Shocks vs Western Kentucky (11-9-23)

[forevershockerfan]

WKU was the worst 3 pt shooting team that I remember the Shockers ever playing. Game hurt so good to watch but an ugly win this early is good. Ballard and Abidde are improving and better than I expected. 19 turnovers? Way too many

[TrackSuitAndTie]

The WSU frontcourt is definitely its strength, and HCPM did a great job changing things up at halftime to shrink the floor on offense. In the first half, WSU passed around the perimeter quite a bit and struggled to get good looks (reminiscent of the last few years). In the second half, WSU got their guards downhill more often and brought the bigs closer to the paint instead of having them screen well past the 3pt line.

I'm also impressed that WSU hasn't had a sequence yet this season where it felt like they were just jacking up shots. Even though they turned the ball over way too much, the players look like they have a system on offense and do things with a purpose - something that has been lacking since HCGM.

[Dan]

We shot 48% from 2 and 31% from 3. I’ll take that every day. It didn’t look pretty though. My one wish is for Bell to learn how to dish the ball more.

[WuShock16]

Still more to work on, but I’m just so pleased with this team’s give-a-damn. They just look so much more engaged and are playing with more effort. I need to get to a game so that I can better watch for bench interaction, but I’m liking the vibe so far.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

The turnovers and poor free throw shooting were the two negatives. But I liked how hard we played and I thought our rebounding was pretty good. Just need to clean up a few things and hope for the best.

WSU has a lot of good rebounders, but they could be elite rebounders if they boxed out more consistently. A lot of rebounds went to WKU because WSU failed to box out. That being said, Pohto, Ballard (duh) and Ridgnal (grown-ass man rebounds) put in a strong effort on the glass.

[1972Shocker]

That game will serve the Shockers much better than a 30-point blowout over a SWAC team.

[Dan]

That game will serve the Shockers much better than a 30-point blowout over a SWAC team.

No doubt. That was a good game to play in and come out on top. Glad to see adjustments made by the staff after that first half performance.

[Stickboy46]

That first half was really rough but they gutted out a win. They definitely play hard. Got a little help from WKU with their awful shooting both from 3 and at the rim.

I'm interested to see how our offense evolves. So far this year it relies on a lot of 1 on 1. We've made a lot of tough drives but I'm not sure if that will continue against better competition. It is nice to not see a ton of forced 3s though.

Gotta figure out the TO situation though. Some of those passes were just dumb

[WuDrWu]

Every shot contested with mostly limited fouling.


Did anyone else go from six to midnight when we started subbing Rogers/Ridgnal offense defense?

[ShockerExpress]

Every shot contested with mostly limited fouling.


Did anyone else go from six to midnight when we started subbing Rogers/Ridgnal offense defense?

Yes to all this.

The "they got good looks" comment is plain false. I mean you're obviously somewhat lucky when a team goes 0-fer. No argument there. But it isn't all luck.

[forevershockerfan]

Rim protection by Shockers tonight. We won blocked shot battle 8-3 led by Ballard. His timing so far allows him to altar
and block shots with very little fouling.

[Regul8te]

Good time to buy stock in the program.

I don’t think we have all the right pieces to be great this year…. But I’m really impressed with the system, adjustments, early signs of development from players (qb, xb and ia all look improved) and most importantly player buy in and engagement.

Hearing PM say that they threw out the offensive playbook at halftime really impressed me for two reasons:

1: That they actually had an offensive game plan coming in…. Cause it’s been awhile.

2. The staff made a major adjustment that likely saved a mark in the L column.

[forevershockerfan]

13 rebounds by Dalen R. Led our Shocks.

[Wichita Willy]

3-0 in Greece, 1-0 in exhibition and 2-0 in regular season. Should be 3-0 on Sunday. Good start considering a new coach and almost all new team. We will see how they handle that first loss. Fun to watch and I only shouted at the TV twice tonight. GO SHOX!!!

[WuDrWu]

Was Don Daly the R tonight??