Bracket Buster cont.

Valparaiso Crusaders @ Loyola Marymount University Lions

Tonight’s other action takes us out to Los Angeles, where a pair of streaking teams – Valpo has won 9 of 11 to vault themselves into first place in the Horizon League, and LMU has won 5 of 6 and 7 of 9, including wins at BYU & Gonzaga, to put themselves on the periphery of contention in the WCC, but even more so establish themselves as a true contender come WCC tournament play.

Valparaiso Crusaders (19-9, 12-4)

Ken Pom: 140

ESPN BPI: 126

RPI: 95

SOS: 159

Record v. RPI:

1-25: 0-1

26-50: 0-0

51-100: 4-1

101-150: 3-3

151-200: 5-1

201+: 5-3

Best wins: Akron (59) 62-59; Cleveland St. x2 (80) 72-66; @59-41

Best losses:

Worst losses: @IPFW (288) 76-85; @IUPUI (250) 88-97; @Wright St. (228) 55-73; @UW-Green Bay (174) 60-75; Oakland (135) 80-82; UW-Milwaukee (140) 55-57; Ohio State (11) 47-80; @Youngstown St (150) 53-71

Players to watch

Kevin Van Wijk – 15.1 pts, 5.3 rebs

Ryan Broekhoff – 15.0 pts, 8.6 rebs, 2.3 assists, 1.2 steals

Jay Harris – 10.2 pts, 2.1 rebs, 3.0 assists

Matt Kenney – 8.0 pts, 4.5 rebs, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks

Who to foul: Who not to foul:

Van Wijk – 66% Broekhoff - 76%

Kenney – 63% Harris - 89%

Erik Buggs – 54% Edwards - 77%

Will Bogan - 83%

Ben Boggs – 91%

Loyola Marymount Lions (16-10, 9-4)

Ken Pom: 146

ESPN BPI: 132

RPI: 107

SOS: 97

Record v. RPI:

1-25: 1-3

26-50: 1-4

51-100: 0-0

101-150: 3-0

151-200: 0-2

201+: 9-1

Best wins: Saint Louis (23) 75-68; @BYU (47) 82-68

Best losses: Gonzaga (16) 58-62; St. Mary’s (25) 64-71; Middle Tenn St (38) 51-58; BYU (47) 65-73

Worst losses: @Morgan St. (298) 45-69; North Texas (199) 63-76; Columbia (159) 61-69; @Gonzaga (16) 59-78

Players to watch

Drew Viney – 16.3 pts, 5.4 rebs, 1.5 assists, 47% 3pts

Anthony Ireland – 15.4 pts, 3.7 rebs, 4.7 assists, 1.6 steals

Jarred DuBois – 10.4 pts, 2.3 rebs, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals

Ashley Hamilton – 10.4 pts, 5.2 rebs, 47% 3pts

LaRon Armstead – 8.7 pts, 2.7 rebs, 1.0 assists

C.J. Blackwell – 6.8 pts, 3.2 rebs

Ayodeji Egbeyemi – 4.3 pts, 3.2 reb

Who to foul: Who not to foul:

Egbeyemi - 48% Viney - 81%

Godwin Okonji - 64% Ireland - 77%

Quincy Lawson - 54% DuBois - 86%

Alex Osborne - 49% Hamilton - 75%

Edgard Garibay – 67% Armstead – 86%

Blackwell – 74%

Valpo showed a bit of strength earlier, giving UofA a tough game in Tucson to start the season, beating Akron, and beating Butler in OT at Hinkle. But then they lost 3 of 4 and sort of put their season at a crossroad. Then they started ripping off victories. 2 of 3, then 4 straight, now their current 5 of 7 clip leading them to Bracket Buster. Valpo is 8-6 on the road this season, scoring nearly 4 points below their average (70.3 to 66.5) and giving up about a 1.5 points more (67.8 to 66.4) , but truthfully, you throw out their abomination against Ohio State, and LMU, sorry Paul Westhead, is not Ohio St, and their averages are 68 and 66.9, which changes things a little. Valpo runs about 8 deep, with up to 10 guys getting 8+ minutes – with only 1 senior getting any major minutes. This is a junior laden team with only 2 sophomores getting serious time – which means they are veteran enough to handle road environs, but also that we’re probably going to get to talk about them next year too.. A good shooting team – 48%, good for 16^th in the country, they outrebound their opponents only slightly (+2), and they have a tendency to be slightly careless with the ball (14 turnovers/game), but not to an extent that really stands out. Like most teams playing the next two days – they are smallISH, Van Wijk is 6’8, Broekhoff plays big (8.3 rebs) but stands only 6’7 and really plays a perimeter game offensively.

Meanwhile, LMU goes about 10 deep – led by Oregon transfer Drew Viney , Anthony Ireland and Ashley Hamilton. At home, they are a bit of a different team, 67.9 for and 68.5 against (70.9 and 67.5 overall), and they are a tough team to figure. Started out with a big upset win at UCLA, but did that without scoring star Drew Viney was recovering from foot surgery, as he tried to make it back and kept coming in and out of the lineup, they had some odd results (win v. Saint Louis without Viney, loss at home versus Columbia with him). Then Ashley Hamilton, who had 23 at UCLA, went down, and both players missed losses versus Morgan St & Florida St, now they are at full strength and it has shown, close losses to Gonzaga, a blowout in Provo 9 days before the basketball media world was all on SMC’s jock for doing the same thing. Yes Gonzaga restored some order on Feb 11, but then again, Gonzaga is red hot and no one is saying LMU is the class of the WCC, just a very good team that has gone a bit under the radar. LMU is also a bunch of 6’5 to 6’8 athletes, but I see a clear advantage for Broekhoff on the boards. A 43% shooting team and 35% from 3pt range, they are a good team FT shooting team at 73%. They don’t excel, ranking-wise, in any one stat in particular, but they play a lot of teams tough, just blew out SMC in Moraga and may be starting to come together. Shame the beginning of Viney’s final college season was spent rehabbing foot surgery, but who knows where this LMU team would be if they had more time to gel. The Horizon & WCC aren’t far from each other strength-wise, so that might lead one to think ok, if we’ve got ever conferences and one is the conference leader and the other is 4^th, then go with the conference leader – but I’ll leave this food for thought – between the 2 conferences, only 1 team has a win versus a top 25 RPI team. Who has it? Loyola Marymount.