Wichita State vs Memphis Pre-Game Discussion

[WuShock Reaper]

Description: WICHITA STATE VS MEMPHIS
When: JAN 9 (THU) 6:00 P.M
Where: WICHITA, KAN. CHARLES KOCH ARENA
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM https://keyn.radio.com/
TV: ESPN2

Summary:
The Memphis Tigers, along with Houston, were picked to finish first in the AAC preseason poll. Voting was conducted by each of the league's 12 head coaches. Memphis and Houston tied for first in the preseason poll with 113 points each. The preseason tie was a first in league history. Former Tiger James Wiseman, Fr., Center, was the only Tiger player chosen to the AAC preseason first/second teams and is potentially the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. The Tigers return only three players – Alex Lomax, Tyler Harris and Isaiah Maurice – from last year's team. The Tigers are 12 wins and 2 losses.

Odd Makers:
Vegas: WSU by 4.0
DRatings: WSU 75% by 7.2
ESPN: WSU 69%
INCCSTATS: WSU 58% by 2.0
KenPom: WSU 64% by 2.0
Massey: WSU 70% by 6.0
Nolan: WSU by 1.0
Sagarin: WSU by 4.3
Torvik: WSU 74% by 6.5
Wilson: WSU 69% by 5.0

[WuShock Reaper]

[wichshock65]

Looks like we are going to be the Super Bowl for Memphis. Our guys will have a huge target on their back for a long long time. May as well sew it onto the uniforms.

[shoxlax]

Quite possible the league winner this year could have 4-5 losses and the second and third place teams could have 6-7 losses. Balance and no bad teams. Holding serve at home is critical because I think road wins are going to be hard to come by.

[ShockerFever]

Looks like we are going to be the Super Bowl for Memphis. Our guys will have a huge target on their back for a long long time. May as well sew it onto the uniforms.

Funny how the tables have turned.

[RoyalShock]

On the Monday Overreactions podcast, they discuss WSU and Memphis at about the 39:45 mark.

https://art19.com/shows/college-basketball-talk/episodes/6a2c9d38-88b5-483a-ac47-5328fedc9f12

[pie n eye]

Quite possible the league winner this year could have 4-5 losses and the second and third place teams could have 6-7 losses. Balance and no bad teams. Holding serve at home is critical because I think road wins are going to be hard to come by.

Will be interesting to see. The league winner has had 2 losses the past two years. Is any team(s) as good as Cincinnati from two years ago or Houston last year? How much deeper is the league?

[Cdizzle]

Will be interesting to see. The league winner has had 2 losses the past two years. Is any team(s) as good as Cincinnati from two years ago or Houston last year? How much deeper is the league?

Right now, I don't think any teams are that good. WSU and UH could be by February/March. They have the pieces as well as the coaching to make those pieces into something great.

The league may not be a ton deeper, but there are fewer auto-wins, IMO. Tulane is significantly improved. I think we'll see that ECU is not terrible now that they have figured a couple of things out. SMU has more than 3 healthy players.

[WuShock Reaper]

"Monday’s Overreactions: ..." - NBC Sports

By Rob Dauster
Jan 6, 2020, 10:20 AM

https://sports.yahoo.com/monday-overreactions-cassius-winston-florida-162055065.html

"WICHITA STATE IS THE BEST TEAM IN THE AAC, AND MEMPHIS IS BORDERLINE TOP 25 AT BEST

Let’s start with the latter.

Here’s what Memphis has done this season: They won at Tennessee, who has proceeded to fall off of a cliff and does not look like they will be making a return trip to the NCAA tournament. They beat Ole Miss at home by a point, the same Ole Miss that was drubbed by 20 at Wichita State on Saturday. They beat N.C. State on a neutral floor. N.C. State lost on Saturday to Clemson, whose only win since Nov. 24th came at home against Jacksonville.

And while it came without their best perimeter scorer and one of their most versatile defenders in D.J. Jeffries, Memphis still lost to Georgia on Saturday in a game where Anthony Edwards did not play all that well.

Put another way, Memphis is really talented, enough so that blindly assuming they are a top 20 team isn’t crazy, they just haven’t really done anything on the court that would prove this to be true.

Then there is Wichita State, who is now 13-1 on the season after blowing out Ole Miss on Saturday.

The Shockers don’t necessarily have any great wins this season, but they have put together a handful of wins that are impressive enough that we need to take note. They won at Oklahoma State, they beat Oklahoma, they beat VCU and this Ole Miss team they whooped up on is pretty good.

The Shockers may turn out to be the class of the American this year.

On Thursday, they host Memphis. We’ll know then."

[Mr. Pickle]

I'm really looking forward to this- another team to add to the 2020 revenge tour for last year.

Gotta keep them in a half court game and force them into turnovers. Precious will get his points, because I dont think we have anyone that matches up well with him, ala Jayden Gardner.

I hope everyone pays attention and wears black, otherwise it's gonna look pretty silly.

[shoxlax]

I remember Memphis celebrating on our home court last year. I hope our players do.

[WuShock Reaper]

[Cdizzle]

I remember Memphis celebrating on our home court last year. I hope our players do.

Yep. Things were done that should not have been done. Especially by some who should have been extra careful considering they were lucky to not be sitting out a year.

[pie n eye]

So, we “don’t necessarily have any great wins”. And now they’re setting it up so that if we beat Memphis that won’t be a great win either. I guess that’s going to be the theme of the season all the way to the second round of the NCAA tourney. Yeah, but who have they beat?

[Dan]

I love how challenging our schedules look going into the season and then after we play all these teams, the media talks about how we haven't really played anyone.