Wichita State vs. West Virginia Game Thread

[shoxlax]

I think we should host an exempt tournament here next year. It would prepare us better for shitty throw down courts, temp bleachers and bad lighting. Plus the money would stay in town

[asiseeit]

Don't like losing but we NEEDED that whooping to shine a light on our weaknesses. I think the players and the fans were starting to think
we were better than we are. SC and the other five games were all weak opponents. The team and certain players were/are not at a top 30
level many of you were believing them to be. Doesn't mean they won't be cause the potential is there. I like TW but he is an undersized
PF that got exposed and he isn't quick enough to play SF. I still have faith in our centers even though I know none are polished offensive
players. DD has been the biggest disappointment for me. He has so much athleticism but can't get to the rim. Standing around on the
perimeter just isn't going to cut it. JB looked fantastic against the patsies but was awful last night. They will hammer Central Ark and
evryone will think we are world beaters again but it will be OSU, OU and VCU that count. Win 2-3 of those and I'll feel much better. Let's
see how JB, TW and DD do against them. Not worried about TE and GS as they will just get better each game.

[1972Shocker]

Do some posters here not realize that the Shox are still a young team. There is only 1 Jr on the roster with more than a year of experience at WSU.

There's 1 Sr, 1 Jr, and 5 So's with 1 year in the program. You have to expect that teams that young will have ups and downs. The game against SCar was a huge up. It seems that SCar wasn't a true test. They're not very good. The game against WV was a true test and that test came at a time when WSU had a down game, which isn't unexpected with a young team playing two games in two days.

Had we won out in Cancun, I think we would have started getting votes in the polls. This team isn't quite ready for that yet. This loss will help prepare them for getting there if this team has the tools to get there.

From the pre-game thread:

Some do: https://shockernet.net/forum/wichita...44#post1202644

Some don't: https://shockernet.net/forum/wichita...52#post1202652

Glad to have some company to share this odd hill with. The good thing is that time and hard work should resolve this.

As 3G said earlier this year the goal is to get old and stay old.

[pinstripers]

ES and JB all tournament team. ES no brainer but JB? Thoughts Tyson was more deserving... just my 2c

JB was that good in the first game, but

[kcshocker11]

When shots don't fall! Young players try to compemsate. I think we will work this out!.

[ShockRef]

You are wrong on this one shockref

Pro,
Matt and you are reasonable posters and warrant a decent response.
The point is the emphasis on recruiting foreign (ok Wufan) bigs is understandable (legit bigs here aren't just standing on every street corner). But WSU's results are underwhelming despite the time and cash involved.
Look, its costs $$$ and requires a ton of investment to bring these guys here.
Remember what they had to do just to get EO here and enrolled @ the JC for a year? Spent a bunch of pesos and time to get a guy who had zero offensive skills. Yes, he blocked a few shots and grabbed an occasional rebound, but other than giving Cold the biggest man crush and case of the goo, was mostly just a big body.
Bush "Tom" Wamakota was an absolute bust. Couldn't catch the ball, zero post moves and no lateral movement. Other than that, he was great.
AM... I love the kid. Works hard and certainly would never embarrass the school. But after three years, still can't catch the ball, minimal lateral movement and hasn't covered simple low post moves such as a drop step and pivot. His biggest contribution is to set screens and occasionally dunk. Guys like that ARE standing on street corners and available.
They are spending a whole lot of $$$ and time and having dudes set screens and dunk, which any D2 player can do.

Just think its time to rethink the recruiting strategy, especially with the game continuing to evolve more into a faster/speed and attack the basket game.

That is all.

[shoxilla]

So if we played WV10 times how many would we win? After this small sample size many would say LT 5. Maybe.....maybe not. It's early and Shox will continue to improve. Hopefully we can double the sample size in March and see how far this team has grown AND matured.
Time to be thankful we have a good and improving team that will make, IMHO, the dance.
Reminds me of a famous line from a great movie:
"C'mon you Fockers, let's CONGA!!!!!"

[wsushox1]

It takes a solid 30 minutes of gameplay to adjust for WVU. No matter the team. The reality is that WVU was better in the categories that the shockers needed to be better in to compensate for the poor shooting (rebounding, physicality). This isn’t even close to a sky is falling loss or a even a “we aren’t as good as we think”.

If you aren’t excited about the way that Ettienne, ES, and a few others competed than I don’t know if you’d be happy with any performance.

Last thing, WSU isn’t going to win those type of games when both DD and TW have dud performances. They doNt have to be great, but they certainly can’t be no shows.

[pinstripers]

Marshall preaches "play defense without fouling".....Huggy basically tells his kids to "play defense while fouling". We were bullied and we just kinda gave them our lunch money. I think we'll be prepared for them next time.

[ShockerFever]

Newsflash. No one has gone undefeated in college basketball damn near 45 years. Teams lose games.

It’s not about playing the under-the-rader card anymore, but something tells me you’re smart enough to know what I meant.

I'm well aware of the fact that you don't go undefeated and you lose games. The manner in which you lose said games is different. There is no way WVU is double-digits better than us. They are a mid-pack Big 12 team at best.

I also don't just like accepting L's simply based on the fact that teams lose throughout the course of the year. Watching players go hero ball and us getting completely dismantled on the boards is not something I'm just gonna "accept" and be happy about. I can handle losses when teams are better than us and outplay us.

[1972Shocker]

Taylor Eldrgidge: ‘Bigger, badder’ West Virginia muscles its way to Cancun championship over Shockers

For the first time this season, Wichita State was not the aggressor on the court.

The Shockers were out-classed by West Virginia, which was the bigger, tougher and more aggressive team

Even with WSU playing two centers together for the majority of the game, West Virginia crushed the Shockers on the glass for a 48-31 rebounding advantage, including rebounding 46% of its own misses.

Even with all of the poor shooting and offensive rebounds allowed, the fact remains that Wichita State had a chance at the end of the game. After a a basket from Stevenson, who finished with a game-high 22 points, the Shockers were somehow within 57-51 of West Virginia with five minutes still remaining. But WSU could never string together enough defensive stops in a row when it needed them.

After scoring 36 points in WSU’s first two games, Dennis is in a five-game slump since. He’s averaging just 4.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists with no steals in the last five games. During that stretch, Dennis is shooting 24.3% from the field and just 3 of 24 on three-pointers.

One day after making South Carolina pay for its over-aggressive defense, the Shockers looked uncomfortable the entire game against a similar style of defense employed by West Virginia. The Mountaineers contested every pass on the perimeter, pushed WSU’s offense further away from the basket than preferred and generally did not allow the Shockers to move or pass where they wanted.

[Bluzrover]

I avoided posting last night because I was on the edge of my seat, trying to will a few shots into the basket, urge EVERY free throw through the net, yelling at the refs and screaming at the TV, hoping our guys would eventually box out, grab a rebound or find the spacing to open up the offense. All for naught.

All credit to the Mountaineers. That defense was something to behold. Granted, the refs were horrible. But those guys played the stingiest defense I’ve seen in a long time.

Seven games in and we’re 6-1 with that loss to one of the biggest teams we may face all season and probably a top four team in the Big 12. I’m not thrilled with the result of last night’s game but a day later there’s a lot more to like than hate. A lot of what we saw that wasn’t good can be corrected. We didn’t curl up in a ball and wilt. They fought it out and didn’t wilt. I think we still might be an okay team.

[wsushox1]

I'm well aware of the fact that you don't go undefeated and you lose games. The manner in which you lose said games is different. There is no way WVU is double-digits better than us. They are a mid-pack Big 12 team at best.

I also don't just like accepting L's simply based on the fact that teams lose throughout the course of the year. Watching players go hero ball and us getting completely dismantled on the boards is not something I'm just gonna "accept" and be happy about. I can handle losses when teams are better than us and outplay us.

Some of that “hero ball” was because WVU wouldn’t even let us enter our half court offense, and when we did get into it they completely disrupted the timing and spacing of the set plays. Credit them.

WVU dares the officials to call a foul on every play and they dare you to beat them 1 on 1. You have to have great individual offense to beat a team like that because your set plays are not going to work.

Now, there were some bad shots and poor shot selection from time to time, but that happens every game. The game wasn’t lost due to hero ball, but rather a lack of players who were able to beat their man 1 on 1. We don’t have a breakdown the defense type player at the momenr.

[Aargh]

There are three words that go a long ways toward describing last year's early season problems and last night's game

Freshman point guard

[1972Shocker]

Taylor Eldridge Analysis: Here’s what West Virginia did on defense to beat Wichita State for the Cancun title

1. THE FOUNDATION OF WEST VIRGINIA'S DEFENSE

The foundation of West Virginia’s defense is the pressure that it applies not only to the ball handler, but also to any player within the vicinity of the ball.

The Mountaineers hound ball handlers and then deny one pass away, even if that means chasing players out to the half-court line.

The Shockers are used to starting their half-court sets near the three-point line. Not against West Virginia. In its finest form, West Virginia’s defense doesn’t let offenses start from where they want to start, cut to where they want to cut or pass where they want to pass. They force teams outside of their comfort zone and that’s where WSU was forced to operate for a good portion of Wednesday’s game.

There were a handful of possessions where WSU didn’t complete its first pass until 15 seconds or fewer were on the shot clock.

West Virginia’s defense held WSU to a staggering 0.69 points per possession in the halfcourt.

2. THE MOUNTAINEERS GAVE WSU FITS WITH ITS SWITCH-HAPPY DEFENSE

It didn’t matter if WSU was running its ball screen or motion offense, West Virginia’s switch-happy defense gave the Shockers fits.

Switching everything sounds pretty great, right? Why doesn’t every team do it?

Because not every team has the size, length and athleticism that West Virginia does at every position. The Mountaineers have a versatile roster and are well-coached by Bob Huggins to be able to pull off the complex defense.

WSU had very little success in the paint against West Virginia’s length. The Shockers made an extremely low 38% of their shots near the basket, a result of West Virginia blocking eight shots and altering many more when the Shockers drove.

It caused a ripple effect through WSU’s offense. The Shockers were getting blocked at the rim, so they started pulling up for awkward 8-foot jumpers. When those didn’t fall, WSU fell victim to WVU’s pressure speeding up its ball handlers and baiting them into taking rushed shots.

3. WEST VIRGINIA PLAYED LIKE IT WANTED IT MORE

The litmus test for coaches on determining the tougher team is who won the rebounding battle and on Wednesday it wasn’t even close.

4. THE SHOCKERS SQUANDERED THEIR FEW CHANCES

After film review, the Eagle counted 11 three-pointers that WSU took in-rhythm without a strong contest from a defender. The Shockers made just three of them.

---

After reading Taylor's typically excellent game analysis and film review I am of the opinion that West Virginia was a really bad team to have to play on the 2nd day of a 2-game schedule especially for a relatively young team like the Shocks. There simply isn't enough time to really prepare them for what they were about to experience. Even if the Shocks had had more time to scout and prepare it would be very difficult to fully simulate in practice what West Virginia does. Nevertheless more time to prepare would be very helpful against a team like West Virginia.