Next season outlook.....good, bad or indifferent.

[Kung Wu]

:star:

Interesting thread, and quite the difference a year makes. March 2011 Shocker fans are ready to run Marshall out of town with pitchforks, and February 2012 we're chasing after him with the keys to the city.

I think it's safe to say they exceeded expectations. I hope they're making a great NCAA run ... but even if we're out in the first round, it's been a great season from Marshall and the seniors, especially.

Don't be fooled by a couple of posters on here last year. I don't think but a handful were down on HC3GM. There were frustrations with what should have been, but not many were pointing the finger at HC3GM except a couple of the more passionate posters on here in the heat of being looked over once again by the NCAA committee.

[JaminShock]

Agreed. I can easily see next year's team going 12-6 or 13-5 in Valley play.

I was being optimistic compared to some, and I undersold this team by 3-4 wins.*

[Rlh04d]

Don't be fooled by a couple of posters on here last year. I don't think but a handful were down on HC3GM. There were frustrations with what should have been, but not many were pointing the finger at HC3GM except a couple of the more passionate posters on here in the heat of being looked over once again by the NCAA committee.

I was reading through a "When's marshall leaving?" thread as well which might say otherwise :)

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthread.php?10103-When-s-marshall-leaving

I wasn't particularly looking for either, just checking for updates on Matt Braeuer (and glad to see him with that job at Maryland!), and got sidetracked with a few of those pre-NIT threads. Sentiment was pretty negative, though. Although it did seem to get better by the end when some more reasonable people got involved.

I know people get caught up in the heat of the moment. Just interesting how fast things shift from oh-my-god-the-sky-is-falling to this-is-the-greatest-team-in-WSU-history. The high's go with the low's in sports, though. Hope people aren't overly negative if we're a one-and-done in the NCAA tournament. Certainly hope that won't happen, but hey ... according to this thread even Shocker fans were expecting us to be fifth in the Valley. We've crushed expectations even making the tournament. I'm happy with these guys however they do.

[WSUwatcher]

Thanks for resurrecting this one, Rlh. It offers some great perspective on what I've described before as the bipolar nature of our collection of posters.

Bottom line is that just as last year's NIT success came out of nowhere, nobody who posted quite saw this year's performance over the horizon, either (although kudos go to those who mentioned 2005). That's why it's important just to enjoy the ride while it's underway and not distract oneself with speculation about a future we can't imagine. Personally, I expect this season's "next year" to be better than the doubters who made their guesses in another thread (no way WSU's 2012-3 edition, if healthy and intact, plays .500 ball in the Valley). But since I can't be sure, regardless of how confident I might be, I'm just going to savor this one as long as it lasts. Ten games to go.

By the way, that's quite an avatar -- Shocks and Seminoles, and you're in Hawaii? How on earth did that combination come about?

[ShockerFever]

I don't think it's necessarily fair to bump threads from a year ago after a miserably, ugly, and disturbing exit from the Valley Tournament and pin some emotions on people. For instance, a guy like WSUWatcher was no where in this thread last year. He went MIA after the Valley loss. Far easy to point out the flaws of others Watcher, without putting anything out there from yourself. I must've missed your eternal optimism that we were gonna go 25-4 in 2012, the night of the Indiana State loss in St. Louis.

There were some things posters were wrong about (including me). A few were spot-on. Congrats to them with their calls.

I just don't think picking a thread after a brutally bad loss is a fair way of evaluating certain opinions and emotions at the time. Because I still feel that Marshall, IN THAT GAME, was severely out-coached and it happened to be at the wrong time - in the Valley Tournament in a must-win situation.

I think it's safe to say the head man and players have redeemed themselves from that awful night and I'm floored to be where we are at now. And look at Indiana State. Everyone was calling them the 2nd best team in the conference for this year and look where that team is back to? Well, where they belong.

[Rlh04d]

I don't think it's necessarily fair to bump threads from a year ago after a miserably, ugly, and disturbing exit from the Valley Tournament and pin some emotions on people. For instance, a guy like WSUWatcher was no where in this thread last year. He went MIA after the Valley loss. Far easy to point out the flaws of others Watcher, without putting anything out there from yourself. I must've missed your eternal optimism that we were gonna go 25-4 in 2012, the night of the Indiana State loss in St. Louis.

There were some things posters were wrong about (including me). A few were spot-on. Congrats to them with their calls.

I just don't think picking a thread after a brutally bad loss is a fair way of evaluating certain opinions and emotions at the time. Because I still feel that Marshall, IN THAT GAME, was severely out-coached and it happened to be at the wrong time - in the Valley Tournament in a must-win situation.

I think it's safe to say the head man and players have redeemed themselves from that awful night and I'm floored to be where we are at now. And look at Indiana State. Everyone was calling them the 2nd best team in the conference for this year and look where that team is back to? Well, where they belong.

Not entirely fair, maybe. Just interesting to see how fast attitudes change.

It's good to have a little perspective on the tendency of fans to get caught up in the emotions of the moment. I think people's expectations might be too high at the moment, going in the other direction. I think WSU is certainly capable of winning a number of NCAA tournament games ... but they're also capable of being one-and-done. As happy as the former would make me, the latter wouldn't spoil this season for me or make me think less of our players.

[Rlh04d]

By the way, that's quite an avatar -- Shocks and Seminoles, and you're in Hawaii? How on earth did that combination come about?

Military :)

My dad was military, and then I was. So I started out in Wichita, went to college at Florida State, and ended up out here in Hawaii with about six other states thrown in along the way. It's resulted in a complete mess where I cheer for WSU's basketball team, FSU's football team, the Atlanta Braves (because my dad is from Georgia), hell, even the Minnesota Vikings (just because their rookie QB last year was with FSU) ... and will have me moving to Seattle this year, where I'll have to cheer for an even bigger mess of teams, and God help me if I go to grad school at the University of Washington. Luckily the Mariners have been my favorite AL team since the 90s when I lived in Japan, so I can cheer for them without feeling bad. I won't even go into the geographical disaster that my dad's side of the family is. It's a mess. Wichita is still "home" to me, as most of my family still lives there, and as sad as it is, the four years I spent there is the longest I've ever lived in one city.

[AndShock]

Couldn't be more happy to be wrong. I didn't see this type of season coming even a month ago.

[kcshocker11]

:star:

Interesting thread, and quite the difference a year makes. March 2011 Shocker fans are ready to run Marshall out of town with pitchforks, and February 2012 we're chasing after him with the keys to the city.

I think it's safe to say they exceeded expectations. I hope they're making a great NCAA run ... but even if we're out in the first round, it's been a great season from Marshall and the seniors, especially.

I have never gotten the impression that anyone except maybe a couple of fools has ever wanted HCGM to leave. Me thinkest u dreamin this!

[Zardoz]

I thought that this years team was going to be good, but not this good. I under-estimated how good well this group would play as a team. I didn't see how much that Stutz and Ragland would elevate their play. I didn't realize just how good of a coach that 3G was other than the great recruiting classes he was bringing in the way he keeps his team focused an utilizes his bench. I could go on and on, I'm just glad to be on this ride and Marshall said he has his best ever recruiting class coming in next year? We just went from rebuilding to reloading.

[shockmonster]

I don't think it's necessarily fair to bump threads from a year ago after a miserably, ugly, and disturbing exit from the Valley Tournament and pin some emotions on people.

That's why sometimes it's best to cool off and print nothing. Things you say or do on the internet can be used against you the rest of your life. Wait until you run for President. That would be a scary thought wouldn't it?

[BOBB]

I thought this was a thread about 2013. I am enjoying this year tremendously. It will be fun and frustrating to watch a new crop of Shockers develop. Hopefully, they can blossom into the kind of team and representatives of the university these seniors are.

[Kung Wu]

Not entirely fair, maybe. Just interesting to see how fast attitudes change.

It's good to have a little perspective on the tendency of fans to get caught up in the emotions of the moment. I think people's expectations might be too high at the moment, going in the other direction. I think WSU is certainly capable of winning a number of NCAA tournament games ... but they're also capable of being one-and-done. As happy as the former would make me, the latter wouldn't spoil this season for me or make me think less of our players.

This is a more down to earth thread about this years prospects:

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthread.php?10410-The-Shocker-Season-in-retrospect-and-looking-forward&highlight=next+year

[wufan]

I don't think it's necessarily fair to bump threads from a year ago after a miserably, ugly, and disturbing exit from the Valley Tournament and pin some emotions on people. For instance, a guy like WSUWatcher was no where in this thread last year. He went MIA after the Valley loss. Far easy to point out the flaws of others Watcher, without putting anything out there from yourself. I must've missed your eternal optimism that we were gonna go 25-4 in 2012, the night of the Indiana State loss in St. Louis.

There were some things posters were wrong about (including me). A few were spot-on. Congrats to them with their calls.

I just don't think picking a thread after a brutally bad loss is a fair way of evaluating certain opinions and emotions at the time. Because I still feel that Marshall, IN THAT GAME, was severely out-coached and it happened to be at the wrong time - in the Valley Tournament in a must-win situation.

I think it's safe to say the head man and players have redeemed themselves from that awful night and I'm floored to be where we are at now. And look at Indiana State. Everyone was calling them the 2nd best team in the conference for this year and look where that team is back to? Well, where they belong.

Ah, it's not fair? Come on! Is it fair to be so down on a team after a bad loss? It's all good! I was so distraught that I'm pretty sure I wasn't around for a week. That's me though, I try not to ever get too low or too high and I don't post in the predictions threads. Kinda P U S S Y I suppose. Thread was great fun to read! I'm glad it got resurrected.

[wufan]

1. Ragland gets it from day 1.

2. We come up with a good back-up point guard.

3. Stutz averages 14 & 8.

4. EO is productive and averages 12 minutes.

5. Murry re-discovers himself as a 3.

6. Kyles shoots 38 % from 3.

7. Carl Hall starts, rebounds, and is voted newcomer of the year.

8. We get a back-up 4 who contributes immediately.

9. Both the juco kids we add this spring help out.

10. All (ALL) THOSE THINGS GET US BACK TO 22-24 WINS.

Props to @pinstripers for this prophetic nugget!

1. CORRECT
2. CORRECT (See Cotton AND DWill)
3. CORRECT (14.0 and 8.1 as of today)
4. close (8 mpg)
5. CORRECT
6. CORRECT (37.1%, but I'm expecting it to be at 38% before the year ends)
7. Probably not. He started some, rebounded some, and will likely be on the NOY team.
8. CORRECT (Suprisingly it was Hall)
9. wrong (unless you meant "last spring" and were referring to Smith and Ragland).
10. CORRECT, but even your optimism sold us a little short.

Royal was fairly prophetic on page 1 and someone else stopped the pitty-party and said this team might just win the NIT.