Valparaiso limps into Arch Madness

MBB: Beacons suffer another injury in regular-season finale

Valparaiso made it to the end of a disappointing regular season on Saturday night. Now the question is whether or not the Beacons will have enough healthy bodies to start the postseason.

The final game of the regular season was over before it really got started on Saturday as Bradley held Valparaiso to just 13 points in the first half on its way to a 79-55 win at Carver Arena in Peoria. The Beacons did come back and score 42 points in the second half, but it was too little too late.

“Bradley may have the best homecourt advantage in the conference,” Valparaiso coach Matt Lottich said. “They have a rabid fan base and they were into it tonight on Senior Night. With their energy and their pressure, it took us an entire half to get going. We finally got our offensive legs going, but it was just hard for us to get a stop.”

The Beacons (13-17, 6-12) got a boost from getting freshman point guard Preston Ruedinger (ankle) back on Saturday, but they may have lost the services of their other point guard, Darius DeAveiro, for the rest of the season. DeAveiro injured his thumb late in the first half and from the television broadcast it appeared the injury occurred when he stuck his hand out on a drive by Terry Roberts. DeAveiro was noticeably inspecting his hand over the next minute before he checked out of the game with 18 seconds left in the first half, never to return.

“He banged up his hand and his thumb swelled up,” Lottich said. “It looks like he’s got four thumbs right now.”

While Ruedinger returned to the lineup, the Beacons were unable to get Thomas Kithier back in action. Kithier has missed eight of the last 10 games with a back injury, but he appeared close to returning to the court on Saturday. The Michigan State transfer went through morning shootaround and was in uniform during warmups prior to the start of the game. The plug was pulled and Kithier was back in street clothes by the opening tip.

“He warmed it up and he wasn’t quite ready,” Lottich said. “We were anticipating him to play. If he can be out there, he’ll be out there. The thing about Tom is he’s a tough kid. When he says he can’t go, that means he’s hurt.”

Kithier and DeAveiro aren’t the only players sidelined for the Beacons. Starting point guard Trevor Anderson is out for the season with a back injury, Keyondre Young (thumb) has been sidelined since mid-December and Connor Barrett (undisclosed) hasn’t appeared in a game since Jan. 5. All told Valparaiso has racked up 35 games missed by starters due to injury or eligibility issues and another 63 games missed by players who may have made significant contributions this season if not for injury. This list includes Young (22 missed games), Barrett (17) and Emil Freese-Vilien (24).

“The injuries are real,” Lottich said. “It just does not stop.”

Without Kithier on the floor, the Braves (17-13, 11-7) are simply an awful matchup for Valparaiso. Sophomore star Rienk Mast carved up the Beacons with 22 points and 11 rebounds while Ari Boya scored a season-high 13 points to go with five blocks. Bradley outrebounded the Beacons 38-27, scored 36 points in the paint and shot 50 percent for the game.

“(Bradley) is a big physical strong team,” Lottich said. “We’ve got Ben out there who is a four playing as a five. We need some physicality. Trey Woodyard is a huge part of what we’re going to be doing (in the future), but like all freshmen, he lacks some physicality right now. We’re taking our most physical guy (Kithier) out of the lineup and not playing with him. Now, I do credit the guys’ hearts. I think about Ben, I know he got frustrated out there, but that’s because he lays everything out on the line. Emil and Joe (Hedstrom) gave us some good minutes when they were out there.

“We really have to try and get healthy and we’re running out of time to do it.”

Beacon Bits

• Kevion Taylor and Kobe King each had 16 points to lead Valparaiso in scoring. Taylor drew eight fouls on Saturday, yet only ended up at the free throw line for two attempts.

• The bracket for Arch Madness is set and things didn’t break in the right way for Valparaiso on Saturday. The day opened with the No. 2 seed wide open. Any of the top four teams (Loyola, Northern Iowa, Drake, Missouri State) had scenarios in which they would’ve ended up facing the winner of No. 7 Valparaiso and No. 10 Evansville. When looking back at the regular season contests, the Beacons matched up well with the Ramblers, Panthers and Bulldogs, but lost by an average of 17.5 points in two meetings with the Bears. Guess who ended up with the No. 2 seed? Hello, Donovan Clay and friends.

• Looking ahead to Friday is putting the cart before the horse, especially when you consider two factors. The first is Valparaiso has some history with Evansville on Thursday night in St. Louis. Everyone remembers John Kiser’s pass to Eron Gordon to beat Loyola on Friday and then remembers Javon Freeman-Liberty’s dominant performance against Missouri State on Saturday during the 2020 run to the title game. What people might not remember is Valparaiso nearly lost to an Evansville squad that went winless in conference on Thursday night. Valpo needed a late block from Clay to secure the victory. The second factor is Evansville scored 79 points in an inspired effort against the Bears on Saturday. Consider the Purple Aces as members of the “nobody wants to play them in March” club.

• I want to touch on something here, and I’m sure I’ll catch some holy hell from a section of the Valparaiso fan base that wants to pour gasoline on the program and burn it straight to the ground. The holy hell I’m talking about is the word excuse. In my above story, I mentioned the amount of games that starters have been unavailable this season. I know that some of you view any discussion of injuries and their impact as an excuse. When Matt Lottich, or really any coach, bring up injuries, there are people who scream into their pillows (or scream on the internet for that matter). Look, injuries, and their impact, are real; and I’m not just saying it because Lottich is quoted as saying it a few paragraphs above. In my heart of hearts, I believe this basketball team had the chance to be pretty good this year. It wasn’t. At least according to the record and the standings and the seeding and a handful of other metrics. Now, why was that? Well, there are probably a lot of answers to that question and I’m sure we’ll spend the days, weeks and months after the season searching for those answers. But when the final book is written on this season, the role that injuries played has to be at least a chapter. Krikke’s ankle. Kithier’s COVID issue and then his back. Anderson’s back. Barrett’s disappearance. Throw in King’s eligibility issue, Ruedinger sitting for the first 11 games, Young sitting, then playing, then getting hurt. Did this group ever really have a chance to grow together without dodging one malady or another? If Valparaiso suddenly gets hot and makes a run in Arch Madness again, does it make all the pain of this season worth it?

• Phew, that was some diatribe I went on. (I really do love writing on this platform). What spawned my thinking about the word excuse was on Saturday night when I texted a group of friends that Valpo went 1-11 against the top six teams in the Valley, but that one win was against the conference champs (Northern Iowa). The response I got was “they were without their best player.” For those that don’t remember, A.J. Green didn’t make the trip to Valpo due to COVID protocols and the Beacons won in overtime. Is mentioning Green not being there an excuse, or a fact? I view it as a fact. But if someone can point out that UNI losing to Valpo was perhaps a fluke because Green was out, then can’t we also point out that Valpo lost a handful of games in which it wasn’t at full strength. Facts, not feelings, I suppose. I guess this is why we love sports, because we can debate things that are probably unanswerable questions.

• I’ll end with a good note here. Classy move by both Brian Wardle and Matt Lottich in the closing moments of Saturday’s game. Bradley’s Ja’Shon Henry is one of the good guys in the Valley. He was on the Most Improved team in 2019-20, the All-Bench team last yearn and he’s been a two-time MVC Scholar Athlete. He’s also been dealing with a concussion that is likely going to end his playing career. Henry has been out of action since Jan. 16. With 20 seconds left on Saturday, Wardle walked down toward Lottich and said he wanted to use a timeout to get Henry in the game. Wardle made sure Lottich knew what was happening before he signaled for the timeout. Lottich then instructed Woodyard to foul Henry as to give him a chance to shoot a free throw. Valpo still had several fouls to give, so Wardle chose to sub Henry back out of the game to a large standing ovation. Kudos to Wardle for giving Henry a moment in the sun and kudos to Lottich for setting aside the emotion of a tough loss in the final moments to assist in giving Henry a memorable sendoff.

• Arch Madness is here and I’ll be in St. Louis all weekend bringing you the action. I’m looking forward to sharing a few stories leading up to Thursday’s action. A reminder that while game coverage is free, the real good stuff costs just a little bit of money. $5/month or $49.99 for the entire year gets you a ticket to happiness. Don’t believe me? Sign up and find out.