the paint on offense, along with Cameron Henry.
The most memorable part of the game came at the very end. ISU got a steal down 2 with 41.6 left and called timeout in the front court. They hit their one and only 3 of the second half (Courvoisier McCauley) and led 70-69. Bradley brought the ball into the front court and took a time out with 34 seconds left. They worked it into the paint and got off a shot (might have gotten away with a charge) and put up a shot that was blocked out of bounds with 18.2 seconds to go. With about 6 seconds to go on the shot clock (12 seconds to go), the Braves put up a prayer of a shot that bounced high off the rim. Players from both teams went for the ball, and the ISU player inadvertently committed a foul with Bradley in the bonus. They hit both free throws. ISU tried a last second buzzer beater, but Bradley defended it really well. Just a real gut punch. They had the game won and committed the unpardonable sin. Cameron Henry was inconsolable (the foul was on him). I felt bad for him.
Post-script: we were all looking forward to a barn-burner on Sunday, but #1 Bradley might as well not even have shown up. #2 Drake took them to the woodshed from start to finish, winning by 26. All in all, though, these two games were worth the price of the entire weekend. An epic 3-pt shooting contest followed by an epic grinder. Some of the other games were not bad, either.
Northern Kentucky 63 Cleveland State 61 (3/7 Title game Arch Madness)
These two teams each beat the other at home - in each case by 1 point in a nail-biter. This one was likewise a close exciting game. NKU's zone was a peculiar match-up zone. On replay, Mark Adams (@EnthusiAdams) described it as a match-up zone driven by communication. Sometimes they played full court, sometimes half court. From what I could tell, the guards played zone while baseline guys sort of played man-to-man but anytime the ball went to a Vikings post player, they were ready with the double-team. Crucially, they communicated so that teammates would move to cover the open players. They were also consistently on the lookout for steal opportunities.
Cleveland State has continued to play with the same energy under Daniyal Robinson that they had with Dennis Gates, in spite of the fact that Gates took a couple of players with him to Mizzou. Very high energy. They brought their own defensive intensity to bear on the Norse.
- In the first half, with Marques Warrick a few steps from the basket on the fast break, his teammate somehow threw the perfect spiral to him that managed to clear the outstretched hands of a couple of Cleveland State defenders so that he could get an easy layup. Not too long, not too short. Just right.
- Early in the second half, Sam Vinson of NKU drove the lane only to be double teamed. So, he just slipped the ball around the two defenders (threading the needle as it were) to his teammate for an easy layup. John Kiser (March 2020 vs. Loyola) would have been proud. Actually, Sam Vinson reminds me a lot of John Kiser, the Valpo 2017 walk-on who earned a scholarship and was instrumental in Valpo's run to the Arch Madness title game in 2020. High IQ to compensate for lack of height and less than excellent athleticism (neither of them are to be confused with adjectives like plucky - they both are quite talented).
- Cleveland State ended two busted offensive sets by draining a 3 at the shot clock buzzer. Unfortunately, the first one was just a split second too late and was waived off after a review. The second one reduced a 5 point deficit to a 2 point deficit with about 5 and a half minutes to go in the game.
- The NKU swarming defense caused numerous turnovers that were kind of amazing.
- In the final minutes, the Norse hosted a block party, mostly by Dwight Brandon. He rejected one almost at the rim with 3 and a half minutes to go ("Star Wars at the rim" - Mark Adams). NKU barely got it over the time line when CSU created a turnover of their own leading to an easy layup, except there was Dwight Brandon to reject another layup attempt ("We're not worthy!" - Mark Adams channeling Wayne and Garth). That turned out to be a crucial 5 point swing when Sam Vinson drained a 3 from the top of the key.
- With about 2 minutes to go, Cleveland State drained a 3 to reduce their deficit to 3. On the ensuing possession, an NKU player got stuck near the basket with a double team and no one to pass to. He managed to somehow get off a shot that turned out to be an air-ball. Xavier Rhodes grabbed the offensive rebound and brought it back out, then suddenly realized the shot clock was at 3, so he hoisted one from about 25 feet. Nothing but net. That was more of a "Holy Crap" moment than a "WOW" moment. Mark Adams pointed out that there were NKU fans court-side along that very sideline who were screaming at him to shoot. What he failed to point out was that one of them was NKU alum Drew McDonald who has experienced this madness on the court a few times. When Drew yells shoot, you shoot, dammit! By the way, neither team was yet in the bonus at this point.
- Cleveland State finally committed their 7th foul of the 2nd half in the most excruciating situation possible: just after NKU just barely avoided a 10-second call.
3. In Conclusion...
It is now a couple of months after I started this post - during which time I completely neglected it because I got wrapped up in other things. But in early August, the White Sox are a dumpster fire, the Cardinals suck, Valpo's got a new coach who played and coached in national title games, and I am getting fired up for the 2023-2024 season. So I figured I really ought to publish this thing. I'm also re-watching the NKU-Houston first round game. Even though it was a loss for the Norse, it was still an inspiring game. After so many years of seeing Horizon League teams in the post-Butler era snag a bottom seed and get pummeled, it was fun to see NKU outplay the Cougars for decent portions of the game and Sam Vinson impress the hell out of the announcers for the game. It would have been doubly cool to have two 16-over-1 upsets in the same tournament.
A White Sox fan recently shared why he was renewing his season ticket package for 2023-2024 (Why I’m Renewing: MySoxSummer--FromThe108) in spite of the fact that the franchise is being poorly run by an owner who does not care. I'm not feeling that extreme of frustration with Valpo, but I still appreciate the sentiment. I am a fan of CBB that is under the radar or mid-major or outside the spotlight or whatever metaphor you want to use. There is a lot to like even when my favorite team is not doing very well.
