SAINT LOUIS (4-1) vs. WICHITA STATE (4-1) Game Thread

[pinstripers]

Joy has a chance to be special. Maybe more

[ShockRef]

This is probably the best we can hope for most games. Hope that changes but I'm not really expecting it to.

KP had a nice game, against pretty marginal competition.
He is still soft with the ball and the little hip shot he seems to like will get knocked into the third row against good post players.
But STL was a good match up for him and he made the most of it. The 7'0 Chinese dude was a walking foul and when he picked up his 4th, KP had little resistance in the paint.
This game could have gotten a bit sketchy, but STL ran out of gas and Colby Rogers is a sniper. He Is a big time shooter, but also plays good perimeter defense..

HCPM got valuable minutes out of the Joy kid. Dude is absolutely put together and can be a scary defensive option. Hitting his trey was like playing with house money.

Ballard has Roberto Duran disease - hands of stone.
The fact that HCPM gets quality minutes from him is a credit to him and his staff. Germany gave them good minutes in the 1st half too.

The plane ride home just got a lot nicer.

That is all.

[WstateU]

And props to Joy for stepping in and having a solid game. 7 points, 4 steals and 5 boards for the FR

He has great ups and long arms… a good combo to have.

[asiseeit]

They also didn't put him in position to have success Friday

SPOT ON

[Ta Town Shocker]

When Pohto has room in the lane to maneuver he does fairly well. It’s when he gets double teamed he sometimes gets in trouble. Tonight he was more aggressive and wasn’t hesitant

His teammates need to start cutting to the basket to give him better opportunities to pass out of the double teams.

[Woodrow]

Thirty points for Colby. When is the last time we had a player score 30?

McDuffie had 32 against Providence. Colby had a great game.

[Aargh]

He has great ups and long arms… a good combo to have.

He outran a StL perimeter defender down the court while dribbling. He's progreesing quickly. If Joy can establish himself as a rotation player and Cortes can, by some miracle, be eligible for the second semester, that would change to prospects for the season quite a bit.

[forevershockerfan]

The Shockers bounced back from their first loss. Tonight St. Lew got within 6 in the 2nd half and the Shocks recovered and won by 19. Hope they work on some inbounds plays. XB is much improved and will really be an asset when he gets around 5 more assists that missed out on tonight. Joy impressed me tonight. He is in tip-top shape, rebounds good and played more in control tonight. Germany helped us and made his throws 1st half. Was hoping he would have got in the 2nd half. An excellent win for WSU and some significant work on developing some much needed depth.

[Atxshoxfan]

It's kinda crap for St Louis. It's the right call, but they basically lose that possession. If the right call was made on the floor, they might have gotten the ball back and scored. That's a dumb way to handle that. If you are going to review it, do it right there and at least make it a jump ball if it's reversed

I thought the same thing. Who knows whose hands that blocked shots land. Not only that, what if it happens at the end of the game? If you go up 1 points due to a goal tend call the other team would have a wrong strategy because, while the scoreboard shows them down 1, they would actually have the ball with 1 point lead. I'd rather them just call it as best they see it and let it stand.

Bad rule

[Atxshoxfan]

I ragged on KP last game, but as long as he puts in the effort like he did this game, I won't rag again. Effort makes a huge difference.

XB still needs to work on passing before triple team in the paint. He's new to pg so I'll cut him a little slack.

The team needs to learn how to cut to the hoop better when the ball is boxed in the paint.

Defense was much better as was rebounding.

[Aargh]

Rebounding Leaders:

Pohto - 12
Ridgnal - 10 (WSU's version of Dennis Rodman?)
Abide - 5
Ighovocja - 5

[forevershockerfan]

Speaking of rebounds. We had a 19 rebound advantage tonight. We like that junk alot. And close to 80% on throws.

[Atxshoxfan]

Rebounding Leaders:

Pohto - 12
Ridgnal - 10 (WSU's version of Dennis Rodman?)
Abide - 5
Ighovocja - 5

Shouldn't we just call Ighovocia- Iga or Igy

[Stickboy46]

His teammates need to start cutting to the basket to give him better opportunities to pass out of the double teams.

Kenny ripped into Ridgnal for exactly that when he got that hooking call. he was looking for a cut from him.

[Stickboy46]

This was a really good bounce back. Now we get one more tune up game then the difficulty ramps up dramatically for the rest of the year outside of like UTSA.

We gained back the 17 spots in KenPom that we lost in the liberty game lol .. back to #100