[January 8, 2025] Indiana State (9-6) at Valparaiso (9-6)

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Jason Svoboda

Jason Svoboda

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Indiana State Sycamores (9-6, 3-1) vs. Valparaiso Beacons (9-6, 2-2)

Athletics-Recreation Center - Valparaiso, IN
Wednesday, January 8th, 2025
Tip: 8:00pm EST​
 

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I feel like we are due for a solid 3 pt shooting performance as a team.

Not sure if it comes on the road or at home
 
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Valpo has played some good basketball as of late. Took Bradley to double OT in Peoria, gave Drake all they wanted and needed Stirtz to get them to victory, and just took down UNI pretty convincingly. This will be a tough game and a good win if we are able to escape NWI with a win.

I'll be there in person, always a pretty good ISU crowd at this game. Last year I'm pretty confident there was more ISU shirts than VU in the crowd. Not going to expect that this season but should be a good environment as Powell has his guys believing.
 
The Eville game has a lot of playing down to competition and crappy atmosphere to it.
Valpo is a much more intimate environment and they pretty well had the lower part filled up against UNI (I’d expect more with ISU and more students).

Monegro is a tough guard and will be another tough matchup for Samage.
Schweiger was a really good Freshman last year and has taken another step forward.
Sepp is not much a threat offensively but is averaging over 7 rbs per game and kept several plays alive yesterday.
Harding will need to give us better minutes in this one. Maybe JD can be effective and get one of their bigs in foul trouble.

This would be a really solid conference road win and have some momentum going into a weekend home game.
 

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Our schedules are filled with some maybe-interesting similarities…

Both 9-6.
Both 7-6 D1 wins.
Both played Ohio State (losing by 20 and 22).
Both took Bradley to OT (or Double OT).
Both have regrettable early-season home losses: Us vs SIUE, Valpo vs Cleveland State.

And sadly, both have a non-con Strength of Schedule of 320+.
 
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Other than bits and pieces of the UNI game over the weekend, I haven't watched any Valpo basketball yet this year. Their stats, however, do show a completely conflicting style to us, which I find interesting. In short, Valpo never turns the ball over and they put a premium on getting to the free throw line (and making them - 8th in the country in FT% at 80.3%). We, on the other hand, turn the ball over a ton and value the three-point shot.

What I find interesting about Valpo is their paltry assist rate. They're 336th in D1 in A/FGM. Do they play a lot of ISO ball or is it all screens and no roll? If it's a heavy screen-game offense, we could be in trouble. If it's heavy ISO ball, we could be okay here. While our ball screen coverage is dogshit, we do have some fairly decent on-ball defenders.

Curious what you guys that have watched Valpo so far this year have seen.
 

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treeman said:
Buy the cheapest ticket you can, sit anywhere you want in the gym. It's basically going to a high school game the way the seating is set up. I'm pretty sure they don't ushers
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Thought you were slightly exaggerating, but then looked up attendance: Valpo is averaging 1,468 per home game! Only UIC is lower at 1,170.

50 to 100 loud Sycamore fans would be easily seen & heard.

Sycamores currently 3rd highest attendance average: 4,724 per game. Slightly trails Murray. Bradley tops at 5,333.
 
Valpo is a pretty balanced team. Schweiger is the straw that stirs the drink but they get solid production from a handful of guys. It's going to have to be team defense as you really can't key in on 1 guy to closely. I'm really expecting this to be a real tight game.
 

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Excited to get to see the Sycamores in person this evening. Should be a good game, as it appears to be 2 pretty evenly matched teams.
 
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