Some of this loss boils down to.....

[jocoshock]

We just need to get better and start dominating the valley. We're not leaving it, so let's be like memphis and destroy the competition.

Agreed. The Valley will be better next year. Maybe that will make us tougher, quicker. Just in time for the dance... We will win Arch Madness when we least expect it. Is it December yet?

[ShockerFever]

Too much time off between Valley tournament and NCAA tournament doesnt help

Getting tired of this excuse. Sure hasn't stopped VCU or Butler from making their runs lately..

[cjp27]

Getting tired of this excuse. Sure hasn't stopped VCU or Butler from making their runs lately..

+1 Didn't stop us from winning the NIT and absolutely steamrolling 4 pretty good power conference teams either.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Too much time off between Valley tournament and NCAA tournament doesnt help

Yep, I put some of the blame on this. Just like timeouts kill momentum during games, time off kills momentum during a season.

[jocoshock]

Rapid reaction: VCU 62, Wichita State 59

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebaske...chita-state-59

[billybud]

What is interesting is that statistically, in this match up....the numbers look a little funny

Field Goal Percentage Defense...Shocks at #19....VCU not in top 50.

But...Scoring Defense....VCU #20 and the Shocks not in top 50.

I would think these two stats would track together.

[1972Shocker]

Noooooo, we played against a team who has a defense we are not accustomed to seeing. The guys simply didn't have the necessary experience to react positively do what they were seeing. They can attempt to practice it, but game speed is way different than practice.

I think 3G recognized that duplicating what VCU does in practice is very difficult. He attempted by putting 6 guys on defense in practices.

We played two consecutive bad games to end the season in which we shot the ball very poorly. I will give VCU some of the credit for that, but not total credit for that. We picked the wrong time to have a shooting slump.

[1972Shocker]

+1 Didn't stop us from winning the NIT and absolutely steamrolling 4 pretty good power conference teams either.

Nor did it prevent our Sweet 16 run in 2006.

In fact, the game way we played against VCU last night was way too similar to the way we played against Illinoins State in the Valley tournament. Unfortunately, not enough changed during the time off.

[choida]

we played in to VCU's style of play, I wish we would have slowed the game down and not let them dictate the game. Let them foul us if they want to play havoc defense, high risk high reward, but we just got out coached as well.

[1972Shocker]

Yeah, UNLV tried to speed us up also and that didn't work out too welll...wait a minute. Never mind.

The one thing that VCU did a better job of then any other team we played this year was taking Joe Ragland out of the game, especially for the 1st 25 minutes. Not sure any other team really made the concentrated effort to do that to the extent VCU did.

[ABC]

I think the VCU defense is on the edge of being gimmicky and thus hard to prerpare for - much like a knuckleballter or Air Force's offense.

However, we should have been a good enough team to over come it, and we were close to doing that and against Ill State.

All we needed to do was shot 1 or 2% higher. We didn't need to even bring our A game to win.

I think we win 7 out of 10, but that's the way it goes.

[wufan]

One problem between this game and the Valley is the trade-marked Valley Flop. We're used to brushing up against an opponent and them falling to the ground. VCU stood strong and made us out muscle them. Hall played very well against this type of D. Same with Cotton. Some of the others just expected the defense to fall down when we were in the paint. VCU looked like a full court version of SIU circa 2004.

[shoxlax]

Have no idea what was going through Garrett's mind when he missed that last close shot, but I wondered if he was fearing another flop/charge call and short armed everything? It sure looked like it after watching it again.

[RoyalShock]

Have no idea what was going through Garrett's mind when he missed that last close shot, but I wondered if he was fearing another flop/charge call and short armed everything? It sure looked like it after watching it again.

I definitely believe that to be the case. He didn't recognize that the defender was backing away, equally afraid of picking up a foul.

[pie n eye]

What is interesting is that statistically, in this match up....the numbers look a little funny

Field Goal Percentage Defense...Shocks at #19....VCU not in top 50.

But...Scoring Defense....VCU #20 and the Shocks not in top 50.

I would think these two stats would track together.

You can't defend the free throw line.