The Official Shocks vs. Temple Game Thread - Puerto Rican Style

[vancedave56]

...so, am I the only one that thought Temple tipped the ball "on the way up" to start the OT?

[SHOXAAC]

Bad officiating happens all the damn time. Even if credit is given in the loss to UCONN, one stinkin' game doesn't mean jack ****. Consistency is what this team is lacking year-end and year-out in these early pre-season tournaments.

Given the fact that the Shox cannot schedule mid-high to high tier D1 programs to do a non-con series with us, in addition to how badly the Valley has been, it is a must that the Shox cash in on their opportunities. I did some checking for the past decade. Essentially, all the wins the Shox earned in pre-season tournaments were against non BCS opponents.

2000-2001 did not participate
2001-2002 did not participate
2002-2003 did not participate
2003-2004 we went 2 and 1 in the Virgin Island Tourney and lost to Boston College
2004-2005 did not participate
2005-2006 we went 1 and 2 in the S. Padre Tourney losing to Illinois
2006-2007 we went 2 and 4 in the Holiday Classic Tourney losing to New Mexico and USC
2007-2008 we went 1 and 2 in the Paradise Jam and lost to Baylor
2008-2009 we went 1 and 2 in the Old Spice Classic and lost to Georgetown and Michigan St.
2009-2010 we went 3 and 1 in the CBE and lost to PITT
2010-2011 we went 2 and 1 in the Maui Classic and lost to UCONN

Since 2000, the Shox have gone 12 and 12 in early season tournaments with two of these twelve wins coming against BCS programs in Iowa and Virginia (who were unranked and had poor seasons later that year). 2 and 8 against BCS programs overall.

This is a trend. It places the Shox, when we are having a good season, having to play catch up and pretty much have to play perfect basketball in the MVC and rely on other teams for help at the end of the year in order for us to be considered for an at-large. It's frustrating not to see early success for the Shox and then being placed on the back burner.

Tell me you are not in _kai_'s camp suggesting to forego early season tourny's because we can't seem to win important games. To get any kind of respect, we are just going to have to persevere through the painful process.

[SubGod22]

...so, am I the only one that thought Temple tipped the ball "on the way up" to start the OT?

No.

[SubGod22]

What tournament are we in next year? Cancun or South Padre? Seems like it was one of those destinations. Any clue who's scheduled to be in it as well?

[shockfather]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

Creighton at number 25 in the coaches poll gives us another chance at a ranked opponent. It wouldn't surprise me to see UNLV get ranked before we play them

[shockerofandover0943]

What tournament are we in next year? Cancun or South Padre? Seems like it was one of those destinations. Any clue who's scheduled to be in it as well?

I remember hearing Cancun, and hopefully next years field is better than this years. The field for this year is: Illinois, Illinois St, Hampton, Lipscomb, Richmond, Rutgers, Sacred Heart, and SIU-E. So basically, Illinois and Richmond.

[_kai_]

Because I myself have had posts that were less than stellar, I can honestly say this post isn't one of your finer moments. To quote Larry the Cable Guy "It's like wiping your butt before you poop...it just doesn't make sense."

Give me the chance to bat with runners in scoring position any time, than not. It is better to play with the chance to beat Bama and Temple than to play UMKC or Alabama A&M, which is about what WSU would have to schedule without tourny's like PR.

I guess I need to make sure about how I post on here since this post has gotten so much hate. My intent with the post was just a thought provoking statement, not my EXACT sentiment towards the situation. Would I not want to play in the Maui tournament every year? Of course I want WSU to play the best teams available. I was voicing my frustration with losing out on another missed opportunity in the early season tournaments. Everyone is reading it that I want WSU to never play these again. And rightfully so, that's how I worded it.

[SHOXAAC]

I guess I need to make sure about how I post on here since this post has gotten so much hate. My intent with the post was just a thought provoking statement, not my EXACT sentiment towards the situation. Would I not want to play in the Maui tournament every year? Of course I want WSU to play the best teams available. I was voicing my frustration with losing out on another missed opportunity in the early season tournaments. Everyone is reading it that I want WSU to never play these again. And rightfully so, that's how I worded it.

Fair enough...don't wish any ill feelings. GO SHOX!

[Good News]

I'm not sure UNLV, USU or UAB are as good as Temple. USU and UAB sure aren't looking like that caliber of team right now. Not sure what UNLV has done this year.

We need to continue playing in the biggest and best MTE's as possible.

Sub, after double checking to make sure they didn't have any significant player losses from last year (they don't), there's no doubt in my mind that UNLV will be at least as good as Temple. They were 2nd in a very strong conference in points allowed and FG percentage defense last year, and they are favored by many to win the Mountain West this year. Unless they implode or have some acclimation problems with new coach Dave Rice, it represents a very good opportunity for a marquee win in the eyes of the committee. Granted, it's not at a neutral site, but I would be surprised if they're not a top-50 RPI in March.


As far as Temple, I liked some of their players' games, but I didn't think they were a great team with a lock on a tournament spot. And I would probably say that about any team that we manage to take to overtime with 4-20 3pt shooting and 12-22 from the line. It was just one of those statistical outlier shooting nights that you have a couple of times each season and hope you compensate with other parts of your game and escape with a win.

If you assume 35% from 3 and 75% from the line (which were the full season averages for both the 09-10 and 10-11 squads), that's 3 more 3s, 4 more FTs, Shocks win by double digits, and Kai has to upgrade his webhosting services as the board nearly collapses from the weight of hand-wringing about whether Temple is going to be a quality win at the end of the season.



And congratulations to whoever read my mind and compared Cotton to Darren Brooks. Ever since the Charleston Southern game I've been thinking about how well he would have fit in with the Tatum/Young/Mullins backcourts at SIU that chewed people up with physical half-court D.

[CARMAX]

people need to remember "it's not how you start, but how you finish" take care of your business, and business will take care of itself." All the pieces are there, CGM has to get them in the right place, and over time i believe that will be the case.....we need to develop more depth at the post with EO an JW. RAgs , DW and DK better get straightened out quickly, because the freshmen are coming. I think Wessel would have played,if not for his nose being broke. nothing soft about Tehkele Cotton, he is going to be getting more and more minutes as the season goes. Very solid, and he doesn't get beat off the dribble. Bring on UAB and make them pay for war crimes.

[SHOXAAC]

people need to remember "it's not how you start, but how you finish" take care of your business, and business will take care of itself." All the pieces are there, CGM has to get them in the right place, and over time i believe that will be the case.....we need to develop more depth at the post with EO an JW. RAgs , DW and DK better get straightened out quickly, because the freshmen are coming. I think Wessel would have played,if not for his nose being broke. nothing soft about Tehkele Cotton, he is going to be getting more and more minutes as the season goes. Very solid, and he doesn't get beat off the dribble. Bring on UAB and make them pay for war crimes.

Here is the problem...we don't typically start very well with opportunities that matter; and we certainly don't have any history at finishing.

Side note: Glad to have you aboard...someone who spells worse than I do. lol

[another shocker]

That was a disappointing loss. The Shockers still seem to have a mental block against "name" teams (barring last years NIT run). C'mon, coach, lets knock one of these teams down for once.. or twice. Sheesh..

[kcshocker11]

Here is the problem...we don't typically start very well with opportunities that matter; and we certainly don't have any history at finishing.

Side note: Glad to have you aboard...someone who spells worse than I do. lol

I seem to recall we finished with a new banner in our arena. If we learn to shoot ft's and cut down on passing errors we will be ok:pirate:

[shockerfanmas]

why shouldn't Hubert Davis be laughing at WSU basketball? It was pathetic this weekend. Hell I was laughing and shaking my head at several things myself. This is not as good of a team as last year. They can be good, but everybody has to get on the same page.

This bs with Stutz and his teammates is ridiculous. First of all I find it hard to believe. Second of all if it is true, then something needs to be done about it. Surely if they laugh in his face in practice, somebody from the coaching staff has seen it and should deal with it. I've always thought that HCGM wasn't the greatest coach in the world when it came to certain aspects of the game. Nothing he did in this tournament made me think otherwise. At least Garrett owned up to the fact that he is soft and needs to get better in the post. I also would be hesitant to feed it to the post if the bigs can't finish.

I still expect this team to be in the postseason, but I fear the only way it's going to happen is by winning the MVC tournament, either that or running the table the rest of the regular season, which I certainly don't see happening. Yes, expectations are high, all we can do is sit back and try to enjoy and root on our shox. Let's just hope this doesn't self destruct like the last season after WSU had a great postseason run, which I believe was 2007?

[SPEShockAlum]

Well actually, we will play Creighton twice this year. There is a good chance that they will be ranked when we play. Those will be games that will be counted as good wins.

You're right @moshock: - Creighton is now ranked 25th according to this afternoon's USA Today/Coaches Poll.