Last Season versus this Season

[forevershockerfan]

Will we be improved and win the Valley? Can we win our first Tourney at the Lew and make it to the Dance? We lost 3 solid inside players that will take some time to replace. Who will be the main leaders? Rags, Stutz, Toure, DK, Ben or a new player? Hatch was tough but we are locked in at his position with quality depth to spare? Who will redshirt? What other Valley teams and players will be solid? Hopefully the summer trip will gets us a jump start that we will sustain and even improve as our chemisty blends in and we peak when it matters the most? Discuss.

[1972Shocker]

We should definitely be improved at the point vs last year now that Rags seems to be in-charge and D-Will should be more than an adequate backup.

Yes the Hatch-et man will be missed especially his intangibles, but we should also be pretty solid at the 2/3 spots. What I would love to see is for DK to finally realize his full potential on a consistent basis.

IMO, the key will be how Garrett, Carl, EO, James and perhaps Jake perform in the 4/5 positions. I think how this group of guys go may determine how far the team can go. We don't necessarily need these guys to be spectacular but they do need to be consistently solid.

[wufan]

Well, all the pieces are in now in place. This is what I see:

Rags at the point, DWill backs him up very competently (but I think he will really shine as a senior at the SG).

Murry, Kyles, and Smith eat up 95%+ of the minutes at the wing (SG/SF).

Hall starts at the PF and Stutz at the C. I think James will come off the bench and Hall will slide to the post. IMO This is your main rotation with EO getting 10 minutes a game.

Armstead and Baker will anchor the scout team. Competition for remaining game minutes will be high between freshman Cotton, Wessel, Ede, and White with at least one RS.

[Ta Town Shocker]

Well, all the pieces are in now in place. This is what I see:

Rags at the point, DWill backs him up very competently (but I think he will really shine as a senior at the SG).

Murry, Kyles, and Rags eat up 95%+ of the minutes at the wing (SG/SF).

Hall starts at the PF and Stutz at the C. I think James will come off the bench and Hall will slide to the post. IMO This is your main rotation with EO getting 10 minutes a game.

Armstead and Baker will anchor the scout team. Competition for remaining game minutes will be high between freshman Cotton, Wessel, Ede, and White with at least one RS.

I think we also have someone on the team named Ben Smith who may be feeling like he should have been included in this post.

[1972Shocker]

Well, all the pieces are in now in place. This is what I see:

Rags at the point, DWill backs him up very competently (but I think he will really shine as a senior at the SG).

Murry, Kyles, and Rags eat up 95%+ of the minutes at the wing (SG/SF).

Hall starts at the PF and Stutz at the C. I think James will come off the bench and Hall will slide to the post. IMO This is your main rotation with EO getting 10 minutes a game.

Armstead and Baker will anchor the scout team. Competition for remaining game minutes will be high between freshman Cotton, Wessel, Ede, and White with at least one RS.

I think we also have someone on the team named Ben Smith who may be feeling like he should have been included in this post.

I 'spect he may have meant Ben and not Rags in this part of the post:

Murry, Kyles, and Rags eat up 95%+ of the minutes at the wing (SG/SF).

[1979Shocker]

This looks like another year where we can substitute in another 5 players with no dropoff in talent.

[Aargh]

I wish I could have the confidence I've seen in the previous posts.

Durley, Ellis, Hatch, Blair.

That's a lot of minutes and a lot of experience we lost. We're replacing that with two Juco's and a couple of Fr.

I don't see how you replace 3 starters and expect to stay at the same level or above that level. Fr are always a crap shoot. JuCo's usually take 1/2 a season or so to adjust to D1 ball. Anacreon is probably going to have to learn both SF and PF.

We lost everything we had at PF and don't have an established backup at post. Hall probably has to learn two positions.

I think there are a few too many things that have to all happen for this team to be at the level of last year's team.

[wufan]

I wish I could have the confidence I've seen in the previous posts.

Durley, Ellis, Hatch, Blair.

That's a lot of minutes and a lot of experience we lost. We're replacing that with two Juco's and a couple of Fr.

I don't see how you replace 3 starters and expect to stay at the same level or above that level. Fr are always a crap shoot. JuCo's usually take 1/2 a season or so to adjust to D1 ball. Anacreon is probably going to have to learn both SF and PF.

We lost everything we had at PF and don't have an established backup at post. Hall probably has to learn two positions.

I think there are a few too many things that have to all happen for this team to be at the level of last year's team.

Yes, meant Smith instead of Rags for the wing. It's fixed.

Aargh, you are correct that replacing Hatch, Blair, Ellis, and Durley is a difficult thing. However, many of the players from last year will now be much improved. Ragland, Smith, Murry, Kyles, and Stutz (all very good last year) will be seniors, a year older, a year stronger, and a year more experienced. Williams and EO will be juniors and may or may not make big strides this year. That's Five excellent players and two good players with upside that are upperclass returnees.

Take those seven and add the potential of Hall, Anacreon, White, and Ede and we are in good (not great) shape with a high ceiling for achievement. Every year we lose some great kids, last year they happened to be post heavy, but none-the-less, the team will re-focus around a perimeter/wing oriented system until the post is able to "get it." Put your faith in the upperclassmen!

Also, FWIW, I don't think Anacreon will play much SF as a junior (As a senior, I see it differently). Not enough minutes on the wing and too much added value in the post. If D is up to the challenge, he will be guarding the Valley combo-forwards that inevitably live at the 4.

[Ta Town Shocker]

I am excited as anyone about Shocker basketball this season and I am a firm believer that even with the losses of Blair, Durley, Ellis, and Hatch we will have a better squad this season.

IMO
The leaders on offense will be Rags and Toure. They will be able to create offense with their ability to drive and dish or score at any given time.

Stutz will be much improved on defense and be a consistent 12 and 6 guy. There is no doubt he has the ability, the only thing that held him back last season was his inconsistency.

Hall will be an intimidator on defense and score on easy lay ins set up by Rags and Toure. He will also be able to score some easy buckets off the offensive glass.

Smith will start at the SF position but Kyles may compete for it.
I hope Kyles accepts a role as the leader off the bench. He may very well be the 6th man of the year in the Valley. Kyles and Smith will both be at their best spotting up from 3 point land.

At this point we have seen so little of Orupke that the jury is still out. I think Ede may contribute off the bench.

Creighton may be our toughest test in the Valley this year.

[shockerfan]

Is there POTENTIAL we could have a better year than last year? Yes, but that is all it is...potential. Right now there isn't enough concrete evidence that our post and wing will handle the losses of Durley, Ellis, Blair and Hatch. There is no given that every player will have improved from last year to this year. You would hope they would, but some players never live up to their potential while in college and some players may even regress. Just the way it is and it could very well happen to us.

I love this team and will cheer them on no matter what happens. But I am a "wait and see" in terms of what expectations I have for them pre-season.

[shockmonster]

Argh- You are remembering the team that won the NIT (played great). You are also remembering the team that played great and had a winnning streak on the road against Creighton, UNI, etc. However, you are forgetting the team that lost several home games that they should have won (SIU, ISU blue,etc.) and lost to ISU Blue in the MVC tournament playing very badly. Every time we were ready to move into the top 25, we layed an egg. I don't know how good this team will be but if they are tougher mentally, and don't have the dramatic dropoffs in play, they could be better.

[Zardoz]

Argh- You are remembering the team that won the NIT (played great). You are also remembering the team that played great and had a winnning streak on the road against Creighton, UNI, etc. However, you are forgetting the team that lost several home games that they should have won (SIU, ISU blue,etc.) and lost to ISU Blue in the MVC tournament playing very badly. Every time we were ready to move into the top 25, we layed an egg. I don't know how good this team will be but if they are tougher mentally, and don't have the dramatic dropoffs in play, they could be better.

We did beat InSU at home, took us three OTs to do though. Home loses were MSU, UNI and SIU. SIU still pisses me and SIU fans off. Me because it sould never have happened and lost us any at-large hopes. SIU fans because it may have saved CLo's job.

We have a lot of depth in the 1-3 spots. At point we have Rags, DWill, Cotton, EW and Murry. At SG there is DWill, Murry, Kyles, Cotton, Ede, Smith and EW. At the SF we have EW, Ede, Smith, Kyles, JA and Murry. The post will be some combination of centers Stutz and EO with maybe some Hall. PF will be Hall, White, and JA. Rumor has it Ede can guard the 1 through 4.

It's going to be quite a ride and it may be a different team and style than we were used to. And we still have HCGM who has done nothing but win where ever he has been, IE the turnarounds at WU and WSU.

[Aargh]

Argh- You are remembering the team that won the NIT (played great). You are also remembering the team that played great and had a winnning streak on the road against Creighton, UNI, etc. However, you are forgetting the team that lost several home games that they should have won (SIU, ISU blue,etc.) and lost to ISU Blue in the MVC tournament playing very badly. Every time we were ready to move into the top 25, we layed an egg. I don't know how good this team will be but if they are tougher mentally, and don't have the dramatic dropoffs in play, they could be better.

I'm not really forgetting the "how could this happen" losses. One of my "ifs" for this year to be better than next year is if there is addition by subtraction.

If any of the graduated players had attitudes that may have sometimes had negative impacts on the team, then this year could be better than last year.

I thought there were indications last year that WSU had at least one better "game" player than "practice" player. I think the senior leadership will be a lot stronger this year than last year, and that could be a big factor in how this team performs.

[SB Shock]

I think the real key is did this team learn the lesson of what it take to be a great team instead of a good team. If they had played the regular season and mvc tourney with the same poise, confidence and desire - last year could have been a special year.

There is a lot of potential with this team to excite or disappoint the fans of Wichita. CU will be tough. I wouldn't be surprised to see UNI also challenging.

[60Shock]

I would be tickled pink and most surprised if this year's team even approaches the results of last year's NIT Championship team. What they accomplished last year during their last five game run was miraculous.

Last year, we had a heavily led senior and junior team with experience and balance at viturally all positions, with exception at the PG until Rags developed. This year, we are starting off extremely in-experienced at the 4 and 5 positions with only Stutz as a seasoned D-1 player.

The potential is certainly there, but we need it to develop and rise quickly to the forefront if we expect to equal or surpass last year.

We will certainly get an early season look as to where we are and what we can more actually expect of this team after we play the likes of Colorado and Maryland.