WSU VERSUS VCU REMATCH

[bowlshocks]

I agree I think Kyles goes off and I think Cotton is going to be an x-factor maybe not offensively, but in breaking the press and defensively I think makes a big difference if given the chance.

[Shocker-maniac]

Very good facts and data. Thanks for the research MH.

[Dan]

just throw out the #'s related to our defense for a minute. sometimes its easy to get paralysis by analysis of numbers. what our defense does often is force the other time to use so much of the shot clock to get into their half court set that they often have to force a shot or take a shot they dont want to because the shot clock has gone under 10 and they have to get a shot up. Our backcourt of theus, weber and brandenburg when they are on the floor together, is very hard to simulate in practice because teams dont have the type of quickness we have especially in weber and brandenburg.

Toure murry, joe ragland, demetric williams, ben smith, tekele cotton, david kyles. I think we can simulate quickness and give it back like you haven't seen. Throw in carl hall, garrett stutz and ehimen orupke and we can punch you back with size. I think we'll be ready for this matchup.

[The Mad Hatter]

just throw out the #'s related to our defense for a minute. sometimes its easy to get paralysis by analysis of numbers. what our defense does often is force the other time to use so much of the shot clock to get into their half court set that they often have to force a shot or take a shot they dont want to because the shot clock has gone under 10 and they have to get a shot up. Our backcourt of theus, weber and brandenburg when they are on the floor together, is very hard to simulate in practice because teams dont have the type of quickness we have especially in weber and brandenburg. thats why we are different from last year because you didnt see any of those guys last year except theus for a few minutes. I dont remember brandendburg playing much at all last year vs. you guys. I think that kind of effect does not show up anywhere except in our field goal % defense. to my knowledge they dont keep stats on how many times a teams possession goes under 10 on the shot clock ! :). They probably will starting next year though !

You just want to throw out the numbers because they are inconvenient for you, but set that aside for a moment. My contention is that as good as your defense is, we have played far more comparable defenses that you have played a comparable offense to ours. Just saying your defense is good doesn't dispute this reality.

Now to the numbers themselves, what do you think Pomeroy's adjusted defensive numbers measure? They measure the efficiency with which opponents score. Creating turnovers is factored in. Forcing teams into bad shots, including by keeping them out of their offense deep into the shot clock, is factored in. None of what you mentioned negates adjusted defense as a measuring rod. You just don't like the fact that the objective measures, while good (#26 is no slouch), don't measure up to your subjective opinion of your own team's defense.

[jocoshock]

Think back to the Creighton/Omaha game and all of the stats and strings that pointed to a CU victory, and how we shattered all of them. I have full faith that our team will be prepared, but this is March Madness, and VCU is sitting in the same spot as last year; considered to be a marginal team at best as far as their deserving to be in the dance. This year they got the auto-bid. I expect a close game. If it is not (and we win), then I will be very happy. I think most WSU fans have plenty of respect for VCU. A 1 point win is as good as a 20 point win. Maybe better in terms of getting us prepared for the long haul.

In any event. GO SHOX!!!!

[wavevcu]

Mad Hatter - i have just noticed that a lot of times when we are in our press the other teams shot clock goes under 10 during their possession. my comment had nothing to do with not looking at the numbers. You can crunch numbers all day if you want.If i thought the numbers were inconvenient then I can just bring up that theus and weber lead the country in steals as a backcourt duo and weber leads the country in steals per minute - but i didnt do that because i asked that we set aside the #'s just for a minute - thats all. Sometimes i think people rely too much on the numbers. Yes the #'s are clearly an indicator of a teams performance during the season. I wasnt trying to ignore the #'s at all. I just asked for a minute to set aside the #'s and just go by what you see when you watch us defend. We know you guys are good and experienced and have a real good offense. I have seen you play. Before the bracket even came out, i told my wife - the one mid major i dont want to see is wichita state - that is total respect. I have been to wichita several times. My wife grew up in hesston, ks, which is about 45 minutes from wichita. I am very familiar with the shockers and the jayhawks and the wildcats because her family is big into college basketball. How about we agree that this should be a sweet 16 matchup not a first round one and that us beating Kansas in the elite eight was awesome last year !!

[jocoshock]

Mad Hatter - i have just noticed that a lot of times when we are in our press the other teams shot clock goes under 10 during their possession. my comment had nothing to do with not looking at the numbers. You can crunch numbers all day if you want.If i thought the numbers were inconvenient then I can just bring up that theus and weber lead the country in steals as a backcourt duo and weber leads the country in steals per minute - but i didnt do that because i asked that we set aside the #'s just for a minute - thats all. Sometimes i think people rely too much on the numbers. Yes the #'s are clearly an indicator of a teams performance during the season. I wasnt trying to ignore the #'s at all. I just asked for a minute to set aside the #'s and just go by what you see when you watch us defend. We know you guys are good and experienced and have a real good offense. I have seen you play. Before the bracket even came out, i told my wife - the one mid major i dont want to see is wichita state - that is total respect. I have been to wichita several times. My wife grew up in hesston, ks, which is about 45 minutes from wichita. I am very familiar with the shockers and the jayhawks and the wildcats because her family is big into college basketball. How about we agree that this should be a sweet 16 matchup not a first round one and that us beating Kansas in the elite eight was awesome last year !!

Last year I was driving to work in KC, the morning after WSU won the NIT. The announcer on the sports radio station I was listening to gave his congrats to the Shockers for being the #69 team in the country. I emailed him and congratulated KU on losing to the #68 team in the country (VCU) who of course made the final four. I agree as many experts to that both VCU and the Shox should be S16 teams instead of facing each other in the first round. I expect it to be close on Thursday.

[GoGMU]

Beat VCU!!!

As a mid-major fan (yeah, I hate the term, too, but you know what I mean) I am often on board with CAA-solidarity when one of our teams is facing a big non-conference matchup.

Screw that.

GO SHOCKERS! Beat the **** out of VCU!

[NattyMat]

Some fun facts about the VCU / UNI BB game courtesy of Mr. Sullentrop:

- UNI averaged 65.2 Ppg for the season, and scored 68 against VCU.
- UNI made 43.2% of their shots on the season, and made 55.6% against VCU.
- UNI shot 39.2% from three on the season, and 52.9% from three against VCU.

To surmise, a mediocre offensive team (UNI) was able to score above average against VCU. The kicker is that VCU forced UNI in to 19 turnovers. That is what can lose this game for the Shox. If VCU is able to force WSU out of its comfort zone with their press and force turnovers, the Shox could be in trouble. Now, given the senior experience and leadership, particularly at the 1-3 positions, I think we will be fine with the press. We have faced tough in your face pressing teams this season and been fine. Also, with the fact that we have several guys who can knock down shots, keying on one person will not effect the Shockers.

A fair post, but consider this: UNI hit 53% of their threes almost 56% of their shots...and still lost by 11. I think the beauty of this VCU squad that a lot of people are underestimating is there aren't a lot of teams in the country who do the things they do on defense. Hell, one of VCU's biggest impact players, freshman Briante Weber, averages just 4.9 points a game.

Gonna be an interesting matchup.

[jocoshock]

As mentioned by someone earlier. VCU sounds a lot like SIU, when they were good.

[ABC]

The VCU fans have convinced me. There is no way we will win.

Unless we win by 20.

[ShockerPrez]

No one really knows until the bullets start flying. The Shockers biggest advantage is going to be experience. Experience in winning the NIT last year. We have a solid group of guards. Senior guards, and very fine Junior, who has made a vast improvement this year.

Guards win the day in the NCAA tournament. If our guards are hitting shots and our transition offense is clicking, look out. If not, we are going to be in for a dogfight. But at this time, there's no way to tell. I am cautiously optimistic that the Shox can handle this.

As a fan, it's hard for us to wrap our brains around what a player is thinking mentally. I believe that our team is going to have the attitude that we won't be denied. I would love to know how Coach Marshall is getting our team prepared to be able to overcome any adversity that we encounter, but again, every battle plan gets thrown out the window once the bullets start flying. It's going to come down to who can make the adjustments and counter what the other team is doing. But if the Shockers are hitting their shots, I don't believe there is many scenarios in which we lose. But if we are cold, this game is going to go down to the wire. I will feel better once the game starts and see how it flows. It's hard to tell, right now.

[Metalkatz]

Everyone keeps talking about their havoc system, what about ours? MTXE!

[wavevcu]

Its funny you mention experience because i was just thinking the same thing about us. We have a guy in burgess who has started 7 ncaa games in his career and has played in more games as a college player than anyone in the history of college basketball ! He just passed Patrick Ewing at the CAA tourney last weekend. He has played on the big stage in madison square garden and of course a final 4. While we dont have a lot of guys that have much NCAA tourney experience we do have burgess and theus played crucial minutes vs. florida state last year when rodriguez was in foul trouble and had probably his best game of the whole season - 8 points and 4 assists in about 20 minutes. Haley and Reddic played in all 6 tourney games last season and got lots of experience playing on the big stage. brandenburg played some off the bench in all of those games. brandenburg actually blocked the last second shot by singleton to clinch the victory over florida state.

I hope there is a decent atmosphere. the one thing i hate about the tourney is that there is so little time to get to the games and sometimes the arena is half empty. We probably wont have more than 100 fans making the trip there. Haley is from California so i know he will have a decent amount of family. they came to all the ncaa games last year. How many Shockers will be making the trip ? I cant see Wichita State vs. VCU having a huge local draw. I am sure Indiana will bring some folks but its still a long trip. You have to believe most of the tixs were bought by local fans and maybe the trailblazers sold some to their season ticket holders. anyway i hope there is a good crowd because we sold out every home game this season and our guys love playing in front of a big audience !

[Ixiah]

Below is a stat comparison between the two teams. Stat wise things seem to favor WSU overall (rebounding, FT%, and the offense categories) but the guards have got to take care of the ball or VCU could steal this one - literally.


Wichita State:

Scoring Margin - 3rd
Field Goal % - 11th
Scoring Offense - 15th
Rebound Margin - 15th
Field Goal % Defense - 18th
Free Throw % - 24th
Assist to Turnover Ratio - 32nd
3 Poiint Field Goal % Defense - 41st
Assists per game - 45th
3 Point Field Goal % - 50th

Scoring Defense - 59th
Turnovers - 64th
Fouls per game - 78th
3 Point Shots per game - 92nd
Blocked Shots per game - 97th

Turnover Margin - 146th

Steals - 186th


VCU

Steals per game - 1st
Turnover Margin - 1st
Scoring Defense - 22nd
Turnovers per game - 29th
Scoring Margin - 42nd

3 Point Field Goal % Defense - 66th
3 Point Shots per game - 70th
Assist to Turnover Ratio - 94th

Blocked Shots per game - 123rd
Field Goal % Defense - 133rd

Scoring Offense - 167th
Personal Fouls per game - 178th
Free Throw % - 182nd

Assists per game - 221st
Rebound Margin - 240th
Field Goal % - 281st

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1

Edit: Changed the color of the stats. Green is 1-50, yellow is 51-100, orange is 101- 150, red is 151-200, and finally bold red is 201+.