WSU vs SMU Game Thread

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Last night was the first time I was able to attend this season. Needless to say I was less than impressed. WSU looked slow. That team does not value the ball, takes some really bad shots, and is woefully subpar on defense. I understand that SMU played WAY over their own heads last night...I get that. What I don't get is why does 3G insist on playing two bigs when the opponent is playing four guards? This happened a lot last night where Willis or Kelly were guarding a true guard. It was not benefiting on the offensive end, so why do it?

This team has a defensive issue and a turnover issue. Both need to be resolved to hope to make a run in the American. The offense is also very stagnant. There was no attempt to drive the lane last night. When they did, they got easy dishes for dunks or were able to get to the rim. When they didn't, they would settle for a long three or a forced mid-range jumper.

Very frustrating night.

[ShockerPrez]

We need at least one brawler in the lineup. Kelly should go nowhere! Im fine with starting mcduffie at the 3.

losses suck because it just seems our losses hurt us more than they should, but the season still has a long way to go, and Im sure the Shox will bounce back and finish strong and we will carry it through to the tourney.

[pinstripers]

1. Seems to me we lost it in the first half with bad zone offense.

2. Jank used his time outs to win the game.

3. Only 9 turnovers, but every one of them was of the 7th grade variety. For ****'s sake, guys!

4. Shake Milton whines too much.

5.We don't always get outcoached when we lose, but last night we did.

6. Shamet is a great shooter, but........

7. At least twice Willis scored and ran back, forgetting to press. Duh.

8, Freddy's burgers were the highlight of the trip.

[Shaqness]

Just wanted to chime. I feel like myself and others on this forum constantly critique the offense. And rightfully so. However, we lose games because of our defense. We let bad teams stick around because of our defense. Whining about our offensive woes is fun because we aren't a bad offensive team. We are a BAD defensive team.

I'm not making excuses for our teams ability to guard the 3 point line, but leave that out to analyze the other parts of our defensive game. A recent ESPN article quoted a coach saying our defense wants to prevent drives. I don't see us preventing drives. It's one thing to let Shake shoot beyond the arc, it's another to let any guard on the opposing team get to the hoop at will.

I'll keep saying this, but I don't think replacing X player from court will improve our defense. Not that I'm a defense guru or anything, but I feel good coaching is what is hurting us more than our personnel.

Seriously? 80+ points in CKA with Gregg Marshall. I'm pointing only to Gregg for our loss.

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

I agree. The defense is poor, to put it nicely. Everyone looks slow and I'm starting to hate the way they play the pick...just leave guys alone to chase a dribbler across the three point line. I'm not a hoops genius, but I know what they are doing is not effective or a good recipe for sustained success. It's bothersome.

[Ricardo del Rio]

more Austin
Less Brown
mc more minutes. More production.

[Topshock]

I get tired of watching certain players who have NBA dreams use their so-called final year to audition for The League vs Playing for the Team.
It was obvious in the Tulsa game and again tonight. I know MM has NBA-itis and it's his lifelong goal. But using games to "show his stuff" to those evaluating his talent for the next level is bullshit.

Nobody is bigger than the team or the game.
A certain person in charge needs to assert himself and make it exceptionally clear to all what the primary, secondary and only purpose of playing for this team is about.

Ok. It needed to be said and its out there. And yes, they better get more personally involved in the business at hand or Saturday will be a repeat of tonight.

That is all.

This. ^^^

While we are on the subject. LS is a tremendous player and has great stat lines every game but... He seldom will penetrate the defense with drives to the basket to score or kick out. He can because he does it when things are dire like the end of the game last night. He hasn't been aggressive since the OSU game and specifically when he drove into the lane and was body slammed. Possibly more worried about getting hurt than what the team needs?

[Shaqness]

He seldom will penetrate the defense. Possibly more worried about getting hurt than what the team needs?

Not that I would blame him. The kid is made of glass. When he does drive or go for a rebound he practically does the splits in the air. I'll also add that our offense hardly ever drives to the hoop. CF does sometimes, usually a mid range jumpy. Austin hasn't done it since last year. ZB has tried a few and failed a few. RK sometimes catches it on the corner and runs the baseline. LS isn't driving very much at all.

But we don't lose games because of offense or LS's lack of a drive game.

[Topshock]

While I agree our offense in generally good, it has to be to make up for the defense. LS seems to be the only player with the capability to regularly drive the ball and him not doing it can indeed cost us close games if it resulted in 2 or 3 extra baskets.

[Dan]

I am lobbying for a lineup of: Landry, Conner, Reaves (1-3], McDuffie at 4 and Shaq at 5.

I like RK but I also think McDuffie is underrated as a 4. 3G has MM playing 3 this year but he's a very good offensive rebounder when he plays the 4.

[ShockCrazy]

I like RK but I also think McDuffie is underrated as a 4. 3G has MM playing 3 this year but he's a very good offensive rebounder when he plays the 4.

Honestly I want to test out a small ball lineup for stretches against Houston and other teams/lineups without a true post/back to the basket player. 2 guards(Landry, Austin, Connor), Zack, Markis, RK. That lineup allows us to switch all screens and has great help defense.

[shocker43]

I'll take a conference loss to SMU over a conference loss to Loyola, ISUr, UNI, etc.

I knew the game wasn't going to go in our favor when SMU was forced to call a TO and instead of keeping the crowd going, there was a promo about a birthday for someone in the audience. Its good to see more people being upset about the insane amount of promos at the worst times. Hopefully that changes with as much public backlash as there is this year. I'll also take blame. I didn't wear my normal game-day work attire.

[Stickboy46]

I'll take a conference loss to SMU over a conference loss to Loyola, ISUr, UNI, etc.

I knew the game wasn't going to go in our favor when SMU was forced to call a TO and instead of keeping the crowd going, there was a promo about a birthday for someone in the audience. Its good to see more people being upset about the insane amount of promos at the worst times. Hopefully that changes with as much public backlash as there is this year. I'll also take blame. I didn't wear my normal game-day work attire.

The worst was when there was a momentum timeout and they played the damn kiss cam along with Slow Jazz music ... seriously? .... Completely crushed any noise level in the place.

We need to start calling out advertisers somehow. If its a bank, have people threatening to close accounts with them if they play their advertisement during a momentum timeout. There is no reason the advertiser can't request to not have it played under certain circumstances.

[Play Angry]

We need to start calling out advertisers somehow. If its a bank, have people threatening to close accounts with them if they play their advertisement during a momentum timeout. There is no reason the advertiser can't request to not have it played under certain circumstances.

This is a bad idea - do not punish local business who choose to funnel their advertising dollars for the benefit of our school and basketball program.

The burden is on the athletic department to structure their operations and advertising contracts to provide that flexibility. Hundreds of people threatening to cancel services contracts with those businesses as "punishment" for their paid time slots will almost certainly not have the effect you think it will, and is much more likely to result in the withdrawal of advertising through these channels by those businesses altogether.

The athletic department is the proper target for bitching about this problem.

[shocker43]

This is a bad idea - do not punish local business who choose to funnel their advertising dollars for the benefit of our school and basketball program.

The burden is on the athletic department to structure their operations and advertising contracts to provide that flexibility. Hundreds of people threatening to cancel services contracts with those businesses as "punishment" for their paid time slots will almost certainly not have the effect you think it will, and is much more likely to result in the withdrawal of advertising through these channels by those businesses altogether.

The athletic department is the proper target for bitching about this problem.

Agree with aiming frustration at the athletic department. There was one momentum TO that they played music and kept the crowd going. I was surprised they did that, but it helped. These contracts or agreements we have with these businesses have to be situational, or do all the promotions at half time. I hope the AD gets a lot of angry emails today about in-game promotions.

[asiseeit]

The sun DID come up this morning. My take is that the offense played well enough to win. For
some reason the players we count on defensively just are not having the success they did at
the end of last season. We knew they had great shooters going in yet we still appeared to be
playing a little soft on defense and they certainly exploited it with some fantastic shooting.
In addition, THEY controlled the tempo. We will lose a few more but watching AAC games are
a lot more interesting. I was in the camp thinking we would lose 6-8 games this year and still am.

[CBB_Fan]

Honestly I want to test out a small ball lineup for stretches against Houston and other teams/lineups without a true post/back to the basket player. 2 guards(Landry, Austin, Connor), Zack, Markis, RK. That lineup allows us to switch all screens and has great help defense.

I thought our best lineup last night was actually the 3-guard offense we ran near the end of the first half and second halves with Landry at PG, Conner at SG, Reeves at SF, and Shaq or Willis at C. We got a lot of good offense because they had to rotate hard to any of our perimeter players while also respecting the drop-ins to Shaq. Put Rashard, Zach, or Markis in at PF for defense and you have a great offense against a zone that utilizes our strengths (shooting, passing) and minimizes our weaknesses (driving), albeit at some cost on defense (either bulk at the 4, or speed on the wings).

[proshox]

This has been our best offense all year. HCGM will only go there in emergency situations. It is sooooooo frustrating.