Shocker Madness

[Ta Town Shocker]

I was also impressed with the way Hall made all his free throws. We definitely don't have to worry about sitting our best post players late in a game because of of their inability to shoot free throws; both Stutz and Hall were solid from the line. Physically I'm not sure many teams in the Valley will be able to match up with our size in the post.

[pinstripers]

Wessel is ready to contribute right now. White can shoot, but really needs weightroom work in order to be good. Hall looks like he cannot shoot outside of the one foot range, but he can bang. James and Ede did not show much, both need to be stronger, IMO. Questioned James' motor, a time or two. Ede is a stickman and has no place to get minutes, ought to redshirt. This is the smoothest, the most athletic that I have ever seen Stutz. He will be first team All-Valley. EO is better, perhaps quite a bit better, could give us 10 minutes, maybe. Cotton is set up and seemed mistake-free. Baker might end up being a star. Dunno is he is as fast as Kyles and Demetric, but he can run. Mitchell has no neck whatsoever. He probably will need time to become a point guard, but he has a year to do that. Ben was very good. Wish there had been some info on Ragland, cause everybody in the building was wanting to know what was up.

[Kung Wu]

Murry: + Was confident on the ball, leading the new guys, and was VERY aggressive (Great drive with strong finish)

Kyles: = Took bad shot right away. Wasn't really going after it.

Stutz: + Was very strong in the post. Did miss a couple tough turn arounds, but overall much improved especially on defense.

Smith: + Had 3 strong takes to the basket and converted all 3. Hit several 3's as well. Will be a match up problem this year.

Ragland: - Wasn't in the building, nuff said.

Armstead: ? Seemed to be working and listening to the coaching staff. Was expressly told many things by Coach Marshall.

Williams: = Played more in control, but didn't seem to be looking to shoot. Made 1 3-pt that I remember.

Anacreon: - Doesn't seem to have it yet. Athletic, and has a nice stroke. The other players definitely respected his 3 shot.

Mitchell: ? Very strong on the ball, didn't shoot much, seemed to be deferring a bit.

Orukpe: = Won position, caught the ball, and made nice moves toward the basket. Committed 4 fouls in 5 mins at one point.

Hall: + Played very strong, solid, knew where to be, and where ball was. His game is on the glass and will be better than Falker next year.

Wessel: - Was lost at times, lost sight of ball that found him on bench numerous times. Hit 2 3's, but could be liability on D.

Egharvba: - Definitely out of sync with system tonight. Very athletic but not hard nosed. Work ethic is there.

Vautravers: + Outplayed Wessel and Egharvba at the 3. I would play him over both if we had game tomorrow (and I'm not alone)

Baker: + Nerves definitely played big part early, but settled late with couple nice jumpers, strong take and dunk on break. Stud.

Cotton: + Strong, poised, plays within system. Nice stroke, hit couple jumpers. Will be key player next year.

White: + Strong offensive game, knack for finding ball, knack for losing offensive player on defense. Will be a stud.

Very nice writeup @Downtown Shocker Brown:!

[forevershockerfan]

Before the game, DWill was attempting a fancy smancy dunk and also fell on his back. Toure' took the nasty spill and we hope he is alright. Rags, get busy because this could very well be your year. The first hoop was Mr. Stutz tonight and he indeed will be one of our top leaders. Let's hope he at EO can play the D without over-fouling. Carl Harl gets in there and cleans glass which will be a plus. Ben Smith--how do we keep him off the floor? Baker was firing airballs at first, but settled in as the night progressed. White will most likey be in the rotation this Season.

[Kung Wu]

I'm going to write this before I read any other reviews. That way, I can be wrong in total ignorance.

Defense is WAY ahead of the offense.

Stutz is faster, quicker, stronger, and more athletic. Virtually unstoppable on the block with a single defender. Once that was established, they ran other sets. Garrett showed a sweet left-hand jump hook in the lane.

Orukpe can probably get 10 or 15 minutes before he fouls out. His game is a lot better than last year, but he reaches a lot. Had 6 fouls in 18 minutes of "real" time. Probably 12 "game" minutes. He didn't have any fouls in the second 20 minutes, but he was doing different things in the second 20 minutes.

Hall is probably the most physical player we've had in a long time. Might go back to before Howard. I expect Valley refs won't allow that. It looks like Hall can cover the rebounding we lost at PF, but his scoring was mainly right at the hoop.

I expect Jake White will get some minutes. He looked a lot closer to ready than some of the older players. Stutz got a loose ball once, but didn't secure it next to his body and White picked him. That got Marshall throwing a towel and Garrett got some "coaching" - soe pretty loud "coaching". White >> Anacreon.

Wessel will be challenging for PT backing up Smith at the 3. Sweet shot and good shooting range. Looks like a smart, hustle plyer with some skills.

I'll give Baker the benefit of the doubt and assume he had the yips playing in front of a couple thousand people. He seemed to get better as the scrimmage went on. Early in the game he was - well, ineffective is the polite term.

Cotton's got some game. With what's in front of him and the possibility that Wessel and White will need to be on the court, Cotton is probably the most likely RS candidate. If he gets a shirt, I think it will be to preserve eligibility rather than to develop game.

Kyles looks better in street ball pickup Shocker Madness events than in organized scrimmages. I mentioned to Marshall (in the autograph line) that it was good to see something resembling a game instead of seeing street ball. Marshall turned to Kyles and said, "See - what did I say".

DWill's most noticeable stuff was when he tried too much and ended up out of control.

Not ready for prime time players includes:
Anacreon, Egharvba

Best news I saw: Jake White. It better be, because the other potential backups at PF were the biggest disappointment.

Based on what I saw, here's how I'd expect the rotation to go if the season started tomorrow.

C - Stutz - Orukpe
PF - Hall - White
SF - Smith - Wessel
SG - Murry - Kyles
PG - Rags - DWill

@Aargh: - thanks for another nice writeup with some alternate viewpoints!

[Kung Wu]

Did they announce the attendance, or could anyone that attended games regularly in the 90's compare to the attendance back then?

[Aargh]

Garrett Stutz with the off the glass dunk rocked the freakin house!

The move for that dunk was past Miller-esque. I couldn't believe what I saw. Stutz must have gotten about 30" off the floor. His head was near the level of the basket. The last couple of steps were stronger, quicker, and faster than I've ever seen out of Garrett. He went up STRONG - and I mean STRONG! I think it would be accurate to say he exploded off the floor to go up and get that ball.

I think the throw was expected to come off the backboard on the near side, but Garrett had to go under the basket and go up on the far side to get the ball.

Garrett still doesn't seem to have a great standing vertical, but his running vertical is pretty surprising. The apparent athleticism didn't seem to show up in the scrimmage, but playing against Orukpe and Hall could be responsible for that.

[wsushox1]

Toure Murry

let everyone know im ok...bad bruised ribs..thanks for the support!!

From his FB

[wsushox1]

Defense is WAY ahead of the offense.

That's to be expected.

[kcshocker11]

From his FB

Thxs 4 the update:pirate:

[Aargh]

I don't think I've seen this yet, but Murry was hurt when he attempted to posterize Hall.

There won't be any easy buckets near the hoop when Hall is near the hoop. I doubt there will be many 3-point and-ones involving Hall (on defense). Hall plays pretty physical. I doubt anybody scores if Hall fouls them near the hoop. I imagine the rest of the Valley will hate him and his physical play will probably get him a negative rep.

Another thing I remember that's worth mentioning. Baker faked Kyles into the air from somewhere around the 3-point line. Kyles bought it completely and went up like Kyles can go up. Baker watched, stepped in front of where Kyles was going to land and calmly swished the shot. The Fr schooled the Sr.

[1972Shocker]

If that's true whatever -- but not to let him at least appear at Shocker Madness to get his ring? He was a VERY LARGE part of that Championship year. Having him sit out an exhibition and even Shocker Madness I get --- but not to let him claim his ring in front of fans just like the rest of the team doesn't seem right. I don't even remember them mentioning his name at all. They showed the seniors from last year that weren't there but I don't remember them saying anything about Joe.

No they did not mention his name. I have no problem with how 3G handled this. If you need to send a message best to send it loud and clear. IMHO.

[1972Shocker]

He came back out half-way through the 2nd half and sat behind the "Yellow" bench.

And he was moving very gingerly. Even if his ribs are just bruised he will be very sore and tender for a while. Very scary fall.

[1972Shocker]

Not a lot more to say about individual players that hasn't been said. I was very impressed with Carl Hall's work on the boards. Yeah the offense is behind the defense, of course, the defenders now exactly what the offense is running. There is work to be done and I think we will be somewhat of a work-in-progress during the non-conference season. Hopefully, we are settled in by the start of MVC play and hopefully Rags will part of the equation.

Crowd was similar to last year, maybe a little bigger.

First time I can remember coming away from Shocker Madness where I thought the women were more impressive (relatively) than the guys. 33-33 tie in their 20 minute scrimmage.

[ShockerFever]

Some pretty solid analysis.

I'll just add what caught my attention:

Murry landed hard. Glad to know he is ok. That was a rough fall and it looked like Marshall wasn't too happy at Kyles, who I believe was part of the mix-up with that play with Murry. In what little action Murry did have, he missed his first 6 or 7 shots before finally making a runner in the lane. His defense is still way ahead of his offense IMO.

Stutz stole the show, especially early. He was eating EO for breakfast. If he goes at it like that night in and night out, he's a first-teamer. Ditto with Mr. Ben Smith. He's probably one of my favorite Shockers. Hustles the hell out for a rebound and he has such a smooth stroke. He needs to be starting.. FOR SURE.

Jake White looked good early too. He definitely has a sweet stroke and looks to be in the mix somewhere.

Kyles had flashes, knocked down a long 3-pointer. That's all that stood out from him.

Hall is definitely a bruiser. Definitely not the most polished offensive player, much like a Gabe or Aaron. His role will be important. Very important. He's gonna need to hit inside to open up our perimeter game. Hopefully, he'll smoothen out with more games under the belt.

EO looks squarely the same as last year. I just am not seeing it with him. Even on defense, he'll foul out in 5 minutes. Really stinks too, because he has the body and frame of a standout.

Wessel had some nice shots from the corner. He reminded me of Hatch at times, going after the ball.

Doc gave me the heads-up on Baker and that dude didn't disappoint. A very nice long-range shot and a CRAZY throw-down over Kyles. That was just SICK. He's a bit thin, but boy do I like his game. I'm sure a redshirt would do good and is probably in order, but I think he can contribute right away. And yes, I realize it was only one scrimmage, but wow.

Nobody else stood out that I can recall right now.

Should be a fun season with lots of potential. Hopefully without the target of Valley favorite, they can ride a little easier this year. This team has the potential to do scary things. Looks A LOT like the 2005-06 team in terms of individual players. I just hope everybody knows their roles and doesn't try to be heroes.

And yes, we need Joe badly.