Cal State Fullerton Game Thread

[Dan]

Ugly game. Too much focus on feeding Garrett for 2/3 of the game. That plan backfired since the big man played terrible. Luckily Carl Hall was there to pick up the scraps and the guys starting making some outside shots.

[KC Shox]

Listened to the game driving down from KC. My 31 point margin of victory was destroyed by the sloppy play in the first half. I'm glad they won but they definitely need to play a whole, whole lot better Sunday or we are going to get run out of our own gym.

[Aargh]

Ugly game. Too much focus on feeding Garrett for 2/3 of the game. That plan backfired since the big man played terrible. Luckily Carl Hall was there to pick up the scraps and the guys starting making some outside shots.

Uh, Dan, I wasn't at the game, but Kennedy reported that Stutz was being fronted the entire game and that there was another guy behind him. Kennedy also mentioned that it looked like UCF studied the UAB game film and wasn't going to give Stutz anything.

If that was a correct report from the game, that's likely to be a factor in Hall's game. It also might be a factor in the outside game working once the perimeter players started hitting some 3's.

I'll be among the first to say that Stutz did not have a good game, but sometimes the other team has something to do with that, and then the Shox need to learn how to deal with that.

Feeding Stutz didn't backfire. That kept the D on Stutz and opened up other players. Stutz deserves some criticism for his game tonight, but you're really missing the effectiveness of feeding Stutz for 2/3 of the game. The D played against Stutz left either Hall or a 3-point shooter open. It's not Garrett's fault that UCF felt comfortable leaving 3-shooters open.

[vancedave56]

Ugly game. Too much focus on feeding Garrett for 2/3 of the game. That plan backfired since the big man played terrible. Luckily Carl Hall was there to pick up the scraps and the guys starting making some outside shots.

Disagree. We have to focus on getting the ball inside to even have a chance in the long run. Stutz had a bad game - period. Not too many players have NOT already had a bad game or two already this early in the season - that is what the depth is for. If we can't get it inside, the outside will not be open - and our 3 point shooting has been horrendous also.

The turnovers are just as big or bigger issue.

[forevershockerfan]

News Flash: teams can't focus inside, just on Stutz. Mr.Carl Hall is worth working the ball to. Our 3 point shots and turnovers were both awful the 1st half. Mr Rags and DK looked good tonight. Let's hope our more aggressive D. in the 2nd half will be a positive "pivot-point" into the UNLV game.

[Dan]

I have no problem trying to get it inside, but it was obvious what wasn't working. Fullerton was definiteoly keying on Stutz tonight and he helped the cause by taking bad shots and playing soft.

[vancedave56]

Uh, Dan, I wasn't at the game, but Kennedy reported that Stutz was being fronted the entire game and that there was another guy behind him. Kennedy also mentioned that it looked like UCF studied the UAB game film and wasn't going to give Stutz anything.

If that was a correct report from the game, that's likely to be a factor in Hall's game. It also might be a factor in the outside game working once the perimeter players started hitting some 3's.

I'll be among the first to say that Stutz did not have a good game, but sometimes the other team has something to do with that, and then the Shox need to learn how to deal with that.

Feeding Stutz didn't backfire. That kept the D on Stutz and opened up other players. Stutz deserves some criticism for his game tonight, but you're really missing the effectiveness of feeding Stutz for 2/3 of the game. The D played against Stutz left either Hall or a 3-point shooter open. It's not Garrett's fault that UCF felt comfortable leaving 3-shooters open.

This

[Zardoz]

They were really concentrating on Stutz. We should have been able to use that to our advantage, we didn't for the most part. Carl Hall did get 19. Outside shooting needs to improve if they want to double time our center. Outside should be open and was, just did knock down a lot. Also need to take care of the ball.

[wu_shizzle]

HCGM had a great quote after the game: "When Tekele Cotton is in the game the score goes in the right direction".

I would love to see DWill buy in on both ends of the court, but until then, he can watch Tekele show him how it's done.

[Zardoz]

Tekele Cotton is starting to look like one of the first guards off the bench.

[1972Shocker]

It's one thing to focus on getting the ball inside to Garrett and another to force the ball inside to him which is what we were doing in the 1st. Far too little patience in running the offense and moving their defense around. Not that Garrrett played well. When he did get the ball he tended to force the issue when he probably should have kicked the ball back out. I do think Carl was the beneficiary to some extent of CSF's focus on Garrett but Carl was also much more aggressive taking the ball to the hole than was Garrett.

This Shocker team did one thing extremely well in the 1st half. In fact, they did one of the best jobs I have ever seen in taking the Shocker crowd totally out of the game. Our passing and decision making in the 1st half was about as bad as I have seen.

Carl was very good, Toure was also pretty solid as was Tekele. DK was DK. A highlight reel play followed by a lowlight reel play. Wash, rinse, repeat. Rags finally came to life in the 2nd half and was key to finally putting CSF away with his run of 3 treys.

At times the defense was pretty good and at other times not so much.

Ehimen was not very good tonight either. Struggled catching the ball tonight. However, he almost made a play for the ages when he just about bounced the ball into the basket late in the game. Also, on one other play he mishandled a pass and inadvertantly made a perfect touch pass to a teammate for a basket. Wonder if he got an assist on that one.

[Aargh]

HCGM had a great quote after the game: "When Tekele Cotton is in the game the score goes in the right direction".

I would love to see DWill buy in on both ends of the court, but until then, he can watch Tekele show him how it's done.

We're going to get 3 years of Cotton and VanVleet playing together. I suspect two of those years are going to be special. Cotton and VanVleet aren't as tall as what we're used to now, but I think we'll like those two guys on the court.

On the subject of new guys, White is starting to look a lot like Kampman - with some hints of a taller version of Hatch.

[ShockerFever]

I think Rags hates Stutz.

I got that same vibe too, along with a couple of other players. But then Stutz didn't help his cause in this one either.

[forevershockerfan]

TC has great instinct on D. which results in steals which results more in Shocker posessions, which results in more points for us, the good guys.

[ShockerPhi]

We need to play two great halves of basketball on Sunday, not just one like we did tonight.

On a side note, Georgetown and Alabama are fighting it out on ESPN 2 right now. Game is back and forth.
Bama - 43
G-Town - 47 with over 5 min to go.