March Madness 2013: Valparaiso Crusaders are in the NCAA Tournament
By Jason Lisk
We’ll be doing NCAA Tournament profiles for all automatic bid conference winners leading into the NCAA Tournament. See below for previous team profiles.
Conference/Record: Horizon (26-7)
Location: Valparaiso, Indiana
Famous Alums/Attendees: Bryce Drew and Scott Drew (Baylor head coach) both attended Valparaiso, as did sports agent Eugene Parker.
Social Media: @valpoathletics is the Twitter account for Valpo sports.
Random Fun Fact: Bryce Drew, who hit the most famous shot in Valparaiso history (below) while playing for his father, is now the head coach.
Tournament History/Most Recent: In seven prior appearances, Valparaiso is 2-7, with the only two wins coming in 1998. The last appearance was 2004, when they lost to Gonzaga in the first round.
Record against Projected At-Larges/Bubble Teams: 0-2
Good Wins/Bad Losses: Lost three games in the Horizon league. Non-conference losses of note include New Mexico and St. Louis. Best win was at Murray State.
Notable Player(s): Australian born forward Ryan Broekhoff is the star of the team, and hit the key shot that kept the Crusaders alive for a tournament berth in the semifinal against Green Bay.
All-Important Rankings: RPI (59), Ken Pom (67), SevenOvertimes (78).
Outlook/Seed: Valparaiso projects as a 13 seed, and if they get seeded there, it will match 2002 (lost to Kentucky) and 1998 (beat Mississippi). Valparaiso is one of the best shooting teams in the nation, and takes a high percentage of threes, with three different players who have more than 100 attempts, all of whom shoot at least 39% from distance.
[photo via USA Today Sports Images]
Previous Team Profiles:
James Madison
Florida Gulf Coast
Harvard
Liberty
Creighton
Belmont