Wichita State vs Rice Game Thread

[wusphlash]

Nm

[pinstripers]

Anybody who was in attendance have a guess as to how many fans were there?

[DaveICT]

I would say around 8500. Lots of missing student seats. The crowd was loud and supportive though.

[SHOCKvalue]

Crowd was pretty solid considering the horrid weather walk in from parking, Thanksgiving weekend, and a 2-3 rebuilding team.

[WuDrWu]

Game recap:

Well hello Mr. Torres. One of the best 0 point, 1 rebound games you'll ever see. He was much more comfortable, in charge, wasn't sped up and got the Shocks into their offense time and time again for great shots. We shot a bunch of 2 footers in that first half. Ricky gets a lot of that credit. He also made many of his teammates better with his play.

Jamie and Mo are becoming a handful.

I figured Stevenson would be a solid player by his second year and a fan favorite for his Baker like play that would make him appear better than he actually is. 6 games in it appears I have wildly miscalculated. Dude's a player, today, and plays hard. 2 fantastic hustle plays this afternoon that you might see a couple times a month. Love that play, and if it becomes contagious, this team will be very fun to watch.

McDuffie continued to play well. The less he has to be great, the better this team will be. That goes double for SHJ.

Dexter Dennis is a nice player. Not sure he'll be in the show...…….yet.

Burton just needs to keep playing hard. Will be a solid complimentary player.

Pretty sure we've found this year's 8. McDuffie, SHJ, Dennis, Burton, Stevenson, Mo, Jamie & Ricky. Certainly there are chances for any of the other 4 to get minutes, especially Rod Brown, but there will have to be big changes for that to happen.



Rice is not good. They are young and won't win many games, but we handled them the way you want your team to handle a bad team. You take your wins where you can get them. They couldn't defend the post, so we attacked the post and got layup after layup. That works for me. Our half court defense still needs a lot of work, BUT one subtlety I'd like to point out....the length of this team, is providing great benefit in our ability to close out on shooters. Rice can shoot the 3. Our athletic ability combined with improved positioning allowed our guys to close out on their shooters and limit open looks. Rice missed badly, a lot, and it was often times because one of our athletes was threatening to send their jumpers into the 3rd row. We can build on that.


Still not a good rebounding team. But as I've said before, I feel that's the one thing that Gregg can fix, and fix quickly. I'd be much more concerned if we were rebounding and not scoring.


Also something I was thinking about yesterday......Only McDuffie knows Fred and Ron. The "culture" those 2, especially, built here is totally lost on the other 12 scholarship players. That "culture" must be rebuilt as well. They may see the banners and know the streaks, but they don't know what it takes to get there. And basically there's no one here to teach them. They will have to not learn, but create, or better, recreate that on their own. That's not an easy thing. VanVleet, Baker and Cotton don't grow on trees. Time will tell if these guys can replicate that culture at the direction of Gregg Marshall.


Today was an encouraging step. But it's a step from a long way down. Don't get too high, don't get too low. The road is long. Good game Shocks!

[ShockTalk]

Agree with most of your post, however, ES and DD are already developing a warrior "culture" and, as you said, with a lesser guidance from a group of experienced leaders like Hall, Armstead, even Cotton, and having an future AA like Early.

I believe DD has already laid down solid ground work with his defense, hustle, and a good shooter. "Nice" player is a little mild description in my book.

Many of these freshman are gaining a lot of "on court" experience. In his first 6 games, FVV averaged 12 mpg game, shot .230 from the field, 0-3 from 3 pt, and had more TOs than assists (8 to 6). Think about that everyone when you watch these freshmen and remember, they're needed to produce "now", not learn behind someone.

Burton has 20 assists to 11 TOs in that must produce now environment. Stevenson is 1st in steals, 2nd in rebounding, and 3rd is assists (I don't expect that to continue with RT game improving).

I also believe Mo is on a faster track than Shaq.

[Dan]

Mo is not even on the same track as Shaq, he’s 2 years ahead of Shaq. Remember that Shaq redshirted and was later almost kicked off the team for lack of effort. Freshman and Sophomore Shaq couldn’t stay on the court due to lazy defense which lead to lots of fouling. Junior and senior Shaq was a beast but it took him a long time to get there.

[wufan]

Love me some Udeze!!! I was pumped when he verballed, and am solidly committed to him being a double-double machine as an upperclassman.

[kcshocker11]

Good win. I expected this though. Fun to watch this team grow.

[Shock Top]

Seems the week between games helped.

Hopefully more of the same on Saturday. (Not saying Shox win, but it would be great to see some more noticeable improvements)

[wufan]

Game recap:

Well hello Mr. Torres. One of the best 0 point, 1 rebound games you'll ever see. He was much more comfortable, in charge, wasn't sped up and got the Shocks into their offense time and time again for great shots. We shot a bunch of 2 footers in that first half. Ricky gets a lot of that credit. He also made many of his teammates better with his play.

Jamie and Mo are becoming a handful.

I figured Stevenson would be a solid player by his second year and a fan favorite for his Baker like play that would make him appear better than he actually is. 6 games in it appears I have wildly miscalculated. Dude's a player, today, and plays hard. 2 fantastic hustle plays this afternoon that you might see a couple times a month. Love that play, and if it becomes contagious, this team will be very fun to watch.

McDuffie continued to play well. The less he has to be great, the better this team will be. That goes double for SHJ.

Dexter Dennis is a nice player. Not sure he'll be in the show...…….yet.

Burton just needs to keep playing hard. Will be a solid complimentary player.

Pretty sure we've found this year's 8. McDuffie, SHJ, Dennis, Burton, Stevenson, Mo, Jamie & Ricky. Certainly there are chances for any of the other 4 to get minutes, especially Rod Brown, but there will have to be big changes for that to happen.



Rice is not good. They are young and won't win many games, but we handled them the way you want your team to handle a bad team. You take your wins where you can get them. They couldn't defend the post, so we attacked the post and got layup after layup. That works for me. Our half court defense still needs a lot of work, BUT one subtlety I'd like to point out....the length of this team, is providing great benefit in our ability to close out on shooters. Rice can shoot the 3. Our athletic ability combined with improved positioning allowed our guys to close out on their shooters and limit open looks. Rice missed badly, a lot, and it was often times because one of our athletes was threatening to send their jumpers into the 3rd row. We can build on that.


Still not a good rebounding team. But as I've said before, I feel that's the one thing that Gregg can fix, and fix quickly. I'd be much more concerned if we were rebounding and not scoring.


Also something I was thinking about yesterday......Only McDuffie knows Fred and Ron. The "culture" those 2, especially, built here is totally lost on the other 12 scholarship players. That "culture" must be rebuilt as well. They may see the banners and know the streaks, but they don't know what it takes to get there. And basically there's no one here to teach them. They will have to not learn, but create, or better, recreate that on their own. That's not an easy thing. VanVleet, Baker and Cotton don't grow on trees. Time will tell if these guys can replicate that culture at the direction of Gregg Marshall.


Today was an encouraging step. But it's a step from a long way down. Don't get too high, don't get too low. The road is long. Good game Shocks!

On building culture, Stevenson and Burton seem like two early candidates. They have some things to learn, but I love the way they approach the game.

[Dan]

I’d add Dennis and Udeze to those guys. We have a really solid core.

[wufan]

I haven’t observed the on court leadership from Dennis and Udeze, but I absolutely include them as part of the crucial freshman core of this team.

[Stickboy46]

Also something I was thinking about yesterday......Only McDuffie knows Fred and Ron. The "culture" those 2, especially, built here is totally lost on the other 12 scholarship players. That "culture" must be rebuilt as well. They may see the banners and know the streaks, but they don't know what it takes to get there. And basically there's no one here to teach them. They will have to not learn, but create, or better, recreate that on their own. That's not an easy thing. VanVleet, Baker and Cotton don't grow on trees. Time will tell if these guys can replicate that culture at the direction of Gregg Marshall.


Today was an encouraging step. But it's a step from a long way down. Don't get too high, don't get too low. The road is long. Good game Shocks!

Well .. TECHNICALLY .....

[Shock Top]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTkUKJqMglc