Official Wichita State vs College of Charleston Game Thread

[Dan]

We are incredibly spoiled when a freshman that averaged 1 TO every 22 minutes of game action is described as could “use some improvement with the handles.”

Not everything is quantifiable by the box score. Austin is smart enough to get out of a sticky situations without turning it over most of the time, but he can get shaky in high pressure situations. FVV, CF, RB and LS are elite in this regard.

[wufan]

Not everything is quantifiable by the box score. Austin is smart enough to get out of a sticky situations without turning it over most of the time, but he can get shaky in high pressure situations. FVV, CF, RB and LS are elite in this regard.

As I said, we are incredibly spoiled. Our guys aren’t flawless, but the opponents have to dig pretty deep to find them.

Create 1 TO a game by double teaming Austin. Create one more missed basket by forcing Willis to use his right hand. Get Landry in foul trouble. Not a lot to work with on the scouting report.

[Shaqness]

I'll chime in with some positives and important takeaways.

Shaq, Nurger, Kelly, Conner, and playing at a high level.
Jones, WIllis are playing well, but both are not where we'd like.
Reaves, Brown, Shamet are all playing significantly worse than expectation.
MItgaard is painful to watch and I hope he likes riding pine all season.

But this is just one game.

[1972Shocker]

Reaves, Brown, Shamet are all playing significantly worse than expectation.

I wonder if your expectations for Landry and Austin aren't a bit high. They are both coming off of surgeries. Landry just a short time ago. Ausitn pretty much could do nothing in the past off season and then when he did get cleared he apparently had to deal with a bout of mono that limited him. They are both actually playing above my expectations for where I thought they might be at this point.

Now is that level below where I think they will be a month from now. Yes it is. So perhaps it's the expectations that are the issue and not the level of play. Not that my expectations are the gold standard by any means.

[Shaqness]

Could be. They both are still shaking of the rust, true. With that said, the off-season is over, and it's time to play. I expect Landry to a NBA draft pick. I expect Reaves to play about like he did last year in March.

[wufan]

Reaves was not great in March. He scored 9 points in 7 games. Sorry. I have to disagree with most of your take.

[Shaqness]

Feel free to disagree. Reaves played valuable minutes and played well. Sure the score maybe isn't what you like, but he played well. And there were only 5 games in March, too.

[Dan]

I’m fine with where everyone is right now. Landry is slowly getting back into it, which is what we hoped for. Initially they were hoping to have him back by Maui, so he’s really ahead of schedule.

[Aargh]

Good grief! We were hoping Shamet would be cleared for full contact by now. He's already played in 2 games and some out here are saying he's not playing up to expectations? The expectation was that he wouldn't be walking with a limp by mid-November. I think he's progressed WAY PAST expectations. Will he be 100% for Maui. No.

Can we win Maui with Shamet at 70-80% and McDuffie in street clothes? We're going to need some production from the front court. We'd probably need something like 17 points from Morris, 16 or 17 from Willis and 12 or 13 from Nurger. That's what those guys are averaging. Then we'd really need our guards to hit some 3's. Shamet is at 62.5%, Reaves is at 50%, and Frankamp is at 37.5%.

Then there's criticism of Reaves for his "disappointing" play. For all practical purposes, Reaves was in bed sick one day and on the court in a game the next day. That after 6 months of not using his right arm. And people are disappointed with his play? Reaves had mono. The same illness Nurger had the year he lost 20 pounds and hardly played at all.

To make some posters happy, we'd probably have to be winning games by 100 points or more.

[wufan]

Thank you Aargh! I’m all for discussions of players success and where they can improve, but you have to REALLY try hard to find fault with this team two games in. I will probably avoid the board if we win by single digits someday, or god forbid lose one.

[WheatShock]

I'll chime in with some positives and important takeaways.

Shaq, Nurger, Kelly, Conner, and playing at a high level.
Jones, WIllis are playing well, but both are not where we'd like.
Reaves, Brown, Shamet are all playing significantly worse than expectation.
MItgaard is painful to watch and I hope he likes riding pine all season.

But this is just one game.

He is also a FRESHMAN, he'll have his ups and downs. Did you really expect him to be beating out Shaq or Rauno for playing time.

Honestly he has looked pretty good for a big guy playing in his 1st few D1 games. I'm sure he'll continue to see limited minutes when WSU has comfortable leads to prepare him for the future.