SUNDAY SPECIAL

VALPARAISO | When Urule Igbavboa receives a pass in the post, he is overloaded with options.

Drive. Drive and dish. Turn and shoot. Kick it out. Complicating Igbavboa's split-second decision are a number of variables. His proximity to the basket. The defense he is facing. How much attention he is being paid.

It's a lot to think about. So Igbavboa tries not to.

"Basketball's not much of a thinking game," said Igbavboa, a junior forward for Valparaiso University. "It's all instinct, and when the instinct takes over, that's when you're at your best."

If Igbavboa wasn't at his best earlier this season, it's because he was thinking too much. Mostly, he was thinking about how to trim his turnovers. Igbavboa was so concerned, so preoccupied, with not turning the ball over, it was affecting other aspects of his game, namely his aggressiveness.

"I felt like I was playing passive in the beginning of the year," Igbavboa said. "When you start thinking about something you don't want to do, it tends to happen more. I've started to not think about it as much and just play."

That strategy has paid dividends of late. Igbavboa has two double-doubles in his past four games and is heading into the Horizon League Tournament with plenty of confidence.

"Right now I think I'm playing my best basketball," Igbavboa said.

Igbavboa's stats (10.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 52.7 field goal percentage, 59.2 free throw percentage, two double-doubles) still aren't quite what they were last year (11.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 56.3 field goal percentage, 66.1 free throw percentage, 10 double-doubles). But there's good reason for that.

Not only is Igbavboa sharing more of his minutes with freshman forward Bryan Bouchie, he's also facing bigger, more athletic forwards in the Horizon than he did in the Mid-Continent (now the Summit League). As a second-year starter, Igbavboa has also been a marked man.

"Every team out there scouts," Igbavboa said. "When you don't play your freshman year and you start your sophomore year, a lot of people don't have much on you. They don't know your game. This year I had to fight a little bit harder."

Igbavboa has gotten used to opposing guards slanting down when he catches in the post, trying to force him to kick it out.

"I had to fight through it," Igbavboa said. "It was hard, but I think it made me better."

For all the attention, Igbavboa still leads the Crusaders in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, total rebounds and field goal percentage. But perhaps the greatest indication of his value: When he is on the court, the Crusaders have scored 108 more points than their opposition. That's the best plus-minus figure on the team.

"He's so vital for us," junior guard Jake Diebler said. "He allows all of us to get good looks on the outside because he demands so much attention inside. And his rebounding speaks for itself. A lot of times he's undersized inside, but especially the last few weeks he's really been playing with some tenacity."