Wichita State vs. Texas Southern Official Game Thread

[asiseeit]

Pretty ugly win but a WIN. DD and ES finally did some damage the 2nd half. We took care of the ball and played good
defense. Owned the boards the 2nd half. Too many players forcing off balance shots instead of passing. I'm not
convinced Wade is that strong of an offensive player but he boards. I think we will be fine when we get a couple guys
back and IC can play both 4/5. GS needs to run the offense better. Give credit to Southern as they played good defense
and are very athletic.

[kcshocker11]

A win is a win, but much tougher than I thought it would be. It early and in Marshall we trust!

[Good News]

Random Thoughts:

1. I saw a lot of coin flip shots in the first half (as opposed to poor shot decisions) that rimmed out, so until I see a few more games of horrendous shooting I’m willing to call it an anomaly and one of those things where sometimes it just comes up tails or double zero more times in a row than you’d normally expect. DISCLAIMER - I couldn’t get the ESPN3 stream to work until 8 minutes left in the first half so maybe the first part was worse.

2. Texas Southern strikes me as one of those large standard deviation teams - athletic/experienced enough to play above their head against the right competition and in front of the right crowd, but not a truly good team. In other words I’m not worried. Yet.

3. Dex - if you want to wear nut huggers, get your shorts tailored instead of hand rolling them. Nobody cares, except for the chicks, and I doubt they’ll complain.

4. Shoulders are tricky. I hope Mo is able to lift more in the next offseason and really get jacked up. I think he/we might have problems in the AAC down low.

5. I really wish we had a Malcolm Armstead pushing Grant and Tyson in practice. I love the potential and know that Marshall wants to get them the minutes so he can get the mistakes out of the way, but GS in particular makes a lot of iffy decisions at this point that I don’t feel like Fred would have made with limited playing time and Malcolm as an example. I am looking forward to watching him mature and make us forget that Alex Lomax ever existed (which for me has already happened).

6. I probably listen to about 75% of the coaches shows but have never heard Marshall comment on ES’s shooting. I can’t remember who it was - Tekele maybe - where Marshall said he had the green light because “they go in during practice” despite the game percentages. I hope that’s the case with ES.

7. All in all a good outcome for that shooting performance and without JB/JE. D is ahead of the O. And the winning team had more composure down the stretch.

8. And finally, something that is actually important. When I was a boy at the games in the early 80s, I always noticed a guy that appeared to be a quadriplegic that was wheeled in behind the bench. He was at every game, and I think I remember Aubrey and X and other players seeming to be close to him. Any time I saw him I wondered what happened, and more importantly, whether he would be immobilized like that for the rest of his life (and how long that would be). Today I am 99 percent sure I saw him standing up on the end of press row, behind the Shocker bench, wearing a white 24 jersey. If he or his family is on ShockerNet... you made me smile today, brother.

Peace and Chicken Grease,

Good News

[Dan]

I’m just glad we got the W. Lots of lessons to be learned which will be revealed in film study. As for Sherfield, he may not be the best PG right now but he takes care of the ball and isn’t afraid to mix it up inside. The rest will come, it’s only game #2. The bench got short tonight and we got to saw who 3G trusts right now in crunch time. Time to put this one behind us.

[forevershockerfan]

ShockerFever told us to be aware of this team. Very perceptive. Now that we won, and the dust settled, here is my take. Our D held strong even though we fouled too much. First half makes were like pulling hens teeth. Our foes started believing in win, but they missed throws and missed 25 ft.bombs that helped the Shocks scrap out a needed win. After ES went down for a spell, Burton, and JE out with injuries, we had Soph. DD as our main experienced player from last Season, new players, and our bigs from last Season who didn't play a whole lot. A MTXE comeback by ES along with Sherfield and DD leading the way in the 2nd half. There will be more games along the way like this, but as we heal up, and gain more experience this team will be finer than a frogs/hair.

[KraRam]

Come February this game is just another “W”.

[wsushox1]

It is early, but GS shot when he should have passed, dribbled when he should have shot, and passed when he should have dribbled. He Missed DD quite a bit today when he was wide open. Film should help correct these problems, and he certainly has the skill to correct the problems.

[ShockingButTrue]

Haven't been this discouraged after a win since R. Smithson was walking the sidelines.

[abdullah_sharif]

lots to work on. hopefully the guys will use their day off this week to get into the gym.

fred never took a day off.

[MelvinLoudermilk]

Thank God for ES

lot of heart to play like that after rolling his ankle

[ArtVandalay]

Moving forward, more good stuff, less bad stuff.

[Blackmag]

Tough game to watch first half, never saw a home team shoot so bad. We’re hurting at the post position without Echenigue, and this is against inferior competition. Stevenson had a nice second half. Dennis solid overall and Sherfield better second half, plays fearless for a freshman. Until we get some consistent post play I’m afraid we’ll have to shoot much better than what we shown so far this year...

[wufan]

Every year it’s the same thing. Whatever happened in the last game is what we are. Sherfield, Etienne, and Wade aren’t as good as we thought. DD is still awesome and the big men still suck.

I’m just as optimistic now as I was in September, which is less optimistic than several in this board, but I’m going to enjoy our 21+ regular season wins!

[60Shock]

Hats off to Eric for a whale of a game. He came through when we needed him the most and frequently took a beating doing so. He showed True Grit this afternoon.

[TheShocktocles]

The Good

The shocks found a way to win even though they did not play well. ES played inspired ball and some of his shots fell. TW still grabbed double figure rebounds even though his shot didn't fall. DD played tough as usual. Big Mo continues to attack the glass and knows what to do with it in traffic. G Sherfield hit his free throws down the stretch. So did everyone else.

The Bad

No inside game again. AM is hard to watch. His play is just brutal right now. Not sure what's going on with him. IPBC played better today on defense but gives us nothing on offense.

The Ugly.

Point guard play from GS. Did he get an assist today? Our offense looked out of sync because the point guard play was awful. The way DD dressed. Really? Yellow shoes and pants shorter than everyone else on the team. It's always bad when a player focus more on how he looks on the court instead of leading his team. And of course the shooting by the team was terrible today. We couldn't throw it in the ocean.

Well hate to say I told you so, but last year I pointed out that if R Torres transferred that this team would struggle with freshmen point guards leading it, if Jamarius Burton got hurt. Well it almost happen today. We escaped . JB please get healthy. Go Shocks.