Charlotte49ers.com: GAME NOTES: Charlotte travels to Valpo
Charlotte is winless (0-3) vs. Valpo. :o :cuss:
GO NINERS!!!
[b]Team preview: Valparaiso
Blue Ribbon Yearbook
COACH AND PROGRAM
Homer Drew has achieved much throughout his long career.
But no accomplishment might be bigger than the job he turned in last season.First of all, he wasn’t hired until late August.
Homer had been working the previous year for the university president after stepping down in April of 2002. But when his son Scott was hired by Baylor to restore some sense of dignity to its program, the elder Drew returned to the floor.
Suffice to say there wasn’t much adjustment time.
“The majority of guys playing hadn’t played for him,” assistant coach Matt Bowen said. “So they had about a month to figure it all out.”
Valparaiso, playing its usual killer non-conference schedule, lost three of its first four games (including to ranked foes Marquette and Cincinnati). The Crusaders then dropped another three of four games; only this time, it was to lesser opponents.
Something wasn’t right.
“It wasn’t anything the coaches or players were doing wrong,” Bowen said. “The kids were just trying to find their way.”
After opening conference play with a win, the Crusaders lost three in a row. Suddenly, they saw themselves at 1-3 and using what Bowen called “a million different lineups.”
Feeling pressure, Valparaiso won nine of its next 10 games.
Two consecutive losses were followed with five straight victories – with the latter three coming in the Mid-Con Tournament.
“You have to give coach Drew a ton of credit,” Bowen said. “He stayed the course.”
Clearly, Drew demonstrated why he is the 15th-winningest active Division I coach with 523 wins. His run with the Crusaders has been as dominant as any coach has had in any conference during the last decade.
Valparaiso has won the Mid-Continent regular-season or tournament title the last 10 years. The Crusaders have won both in all but three of those years.
Should this pattern continue, Drew will have to make do without the services of departed senior forward Kikas Gomes (13.1 ppg, 8.8 rpg), who was selected to the all-conference second-team last year.
“If there’s a guy that we’ll miss the most, it would be Kikas,” Bowen said about the ferocious rebounder.
And Bowen wasn’t just referring to Gomes’ on-court prowess. The Angola product offered a balanced perspective on life, being from a war-torn country.
“Kikas relaxed a lot of the other kids on the team,” Bowen said. “He had a smile on his face every day and never asked any questions.”
Guard/forward Roberto Nieves (6.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg), a poor shooter from both the field (35 percent) and free-throw line (50 percent), had a “roller-coaster” final stint, Bowen said.
“Roberto probably didn’t have the type of year he wanted to have but he came up big in certain wins,” he said.
Key reserve guard Greg Tonagel (5.9 ppg, 2.6 apg, 2.0 rpg, .838 FT) also is gone.
Last year, Tonagel was granted a sixth year of eligibility after sustaining a pair of ankle and knee injuries. Around the time conference play began, he decided to play and appeared in 14 games.
“Greg was a kid that doesn’t turn the ball over, doesn’t miss jump shots,” Bowen said. “He was a typical Hoosiers type of basketball player. It’s going to be very different to imagine life without Greg.”
Bowen won’t have to try to hard. He’ll be sitting near Tonagel, the program’s director of basketball operations, every night. Oumar Sylla (3.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg) left after one season.
The outstanding defender was granted a release from his scholarship after he “expressed a desire to return to the East Coast in order to explore possibilities of attending school in that area,” Drew said at the time of his departure.
PLAYERS
Junior forward Dan Oppland (15.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg, .546 FG, .781 FT) and senior point guard Ali Berdiel (11.3 ppg, 6.0 apg, 3.3 rpg) will lead the way for the Crusaders in the 2004-05 journey. Both could be first-teamers in the Mid-Con after making the second team last year.
The 6-8 Oppland is a blue-collar guy who rebounds with a vengeance and simply won’t be outworked. Bowen isn’t quite sure how the “unorthodox” Oppland puts up the type of numbers he does, but he’s not asking questions.“At end of the night, Dan has 15 (points) and six or seven (rebounds),” he said. “I don’t know how he does it but he does.”
Berdiel creates all kinds of match-up problems for opposing point guards.
“Ali will get you 10 assists in a hurry,” Bowen said. “At 6-6, he’s a true point guard.”
Berdiel has uncanny vision but sometimes plays at a helter-skelter pace.
“Ali has got a very flamboyant, flashy game,” Bowen said. “But you don’t want to put handcuffs on him because of his vision.”
Berdiel, who put in extra time last summer, improved his three-point shooting by going from 28 percent to 37. The increase can’t stop there, though.
“Ali is going to have to shoot even better from the perimeter,” Bowen said. “He’ll have to carry some of the scoring load with Kikas gone.”
Six-foot-five junior swingman Ron Howard (5.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.4 apg) is the other returning starter. Despite being plagued with injuries, Howard managed to start 11-of-19 games last year after transferring from Marquette.
Bowen considers Howard to be a “Conference USA” athlete.
“Ron is exceptionally quick,” he said. “He’s a very, very good defender. He’s strong on the ball. He’s got an improved jump shot and knowledge of the game.”
Sophomores Jimmie Miles (6.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.4 apg, .800 FT) and Kenny Harris (5.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, .529 FG, .722 FT) round out the starting lineup. Miles is a super quick 6-2 guard who had a solid debut after being one of Illinois’ top prepsters two years ago.
“Jimmie had a very good freshman year,” Bowen said. “He adapted well.”
Harris, a 6-10, 310-pound center, came in rated as high as any Indiana product out of high school. Harris tipped the scales at 400 pounds when he arrived on campus but got down to 325 by mid-September. Now 15 pounds lighter, Harris is shooting for 280, a goal the coaches would love to see him accomplish.
Should that happen, he’ll be a dominant force in the paint.
“When in shape and when healthy, Kenny can be one of the top five centers in the country,” Bowen said.
Seth Coclasure (2.6 ppg, 1.1 apg), a 6-2 junior guard, and 6-9 sophomore forward Moussa Mbaye (1.3 ppg, 2.0 rpg) look to again play supporting roles from the bench. Coclasure, who was injured most of last year, is an “exceptional shooter who we’ll against all those zones,” Bowen said.
Mbaye, the captain of Senegal’s under-20 national team, “just needs to learn the game more,” Bowen said.
Vincent Humphrey (18.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.7 spg) Jarryd Loyd (15 ppg, 5.0 apg, 4.0 rpg) and Aris Williams (18.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 5.0 apg) are three freshmen recruits. The 5-11, 170-pound Loyd prepped at Niles West (Skokie, Ill.) High School.
Loyd, a great on-ball defender, will be Berdiel’s understudy and “will definitely play some minutes,” Bowen said.
Williams is a 6-9, 210-pounder out of Georgetown Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.
“Aris is the best small forward in the country that people haven’t seen,” said Dwayne Bryant, head coach at Georgetown Prep and former Georgetown Hoya star.
“He’s probably one of the most versatile players I’ve seen in that he can play the shooting guard, small forward and power forward positions. Aris has nice three-point range on his jumper, is a good passer and rebounder, and can defend multiple positions.”
Humphrey, at 6-4, 200 pounds, was the Chicago Catholic League Player of the Year last year at Fenwick High School. He finished his career as the school’s second all-time leading scorer, trailing only NBA player Corey Maggette.
“Vincent has got the ability to do a little of everything,” Bowen said. “He’s got a very good floor game. He’s a very heady player. He’s just a jack of all trades.”
From the stripe, Humphrey has few peers as he’s connected at an 82-percent clip (90 percent in the second half) during his career.
BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS
BACKCOURT: A-
BENCH/DEPTH C-
FRONTCOURT A-
INTANGIBLESA+Whereas last year the Crusaders had little problems in the way of depth, the coaching staff will be hard-pressed to find much quality beside them on the bench this season.
“Our first five all have the potential to be all-conference,” Bowen said. “But we’re not very deep. If our point guard or center goes down, we’re hurting.”
Bowen is optimistic, though, and thinks Valparaiso can once again compete for a title. A major reason for this is simply Drew’s scheduling philosophy.
By the time the Crusaders enter conference play, they’ve faced such incredible competition and been under such duress that nothing seems to rattle them.
“We are going to play whoever and wherever,” Bowen said. “We do that for a lot of reasons. The nature of our conference is that if you make the tournament, you’re going to have to play a No. 12 seed, 13, 14, 15, or 16. That’s just the way it is. And if you’re playing a high-caliber team for first time in March, you’re going home in a hurry.”
The race for second place behind loaded Oral Roberts looks to be between IUPUI, UMKC and Valparaiso. If the Crusaders want to separate themselves from the other two, they’ll have to get some quality minutes from their bench because the Jaguars and Kangaroos are loaded there.
[/b]
[b]BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS BACKCOURT: A- BENCH/DEPTH C- FRONTCOURT A- INTANGIBLESA+[/b]
Best grades so far for a Niner opponent…
I’m nervous about this one.