The Valparaiso men’s basketball team, regular season and tournament champion of the Horizon League, will play its second round NCAA Tournament Game Friday afternoon at approximately 4:40 p.m. ET against fourth-seeded Maryland inside Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
The Crusaders arrived in Columbus Wednesday evening and on Thursday got their first peek at Nationwide Arena as the team met with media and then held a 40-minute shoot around on the arena floor.
Friday’s game marks Valparaiso’s ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the program’s second straight tournament game versus a Big 10 opponent. Two years ago the Crusaders were a 14-seed and faced three-seed Michigan State in the second round.
DEFENSE AND REBOUNDING
While Valparaiso’s greatest moment in NCAA Tournament history was, ‘The Shot’ to beat Mississippi in 1998 – more on that below – if the Crusaders are going to advance in this year’s tournament it will probably be on the strength of their defense and rebounding prowess.
Valpo enters the NCAA Tournament ranking in the top-20 nationally in both scoring defense and rebounding margin. The Crusaders led the Horizon League in both categories this season, finishing the regular season 17th nationally in scoring defense (59.3) and 13th in rebounding margin (+7.2).
The Crusaders have outrebounded their opponent in 29 of 33 games this season. They are 26-3 when they outrebound their opponent and just 2-2 in games when they are outrebounded.
Valpo enters the NCAA Tournament having held six of their last seven opponents under 60 points, including allowing just 44 points to Green Bay in last week’s Horizon League Championship game.
THE SHOT
Valparaiso Head Coach Bryce Drew along with senior Vashil Fernandez and sophomore Alec Peters met with the media prior to the team’s open shoot around on Thursday. The 15-minute media session featured mostly questions about Drew’s famous shot from March 13, 1998 that beat fourth-seeded Ole Miss, 70-69, in the first round.
“Everybody on our team has seen it multiple times,” Peters said. “It's hard to count how many times we've seen it. It's on pictures throughout our campus. And it's very memorable when you think of our school. And I don't think he has to preach on what kind of moment he had in that situation and how we can achieve the same thing. I think the biggest thing that we have to go through thinking is that we want to create our own moment. We want to have something like that that we can remember just like he did with that shot.
Drew said that while the players may have seen it on campus, it’s not on a loop in the film room in Valpo’s basketball office. The Horizon League Coach of the Year said the play is not even part of their recruiting presentation or currently in their playbook. He conceded that it is something the team could draw up in the final seconds if they needed to, but made sure the assembled media knew that the Drew family couldn’t take credit for the creation of the play.
“We got it from the Indiana Pacers. I think every good play you see is borrowed from someone else. That's where we got it. The play was actually called Pacer because that's where we got it. But I will get an e-mail or a phone call or something every year or so a couple times saying this high school team ran it or this person ran it and they won the game. So it's neat to have people share their stories.”
QUOTABLE
“I think every team is different. Some teams might need more prep or need to hear things. Other teams are very focused and ready to go. As far as this team, you know, we're the least experienced team in our conference this year, but yet they've played with a lot of maturity especially in big games. And so I just kind of get out of the way and let them do their thing because they played so well in big games this year so far.”
- Bryce Drew on how much he talks about his experience in the NCAA Tournament with his players
“Well, I think the thing that we look at first is 28 wins and whether they were 6'10" or 5'11", 28 wins says a lot. I think it's probably an advantage for us that they're bigger because that's what we're used to. If they had a bunch of six-foot guards running around, center at 6'5", shooting 3s, those are hard teams to guard. So I think it's a little bit of an advantage for us that they're this big. And their size is something that we see every day when we play. So now just respect factor, one, we respect the heck out of them. But the eye test, when you go out there, oh boy, they're pretty big, yeah, probably is going to help, too. But this time of year you're dialed in no matter what's going on. But they do have a very, very big, tall, lanky team for a so-called mid-major team.”
- Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon on Valparaiso’s height and how they appear bigger than a ‘normal mid-major team’
“We have to have our daily routine stay the same, whether it's just a normal road game or being at home. We'll eat pregame meal the same time before game that we usually do and wake up usually the same time, and go through our meetings, and do everything like that. And just try to keep everything as routine as possible.”
- Alec Peters on how Valparaiso prepares to play in the NCAA Tournament and all the distractions that come with that
