Wichita State (#23) at Tulsa Game Thread

[ShockRef]

Curious why Poor Bear isn’t getting more minutes. Any ideas ?

You earn playing time off of practice time. Pretty much says it all right?

That is all.

[mattdalt]

This is not the only game that the 3 of them as a group have shot bad from 3. In the other 3 loses, they have gone 4-16 (West Virginia), 1-14 (Temple), and 4-13 (Houston).

Excellent info. So do we think it is a bad scheme, not good shooters, good shooter who are inconsistent? Something else?

[MelvinLoudermilk]

Should of won by 10+. Those were the best looks we have had in conference play.

[Dan]

Curious why Poor Bear isn’t getting more minutes. Any ideas ?

I’d guess he can’t play defense, that’s what gets you playing time for 3G.

[Dan]

I thought HCGM had a good game plan the first half.
However, very little adjustments were made in the second half and WSU reverted to running the same couple of offensive sets almost the whole 20 minutes.
HCGM and his staff can't do anything about the wide open missed shots. There is a rule about eligible players on the floor and he isn't one of them.
The only thing is the adjustments made by HC Haith which were not countered by HCGM and staff. HC Haith is not known in the coaching circles as some genius. To be out coached by him would not be source of pride to announce to the world.

That is all.

are we still struggling to recover from the loss of our top assistants? I thought 3G was the mastermind.

[ABC]

I thought HCGM had a good game plan the first half.
However, very little adjustments were made in the second half and WSU reverted to running the same couple of offensive sets almost the whole 20 minutes.
HCGM and his staff can't do anything about the wide open missed shots. There is a rule about eligible players on the floor and he isn't one of them.
The only thing is the adjustments made by HC Haith which were not countered by HCGM and staff. HC Haith is not known in the coaching circles as some genius. To be out coached by him would not be source of pride to announce to the world.

That is all.

I could only follow the second half via the phone. What adjustments did Tulsa make and what adjustments should WSU have made ? Obviously there are several posters with the same thoughts. Thanks.

[ShockRef]

are we still struggling to recover from the loss of our top assistants? I thought 3G was the mastermind.

He Needs to recognize that JB has talent, but is not his guy to attack the basket.
Can he attack the basket against Oral Roberts/Gardner Webbs of the world?
Sure.
AAC level teams?
Did you see the three really bad turnovers he committed, plus the silly offensive foul all in the second half?
They were 4 major offensive possessions he literally gave to Tulsa.
Thats why they need to develop TE to attack the basket, in addition to his long distance shooting ability.

I'm not knocking JBs effort. Not at all, as he busts his tail every game.
But he doesn't have AAC level ability to attack the basket in the role they are playing him.
You see the length teams like Houston and Cincy have and how well they clamp down on undersized drivers. it just ain't gonna happen.

TE has that type of body and ability, it just needs to be developed. They better start doing so or beat the recruiting trail to death and find that type of guy(s).

That is all.

[Shock Top]

A lot of basketball today is dribble-dive. Something the Shox seem to not be able to do well.

If we could see one thing different or develop on offense, that would be my choice.

Still a young team, so lumps and lulls will happen. Keep learning and growing.

[ShockingButTrue]

17 seconds left and the ball? One would think OT would be a lock.

Instead? No shot attempted and the other team gets the ball back with 3 seconds left... How. Does. That. Possibly. Happen?

If it's an Iso, the ball should be GS's hand. JB had his chance...

[MelvinLoudermilk]

“HCGM needs to recognize”.....”he needs to understand”.....”he needs to realize”

[Stickboy46]

Shoot just 40 % on wide open 3s and it's a double digit win

[BostonWu]

We need some gritty talented dudes like Armstead and Hall

[shocktown]

We need some gritty talented dudes like Armstead and Hall

I never saw Armstud and Hall play as fresh or sophs. Were they always gritty or was it a process where they became such through experience?

[1979Shocker]

Curious why Poor Bear isn’t getting more minutes. Any ideas ?

Defense?

[WSUwatcher]

The goal tending was a clear missed call. Dex one timed the board off the glass then the Tulsa help defender hit it clearly after it hit the glass. Cost us 1 point right before half (Dex made both FTs). The 3 in question you can't see from the replay. No doubt it's close but the official right there with a 20 times better angle than either of us immediately signaled 2 before it went in. I can accept that. Joiner walked twice on the game winner. Shuffled both feet when he caught it (called all the time in the half court) and again when he shot (please don't give me the both palms up ball out of control call, that's a travel). But, we have to make more (and take better) shots.

Still obvious how young we are. We have 1 senior and 2 juniors. Tulsa has 2 seniors, 7 juniors and 2 of those are 4th year juniors.

We're going to be out of gas at the wrong time of the season, and frankly I don't know how we're going to fix that or even if we can fix it.

Defensive scout was fantastic and executed brilliantly. I don't know what else you can expect from a team, defensively. Now, offensively, that's another story.

Good kids that played exceptionally hard in a difficult environment where they led for basically the entire game (35+ minutes). If we get a shot up there instead of the extra pass (hard to blame someone there) then at worst TU was going to have a second less to go full court, if anything at all. TU made one more play, they're playing with a ton of confidence right now and it showed. I'm proud of our guys for battling as hard as they did. Almost pulled it off. Seriously, I get everyone's frustration, but if JB hits a 6 footer instead of the turnover, we're tied for 1st in the league.

Very sensible and level-headed, Doc. Also, as Taylor Eldridge has pointed out, the Shocks had 16 wide open threes based on his film review, and they made TWO. Imagine if they had just made as many wide open threes as they did those that weren't wide open (where, obviously, they were 4-15). Give them just one more wide open three in each half -- which is a lot less than Eldridge tweeted as quoted above, and still brings them to just a pretty woeful 25% on such shots, and just over 25% for the game in total -- and the final 24 seconds of debacle time probably never occurs.

Things always look a lot worse when you miss shots you ought to make, and for the Shocks almost to win on the road in a game against a solid opponent in which Etienne, Dennis, and Stevenson were 3-21 from three gives me some hope for the future, because reversion to the mean will occur. It always does.

As far as the grumbling about Stevenson and his excesses at UConn -- looking at you here, Aargh, among others -- why does everyone fasten on Erik's antics (which I personally agree were excessive, by the way) while ignoring what also happened on that trip, namely a nasty hand injury, one he suffered on a hustle play, by the way, that may have physically affected his shot? It's easy to gripe about what you dislike (or the fallout from it) and attribute everything bad to it, but there may be a simpler physical explanation that has more to do with Erik's current struggles.