Providence game thread

[Chickenhawk hunter]

Wow what a game! I thought these young men really played hard and smart. We had a couple of lapses, but other than that played like a unit. So proud of these kids and what a win to build from. The more they gel, the better they are going to play. Ups and downs will happen no doubt, but we will be ready come conference play to compete. Who knows we might surprise everyone and win the conference. I like this team so much more when SMJ is at the two spot. He plays way more under control and is so much quicker at the two. Go Shocks!!

[Topshock]

Didn't think MM had that in him. Even if he can't be great consistently it is good to know he has the ability to do it occasionally.

If AM had played I think we would have lost. His +/- for the year is terrible. That big, lumbering, slow body just seems to clog up driving lanes, is a liability on defense, just generally hurts the flow of the other players.

If Teddy Allen is added to this team then look out. Still be some downs but the upside could be really high.

[WuDrWu]

I thought Gregg's comment at halftime was spot on. After the first 9.5 minutes, this team started competing like a Shocker team.

Some fool's gold tonight.....certainly 50%+ from 3 isn't within a 1 standard deviation. The Friars were awful defending penetration and overall on D. Many of their adjustments were headscratchers to say the least.

This team would seem unlikely to give up 80 again and get the W. As would most teams, especially Coach Marshall teams at WSU, find difficult to do. The extra pass from PC led to more WIDE open shots than I can ever remember. That being said, I also think this will get fixed fairly rapidly.

Texas Tech 12-19-09 85-83
Indiana State 1-22-11 93-83 (Triple OT though)
Evansville 2-21-17 109-83
Then 6 times last season when we stopped playing D. It simply doesn't happen often, for a reason, and especially with this team that's likely going to struggle to score more often than not.

FTs are still a major issue. So are turnovers. 17 against a team that played a lot of zone.....not great.


Mixed items.....rebounding. I felt like we went and got the ball better, but blocking out still needs a lot of work. Lots of standing. Still, big improvement and I think this is the one area that's most likely to get fixed by this staff and these players.

I know Mitdgaard was in CP but the bench got shortened bigly. Certainly it helped achieve the result last night, but overall a good thing? Brown, PB Chandler and Moore are going to struggle to get minutes. Sure would like to see Rod Brown find his stride.

Go with the hot hands, but I don't think we'll have a lot of long term success if MM and SHJ keep shooting more than half our shots. Also made some shots, but a bunch of those were tough forced shots that just aren't going in all that often.

Positives......winning beats losing, every time. We didn't exactly finish the game, but made just enough plays to hang on.

Burton and Stevenson are warriors and I like it. Morris Udeze reminded me of a young Cliff Levingston at times with his finishes and quickness. Mo and Jamie took very nice steps forward.

Dexter Dennis has a sweet stroke from 3. Thought most of the guys played much more within themselves and allowed the game to come to them. Close outs were improved. Blocks by Echinique and Stevenson were impressive.

Love the 8 steals and feel like this team can get a bunch of points from TOs. Quietly, I felt like Ricky Torres had a nice game.


Nice video moment (after Eric missed the layup but Ricky cleaned it up) with Coach suggesting to the freshman from Washington that he, eff that shite, only he didn't say eff and and he didn't say shite.

[TheShocktocles]

Yes Dennis has a sweet stroke. But I wish he would play smarter and stop turning the ball over.

[Shockm]

If AM had played I think we would have lost. His +/- for the year is terrible. That big, lumbering, slow body just seems to clog up driving lanes, is a liability on defense, just generally hurts the flow of the other players.

Actually, he isn't lumbering and slow and he played pretty good defense the other night. He missed those bunnies from point blank range and he didn't rebound like he needs to if he wants to play in the rotation. Echineque and Udeze did those things yesterday and played good defense. The few minutes Poor Bear played yesterday were not good minutes.

[proshox]

This

[12eagle]

Didn't think MM had that in him. Even if he can't be great consistently it is good to know he has the ability to do it occasionally.

If AM had played I think we would have lost. His +/- for the year is terrible. That big, lumbering, slow body just seems to clog up driving lanes, is a liability on defense, just generally hurts the flow of the other players.

If Teddy Allen is added to this team then look out. Still be some downs but the upside could be really high.

Agree that if AM plays it is doubtful that we win

[shocks02]

I really thought Ricky took another step in the right direction last night. He seems to be a little more aggressive each time out. Last night he made a couple of good post-entry passes and seemed more comfortable cutting within the defense. Think this team may be at it's best eventually with Torres at point guard.

I thought Dexter Dennis had the roughest game of any of the guys that logged serious minutes last night. Seems like he is way overthinking everything right now. There was one time in the first half that Jamarius found him on the break, with his athleticism he should've taken the ball and dunked it, but he went up soft. I have no doubts he will get more comfortable as the year goes on and be a major force.

[TheShocktocles]

Totally agree man.

[Aargh]

I took a hard look at that play. I thought his stride was off for the dunk. Going as fast as he was going it's hard to adjust stride. He'll figure that out.

[asiseeit]

Good grief - AM doesn't even play and he gets ragged on. He is basically a freshmen when it comes to PT.
He played above average defense in his first game. He will get better on offense. Only two games in and
I am feeling a little better about the center position. None are guys with a great deal of offensive skills but
all three seem to know their roles. Play defense, rebound and take your garbage baskets when you can.
Not taking anything away from JE and Udeze cause they both took big steps forward last night but the other
team was not very good at blocking out. We had some lapses there too. What I like most about last night was
the defense after the first 9.5 minutes. Going forward I just hope both MM and SHJ realize when they are on
and when they are not cause they will either shoot us in or OUT of games. They both need to see the court
and involve the others in the offense. MM still needs to rebound better. Still think ES' game resembles Bakers.

[pinstripers]

In the pregame, Coach was talking about some of the freshmen not understanding things, terms, etc. I wish I had the link. Anyway, he was surprised.

[shocksrbest]

Link to a game replay anyone? I don't get CBS Sports

[forevershockerfan]

SN has touched on what we have already witnessed. We win some games like last night that many predict no, and lose some we expected to win. Various groups of players will continue to step up followed by others as we move forward. The maturing process for our beloved Shocks will continue all Season and most every game will be an adventure. Once team unity and harmony becomes consistent, watch out. Great win last night with some bright spots to build on.

[wusphlash]

By the way, the Flagrant 1 Dexter got for "hooking" is a stupid rule change. Reminds me of some of the new roughing the passer rule changes that also need to go in the wastebasket.

[ShockerFever]

Good analysis Doc.

SHJ and MM made some shots last night (specifically MM). I don't see him keeping that pace up the rest of the year, much less, next game. He obviously had the hot hand so it was ok to feed him but there were plenty of forced, ill-advised shots that were put up that happened to go in this time. Bad shots don't get noticed as much when they fall in the basket. SHJ was especially bad in that department. There was at one point in the second half when we had a fairly good lead that he came down for 3 or 4 straight possessions and jacked up a shot without a pass that either airballed or missed badly. Essentially, 3 straight turnovers. That's the crap that shouldn't be tolerated. That is all JUCO right there. Every time he touches the ball he thinks he has to take a shot. That is not a winning or team mentality. The few times he passed, he made some great passes. I wish he would focus on that more. The 8 assists he had were the byproduct of MM making 20 foot shots. That skewed the numbers a tad.

Work the damn ball around. Feed into the damn post once in a while, even if there is no intention to score from there.

I'm happy for the win, I'm happy that SHJ hit his first 3 3's. I'm happy that MM scored 32. I'm just afraid these guys think the problems have been fixed and they're still gonna play 1 on 1 ball and throw up 20 shots a game. Last night was an aberration on the offensive side of things. We still need to move the ball around A LOT better.

[ShockerFever]

By the way, the Flagrant 1 Dexter got for "hooking" is a stupid rule change. Reminds me of some of the new roughing the passer rule changes that also need to go in the wastebasket.

That bullcrap nearly cost us the game. I didn't even know it was a new rule.

Absolutely terrible rule. Did I miss the apparent outcry for this where guys were getting injured left and right because of it?

[AndShock]

MM got hooked on a FT in the first half and they didn’t even call it a common foul. That crap happens all the time and there will be zero consistency with how it’s called. Flagrants should be....flagrant and obvious whenever it happens. None of this subjective BS.

[wichshock65]