2020-21 Men’s Basketball Game Notes Contact: BRANDON VICKREY Office: 219.464.5396 Valpo Sports Media Relations [email protected] www.valpoathletics.com Athletics-Recreation Center 1009 Union Street Valparaiso IN 46383 2020-21 Schedule and Results SIUE (2-3, 0-0 OVC) Date Opponent Time/Result at Valparaiso (1-3, 0-0 MVC) Nov. 27 at Vanderbilt SEC Network L 77-71 Game No. 5 – Wednesday, Dec. 9 – 6 p.m. CT Dec. 1 at UIC! ESPN3 L 66-50 Athletics-Recreation Center (5,000) – Valparaiso, Ind. Dec. 4 at Purdue Big Ten Network L 68-61 Dec. 6 Judson ESPN3 W 85-45 Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valparaiso University men’s basketball Dec. 9 SIUE ESPN3/+ 6 p.m. team will look to make it back-to-back wins on Wednesday evening as SIUE Dec. 12 at Central Michigan! ESPN3 3:30 p.m. Dec. 16 Eastern Michigan ESPN3/+ 7 p.m. makes its way to the Athletics-Recreation Center. Valpo has won four straight Dec. 19 at Toledo ESPN3/+ 1 p.m. home games dating back to last season, all by double figures. In addition, the Dec. 28 Bradley* Brown & Gold will look to top the Cougars for a fourth consecutive season. Dec. 29 Bradley* Jan. 2 at Illinois State* Last Time Out: Freshmen Jacob Ognacevic (20) and Connor Barrett (17) Jan. 3 at Illinios State* made quite the impression in their home debuts, combining for 37 points and Jan. 9 Missouri State* Jan. 10 Missouri State* 12 boards to lift Valpo over Judson 85-45 on Sunday. A third rookie scored Jan. 16 at Southern Illinois* in double figures as Sheldon Edwards chipped in 10, and the freshman class Jan. 17 at Southern Illinois* accounted for 49 of the team’s 85 points (57.6 percent). Barrett drained five Jan. 20 Loyola* 3s in the victory. Jan. 30 at Evansville* Jan. 31 at Evansville* Following Valpo Basketball: Video – ESPN3 – Todd Ickow (play-by-play) Feb. 6 Drake* and Dave Huseman (analyst) Feb. 7 Drake* Feb. 12 at UNI* Radio – WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso) – Garrett Willis (play-by-play) and Feb. 13 at UNI* Jeremy Luebke (analyst) Feb. 17 at Loyola* Twitter updates - @ValpoBasketball Feb. 26 Indiana State* Links for the video, audio and live stats will be available at ValpoAthletics.com. Feb. 27 Indiana State* March 4-7 State MVC Tournament% (St. Louis) Head Coach Matt Lottich: Matt Lottich (74-63) is in his eighth season overall All times Central. at Valpo and fifth as head coach in 2020-21. Just two years removed from Home games in bold and played at finishing in last place and being knocked out in the first round of the Missouri Athletics-Recreation Center. Valley Conference Tournament as a first-year Valley member, Lottich’s team ! – multi-team event did more than hold its own in 2019-2020, ascending into a tie for sixth in the % - 2021 MVC Tournament (St. Louis) league standings before finishing as the conference tournament runner-up. * - indicates Missouri Valley Conference game Valpo became the first team in the history of Arch Madness to reach the title game after playing in the opening round. Lottich, hired as the 22nd head coach of the Valpo men’s basketball program in April 2016, graduated from Stanford University in 2004 and New Trier High School (Illinois) in 2000. Barrett Bullseyes - Connor Barrett knocked down five 3s on Dec. 6 vs. Judson, becoming the first Valpo freshman to do so since Alec Peters on Feb. 22, 2014. Barrett drained five triples in only his fourth collegiate game, while even Peters needed until his fifth game in 2013-14 before his first outing with five or more treys. - Barrett became the first Valpo player to connect on five 3s in a home opener @ValpoBasketball #GoValpo 2020-21 Men’s Basketball Game Notes Contact: BRANDON VICKREY Office: 219.464.5396 Valpo Sports Media Relations [email protected] www.valpoathletics.com Athletics-Recreation Center 1009 Union Street Valparaiso IN 46383 since Darien Walker did so on Nov. 14, 2014 vs. East Tennessee College in 2016-17. State. Before Walker, no Valpo player had knocked in five triples in - Freshman walk-on Tyler Fricke made his collegiate debut and a home opener since Mike Jones hit six against Western Michigan converted a pair of free-throws for his first collegiate points. to start the 1989-90 home slate. - Barrett became the first Valpo player to hit five 3s in one of the Home Sweet Home first four games of his freshman season since Samuel Haanpaa went - Valpo will attempt to start the season 2-0 at home for the 14th 5-of-9 from distance on Nov. 18, 2006 at Niagara. Haanpaa went consecutive season with a win over the Cougars. Since a 65-62 on to finish his career with a 3-point shooting percentage of 44.5, home loss to No. 8 Marquette on Nov. 27, 2006, Valpo is 27-0 in shattering Bryce Drew’s career record. Haanpaa’s mark stood atop the first two home games of the season. the Valpo record book until Ryan Fazekas wrapped up his career at - Valpo has now won the home opener for 16 consecutive seasons 46.1 after last season. with 14 of those victories coming by double figures. The last time Valpo started the home slate with a loss was an 85-71 defeat to Jacob Jumpers Charlotte on Nov. 27, 2004. - Jacob Ognacevic went off for 20 points in the home opener on - Valpo not only owns a four-game home winning streak dating back Dec. 6 vs. Judson. This marks the seventh consecutive year that at to last season, but all four triumphs have come by 12 points or more. least one Valpo player has scored 20+ points in the home opener. - Valpo has won six straight nonconference home games dating back - At 7-of-10 from distance, Ognacevic has the highest 3-point to Dec. 17, 2018 vs. Ball State. percentage by a Valpo player through the first four games of a season - Valpo continued its history of home dominance a year ago and (min. 2 attempts) since Bobby Capobiano went 6-of-8 (.750) over hasn’t finished with a losing mark at the ARC since 1991-92, the first four games of 2013-14. extending its streak to 28 seasons. Valpo achieved a double-figure - Ognacevic has the highest 3-point percentage by a Valpo player home win total for the ninth time in the last 10 years. with 10 attempts or more through the first four games of a season - The Brown & Gold went 11-2 at the ARC last season, finishing with since the advent of the 3-point shot. two home losses or fewer for the fourth time in the last eight years. - This year’s Dec. 6 home opener marked Valpo’s latest since Dec. The Kids Can Play 16, 1977, when head coach Ken Rochlitz’s team notched a 94-87 - For the second straight season, Valpo had a game with three double-overtime win over Carthage. freshmen in double figures. Last year, Ben Krikke (18), Donovan Clay (16) and Sigurd Lorange (11) all did so against Trinity For Starters Christian. Before that, the team hadn’t featured three rookies in - Thanks to the victory over Judson on Dec. 6, Valpo entered the double figures in a single game since Nov. 30, 2013, when Alec win column after its first 0-3 start since dropping the first five games Peters (13), Clay Yeo (11) and Lexus Williams (11) all surpassed of the 2004-05 season. the 10-point threshold vs. Cincinnati Christian. - This marked the first time Valpo started a season with three straight - Freshmen accounted for 49 points, or 57.6 percent of the team’s road games since 1996-97. Coincidentally, that season also began scoring, in the Dec. 6 win over Judson. at Vanderbilt. The 1996-97 campaign culminated with an NCAA - Barrett and Ognacevic both scored 17 points or more in the Dec. Tournament berth. Before that, Valpo hadn’t started with three 6 win over Judson, becoming the first Valpo freshman duo to score straight true road contests since 1933-34. 17+ in the same game in over 20 years. - Valpo had won eight consecutive season openers prior to this year’s season-opening setback at Vanderbilt. However, Valpo had opened Other Notes Wrapping Up Judson (Dec. 6) at home in each of those eight seasons. - Valpo cracked the win column in convincing fashion on Dec. 6 vs. Judson, finishing with a 40-point margin of victory for the first Flashing Depth time since Nov. 6, 2018 vs. Concordia (+56). - Valpo has had four different leading scorers in as many games with - Valpo held the Eagles to 34.6 percent shooting and just 21.1 percent Mileek McMillan (18 at Vanderbilt), Donovan Clay (12 at UIC), (4-of-19) from 3-point distance. It was the first time Valpo held an Nick Robinson (15 at Purdue) and Jacob Ognacevic (20 vs. Judson) opponent under 50 points since the 55-38 win over Southern Illinois each pacing the squad. on Feb. 12 of last season. - This is the third straight season Valpo has had three different leading - Steven Helm dished out a team-high five assists and scored three scorers over the first three games. Valpo started 2018-19 with five points, the first of his collegiate career. That culminated a long leading scorers over the first five contests. journey that included a two-year mission in Japan and a year sitting - A total of 14 players have already seen action over the first four out due to transfer rules after he began his collegiate career at Carroll 2020-21 Men’s Basketball Game Notes Contact: BRANDON VICKREY Office: 219.464.5396 Valpo Sports Media Relations [email protected] www.valpoathletics.com Athletics-Recreation Center 1009 Union Street Valparaiso IN 46383 contests, and 10 of them have participated in all four games.