Wichita State vs Oklahoma Game Thread

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

8-2 without MM is better than I was expecting.

There's some annoying habits this team has that troubles me, like falling behind and having to mount huge comebacks or playing flat and uninspired in the first half.

The '13 final four team lost to Evansville twice, had to overcome a huge deficit to Southern Miss at IBA, and had long stretches of inept offense. It was missing its best player for a ton of games too. We're gonna be fine.

[Rlh04d]

Oh and the Marshall-AM thing. TERRIBLE look. We all know Marshall is a passionate guy, especially in games, but that's twice in 3 games where he did something rather disturbing on the sidelines. Being passionate isn't an excuse for what he did to AM yesterday. Again, I love his passion and it usually is a positive for the team. But he needs to rewatch these things and look himself in the mirror and see if that's how he wants to portray himself. I mean both incidents occurred at the expense of friendly fire.

This.

Also, given that in the SDSU game, Marshall barreled through one of the players, for him to have a meltdown because the kid accidentally bumped him is incredibly hypocritical.

I love Marshall's competitive intensity, but I'm not okay with the way he's conducted himself in the last few games. He's been given a lot of **** for his personality by people outside the program, but I've never seen him treat his players poorly before. Critical of their play, sure, but not eviscerating a kid because he's frustrated.

I don't know if there's something going on his life outside of basketball right now, but I don't want him going down the Bobby Knight path.

EDIT:

“I’m 16 weeks post-shoulder surgery and I’m walking out, giving some low-fives and high-fives and Asbjorn Midtgaard runs into me and just crushes my shoulder,” Marshall said. “I was mad at a lot of things, but I was really mad at that because he could have hurt my shoulder. He’s so big and so strong. It was just one of those days.”

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article190196504.html

That makes complete sense in a vacuum. Still worrisome in context with recent games.

[ShockingButTrue]

Agree completely. Everyone shares blame for yesterday's performance, starting at the top and all the way down to the waterboy.

[Kung Wu]

I was crushed. I thought yesterday was going to be a day made just for me.

I woke up with tickets for my family to see Star Wars at 11:30, and we timed it so that we could go straight from Star Wars to watching the Shockers beat yet another Big 12 team.

After Star Wars I thought to myself, "My gosh, if the Shockers win, this day in history couldn't get any better -- it's custom made for me. Well, the only thing that could top a new Star Wars movie plus the Shockers winning another high level game is my wife gets so excited from the victory that I come home tonight and find my wife nude, waiting for me in bed, slathered in BBQ sauce."

But then two freshmen that didn't realize that they are too inexperienced to beat the Shox started jacking up 3's, some from 6 feet beyond the arc. And some evil black-hole like force vacuumed one right after the other right into the freakin' hoop with laser guided precision crushing my very spirit.

Curse you Trae Young. I hate you more than Kemba Walker. Kemba Walker did it with refs bailing him out. But you .. you ... you ... you must have sold your soul to the Devil himself for that skillset -- that's the only explanation.

I didn't get my victory.

And I didn't get my BBQ sauce.

[CBB_Fan]

They were only 13-40 which is NOT great three point shooting while we
were 6-24.

That is not the way to look at 3PT defense. Once a quality look is in the air, the defense has already failed to guard the 3. OU got 40, 4-0 quality looks from beyond the arc. That's more quality shots than we sometimes get in a game, and a stat that means OU could have easily gotten 5-7 more 3s to fall (15-21 more points on the scoring margin). A defense can do very little to effect 3pt percentage.

[Shocker-maniac]

I wish people would quit blaming the waterboy.

[shocksrbest]

There's something I noticed that seemed obvious, yet strange. When teams are behind a few possessions late in the game, they tend to drive the lane, hoping to get fouled. Usually the defense just gives up the layup and then runs clock on their possession until they're fouled.

That's not what the Shox did. They passed the ball around - apparently looking for an open shot instead of driving to the hoop. Is there anyone on the team who can actually drive the lane other than Shamet? Brown may be great on D. The recent results do not indicate that to be a fact. It would be nice to have a SF who could get to the basket. The lack of players who can get to the hoop late in the game lets defenses adjust too easily.

We do. His name is Marcus.

[pinstripers]

This.

Also, given that in the SDSU game, Marshall barreled through one of the players, for him to have a meltdown because the kid accidentally bumped him is incredibly hypocritical.

I love Marshall's competitive intensity, but I'm not okay with the way he's conducted himself in the last few games. He's been given a lot of **** for his personality by people outside the program, but I've never seen him treat his players poorly before. Critical of their play, sure, but not eviscerating a kid because he's frustrated.

I don't know if there's something going on his life outside of basketball right now, but I don't want him going down the Bobby Knight path.

EDIT:

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article190196504.html

That makes complete sense in a vacuum. Still worrisome in context with recent games.

Meds. Use em. Can't afford to stroke out on the sideline. Yes, it's worrisome.

[Shox The Revenant]

It doesn't matter which Shocker team you want to talk about, it just seems that if the opponent has a fast, quick and shifty guard - we have no answer to deal with that type of player. You name him, UCONN's Kemba Walker, Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson, OSU's Jawun James or OU's Trae Young to name a few, all these dudes destroyed us with their speed and agility creating shots for themselves and for their teammates. Fortunately, guards like these gentleman are few and far between and simply poses a bad matchup problem. I'm over it, but hope we don't get squared up to a team in the NCAA's with a similar type of guard.

[proshox]

Yes, we struggle with those guys just like every other top 25 team.

NBA guys pretty much can’t be guarded.

[Half Brother Dan]

Hate to say it but, I told you so. No sense of urgency from our guys. Our guys are just hoping to get by teams based on their ranks. I'm very concerned about AAC conference play

[Zubcut]

In situations like yesterday, Landry has to be more selfish. In my opinion, a lightly contested 3 for him (and Connor) is a much better shot than a wide open outside shot for Brown, Kelly or Shaq. It seems he's afraid Marshall is going to get on him or something. He did try to take over in the last 3 minutes, but by then it was too late. When you're the best player, and scorer, especially a point guard, you can't defer so much. Look at Young.

[shoxlax]

Funny how this was the same team and Coach everyone was praising last Sunday after our OSU win.

That's why I limit my participation in message boards these days.

[ShockerFever]

Hate to say it but, I told you so. No sense of urgency from our guys. Our guys are just hoping to get by teams based on their ranks. I'm very concerned about AAC conference play

GFY

[1972Shocker]

I was not able to see the game live yesterday as I was traveling out of town. I was able to check the live stats a few times in the 2nd half. Was able to watch the replay today and, of course, look at the box score.

To me the Shocks lost this game in the final 5:45 of the 1st half. A 17-7 run to close out the half put the Shocks in a very deep hole. Unfortunately, in this game the press, instead of a catalyst for a comeback in the 2nd half simply was not very effective against OU.

While Tre Young did get his 29 point average he did take 22 shots and 7 free throws to get them. Christian James also hit his average with 13 points. However, Brady Manek and Kameron McGusty combined for 34 points which was 17 better than their averages.

Landry and Conner shooting a combined 2-11 from 3 was big problem especially considering Conner's lone make came with 40 seconds remaining and Landry's with 4 seconds left.

The Shocks only turned the ball over 10 times but Landry had 5 of those.

In some ways it seemed like we should have lost the game much worse than we did. Looking forward to getting Markis back in the mix.

[Half Brother Dan]

GFY

I know its tough to hear the truth. I know you're blind by the deep and boring love you have for these young men.