WSU at SMU Game Thread

[shockrah]

All I know is, Jesuz Christ what a game!!! Go Shocks!

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

This was not quite the way I remembered it so when I re watched the comeback I took notes. These are the facts.

Down 26. We make the first 3 at 12:36 -- Pooh Bear the only player on the bench to stand.

DD 3 at 11:35 -- Entire bench stand except ES who stays seated.

DD 3 at 10:40 -- ES is ;the last player on the bench to stand

JE 2 at 10:00 -- ES stands with the rest of the bench

GS 3 at 8:50 -- Up with team

DD 3 at 8:00 -- Up with team

JE Dunk at 7:16 -- last to stand up

From 6:20 on ES was all in


The reality is he was late to the party as a supporting team mate but he eventually jumped on board

Youre one of those “Stick to sports” people arent you?

[molly jabali]

Maybe I am off base but maybe not. It seems to me there are 3 or 4 posters that seemed to be dialed in on a
couple players and continually make unflattering remarks about them even when they are on the bench. I don't
understand their obsession of high lighting every mistake they might make and they never miss an opportunity
to slam them. Apparently, they watch their every move so they can immediately berate them. Appears they have
some sort of personal grudge or something. Might just be my imagination. A couple also target the coach and I
believe they are the same ones. I wonder, at times, if they have the best interest of our players and program in
mind.

Just my two cents worth...I've said it before...one of the players slouches and appears to sulk when not in or not playing well...then you have Noah and Tyson who appear to be nothing BUT energy and sunshine...not hard to gravitate...

[Ashockalypse]

Asiseeit, the ones that are talking about the Coach retiring or peaking in 2015 do not have the programs best interest in mind. By the way, a lot of great coaches have multiple peaks.

[ShockerExpress]

That’s the only thing that matters at this point.

I’m not sure how anyone thinks this is an NCAA team.

Look - I actually think Fever has a good point. This board, and thread, would be boring AF if people were just happy go lucky all the time. Being negative when your team is down 24 with 14 minutes left is perfectly acceptable.

What I think is silly, which I also posted about after Cincinnati, is the over the top negativity. I think comments like "I’m not sure how anyone thinks this is an NCAA team" is over the top. IMO, that is just a dumb comment. And I will call out the dumb comments, because I think they are dumb, and there seems to be not enough self policing of dumb comments on this board the past few weeks.

[BOBB]

Asiseeit, the ones that are talking about the Coach retiring or peaking in 2015 do not have the programs best interest in mind. By the way, a lot of great coaches have multiple peaks.

I want nothing but the best for the program. If HCGM has another run of excellence I'll be happy. Let's see if our recruiting goes up a notch, or if we add some new coaching talent on the assistant bench.

[asiseeit]

Topshock, I also just watched the video of the last 13 minutes and ES appeared to be the most engaged and excited bench
player. You are one of the guys I was referring to in my previous post. Have a good day.

[Slalomshocker]

I haven't read the entire thread, but before I do, I absolutely have to come here and give Grant some serious props. He came in the game, gave max effort 99% of the time and generally played a very nice game. The effort on defense and pushing the ball up the court were the first things I noticed. Then he started trying to attack gaps in their zone and was looking for the kick out from that. VERY nice game from the kid. I felt like he and Dex carried the guys from the abyss until everyone else regained their footing. I have been very down on the kid lately, I have to give him his due after that game. What a comeback effort from him. THAT version of 52 I'll support any day of the week. Hopefully he realized he can play that way, and log minutes doing it. Well done kid, very well done.

[pinstripers]

it's a win on the road that we had to have

[Kel Varnsen]

Even though we shot a ton of threes in the second half, it still felt like we were being aggressive.

When teams play zone, we need to run sets that get Dex open. He's lethal in catch-and-shoot situations and his elevation allows him to shoot over bigger defenders. We also did not have to run our offense through Echenique in the second half, even though he gave us some much-needed buckets.

The six-man rotation of Burton, Etienne, Sherfield, Dennis, Wade, and Echenique was phenomenal. It allows us to play against quicker teams like SMU and (possibly?) Houston. It gives us a great balance of guards who can penetrate (Burton, Sherfield) and guards/wings who can shoot (Etienne, Dennis). If I were a mad scientist, I would shorten the rotation to seven and play zone the whole game just to see what comes of it. Which is my next point...

We need to play more of the extended Fresno zone or the 1-3-1 zone that we ran in the second half against quicker teams. Maybe not exclusively, but it switches things up and helps us frustrate teams who run a lot of action on the perimeter. The only limitation is the size of Sherfield/Etienne, but they're quick enough to make up for it. I hope Marshall and his staff see things the same way.

This game needed Grant Sherfield. He hit some big shots and did an excellent job frustrating SMU's ball handlers on the perimeter, as well as getting dribble penetration when it was needed. He was so much more aggressive on both ends (the deflection in the front court that led to a steal in the first half comes to mind). I love Noah, but this comeback doesn't happen with him in place of Grant today.

Poor Bear and Gordon gave us a few good minutes today in the second half. This was not a game Udeze or Midtgaard could play in.

We live to fight another day.

[Topshock]

Topshock, I also just watched the video of the last 13 minutes and ES appeared to be the most engaged and excited bench
player. You are one of the guys I was referring to in my previous post. Have a good day.

What I posted is the accurate account of ES during the game except for the typo of down 26 instead of 24. Just as it says he was very engaged after he got on the bandwagon but he was the last on.
For your information I didn't start the ES discussion. All I did was provide the facts on it after some other posters inaccurately portrayed his behavior.


This was not quite the way I remembered it so when I re watched the comeback I took notes. These are the facts.

Down 24. We make the first 3 at 12:36 -- Pooh Bear the only player on the bench to stand.

DD 3 at 11:35 -- Entire bench stand except ES who stays seated.

DD 3 at 10:40 -- ES is ;the last player on the bench to stand

JE 2 at 10:00 -- ES stands with the rest of the bench

GS 3 at 8:50 -- Up with team

DD 3 at 8:00 -- Up with team

JE Dunk at 7:16 -- last to stand up

From 6:20 on ES was all in


The reality is he was late to the party as a supporting team mate but he eventually jumped on board

[Topshock]

Youre one of those “Stick to sports” people arent you?

Actually I'm one of those "Stick to the facts" people

[forevershockerfan]

For 26 minutes, the Shox were as bad as I've ever seen them in the Marshall era. That's going to get some negative posts. I did notice that the sunshine pumpers only posted after the W, when criticizing the negative posts was in play.

Here's some perspective. In the F4 run, against Gonzaga, the Shox scored 23 points on 9 possessions. That's 2.56 ppp. That was considered so incredible that ESPN was running features on it 2 years later. Today's ppp during the streak to pull out the win was only 2.22 ppp, but it was done over 18 possessions.

With all the "we would be tied for the lead in the league except for all those games we lost by only one possession", I was expecting another. Those one possession losses are why the Shox are fighting to stay in the hunt for the NCAA tourney. Consistency in losing one possession games is not a good thing. Maybe this one broke the run.

I like Burton's comment that he saw the guy setting up for the charge on the late block/charge call where he got the and-1. He saw how Cumberland gets that call (jumps to the side of the guy setting for the charge), and he got the basket and the call. If Burton can learn how to get Cumberland's whistle, the Shox would be a greatly improved team.

A game like this could be the spark that puts the energy back into a team that has seemed to be playing without much for a while.

That very execution by Mr. Burton made me think of Cumberland's drives, getting every whistle. That call was close enough to go either way and it drew some boos from their disappointed fans. Burton has made some key plays for the Shocks going down the stretch by both made shots, made free throws, and offensive rebounds. The Shocks also turned up the heat yesterday and got some steals on Defense. With all the fouling we did in close games, executing these zones has made a positive difference too for the Shocks.

Here are some other things Shocker learned as a team. When GS did not play against Temple, we still won a big game. We sure needed his nice game yesterday and I'm glad he is back. Next, ES had an off night as other Shockers stepped up that were playing well. We still won with him on the bench down the stretch where other Shockers go when they have an off night. Moving forward, DD is really getting his confidence back and the 7 made three pointers were huge. We failed to utilize Ech. as much inside as usual, but he still got us 13 rebounds and 4 blocks while not getting in foul trouble. TE is also a key player for us, even on a rare off-shooting 1st half he had. While Wade didn't have the barnstorm game he had against Temple, he gets in there and cleans glass. We used to wonder which Shocker team will show up today. Yesterday, it was which Shocker team will show up this half. Charles Dickens coined this, but in reverse. "It was the worst of times, it was then the best of times."

This road win verses SMU who beats all other AAC teams at home this Season was a needed shot in the arm adding to a winning recipe moving forward. However, Memphis will be a handful at their barn. They sure don't want us sweeping them as they did us last Season. Again, this closely matched road game will be up for grabs to the team that can execute and make shots down the stretch. A strong finish for the Shocks is the winning serum that could keep this black and yellow bubble hovering above us from bursting and squeak us into a March Dance contest by a very thin shred? Would winning out AAC games, getting the bye, and winning 1 more AAC tourney win cast our beloved Shocks into the Dance? Stay tuned.

[Topshock]

Topshock, I also just watched the video of the last 13 minutes and ES appeared to be the most engaged and excited bench
player. You are one of the guys I was referring to in my previous post. Have a good day.

Also listened to the GM press conference and it was very interesting.

He singled out TE & NF as being very positive and all about the team. Said GS has been amazing and full of energy since the Temple game

Then, when talking about half time said there is an element on this team that is not positive, that he said was new to him on a team and that he was "at the end of my rope" where they are concerned.

Now lets look at who didn't play in the second half and it seems pretty clear who those players are.

AM wasn't going to play in this game anyway, so I think he is excluded. It's not the walk on's or they would have been off the team long ago. Gordon made a second half appearance.

So who does that leave as players GM is "at the end of his rope" with . Can you figure that out asiseeit???

[pinstripers]

Anybody can see we have a chemistry problem. It will all sort itself out in a couple months