WSU at K-State (Apr 18, May 2)

[WstateU]

[Shockerman]

Fun game to watch.

Wish we’d score more.

Say what you want about this team, but it’s pretty easily the most interesting Shocker team in a decade. That probably says more about the last 10 years than this team, but still. Been fun to watch the last month.

Absolutely! A couple of Butler's teams pulled me in but those were short lived as the team would promptly get derailed. We seem to finally have some staying power and are playing meaningful baseball in May again. It's awesome.

[WuDrWu]

Really proud of the staff and players last night. Very good opponent, good crowd, beautiful evening and both teams played winning baseball. 6 guys who mostly are still trying to prove themselves worthy of confidence from the coaches combined to hold an excellent hitting Wildcat team to 5 singles and no runs. I am mostly a guy who likes his teams to talk with their actions and keep quiet otherwise, but I liked Jace and Snead getting fired up last night. I like the fight.

Certainly could have hit better but KState wanted to win too. And they're coming off a weekend where they beat ranked Texas Tech 2 of 3.

These young men have played well at times and poorly at times, but more good than bad overall. The ECU weekend was probably outside standard deviation of good, but it's hard to pick a lot of games they should have lost. There were some they could have lost (last night being one) but other than OU downtown, it's hard to point to a game where, once played, you can say "we should have lost that game". But the other side is there are several games they should have won (after the game was played).

Ten games over .500, 4-1 against Q1 teams (if OU wins their series this weekend it will be 6-2) and 6-4 vs ELO Q1. They are fun to watch, they compete, they are easy to support and they're doing it the right way. And they're still in first in their conference (top 7 in the country that is going to be higher, perhaps a lot higher than 7 next season) in early May.

They are not where anyone wants them to be, but they are heading in the right direction for the first time in a long time. I hope they can stay healthy because I don't think they've played their best baseball yet.

Keeping my fingers crossed that Kyte is ok.

And while our weekend staff has stayed mostly healthy, it's not like we haven't been bit hard by the injury bug.

We lost our starting SS in game 1 for more than 2 weeks. We lost our starting 3B for more than a month. Tolle has been banged up. Our returning all conference pitcher was hurt in the fall and basically we've got nothing from him. How many teams could survive losing their Friday guy? Our most talented FR hasn't gotten to throw a pitch. Now our starting CF is hurt on a freak play warming up.

And we're 27-17 and in 1st place.


Beat Houston.

[Shockm]

On the road at Houston will be HUGE.

[ShockerExpress]

Probably doesn’t belong in this thread, but I see Shane Dennis and a Stephenson publicly supporting dropping the interim tag for the staff.

Seems like this is better than IB 2.0. But there are at least some similarities.

[Shoxing Me Softly]

Probably doesn’t belong in this thread, but I see Shane Dennis and a Stephenson publicly supporting dropping the interim tag for the staff.

Seems like this is better than IB 2.0. But there are at least some similarities.

I agree except 2 main differences.

1. Hibbs has been a D1 head coach before.
2. This isn’t a covid season resulting in missed conference games or games against opponents missing players.

[SHOCKvalue]

Tough to pin Hibbs. Was a coveted assistant to a college baseball powerhouse (at the time), then a long-term, above-average at best HC for a middling program in a middling conference (chicken or egg?), and now doing damn well back at a school that still has a good bit of advantages, but with a very low sample size.

He's more than IB 2.0, but hard to come up with better corollary.

[Shockm]

We have no idea how happy Hibbs and his wife are, or how long they want this job. Do they want to make a move back to the SE, where they have kids and who will possibly have families in the future?

[WuDrWu]

We have no idea how happy Hibbs and his wife are, or how long they want this job. Do they want to make a move back to the SE, where they have kids and who will possibly have families in the future?

Scooter has family here and just celebrated his mom's BD (saw a pic on Twitter). I have yet to be at a WSU sporting event (basketball, event, etc) where Scooter isn't in attendance. There's no doubt in my mind he's bought in and doing everything he can to be the best for the entire program. I know a daughter is back here. I'm convinced Scooter wants this job if for no other reason than how much he's embraced it, as much as any coach at WSU.

[Kung Wu]

Scooter has family here and just celebrated his mom's BD (saw a pic on Twitter). I have yet to be at a WSU sporting event (basketball, event, etc) where Scooter isn't in attendance. There's no doubt in my mind he's bought in and doing everything he can to be the best for the entire program. I know a daughter is back here. I'm convinced Scooter wants this job if for no other reason than how much he's embraced it, as much as any coach at WSU.

Well then ... seems like the keys should be his for a bit, doesn't it? Assuming Hibbs+Pelfrey can continue to recruit like Wedge+Pelfrey did, we should continue to be on the rise?

[WuDrWu]

Something has to be said for the manner in which this program is conducting it's business. We lost our coach in November, and didn't lose a single player. Not one. And I think we've lost like 1 recruit (at least for fall '23). Nobody left. Nobody bailed ship. In 2022-2023. That has to say something about the staff and their leadership qualities.

We have to be honest, the '22 class was all Siriani and Pelf. And so far the returns are solid. Jack Little has been really good and getting better every day. McDonald, Herring, Mo and Pennington more than plugged gaps. Snead is a stud. Henry will be a stud and Mullhollon will eventually help us a lot and likely would have this year had he not gotten hurt. Gustafason has a mile of upside. There are at least 4 all conference type (this year or future) in that group and at least 9 that belong on high winning teams.

'23 could be better, could be a lot better. The class is littered with PG9s and 10s.

[Kung Wu]

Something has to be said for the manner in which this program is conducting it's business. We lost our coach in November, and didn't lose a single player. Not one. And I think we've lost like 1 recruit (at least for fall '23). Nobody left. Nobody bailed ship. In 2022-2023. That has to say something about the staff and their leadership qualities.

Jace Kaminska? Or did he bolt before losing the coach?

'23 could be better, could be a lot better. The class is littered with PG9s and 10s.

We're loading up on handsome Point Guards?!? YES!!!!

[WuDrWu]

Jace left over the summer. I was referring to the timeline in the fall and over winter break when we were basically without a coach for 2 months. Guys could have transferred at semester, easily.

But they all stayed. No doubt some players off this team will leave once the season is over, for different reasons I'm sure, but to have no one leave after that fiasco, I think it says something.


I think they're bringing in a Utility guy from overseas that played on the Mumbai U-17 travel cricket team. Big time hitter.

[Kung Wu]

Jace left over the summer. I was referring to the timeline in the fall and over winter break when we were basically without a coach for 2 months. Guys could have transferred at semester, easily.

But they all stayed. No doubt some players off this team will leave once the season is over, for different reasons I'm sure, but to have no one leave after that fiasco, I think it says something.


I think they're bringing in a Utility guy from overseas that played on the Mumbai U-17 travel cricket team. Big time hitter.

5'3" but he can knock a croquet ball 200 ft!!

[Shockm]