CRUSADER GAME NOTES Toledo at Valparaiso Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 2 p.m. Men’s Basketball Contact: Aaron Leavitt [email protected] 219.464.6953 (phone) * 219.464.5762 (fax) 1009 Union Street * Valparaiso, IN * 46383 www.valpoathletics.com The Matchup: Valparaiso plays on its home court for just the 2009-2010 CRUSADER SCHEDULE second time during the regular season, returning to the ARC to DATE OPPONENT TIME RESULT take on Toledo in a Saturday afternoon matinee. The game is the Nov. 1 Indianapolis ! 4 p.m. L 88-83 first of two straight home contests for the Crusaders. Nov. 13 at Ball State 6 p.m. L 88-78 Nov. 15 at #6/4 North Carolina 3 p.m. L 88-77 Nov. 19 IU-South Bend 7:05 p.m. W 78-56 Last Time Out: Valparaiso fell behind 22-3 just over seven min- Nov. 22 at #2/2 Michigan State # 11 a.m. L 90-60 utes into the game, a deficit it could not overcome, as #5/5 Purdue Nov. 27 at Georgia Southern # 6:30 p.m. W 97-89 went on to an 86-62 victory over the Crusaders Wednesday Nov. 28 vs. Troy # 2 p.m. L 80-64 evening in West Lafayette, Ind. Valpo would get no closer than Nov. 29 vs. Arkansas-Fort Smith # noon W 86-74 Dec. 5 at #23/20 Butler * 6 p.m. L 84-67 14 points after the game’s opening run. Brandon Wood led the Dec. 9 at #5/5 Purdue 6 p.m. L 86-62 Crusaders with 21 points, coming off the bench for the first time Dec. 12 Toledo 2 p.m. in his Crusader career, and added a game-high nine rebounds as Dec. 19 Concordia (Wis.) 7:05 p.m. well. Cory Johnson chipped in 11 points and also came up with Dec. 22 at IPFW 6 p.m. a career-best five steals on the defensive side of the ball. Dec. 27 at Akron 1 p.m. Dec. 31 Milwaukee * 7:05 p.m. Jan. 2 Green Bay * 7:05 p.m. Series History: Toledo holds a narrow 5-4 edge in the all-time Jan. 8 at Detroit * 6 p.m. series over Valpo, a series which dates back to the 1946-47 sea- Jan. 10 at Wright State * 3 p.m. son. In the two teams’ last meeting, Valpo connected on better Jan. 14 Youngstown State * 7:05 p.m. than 70% of its first half shots en route to a 23-point halftime Jan. 16 Cleveland State * 1 p.m. Jan. 21 at UIC * 7 p.m. lead and cruised to an 84-65 victory over Toledo in both teams’ Jan. 23 at Loyola * 3 p.m. final game at the Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Hawai’i on Nov. Jan. 29 at Milwaukee * 7 p.m. 26, 1995. Four Crusader starters finished in double figures in Jan. 31 at Green Bay * 1 p.m. the scoring column, led by a game-high 20 points by Chris Feb. 4 Wright State * 7:05 p.m. Ensminger, who also led all players with ten rebounds as Valpo Feb. 6 Detroit * 1 p.m. Feb. 8 UIC * 7:05 p.m. outrebounded Toledo, 35-20. Bryce Drew chipped in 15 points Feb. 11 at Cleveland State * 6 p.m. and a game-best six assists. Feb. 13 at Youngstown State * 6:05 p.m. Feb. 17 Loyola * 7:05 p.m. Following the Crusaders: Saturday’s game will be televised live Feb. 20 at TBA (BracketBusters) TBA on Lakeshore Public Television and can be picked up nationwide Feb. 26 Butler * 8 p.m. Mar. 2-9 at Horizon League Championships on the ESPN Full Court package with Dick Harlan and Joe All times Central. Arredondo on the call. As always, the contest can also be heard Home games in bold and played at Athletics-Recreation Center. live on the Valpo Sports Radio Network (WAKE, 1500 AM, Val- ! - indicates exhibition game paraiso; WEFM, 95.9 FM, Michigan City). Veteran broadcaster # - at Legends Classic (Campus sites/Statesboro, Ga.) Todd Ickow returns for his 19th season on play-by-play for the * - indicates Horizon League game Crusaders, while Valpo alumnus Andy Viano will handle the color commentary. WVUR, Valpo’s student station, will also be broad- casting the game over its airwaves. Links for the VSRN audio 2009-2010 CRUSADER ROSTER and video through the Horizon League Network, as well as live # Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Yr. Hometown/High School [Prev. School] statistics, can be found at www.valpoathletics.com. 1 Michael Rogers G 6’6" 215 Jr. Kingston, Jamaica/Redemption [N.Y.] Christian 3 Hrvoje Vucic C 7’1” 220 Fr. Split, Croatia/Faust Vrancic 4 Cory Johnson F 6’7” 225 R-Jr. Duluth, Minn./Duluth East (Iowa State) 5 Cameron Witt F 6’9” 215 So. Launceston, Tasmania, Australia/Launceston SPORTS MEDIA RELATIONS 10 Brandon McPherson G 6’1" 210 R-Sr. Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North 11 Nick Shelton G 5’11” 150 So. Frankenmuth, Mich./Frankenmuth Requests to cover home games should be made through 14 Howard Little G 6’3” 205 Jr. Chicago, Ill./Stoneridge [Calif.] School Aaron Leavitt, Associate Director of Sports Media Relations, 15 Erik Buggs G 5’10” 155 So. Memphis, Tenn./Mitchell by contacting 219-464-6953. Seating is available courtside at 20 Tommy Kurth G 6’1” 175 Fr. Osceola, Ind./Penn 23 Matt Kenney G 6’3” 205 Fr. Mooresville, Ind./Mooresville the ARC for working media. Media guides, game notes and 32 Brandon Wood G 6’2” 190 R-So. Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo (Highland C.C./Southern Ill.) statistics from both schools will be available to working media. 33 Chris Halvorsen F 6’8” 190 Fr. St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley During the week, all player and coach interview requests 42 Milos Milosevic F 6’7” 235 So. Bar, Montenegro/Oakmont [Calif.] H.S. (Yuba College) should be directed to Aaron Leavitt. Media planning to attend 45 Ryan Broekhoff G 6’6” 185 Fr. Frankston, Victoria, Australia/Australian Institute of Sport Head Coach: Homer Drew (William Jewell ‘66) - 21st season practice should call ahead to Leavitt to confirm practice time. Associate Head Coach: Bryce Drew (Valparaiso ‘98) - 5th season Game-day interviews prior to the match are not permitted. Assistant Coaches: Luke Gore (Bethel [Tenn.] ‘01) - 8th season; Coach Drew and requested players, as well as requested visiting rd Chris Sparks (Valparaiso ‘00) - 3 season personnel, will be available following the game. Student Assistant: Jake Diebler (Valparaiso ‘09) - 1st season Graduate Assistant: Dan Hartfield (Green Bay ‘09) - 1st season CRUSADER GAME NOTES Toledo at Valparaiso Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 2 p.m. Men’s Basketball Contact: Aaron Leavitt [email protected] 219.464.6953 (phone) * 219.464.5762 (fax) 1009 Union Street * Valparaiso, IN * 46383 www.valpoathletics.com Home Cooking: A return home to the Athletics-Recreation Center HORIZON LEAGUE should help the Crusaders fill up the win column, based on past perfor- HORIZON LEAGUE STANDINGS (as of Dec. 11) mance. Today’s game, the first of back-to-back home contests, is Valpo’s STATISTICS (as of Dec. 11) first at the ARC since the Crusaders’ win in the home opener against TEAM HL OVR SCORING PPG IUSB. That victory improved Valpo’s home mark since the start of the Detroit 2-0 6-3 1. Brandon Wood - Valpo 21.0 Green Bay 2-0 9-2 1993-1994 campaign to 171-37, an .822 winning percentage. Valpo has 2. Rahmon Fletcher - UWGB 17.3 Wright State 2-0 6-2 also finished above .500 in each of the last 16 seasons at home. 3. Todd Brown - WSU 16.8 Butler 1-0 6-3 4. Gordon Hayward - Butler 16.1 Loyola 1-1 5-2 Ranked vs. Unranked Comparison: Valpo has played four of its first 5. Norris Cole - CSU 15.6 Milwaukee 1-1 6-4 nine games against top-25 competition, making for an interesting com- Valparaiso 0-1 3-6 REBOUNDING RPG Cleveland State 0-2 3-6 parison of the Crusaders’ numbers in those games versus stats from 1. Andy Polka - Loyola 9.4 UIC 0-2 1-5 games against unranked teams. Offensively, the Crusaders are hitting 2. Gordon Hayward - Butler 8.2 Youngstown State 0-2 3-5 7% more of their field goal attempts (.491-.421) and 5.5% more from 3. Randy Berry - UWGB 7.4 SCHEDULE behind the arc (.392-.337) against unranked teams. On the glass, Valpo 4. James Eayrs - UWM 6.9 is outrebounding unranked foes 33.2-33.0, but trails in the category 5. K.C. Robbins - UIC 6.7 Saturday, December 12 against ranked teams 34.2-25.5. Defensively, the most glaring com- ASSISTS APG Ohio State at Butler, 11 a.m. parison comes in the number of turnovers forced, as the Crusaders Wilberforce at Cleveland State, 1 p.m. 1. Courtney Stanley - Loyola 5.1 Toledo at Valparaiso, 2 p.m. have forced 16.2 turnovers/game against unranked foes and just 11.8/ 2. Bryquis Perine - UWGB 4.9 San Francisco at Loyola, 3 p.m. game versus ranked teams. Full stat breakdowns by ranked/unranked 3. Woody Payne - Detroit 3.6 Milwaukee at North Dakota State, 7 p.m. are available later in the notes. 4. N’Gai Evans - WSU 3.4 5. Four tied at 3.3 Sunday, December 13 Division I Scoring Record: Since Valparaiso made its move to the FIELD GOAL PCT.