Sunday, January 21, 2018 3:00 p.m.
Athletics-Recreation Center, Valparaiso, Ind.
The 2017-18 Valparaiso Crusaders are an impressively talented but inexperienced team. If the Crusaders were still in the Horizon League, they’d probably be challenging for the top of that conference, just on sheer athletic ability. The Valpo talent pipeline keeps the players coming in on a regular basis, but it hit a snag after last season with a couple unexpected exits. And the Crusaders are also trying to acclimate to a conference with quite a bit more nuance, expectations, talent, and strategic rigor than the Horizon.
It’s a tough adjustment to the MVC. Loyola fans know what it’s like, only the Ramblers came into the conference under worse circumstances, with much more suspicion, cynicism, and even some anger. Loyola had to answer for all the things Valpo seems self-conscious about—home venue, attendance, coming from a lower league, not being better known in the media market—but now the league has gotten most of out of its system.
The Crusaders matched Loyola’s hot start this season almost point for point until they had a stretch of true road games against stiffer competition. After impressing with an 8-0 start and some gaudy margins of victory, this year’s Valpo product started to look more pedestrian as the Crusaders hit the road. Their first loss, a 30-point drubbing at Purdue, was followed by losses at Ball State (by 1 point), and at Northwestern (by 34 points). Then came losses at UC Riverside (by 13 points), and an 11-point loss at Indiana State in their MVC debut. It works out to a 9-1 record at home and neutral sites, and 2-8 in other teams’ buildings.
The personnel and the starting lineup has also changed quite a bit for the Crusaders. At the beginning of the season, 6’6” Oklahoma State transfer Joe Burton provided some athletic height and muscle. But Burton had academic problems and left the team after 10 games. And the Crusaders, longtime proponents of stockpiling foreign big men since their days in the Summit League, have realized that athleticism, quickness and length matters more in the MVC.
For the past several games the Crusaders have started three 6’2” guards—seniors Tevonn Walker and Max Joseph, and sophomore Bakari Evelyn. One center, lately 7’2” Derrik Smits, and one forward, recently 6’8” Mileek McMillan, fill out the starting lineup. Walker and Joseph are the Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson of Valpo, only they come from Montreal instead of Kansas City. Walker is the team’s leading scorer (15.5 ppg), top rebounder (5.1 rpg), and best defensive player. He shoots the ball a lot, he misses a lot, and he goes on crazy streaks where he hits everything or nothing. Despite being the team’s leading scorer by quite a bit, Walker shoots less than 40% overall, and barely 30% on threes. Joseph is a similar player, but finishes better at the basket, and takes fewer shots. Joseph averages 8.1 points and hauls in 4.7 rebounds. Walker and Joseph rank first and second on the team in both rebounds and steals. Bakari Evelyn is a sometimes explosive guard who leads the team in minutes, made three pointers, assists, and turnovers. A transfer from Nebraska, Evelyn averages 10.7 points, but has been wildly inconsistent. Evelyn had a game of 30 points against UNCW, but was held scoreless against Missouri State and had only 1 point against Samford. Also of note is sophomore point guard Micah Bradford, who comes off the bench as a great ball handler but needs to work on shooting; he averages 5.7 points per game.
Six-eight freshman forward Mileek McMillan has recently been added to the starting lineup. He averages 3.2 points and less than two rebounds. Six-six wing Marcus Golder is actally getting the most time at the forward spot coming off the bench for 8.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. NBA star Rik Smits’ son Derrik is averaging 7.0 points and 3.8 rebounds; another 7-foot sophomore, Jaume Sarolla, gets 5.7 points and 3.5 rebounds while leading the team in blocks.
The Crusaders have been giving fewer and fewer minutes to their bench players as the season goes on. An ankle injury to 6’5” guard John Kiser, Burton’s dismissal from the team, and lack of trust in freshmen in close conference games has shortened the Crusaders’ bench to seven or eight.
Each of Valpo’s guards are volatile, so it’s difficult for opponents to key in on them defensively. Leading scorer Tevonn Walker scored 25 points in a loss to Bradley, and two games later scored only 3 points in a win over SIU. Six different players have led the Crusaders in scoring in their wins.
The most important things when playing Valpo are controlling the tempo, taking care of the ball, and guarding penetration. When Valpo scores 72 points or more, they’re 11-1; when they score 71 or less, they’re 0-8. According to KenPom, Valpo ranks 64th in the nation in tempo, but five MVC teams rank 273rd or slower in tempo– Bradley (273), Loyola (293), Missouri State (315), Evansville (323), and UNI (347). So far this season, Valpo is 0-4 against the bottom five league teams in tempo, including their only home loss.
Valpo is very aggressive at attacking the basket, and they’ve reached the free throw line more than any other team in the conference by a wide margin—12.2% more. Yet Valpo is foul-prone themselves; Crusaders have fouled out of a game 10 times this season (Loyola has yet to have a player foul out of a game), and with their short bench that could be a big consideration. Three times this season the Crusaders have put the opposition on the free throw line 36 times or more in a game—all three of them Valpo losses.
Loyola is working on extending its longest conference winning streak since 2006-07, when the Ramblers were in the Horizon (and the season before Valpo arrived in the HL). The series with Valpo goes back to 1922 (before Alumni Gym was built), and the Ramblers have a 34-15 edge. While conference mates for six years in the Horizon from 2007 to 2013, Valpo had the edge 5-7, but the Ramblers were 3-3 in games at the ARC.
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