Wichita State vs. Oral Roberts Game Thread (Oklahoma, U.S.A., N.A., Earth)

[1972Shocker]

Busy day on the WSU Campus. Arrived at the Student Center about 12:30 pm with my daughter and 2 of my grandsons. The campus and student was very busy. Today was the All-Majors Distinguished Scholarship Invitational for the Class of 2020 including three $64,000 Harry Gore Memorial Scholarships. We arrived early to have lunch in the Shocker Grill and let the kids bowl a couple of games. I have never seen the Shocker Grill so busy before a game. Looked like mostly basketall fans and as opposed to scholarship contestants. It was great to see that.

Looking forward to getting the completion of the new Student Athlete Center so we can have that route to the arena available again, Cessna Stadium not withstanding the WSU Campus is really becoming an impressive place.

When we go to our seats ORU was already on the floor warming up. The first thing I noticed was Lufile and Obanor. A couple of very impressive physical specimens. Especially Lufile. Might be future for him in the NFL if basketball doesn't work out.

As for the game it was kind of disjointed with periods of solid play interspersed with periods of rather lackluster play leading to somewhat less that satisfying feeling even thought the Shocks picked what may prove to be a nice win. I didn't think our bigs overall had a very good performance. Lufile and Obanor were more impressive. But it was good to see Jaime back and getting some floor time under his belt.

Grandpa is becoming our steady eddy, Mr. Dependable. Trey Wade quietly had a pretty good game and Tyson had a good day shooting the ball from distance. Erik had a solid floor game leading the Shockers in rebounding with 8 and assists with 9 while only committing 1 turnover. But he continues to struggle with his perimeter shooting.

As 3G said in the post-game that kind of performance will probably not be good enough to get it done in Cancun. At least 3G should have his team's full attention as they prepare for their first games away from Koch Arena.

[wufan]

He did?

He did not. Still wearing the Ranger Panty.

[ShockingButTrue]

Thought the offense looked stagnant. Too much "dribble, hold, pass...dibble, hold, pivot, pass...so on and so forth". Not sure if we had two quick passes all day. But then, that's not going to happen much with little motion in the set. It didn't matter who was in the lineup. If ORU had made a few more of those open 3s ( shot about 26%, not 13%) we'd been toast.
Hope we got that kind of play out of our system.

That's been a recurring theme the last couple of years. They seem to be continually tight on offense. Youth?

[wufan]

That's been a recurring theme the last couple of years. They seem to be continually tight on offense. Youth?

I thought we did a good job of feeding the post today. Probably a little slow on rotations and took a few quick ones.

[1972Shocker]

[pinstripers]

1. Really nice game from Erik, needs to shoot better though.
2. Was the offense stagnant with Sherfield at the point?
3. Noah, Gordon, and Poo were no-shows in the second half.
4. Dex not scoring and really not even shooting.
5. AM was serviceable.
6. 800-900 empty seats, and not all of them were sold.
7. We gotta get ETN more shots.
8. Wade is a really nice player.
9. JB is just kind of a basketball player, position or no.
10. They coulda beat us, maybe shoulda beat us.
11. the Lufile kid is built like a God.

[ShockerFever]

Erik Stevenson is really coming along. If he can just figure out how to be a 34% 3pt shooter, we'll be cooking with gas.

That would be possible if he didn't take so many bad shots.

I dunno how many times he took one 25+ foot out or twisting in a man's face. That was a problem last year and seems to be coming up again this year. I believe him to be a decent shooter when he takes good shots. He just doesn't and those turn into essential turnovers.

It seems like a few of our guys have that problem. We force a lot of stuff. I honestly haven't seen so many bad shots taken in the last 2 years ever with Marshall-coached teams. A lot of these guys need to let the offense come to them. If it's not there, find a better option. We don't turn the ball over a lot probably because we're too busy taking ill-advised shots.

[Shocker Mama]

1. Really nice game from Erik, needs to shoot better though.
2. Was the offense stagnant with Sherfield at the point?
3. Noah, Gordon, and Poo were no-shows in the second half.
4. Dex not scoring and really not even shooting.
5. AM was serviceable.
6. 800-900 empty seats, and not all of them were sold.
7. We gotta get ETN more shots.
8. Wade is a really nice player.
9. JB is just kind of a basketball player, position or no.
10. They coulda beat us, maybe shoulda beat us.
11. the Lufile kid is built like a God.

Perhaps a good recruiting tactic would be to say, “So — have any younger brothers at home that we should take a look at in a few years?”

[Dan]

Our offense is not nearly crisp enough, which makes us easy to guard. We need to be quicker with our passes and decisions after the catch.

[1972Shocker]

Watched the replay of the ORU game last night. Bob Hull kept calling Elijah Lufile the little brother of Chadrack. I kept thinking younger brother yes. Little brother no way.

Had to chuckle at 3G's post-game comments to Shane Dennis he said Elijah made it look like none of his players have ever seen the inside of a weight room.

BTW, our PA announcer pronouced Lufile as Loo-feely throughout the game. Did we not pronounce it Loo-feel when Chadrack played for us? 3G pronounced it Loo-feel in his post-game comments.

[Jhook89]

IMO this was a classic looking ahead game. I think the team is ready to be in Cancun and playing against a little better competition. Both the halves were very similar. First half got up by 12 early, took the foot off the gas and ORU willed their way back in to the game. Got up 15 in the second half, took the foot off the gas and ORU willed their way back in. I think they kept expecting ORU to roll over, which to their credit they most definitely did not. I never once felt like this game was in doubt though, because for the most part when they were actually 100% dialed during stretches they would clearly outclass ORU.

[Jhook89]

Also this was the highest rated team on Kenpom we have faced so far.

[Napoleon Dynamite]

Why did they not include Tulsa in the thread title?

[pinstripers]

Our offense is not nearly crisp enough, which makes us easy to guard. We need to be quicker with our passes and decisions after the catch.

Yeah, this

[Bluzrover]

That's been a recurring theme the last couple of years. They seem to be continually tight on offense. Youth?

I almost believe it’s an over correction for how they began the season when they were just chucking it from beyond the arc. We are still a very young team so we should expect a bit of a roller coaster as the season progresses. The good news is that our sophomores are not your typical sophomores and we can ride this roller coaster through the “appetizers” of the season. Now that we’re moving to the”entrees”, we have a much less room for error.