Valparaiso AD Resigns

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Valparaiso’s goal is a new arena and it was a discussion point with Powell.

https://www.lpheralddispatch.com/sports ... 9a2c7.html

VALPARAISO – As Valparaiso University introduced Roger Powell Jr. as its men’s basketball coach this week, administration also pulled back the curtain just a bit on its plans for a new arena.

“In a couple years, as part of our strategic plan, we’re going to build a new ARC,” VU President Jose Padilla said. “That’s going to be (Powell’s) place. This is his place, but that will really be his place. We’re going to pack the house here, but we’re really going to pack that house.”

[bradley_townie]

Valparaiso’s goal is a new arena and it was a discussion point with Powell.

https://www.lpheralddispatch.com/sports ... 9a2c7.html

VALPARAISO – As Valparaiso University introduced Roger Powell Jr. as its men’s basketball coach this week, administration also pulled back the curtain just a bit on its plans for a new arena.

“In a couple years, as part of our strategic plan, we’re going to build a new ARC,” VU President Jose Padilla said. “That’s going to be (Powell’s) place. This is his place, but that will really be his place. We’re going to pack the house here, but we’re really going to pack that house.”

I'll believe it when I see it. Thought they'd promised to do a bunch of facility upgrades as part of moving to the Valley and that still hasn't really happened.

[BCPanther]

Valparaiso’s goal is a new arena and it was a discussion point with Powell.

https://www.lpheralddispatch.com/sports ... 9a2c7.html

VALPARAISO – As Valparaiso University introduced Roger Powell Jr. as its men’s basketball coach this week, administration also pulled back the curtain just a bit on its plans for a new arena.

“In a couple years, as part of our strategic plan, we’re going to build a new ARC,” VU President Jose Padilla said. “That’s going to be (Powell’s) place. This is his place, but that will really be his place. We’re going to pack the house here, but we’re really going to pack that house.”

I'll believe it when I see it. Thought they'd promised to do a bunch of facility upgrades as part of moving to the Valley and that still hasn't really happened.

Do they even have air conditioning yet or nah?

[ReZyNeZy]

That's not how the timeline went.

Lottich was the head coach a full season before they made the move. Drew left after the 15-16 season. Lottich coached the team that shared the HL regular season, but got beat in the league tournament.

Valpo joined in the 17-18 season, same year Wichita State went to the AAC.

Talks to join the MVC came to VU in late 15 early 16. Drew Left after 15-16. They weren't just going to up and stop the conversations, but they still wished Drew would have elected to stay.

First, you're changing your story. You said that Drew left the same year that Valpo announced it was joining the MVC. He did not, as a matter of fact.

Now you're saying that "talks to join..." were happening in late 2015-early 2016, which is an amorphous statement that's open to interpretation. Sounds like the chatter that comes out during a coaching search to save face. Valpo wasn't being asked to join in 2015 or 2016, regardless. If it were true, Valpo could have given proper notice to the Horizon League and not have had to pay the exit fee settlement.

Valpo had been vetted previously (as had several other schools - due diligence and such) and was a quick fallback because Wichita State moved to the AAC. The WSU stuff was all the chatter during the 2017 NCAA tournament. The WSU exit happened quickly. If you knew anything about Doug Elgin, it's that he loved the 10-team league model for the Valley. He certainly wasn't breaking that for Valpo more than a year before WSU left.

Valpo benefitted from an expedited timeline and because the MVC council believed their administration's promises about upgrades to investment and facilities. They seemed to be a safe, quick add at the time.

For civility's sake, let's assume we're debating semantics and your explanation is a plausible rationale for Valpo's lack of success in the league.

Questions remain:
Why did their AD leave after less than two year on the job?

What has Valpo done in the last decade to improve its program or facilities to the MVC level?

Does Valpo have a viable path for making improvement/investments in its program?

I misspoke when claiming that they announced. For that I apologize, but I agree that they benefited from an expedited process. Joining the MVC would have taken a couple more years or not happened at all, but as far as I know, talks began heating up around the timeline I described.

As for program improvements, we fired lottich, which has been a long time coming, and finally have a president who has been on record for making a commitment to improving the ARC and building a new facility. Valpo has consistently been attempting to improve or replace the ARC for decades now. Ever since "The Shot" in 98 there have been talks, but has fallen on deaf ears as VU didn't want to foot the bill, and the city of Valparaiso didn't want to help fund a facility. The ARC itself was actually designed to be expanded to up to 10k capacity if the need ever came about, but these improvements have not happened and likely never will to the ARC.

One of the prominent examples of plans dying was a company approaching the city about turning the abandoned "Baker's Dome" into a multipurpose event center. These plans died quite quickly.

Valpo does have a viable path in my opinion largely do to a change brought about by Powell himself. Powell is getting into marketing with VU a lot more and Small, while he was there, did so as well. Powell is front and center on social media and has pushed VU to attain better branding and outreach on social platforms. If you were to tweet at Powell, he will likely respond to you directly. Powell is also looking to expand the market of VU past the confines of Valparaiso. Previously, VU had only marketed itself as "Valpo's School" and by extension "Valpo's Team". Valpo actually shares one of the largest markets in the valley with UIC, but previous ADs and coaches have never had that much outreach. The last coach to truly interact with the community was Papa Drew himself. Powell wants to market VU as "The Region (NWI)s School" he does have a path to succeed at this, but he needs help from outside the athletic department to make VU an attractive location to learn. Investments into the Nursing School and additions of "hot market" majors are changes looking to attract people to go to the school. He is already volunteering time in youth centers in the region and you can watch his efforts on VU athletics twitter account. The school is also working with local businesses now. In the era of NIL, this is essential to building a brand.

Someone mentioned the talks and there is an article from TheVictoryBell.com's Paul Oren and an article in the University newspaper outlining plans.

The plan is to Demo the current nursing school on the north side of the football field and build a brand new facility there. The school also has plans to build a practice facility, most likely an inflatable dome, on the west end zone of Brown Field. As of right now the interim AD has claimed they are still committed to improving facilities, but we will have to wait and see. We did just extend Powell's contract. Most likely as a "good faith" measure.

As for the ARC, there are planned renovations to come to the facility this summer, but we will have to see if they are to be made reality. Most likely the renovations to come are chair back seating around the lower deck. We did just renovate the electricals inside last summer.

I do believe the promised improvements to the ARC were going to happen, but VU got hit really hard by covid, and the shuttering of the law program. The school is pulling itself out of the gutter right now.

[MidwestBest]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

[ReZyNeZy]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

Being a Valpo resident, the only guys I saw from NWI go to Dame were Catholics, but this is purely my experiences. Dame doesnt really have that much of a presence anymore in NWI, particularly Lake and Porter Counties. That time difference really is a deterrent from what I've asked people. I rarely see anyone wear Notre Dame merch, put out Notre Dame flags, or lawn ornaments during football season. I think Powell wants a presence in the suburbs, particularly Joliet as that is his home. From his charity efforts and online presence, I would assume he is trying to reach out to Lake and Porter county residents the most. He volunteers at youth centers in Gary from what I've seen.

[Birdfan2018]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

Being a Valpo resident, the only guys I saw from NWI go to Dame were Catholics, but this is purely my experiences. Dame doesnt really have that much of a presence anymore in NWI, particularly Lake and Porter Counties. That time difference really is a deterrent from what I've asked people. I rarely see anyone wear Notre Dame merch, put out Notre Dame flags, or lawn ornaments during football season. I think Powell wants a presence in the suburbs, particularly Joliet as that is his home. From his charity efforts and online presence, I would assume he is trying to reach out to Lake and Porter county residents the most. He volunteers at youth centers in Gary from what I've seen.

I would also add Michigan City to his recruiting zone.

[Milanmiracle]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

As a former resident of Northern Indiana for over 30 years Purdue is as big thing for basketball as anything going in the Region. Many recruits end up as Boilers. The Baby Boilers had 3 Region kids. Scott Marin transferred to Notre Dame. lol. Notre Dame is a distant second and Valpo has very little interest outside of the immediate Valpo area with fans. Some of that stems from the high schools and rivalries as to the lack of foothold. The Region has a conference with 8 very large high schools, with the smallest having 1,500 kids but a gym that holds 7,300+. Even on the Valpo forum they’ll lament when VHS is playing the same night as VU, especially if it’s the IHSAA tournament. There’s still some bias from a very working class region and Valpo being a private religious school.

Early Homer Drew teams embraced Region players and one can say it’s that success as to why Bryce was okay with coming to VU when much bigger better offers were out there. That and playing for Dad. lol. It’s going to be a real struggle to gain any sort of traction in their backyard. Throw in the fact that Micah Shrewsberry has said he’s targeting Indiana kids and the job got that much harder. Former coach Brey targeted the East Coast much more so than his backyard.

[ReZyNeZy]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

As a former resident of Northern Indiana for over 30 years Purdue is as big thing for basketball as anything going in the Region. Many recruits end up as Boilers. The Baby Boilers had 3 Region kids. Scott Marin transferred to Notre Dame. lol. Notre Dame is a distant second and Valpo has very little interest outside of the immediate Valpo area with fans. Some of that stems from the high schools and rivalries as to the lack of foothold. The Region has a conference with 8 very large high schools, with the smallest having 1,500 kids but a gym that holds 7,300+. Even on the Valpo forum they’ll lament when VHS is playing the same night as VU, especially if it’s the IHSAA tournament. There’s still some bias from a very working class region and Valpo being a private religious school.

Early Homer Drew teams embraced Region players and one can say it’s that success as to why Bryce was okay with coming to VU when much bigger better offers were out there. That and playing for Dad. lol. It’s going to be a real struggle to gain any sort of traction in their backyard. Throw in the fact that Micah Shrewsberry has said he’s targeting Indiana kids and the job got that much harder. Former coach Brey targeted the East Coast much more so than his backyard.

You sir have hit it right on the money. Homer Drew years Valpo actually had support from all over the region largely because of your reasons. Ever since Bryce left, Lottich neglected to share anything with the region and even the city. This, alongside a lack of performance on the court, caused the attendance numbers to dwindle. Once Powell took over, he immediately sought to get a better Prescence in the region on social media. Attendance gradually got better as the season went on. Hopefully Powell can fill the shoes of Papa Drew.

Purdue does take a lot of guys from the region. Hummel and Newman to name a few. Only Valpo guy I remember attending The Dame was The Shark.

As for High Schools, its an old adage here that the town cares more about Green and White as opposed to brown and Gold. For football games, VHS is practically sold out every Friday night. VU on the other hand, not so much. You'll see a "We are Valpo" sign outside local businesses, and on almost every street corner. When people will proudly say the motto of the High School, but not care a dime about the D1 college, you know you have a problem with outreach. I'd even go as far to say VHS outsold tickets for their basketball games this year because of Jack Smiley! Powell is looking to pick him up, but it is unlikely he will be able to do so. The Duneland Athletic Conference is a formidable threat in Indiana basketball. Half the gyms in the conference are larger than VU including Valparaiso High School(5100 last i checked. VU only holds 5k). Makes me wish VU would consider hosting a tournament like the Chicago Elite Classic, but with the NCAAs rules on using college venues for events, it is unlikely to ever happen.

People just don't want to watch games in the ARC. There is still no AC and as previously stated, its smaller than high school gyms in the region. Granted some of these schools have gyms on the list of largest in the world, but it should be at least larger than VHS. I've stated on the VU forum that I am of the opinion the school needs to partner with the city/county to build a civic center in NWI, but that's a conversation for another day.

[Campbellproud]

Isn't Northwest Indiana's University Notre Dame?

Is the plan to enter the Chicago Metro and try to lay a claim there? Its super over saturated already with the locale teams regularly striking out on keeping those players at home.

As a former resident of Northern Indiana for over 30 years Purdue is as big thing for basketball as anything going in the Region. Many recruits end up as Boilers. The Baby Boilers had 3 Region kids. Scott Marin transferred to Notre Dame. lol. Notre Dame is a distant second and Valpo has very little interest outside of the immediate Valpo area with fans. Some of that stems from the high schools and rivalries as to the lack of foothold. The Region has a conference with 8 very large high schools, with the smallest having 1,500 kids but a gym that holds 7,300+. Even on the Valpo forum they’ll lament when VHS is playing the same night as VU, especially if it’s the IHSAA tournament. There’s still some bias from a very working class region and Valpo being a private religious school.

Early Homer Drew teams embraced Region players and one can say it’s that success as to why Bryce was okay with coming to VU when much bigger better offers were out there. That and playing for Dad. lol. It’s going to be a real struggle to gain any sort of traction in their backyard. Throw in the fact that Micah Shrewsberry has said he’s targeting Indiana kids and the job got that much harder. Former coach Brey targeted the East Coast much more so than his backyard.

You sir have hit it right on the money. Homer Drew years Valpo actually had support from all over the region largely because of your reasons. Ever since Bryce left, Lottich neglected to share anything with the region and even the city. This, alongside a lack of performance on the court, caused the attendance numbers to dwindle. Once Powell took over, he immediately sought to get a better Prescence in the region on social media. Attendance gradually got better as the season went on. Hopefully Powell can fill the shoes of Papa Drew.

Purdue does take a lot of guys from the region. Hummel and Newman to name a few. Only Valpo guy I remember attending The Dame was The Shark.

As for High Schools, its an old adage here that the town cares more about Green and White as opposed to brown and Gold. For football games, VHS is practically sold out every Friday night. VU on the other hand, not so much. You'll see a "We are Valpo" sign outside local businesses, and on almost every street corner. When people will proudly say the motto of the High School, but not care a dime about the D1 college, you know you have a problem with outreach. I'd even go as far to say VHS outsold tickets for their basketball games this year because of Jack Smiley! Powell is looking to pick him up, but it is unlikely he will be able to do so. The Duneland Athletic Conference is a formidable threat in Indiana basketball. Half the gyms in the conference are larger than VU including Valparaiso High School(5100 last i checked. VU only holds 5k). Makes me wish VU would consider hosting a tournament like the Chicago Elite Classic, but with the NCAAs rules on using college venues for events, it is unlikely to ever happen.

People just don't want to watch games in the ARC. There is still no AC and as previously stated, its smaller than high school gyms in the region. Granted some of these schools have gyms on the list of largest in the world, but it should be at least larger than VHS. I've stated on the VU forum that I am of the opinion the school needs to partner with the city/county to build a civic center in NWI, but that's a conversation for another day.

Valpo’s gym looks like a high school gym. When you compare to new adds like UIC, it’s embarrassing.