Welcome - Paul Mills

[proshox]

The "we should have stayed in the MVC" crew are quick to forget our atrocious record at winning the MVC tournament. And in today's world, an at large from the Valley ain't happening.

Good point. Didn’t stop WSU from getting a bid once Creighton left.

[proshox]

This is not correct. Literally every analytics you would look at would disagree. Those WSU teams needed more high quality games, not less.

Our Tournament performance also shows it to be inaccurate.

Analytics liked WSU because they smacked the MVC to pieces. Furthermore - Analytics are the reason why WSU got a bid - the bid was not based on win quality.

With that stated, the non-con was a disaster. WSU finished the non-con with a 6-5 record and nowhere close to sniffing a bid when conference play opened (Injuries combined with CF sitting out first semester were big factors)…

What got WSU back in the picture? 12 straight mostly-blowout wins while mid-tier P5 teams started taking L’s.

At the end of the day - analytics and most fans fail to fully acknowledge how helpful it is to have an advantage in every aspect - facilities, support, money, coaching and talent. Most of the conference opponents couldn’t imagine competing with those shocker teams never-mind beating them. I will candidly admit that it didn’t result in compelling or entertaining basketball…

I want WSU to be in the biggest conference it can be in while maintaining advantages in facilities, fan support, recruiting footprint and financial support. As conference affiliation is an ideal arbitrage opportunity (assuming you feel NCAA tournament appearances and runs are the goal).

[SubGod22]

Analytics liked WSU because they smacked the MVC to pieces. Furthermore - Analytics are the reason why WSU got a bid - the bid was not based on win quality.

With that stated, the non-con was a disaster. WSU finished the non-con with a 6-5 record and nowhere close to sniffing a bid when conference play opened (Injuries combined with CF sitting out first semester were big factors)…

What got WSU back in the picture? 12 straight mostly-blowout wins while mid-tier P5 teams started taking L’s.

At the end of the day - analytics and most fans fail to fully acknowledge how helpful it is to have an advantage in every aspect - facilities, support, money, coaching and talent. Most of the conference opponents couldn’t imagine competing with those shocker teams never-mind beating them. I will candidly admit that it didn’t result in compelling or entertaining basketball…

I want WSU to be in the biggest conference it can be in while maintaining advantages in facilities, fan support, recruiting footprint and financial support. As conference affiliation is an ideal arbitrage opportunity (assuming you feel NCAA tournament appearances and runs are the goal).

You also have to factor in the academic side of things though as well. WSU wouldn't be seeing near the growth or funding if we were still associated with the schools in the MVC.

The teams we've had recently wouldn't be dancing without winning is the cesspool we know as St. Louis. And I don't think that would have happened either.

The Valley was on the decline as a whole while we were still there. It would have eventually started being a drag on our program as well.

Our lack of tournament appearances the past three years have nothing to do with conference affiliation and everything to do with product on the court. Yes, it would have been easier to sneak into the tournament by winning the conference tournament than it is to do the same in the AAC, but then we're celebrating a bad team getting a 13 seed or something and getting its ass kicked because they don't belong there.

Getting to the tournament shouldn't be the lone goal and seen as success like it is at some schools. The best thing for this program is to get back on its feet and utilize a strong non-con and a good conference schedule to build for a post season run. Time will tell if Mills and Co. are the group to do that, but it's going to be easier to build an at large team and recruit higher level talent to the AAC than to what the MVC is today. The MVC isn't a complete **** show, but it's nowhere close to what it was when we were in it.

In the AAC we still have some of the better facilities and fan support. Coaching and talent have been pretty iffy and that can be blamed on the previous AD making a bad hire. Not having football money hurts a bit, but it is what it is. We also make a heck of a lot more from conference distributions now than we did then.

Advocating for staying in the MVC is just a weird stance. We're in a better conference. Better grouping of schools to be affiliated with. Better markets. Better exposure. Better payouts. Better competition. We better pull our heads out and get the ship going in the right direction and we hope that Saal made the right hire to get that done.

[WuShock16]

Analytics liked WSU because they smacked the MVC to pieces. Furthermore - Analytics are the reason why WSU got a bid - the bid was not based on win quality.

With that stated, the non-con was a disaster. WSU finished the non-con with a 6-5 record and nowhere close to sniffing a bid when conference play opened (Injuries combined with CF sitting out first semester were big factors)…

What got WSU back in the picture? 12 straight mostly-blowout wins while mid-tier P5 teams started taking L’s.

At the end of the day - analytics and most fans fail to fully acknowledge how helpful it is to have an advantage in every aspect - facilities, support, money, coaching and talent. Most of the conference opponents couldn’t imagine competing with those shocker teams never-mind beating them. I will candidly admit that it didn’t result in compelling or entertaining basketball…

I want WSU to be in the biggest conference it can be in while maintaining advantages in facilities, fan support, recruiting footprint and financial support. As conference affiliation is an ideal arbitrage opportunity (assuming you feel NCAA tournament appearances and runs are the goal).

You might be short-changing the 2015-16 team's NCSOS. The 6-5 showing (7-5 if you count Emporia State...though I know the NCAA does not) was certainly disappointing (and the 0-fer in Orlando without Fred was most painful), but that non-conference schedule was loaded and was rated as such by KenPom (24th).

One of my big "What Ifs" is having Fred and Landry both fully healthy that season. At the very least, knowing now that Landry only stuck around two more years, I wish they would have let him play in that postseason. It seemed like that it was a coin-flip decision at the time and that 3G used discretion to save Landry for the future.

[Shock Top]

Ron also went down in Orlando.

[WuShock16]

Ron also went down in Orlando.

Bake played 39, 39, and 36 minutes in the games in that tournament. You might be thinking of Anton Grady.

[Shock Top]

Bake played 39, 39, and 36 minutes in the games in that tournament. You might be thinking of Anton Grady.

I remember Grady going down, I was in the crowd.

I don't know why I was thinking that about Ron. Maybe was just a bit banged up, and not 100% himself.

Something during the USC game.

[WuShock16]

I remember Grady going down, I was in the crowd.

I don't know why I was thinking that about Ron. Maybe was just a bit banged up, and not 100% himself.

Opposition could probably focus in on Ron, thus making life misearable for him. I didn't get to watch Iowa game, which he had a very uncharacteristic 7 points, but yeah, it seemed that he got nothing easy that week since his running mate absent.

I know why this guy was playing...but why in the actual hell did Ty Taylor shoot the damn ball so much? 7-33 from the field and 2-14 from 3 in that tournament. Woof!

[1972Shocker]

Well here we are back on the Merry-Go-Round:

With Jaron Pierre Jr. entering the transfer portal earlier this week, all five starters (and nine of the top 10 scorers) from last year’s WSU team have either exhausted their eligibility or entered the transfer portal.

Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...#storylink=cpy

Of course, this year does have a coaching change I and that probably has had some impact. However, I guess we don't know for sure how much of an impact. Maybe we have the same situation even without the coaching change.

In any case, one my key metrics for measuring how Coach Mills does this year is how much turnover will we have at the end of the year. I will be hard for me to stay engaged with the program if these annual rebuilds continue. My engagement as a fan is already somewhat diminished.

[shocktown]

Well here we are back on the Merry-Go-Round:



Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...#storylink=cpy

Of course, this year does have a coaching change I and that probably has had some impact. However, I guess we don't know for sure how much of an impact. Maybe we have the same situation even without the coaching change.

In any case, one my key metrics for measuring how Coach Mills does this year is how much turnover will we have at the end of the year. I will be hard for me to stay engaged with the program if these annual rebuilds continue. My engagement as a fan is already somewhat diminished.

What am I missing here?

This reminds me of my older brother who doesn't have cable, internet or a cell phone. He comes by on most every Sunday on a visit and wants to tell me 4 day old news like it is hot of the press!

Just bustin' your balls '72, keep up the good info.

[Kung Wu]

Going forward it won't be the quantity of turnover that will bother me, only the quality.

[Stickboy46]

Going forward it won't be the quantity of turnover that will bother me, only the quality.

We always have the highest quality turnover

[Kung Wu]

We always have the highest quality turnover

Going forward I hope not.

[AZ Shocker]

I get the sense that the merry-go-round will be improved upon simply due to the fact Coach Mills will build better loyalty with the players he recruits. He did say he wants his players to want to be at Wichita St. Seems like that is a high priority. So hopefully we fans see that in the future. Even a slight improvement in that area will go a long ways. I know I'd be happy with 1-3 guys every year who just weren't getting the playing time or worked out in his system. Zero transfers would be better though.

Go Shocks!!!

[RoyalShock]

We always have the highest quality turnover

Apple? Cherry? Both?