North Texas at Wichita State Game Thread 12-18-21

[WuShock16]

WSU needed a solid AD when Sexton was hired. The athletic department has been incompetent bordering on egregiously incompetent since Sexton was hired. WSU was in a position to hire a stud when Schaus left. Putting Sexton in there was the worst move Bardo made in his time here.

Now we're well past the time where a solid AD needs to be hired.

That was a Don Beggs decision. Bardo promoted Darron.

[Shocktheheck]

Seems like we don't learn from history. From hiring ADS from within the wsu family instead if a national search to the same process in coaching hires. Someone mentioned how eerily similar this situation is to the Cohen Era, a downward spiral that took a while to dig out of. We did get Thompson in between Cohan and RS and RS did return great enthusiasm into the program, eventually leading to turg and Marshall. now we look like we are starting that process all over. Hope I'm wrong, but recruiting and the lack of quality transfers from portal are not looking like a promising future.

[SHOXAAC]

As a team we are shooting only 40% overall and 30% from the 3-point line. We only have 3 players shooting above 38% from the field (Udeze, Pohto, Council). Seriously coach if you can't figure out this team takes terrible shots by now let Pogo take the reins for awhile. I was never warm and fuzzy about the Brown hire, but I tried to drink the Kool Aid for awhile. The moon, stars, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus all lined up last year to achieve what was achieved. It is quite evident Brown is over his head at this point. Can he rite the ship...possibly. Does he have the awareness, skillset, management and leadership sills to do it...I am not optimistic about that.

This team has no leadership at PG. Fans are excited about Porter now, but his willingness to look at the basket prior to last night has been invisible. Can he become an offensive threat? ETN is a bust this year at SG. Dennis is providing good defense and rebounding, but on offense he is still unreliable. Pleasant is a complete swing and miss at PF. He has zero athleticism. Udeze is such a grinder and the willingness to be a presence underneath, but has below average BBIQ. Our offerings off the bench are a D-2 PG who is struggling to compete up in talent. Council, who may be our best player, is undisciplined and to much like ETN with selfishness. Jackson has the best motor on the team, but is also undisciplined. Pohto has all the tools to be All-AAC, but as all freshmen go needs time to develop.

I get my analysis is all negative, but true. The upside is my pessimistic angle can be coached out. Here in lies the biggest problem.

[Kung Wu]

This team has no leadership at PG. Fans are excited about Porter now, but his willingness to look at the basket prior to last night has been invisible.

He's a juco transfer and this is the first season he has had meaningful minutes leading at the point. There's reason to be hopeful that this was a breakout game for him. But if not, there's always whiskey.

[WeWillShockU2]

We have talent but it doesn’t show up all the time. I’m not down on Coach Brown but this next recruiting cycle is extremely important. We need more size that can play. Do we have it in our redshirts? We don’t know.

[shoxlax]

It was a major misshire. We could be so far down the irrelevance train in 4 or 5 years, that this job and program becomes an afterthought. You can say 8-3 is awesome but it’s been against a patsy schedule and most importantly it’s the way in which the team is playing, even during wins, that is pointing to a major sign of trouble. Little to no adjustments are happening, there’s zero player accountability, and in-game coaching seems to not even exist. So yah, if you wanna throw COY around and a covid-raged conference championship and prop up “8-3” like everything is good, then go for it. But don’t get mad at the “crazies” who were trying to pull you from a sinking ship that you’re already 5 feet underwater to begin with.

Stick is right. We can’t afford one buyout let alone two. Our best bet is to figure out how to buy a couple of players over the next two years, find out on this team who stays and goes and hope Boatright gets shown the door. I have just heard too much about his internal decision making to have any confidence in him. Also, hope like hell IB can push the right buttons and not worry about hurting feelings.

[SubGod22]

I'm not sure, with Muma being an internal hire, if he has the will to part ways with Boatright.

I know Brown will be the head coach for at least a couple more years and hope he can improve rather quickly and not let this program slide off the deep end. Even if he doesn't become the man for the future, I hope he becomes a man who can at least keep this program in the middle of the pack so whoever would be next isn't trying to climb out of thr Grand Canyon to get this program back to where it should be.

Right now, we're far from a top 3 AAC team and have no real hope of a meaningful post season. The way we're playing right now, I think a 5th place finish is the ceiling and I'm not sure we can attain that. Houston is the best team. Memphis has the horses. SMU, despite Jank, will be tough to overcome. Cincinnati has passed us by. UCF is probably better. And I wouldn't put it past us to be beaten by Tulane or USF.

Ty is better than this and needs to go back to what put him on the NBA radar and get away from the **** that has taken him completely off of it.

IB needs to do whatever it takes to get Pohto 25 minutes a game.

Everyone needs to spend time working on catch and shoot threes and stop trying to create their own shot from 23 feet all the time.

Anyone who catches a pass in the half court and immediately starts dribbling needs a seat on the bench unless that dribble is taking then to the basket, or it's an obviously needed reset to set up an actual play.

[asiseeit]

Obviously, I agree with your comment on KP's PT but I also very much agree
with your comment on catch and shoot threes but that only comes with better ball
movement. DD and TE both are bound to shoot better going forward as it can't get
much worse. Again, have to start getting something out of QG, as well.

[1972Shocker]

Missed the game live. Watched the replay this morning. Not much if anything to add.

The Shocks played a pretty good 1st half. Only turned it over 3 times.

HCIB was right in that we did miss quite a few open shots in the second half. But what really hurt were the 12 turnovers. The travelling call by Tyson on the inbounds play was just pathetically bad and unfocused and then he acted like he didn't know what he did. I was surprised to see that the Shocks took 26 shots in both halves. Making 5 fewer in the 2nd half. Took a lot more bad shots in the 2nd half.

As many have noted, the difference in the team with Craig on the floor and with Craig on the bench was stark.

Craig was quite good in his 22 minutes shortened by the sprained ankle. Was very surprised to see him return to the game. Not sure I have ever seen officials allowing a game to contidnue through 2 possessions with a clearly injured player down.

Mo cancelled an otherwise decent game with 5 turnovers.

Kenny was okay but only played 9 minutes. If your going to play Mo 30 minutes then you need to find 10 minutes of time for Kenny at the 4 or develop a 3 out, 2 in offense.

The other 6 guys who played just were not very good. They were 7-31 (22.6%) from the field including 4-17 (23.5%) on three pointers and only got to the free throw line once with Dexter going 1 for 2 late in the first half.

Maybe the Shockers win this game if Craig didn't sprain his ankle but, if that's the case, being so dependent on a single player is not necessarily a good thing.

It is unusual to have so much consternation and uneasyness, with good reason, for an 8-3 team, probably soon to finish the non-conference schedule at 9-3.

Will probably pretty much know where this team is headed after our first 5 games of AAC play which inlcudes Memphis and Cincinnati at home and Houston on the road. As of today, it is very difficult to feel good that will work our well.

[Singeril]

Seems like we don't learn from history. From hiring ADS from within the wsu family instead if a national search to the same process in coaching hires. Someone mentioned how eerily similar this situation is to the Cohen Era, a downward spiral that took a while to dig out of. We did get Thompson in between Cohan and RS and RS did return great enthusiasm into the program, eventually leading to turg and Marshall. now we look like we are starting that process all over. Hope I'm wrong, but recruiting and the lack of quality transfers from portal are not looking like a promising future.

I think WSU does way too much hiring from within...in many different areas other than athletics. There seems to be a lot of "nepotism" and I think this is a bad move. We don't seem to have a talent pool that is truly broad enough...and, if we do, we tend to go with our own so often. This is a mistake. As I said, I've seen it in other areas other than athletics...sometimes, doing the harder thing is far more productive than taking the familiar and "easy" route.

[shocker43]

This team just isn't good. Everyone keeps saying we have talent, but where? We have one playable player at each position excluding the center and maybe Monzy at the 4. Our "star" is hardly playable right now but then you either have Grant or Jenkins coming off the bench for him. It does not matter who the coach is when you don't have a roster that can compete.

[pinstripers]

He's a juco transfer and this is the first season he has had meaningful minutes leading at the point. There's reason to be hopeful that this was a breakout game for him. But if not, there's always whiskey.

Porter is a good basketball player. He is a serviceable point guard.

[Kung Wu]

Porter is a good basketball player. He is a serviceable point guard.

Agreed.

[Stickboy46]

Porter is a good basketball player. He is a serviceable point guard.

Looking around college basketball ... it feels like there are very few GOOD point guards. There are next to no Fred's in college basketball. Our league might have 1 or 2 GOOD point guards. (Kendric Davis is obviously at the top). Its a hard talent to find for sure.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

- I'm bummed because I was looking forward to a free donut today. Fortunately I have a winning PowerBall ticket for $4 that I plan on redeeming and buying a dozen donuts with, so the agony of defeat is slowly going away.

- It appears how to beat the Shocks is easy - pack the paint. Maybe WSU can announce at halftime during some games that Udeze has tested positive for covid and the other team has to forfeit because half their players had close contact with him.

- Regarding coaching buyouts - it's time to buy out Billy Kennedy with the caveat he becomes a head coach somewhere and hires HCIB as an assistant. Bonus money if he gives Boatright a job as an assistant too or goes somewhere that needs an AD and hires Boatright.

- a 10-0 run happens but a 20-0 run is quicksand and no one survives quicksand