WSU vs UCF GAME THREAD

[Cdizzle]

Between poor shot choices and poor officiating, oh boy...

Sometimes poor officiating leads to "poor shot selection."

Just like sometimes the other team shoots a good percentage because the prayers they through over their heads while stumbling through the lane were answered by the stripes.

[shocker3]

The crazy 3 point shot to put our game into OT was showed at the beginning of the 10pm SportsCenter on ESPN. They mentioned we went on to win the game and then quickly went into the latest on the Sean Miller story.

[Rlh04d]

As frustrated as I was that we seemed hesitant to dive for the ball, what a great play by them.

Of course, immediately out done by UVAs version.

[proshox]

That game took me two hours of house chores to calm down.

Seems like we run run away from American teams when we play three guards and give it all back when we get too big at the 3/4.

[I_Vector_Wu]

Way to grind it out Shocks, hopefully this pays dividends down the road.

Please tell me these “refs” will be nowhere near Orlando next week.

Maybe we should place bets on “Which opponents backbencher will go off from 3”. Tie breaker, how many are banked in.

[ShockAzs]

I need this stat:

Which team suffers the most banked in three pointers against them?

[WSUwatcher]

Those always scare me, because they seem as though historically they've been a bad omen for WSU. Kudos to the Shocks for overcoming not one but two, as well as the missed goaltend.

[60Shock]

Most Impressed with the UCF fans we were surrounded with during the game and at a bar afterwards. They were welcoming, courteous, and friendly as they bitched about the blown calls against not only their team, but ours as well.

[WstateU]

Wondering if the ‘banks’ still open tonight? Almost cost me a 60” big screen and a table lamp.

[WuDrWu]

On the other end, UCF +11X was easy money, if you're into that kind of thing.

[ShockAzs]

I am starting to build a permanent dent in my 3" thick, solid wood table, every time I see those banked 3's.

Here's another one I want to know:

Teams with worst % on last second shot attempts?

I'm so tired of seeing us get highly contested, jacked up 3's after timeouts and towards end of buzzer.

[ShockerPhi]

I'm just as mad as everyone else is about a player or whole teams just going off on us from three. Sure, some of it has to do with our very poor perimeter defense. But seeing Shake Milton go 2/2 from the Wu logo at the end of the shot clock, AJ Davis (30% 3 pt shooter) going 6-8 in regulation, including two heavily guarded bank shots, a Temple Freshman (28% 3pt shooter) go 5-7 from three, and many other cases. AJ Davis wouldn't have gone 6-8 in shoot around during the pregame.

But that's just teams getting up for us. It has tested us greatly and yet we've still only lost 3 games in a much better conference. We tend to play to our competition this year, so I still have hopes for Sunday. As a fan in attendance, I'll be bringing my A game. I just hope the Shocks bring their A+ game.

[Jhook89]

At this point it is probably safe to say having someone on the other team go off is more on us than them... It has happen way too many times to just be happenstance.

[Dan]

Did you notice how UCF guarded us 5 feet past the 3 point line, they really pushed us out. We, on the other hand, pack the paint and only guard to the 3 point line. When our perimeter defenders get sucked in, it leaves guys wide open for 3 pointers. I supposed we were guarding against their penetration because they aren”t supposed to be a good 3 point shooting team.

[pinstripers]

I don't really wanna start that 3-guard conversation again. But the second half was composed of 5 minute sections of runs by us, then by them, then by us..........Can somebody track that to see if that was strictly related to the people we had on the floor?

[Cdizzle]

Hopefully Reaves got that one out of his system. Hasn't looked like that in a long time. 'Luckily' Frankamp covered.

[Aargh]

I had a commitment during the game, so I had the luxury of replaying plays to see what happened during UCF's run that put them up 22-11.

They were constantly running Brown into screens and then beating him to the basket when he went under the screen. It looked like they were leaving enough space so that Brown started going over the screen, and then changed to go under. By the time he finally decided which way to go, his guy was open to the hoop.

When that became the play they were running every time down the court, Marshall pulled Brown and put McDuffie in. Result? They did the same thing to McDuffie. McDuffie isn't as quick as he was last year. 1/2 a step slow in this league will get you beat on dribble drive. Also, if you watch McDuffie walk to his spot on the bench when he left the game with his fourth foul, he was favoring his left leg.

During that run, UCF was also setting up iso's with Frankamp and then driving past him, creating a 5 on 4 situation. Any help to cut off the penetration left someone open, usually at the 3 point line.

that's when Marshall switched to playing zone.

In the first half both McDuffie and Brown were watching the game instead of playing it on the defensive end. Several times both of them stood and watched someone drive past them about one step toward the basket from their position.

Shamnet's lateral quickness (or lack of it) was letting people get past him from time to time. I don't think Shamet is back to full strength, and McDuffie is far from it. It takes time for those muscles to recover after 3 months of no use. During a basketball season is not a good time for a muscle to recover.

A few times I rewound to see how a 3-point shooter got to be so incredibly unguarded. Several times it was because the shooter was 25' out and it would have been insane to cover him out there. Of course, those were going in last night, so some of the lack of 3-point D was something where you just congratulate your opponent and say, "nice shot" because that's all you can do.

I thought Frankamp showed some "refuse to lose" qualities last night. I've been a bit critical of his play because he's seemed (to me) to be playing a bit timid. Last night he showed some attitude of hunting his shot because the team needed him to do that. It worked out very well.

Give Shamet some time to recover more leg strength and that drive/dunk will happen more often. He's got a fairly quick and REALLY long first step, so he can beat defenders into the lane and get to the basket pretty quick. It's just not been part of his game long enough and at full strength for him to be effective at it yet. Another year at WSU and he could get that move working. Add that to what he already does and there won't be any doubt about whether he's in the top 20 in the draft.

Several guys had off nights. The team as a whole didn't perform at anything approaching what they can do. They still ended up with a road win. Games like this happen during the course of a season. There's no way to avoid it. It's frustrating to fans, but it's going to happen to every team several times every season. Getting a road win against a decent team in those circumstances is the mark of a WINNER. Don't let any disappointment in how the game played out cloud your judgement of this team.

[WheatShock]

What was your opinion of the officiating last night? I often DVR games to rewatch later and with the exception of a few calls here and there the officiating is never as bad as it seemed in the heat of the moment.

[AndShock]

I actually thought UCF had a lot of wide open 3s that they missed last night. We dared them to beat us from deep and finally faced a team bad enough at shooting that they couldn’t.

[Aargh]

My opinion of the officiating: Marshall reviews officiating and sends film clips and comments to the league office to indicate where he thought officiating was incorrect or unevenly enforced. I hope he has several people to help him review film. It could take quite a long time.to identify and gather the clips of officiating problems.

[bighouse]

I never thought i would see a game where shaq played 38 minutes!!! And he did it playing rim protector D, with 3 blocks and only 2 fouls. My goodness how he has grown!

[Aargh]

He would have fouled out in 24 minutes with MVC officiating emphasis.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I am starting to build a permanent dent in my 3" thick, solid wood table, every time I see those banked 3's.

Here's another one I want to know:

Teams with worst % on last second shot attempts?

I'm so tired of seeing us get highly contested, jacked up 3's after timeouts and towards end of buzzer.

It seems like Marshall in more concerned with giving the opponent less time to score than he is about WSU getting a good look.

If there is a 5 second differential, it is like the WSU guards are directed to ensure they shoot at the very buzzer of the shot clock, no matter what kind of crappy attempt it requires.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Not talking about last night. Pretty much every game. If there is a scenario involving holding for a last shot, Marshall's guys take it to the extreme, almost always resulting in a difficult 3 point heave, not an open shot or a drive.

[Aargh]

Perimeter players driving to the basket is "not well-developed" on this team. Yeah, let's call it that.

[proshox]

WSU refuses to maximize these situations.

We never hold the ball to take away a “two for one” after a made basket. You can slow play it like happened to us in the SMU game at home.

We often press which slows down the inbounds pass after we score a basket with just enough time for a two for one.

And as you mentioned, we never just run offense when we know the other team is going to get the last shot. So we end up with horrible shots at the end of the clock.

[Stickboy46]

I thought Frankamp showed some "refuse to lose" qualities last night. I've been a bit critical of his play because he's seemed (to me) to be playing a bit timid. Last night he showed some attitude of hunting his shot because the team needed him to do that. It worked out very well.

During a timeout after one of his mini runs .. Frankamp look just straight pissed off. He had an edge last night.

[Aargh]

I noticed that. Hadn't seen it before. Liked it.