WSU Non-Conference Grade is?

[WuShock Reaper]

Source	Ranking	# of Teams	Rating
NCAA RPI	25	351	7.1%
Pomeroy	8	351	2.3%
Sagarin	16	351	4.6%
Nolan	10	351	2.8%
RealTime	19	351	5.4%
RPI Forecast	11	351	3.1%
AP Poll	11	351	3.1%
Coach's Poll	11	351	3.1%
Winning Percentage	25	351	7.1%
Average	15	351	4.3%

I think they deserve an "A-". Look how they have performed and are rating by different methodologies. Certainly looks like they have performed in the top 10% of all teams and quite a few have them in the top 5% of all teams. Hard not to give them a good grade for me.

The two losses were difficult to digest, however, taking in total context of the overall Non-Conference portion of this season, the Shockers have performed on a pure "Win vs. Loss" perspective fairly well given our SOS and our injuries.

[FlyingWheat]

You might be on to something:

	10+ shots	5-9 shots	1-4 shots
Games	16	45	14
FGM	79	118	15
FGA	176	286	44
FG%	0.449	0.413	0.341
2-FGM	34	40	7
2-FGA	70	92	15
2-FG%	0.486	0.435	0.467
3-FGM	45	78	8
3-FGA	106	194	29
2-FG%	0.425	0.402	0.276

If we could get Conner's shots up to 25-30 a game, he might shoot 50%.

It’s impossible to know, but it’s probably more like that when CF is already shooting well, he takes more shots. Maybe a little of both

[Shaqness]

Who is our best on-ball defender? I'm not sure I can name one.

Kelly

[CBB_Fan]

A- for the record. C for the on-court performances, especially the 3.1 games we expected to win and dramatically underperformed (the .1 being the last bit of the Notre Dame game). Teams like Arkansas State, California, and FGCU should need once in a decade games to beat the type of team we want to be, and yet all 3 were able to play even or ahead of us for a half. It isn't particularly surprising to have one bad game or get surprised by one hot team, as that happens to every good team (17-0 Wichita vs #183 MSU in the 35-0 year) but this has been a consistent trend this year.

10-2 is a great record. We have solid road wins against major conference foes, we probably should have won our midseason tournament, and we have a good setup for a high seed if we handle business in conference play. But that record also comes with an eerie portent. It feels like any team can walk into our house and take a half-time lead no matter how awful, and any player can have a career night as long as they can shoot 3s. This isn't what anyone expected from a team of seniors that have led tough-nosed, consistent, defense-oriented squads the past 3 years and no one can really explain the sudden metamorphosis even considering the injuries.

If this team's goal is to win a national title, it needs to rediscover its identity in conference play and get to the tournament completely healthy.

[another shocker]

favored by 20, win by 10, closer than the score appears at that.

c+

[ShockerFever]

C

[ShockAzs]

I'm giving it an overall B. If we win Maui, then it's an A.

We keep forgetting, but the number one factor is: just win baby! And we did a lot of that. Without McDuffie, as we all know.

Some of the things that do concern me are our defense lately (second halfs have been much better) and mental errors (lazy passing is the most egregious). And lack of establishing the inside attack. If we can establish the inside attack much better, it'll greatly free up our shooters and increase our ability to whip the ball around for those beautifully executed 3-4 passes for a wide open shot as the defense scrambles to catch up scenarios.

I think McDuffie will help in all aspects and we'll be feeling like confident fans again.

[Windiwu]

I think McDuffie's enthusiasm will be a great thing to help our team mentally and even physically as they strive to keep up with him. I think it is hard to pinpoint just exactly what has been missing but I have a lot of confidence that Coach knows.

[shocksrbest]

Solid B and just one bad pass at the end of the ND game kept us from an A-. Going forward into
conference play we need SM to start playing like a senior and a dominant inside player. He has
not done that yet. Key is shoring up our perimeter defense. If our guards can't stop the dribble
drive to the basket then our big guys need to sag in a couple steps more cause it seems they are
always a step late getting there. SJ has been a pleasant surprise lately but I'd like to see him
keep the ball moving instead of dribbling too much and play smarter D. I also want CF and AR
to fire it up whenever they have a decent look and for SM to now get the red light and start posting

Agreed. I'd really like a crack at Notre Dame in the tournament...make Mike Brey put his shirt back on...

[DUShock]

Exactly!

[DUShock]

I voted A

The tone of the question was result based. 10-2 a top 10ish rank to conclude the non-con, I call it exceptional. Now if the tone of the question/poll was focused on team effort rather than record results, my grade would have B-.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks play so far has been a bit more inconsistent then I would have expected from such an experienced team. However, I do think that all of the injury and illness issues the Shocks have had have contributed to some of that. Yeah, most D-1 teams have to deal with bumps and bruises and sometimes worse during a year. But this year has been especially challenging for the Shocks. Landry's foot, Austin's shoulder, Markis foot, Austin's mono, Zach's knee, Conner's migraine, and Rauno's teeth. These have had to have a deleterious effect on Shocker practice work as well as games. Add to that the untimely turnover on the coaching staff and the shoulder surgery 3G had to deal with and the good schedule the Shockers have faced and yeah to this point the season has been a bit of a grind and certainly a bit frustrating for both 3G and the players.

Still we are 10-2 and likely ranked in the top 10 come Tuesday and I will take that. Hopefully, some of the issues we have been seeing will get resolved. However, when you look around at college basketball this year it should be no surprise when a favored team bites the dust. College basketball is in a good place from a parity standpoint. Things are tough out there.

There may be some validity to the speculation about the impact of the coaching changes the team but I think that is very difficult to evaluate with any certainty from the outside. At least I'm not confident in my ability to do that I will say, however, that this group of assistant coaches does get high grades, along with 3G, for the recruiting class they have assembled to replace this large group of seniors on this year's team.

If we can get everyone relatively helpful and be able to put our best lineup on the floor consistently and have that lineup working together in practice consistently I think we will be okay and, hopefully, start putting more consistent efforts together both within games and from game-to-game.

2018 hear we come.

:wsu_posters:

[ShockTalk]

I voted A

The tone of the question was result based. 10-2 a top 10ish rank to conclude the non-con, I call it exceptional. Now if the tone of the question/poll was focused on team effort rather than record results, my grade would have B-.

Shouldn't an "A" be reserved for something more (maybe much more) than what is expected? I guess if you expected the Shox to lose 3-4 games, then an A would be appropriate.

For me, I expected 2 loses. We were "favored" in all 12. Based just on winning, 11-1 is an A-, winning all 12 is an A. Had we not been favored in 1 game and won all 12, that's an A+.

Would losing 3 have been a B, 4 games a C? Just spit ballin'.

[Kel Varnsen]

Record: A-/B+

Actual performance: B-