WSU - VCU Bracketbuster Game Thread

[im4wsu]

Watched the replay. Anybody saying that last foul call was legit, get the $@#& outta' here. WSU played like crap, with their highly overrated talent, except for Smith and Ragland, and Marshall brought 'em back. His bench time, in and out, for Murry and Williams towards the end was correct and timely (see WSU almost pulled out a miracle when they sjhould have been blown out). He still needs to go Bobby Knight on them, though.. AFTER THE GAME. He should have went Bobby Knight on them vs SIU, too.. AFTER THE GAME.

Go look in the sports section of kansas.com. They got a nice still pic of the 'phantom foul'. Look at Ragland leaning into the VCU player. He's not straight up and down and the pic clearly shows body contact. If this occurred at the 13:47 mark in the first half no one would be bitching or complaining of the foul. It was a foul and why the hell he decided to lean into him is beyond me. The dude was attempting a running push shot, not jump shot, a push shot and Ragland in a moment of brilliance decides to get too aggressive instead of knowing to stay away from the foul and go straight up and down.

How can you even suggest that? There is no way from that angle to be able to see if there is contact between the two. A pic from another 45 and 90 degrees in a counter clockwise direction might show there is or is not daylight between the two bodies, but not even your super-assuming eyes can make that statement from this pic.

[wu_shizzle]

One more thing, this program needs to start having fun and stop being afraid to lose.

Completely agree and I think it starts with Marshall.

Outside of Clevin this is the same team that went undefeated at home last year while adding 2 gamers in JR and BS.

We have talent and experience, Our problem is between the ears.

[another shocker]

Ragland showed very good body control in not hacking that guy.. Smith slapped some nads on him.. and the ref panicked.

[KC Shox]

Watched the replay. Anybody saying that last foul call was legit, get the $@#& outta' here. WSU played like crap, with their highly overrated talent, except for Smith and Ragland, and Marshall brought 'em back. His bench time, in and out, for Murry and Williams towards the end was correct and timely (see WSU almost pulled out a miracle when they sjhould have been blown out). He still needs to go Bobby Knight on them, though.. AFTER THE GAME. He should have went Bobby Knight on them vs SIU, too.. AFTER THE GAME.

Go look in the sports section of kansas.com. They got a nice still pic of the 'phantom foul'. Look at Ragland leaning into the VCU player. He's not straight up and down and the pic clearly shows body contact. If this occurred at the 13:47 mark in the first half no one would be bitching or complaining of the foul. It was a foul and why the hell he decided to lean into him is beyond me. The dude was attempting a running push shot, not jump shot, a push shot and Ragland in a moment of brilliance decides to get too aggressive instead of knowing to stay away from the foul and go straight up and down.

KC, I know you're Mr. Objective. But you need to also realize the other set of facts associated outside the picture you keep bringing up. Did you watch the game? Did you notice how both teams were able to bang and battle? That freeze frame you keep referring to occurred throughout the ENTIRE game and there were bigger muggings than that that was going on that WAS NOT being called. When a game is called loosely during its duration, and then a "slightly off of vertical bump" is called with under 1 second left in the game, that is just plain BAD. Please respond back to this point or go home.

Sometimes you act like Bruce Haertl too much. You're a WSU fan who is literally afraid to give any credit or leniency towards WSU at all WHATSOEVER.

I did watch the game and the foul occurred before the pic. Ragland slapped/made contact with his arm and then bumped him when he jumped which is what the picture shows. Either way, the arm contact before the lean or the lean itself is a foul. I don't care how the game was called in the prior 39 minutes and 56 seconds, a foul is a foul. Was it really necessary for Ragland to jump with the guy? Rodriguez was attempting a running jump shot 10 feet from the basket - that shot had less of a chance going in than ABC paying me a compliment.

I said it before, but you surely had to know that 4.9 seconds was too much time. With this team's inability to stop the dribble drive, it was inevitable that WSU was either going to foul or Rodriguez was going to make the layup uncontested.

Oh sure, I'm thankful that we are not performing like Bradley, and I'm also thankful that Creighton, SIU, Illinois State and Bradley are all down this year which has afforded us a nice road win streak and nice conference record that would otherwise would not be so nice looking in a normal year.

With all this said, the game was not lost in the last 4.9 seconds. This team, yet again, laid a huge goose egg at home and I'm sick and tired of it. I'm sick and tired of reading the news articles after the home losses of players saying they need to be tougher, quicker, smarter, blah, blah, blah and then go out at the next key home game and not demonstrate they learned a damn thing. Talk is cheap plain and simple.

You want me to give credit to a team that knows exactly what their deficiencies are, but get on the court and commit the most asinine turnovers, out of control dribble drives and mental lapses. Give me a freakin break. For all those preaching how experienced this team is and how it will carry this team to the NCAA's, this experienced team acts like a bunch of freshman. Experience my ass!

[SB Shock]

I don't care what that one picture looks like. That foul is never called there, and if it's never called, then it's not a foul.

Probably never is to strong of word, as it was called last night. Wasn't a KU-KSTATE game decided in similiar fashion?



Frankly this really just shows the stupidity of the team and coaches - why? Why would you even be this close to allow the ref to make the call?

[ShockBand]

All the frustration aside, I loved watching up play a team in VCU that played a high-energy up-tempo style for the most part with a very athletic team. I'll take that a 100 times over the usual Valley take-the-air-out-of-the-ball snoozefests.

[another shocker]

SB Shock, KC Shox, et al, get the $#(# outta' here. I just watched it on VIDEO replay again. That picture shows the MAXIMUM amount of contact on that play, which amounted to a grazing of the jersey. Excellent defense, Joe Ragand (and Ben Smith, which that picture, of course, doesn't show)!

[DaShox]

You know what else pi**es me off?

Every radio show or post game interview, a coach or player says "we just have to learn from this and get better". Tell me...what have you learned?Obviously, the players haven't learned a damn thing or the coaches have done a piss poor job of teaching them how to get better.

Or....it's "just something you're supposed to say on the radio or tv". In which case, it's bs. Nobody believes it. Not players. Not the coaches. Not the fans.

[SHOXAAC]

I'm not saying a big guy doesn't emotionally lead an NCAA tournament caliber team, but in general emotional team leadership should come from the guards. They are the players that touch the ball the most and get it where it needs to be when it needs to be there. So it is odd to me after the starting lineups are announced to see JT Durley in the middle of the player-only huddle trying to be the emotional leader. Toure seems to always be the farthest Shocker from the middle. Not only am I concerned about the rest of this year, but next year the "so-called" strength of this team will be the 1-3 positions. Kemba Walker is a leader, Joey Rodriguez is a leader. Where is our leader?

[another shocker]

You guys need to stop bashing on Marshall or we'll end up with another Cohen.

[GoShockers89]

You guys need to stop bashing on Marshall or we'll end up with another Cohen.

You might be careful about blindly defending him or we'll have to learn to be happy with another Hinson.

[ShockBand]

I hope all of Shockernet survives five days of circling the wagons and shooting inward. :P

[SB Shock]

SB Shock, KC Shox, et al, get the $#(# outta' here. I just watched it on VIDEO replay again. That picture shows the MAXIMUM amount of contact on that play, which amounted to a grazing of the jersey. Excellent defense, Joe Ragand (and Ben Smith, which that picture, of course, doesn't show)!

BS. Stupid coaching, stupid defense. Defend it all you want, but this teams has choked away 4 games on it's HOME COURT and pissed off what should have been a promising season.

This team has no toughness, no meanness and coach who continues to get out coached.

[another shocker]

You guys need to stop bashing on Marshall or we'll end up with another Cohen.

You might be careful about blindly defending him or we'll have to learn to be happy with another Hinson.

Don't address me. Is there an ignore function on this board? There should be.

25 wins last year, going on 26 or 27 this year. How'd they do that? Yes, I do believe Marshall will upgrade the talent here- which is exactly what's needed- <- read that again. He's following the same success path as Turgeon here (remember when WSU started 18-3 and finished, like, 4-9 under Turgeon, in '05), another good coach.

[forevershockerfan]

About the only thing that can make us feel better now, is sweeping Creighton by storm. When was the last time we did that? Then, winning the Valley Race through Springfield would be a blast and a Championship. I did not appreciate Mr. Weem's celebration antics here at 21st and Hillside. We have owned the Bears before, and need to do it again.

As far as The Dance, it will take 3 wins at the Lew to Do, even if you have no Clue. That would really pump some sunshine back into our black and yellow veins. 5 very tough wins in a row you say? The experts all agreed the Shox are the best team in the Valley. Now if they were correct, we take down 5 Valley wins, one at a time, and punch our ticket to the Dance?
If not, then we better at least win 3 at the Lew for the first time ever. What if, if, if, if, if? 5-big ifs'. Stay tuned!!!!!!!