NORTH TEXAS (7-5, 0-0) at WICHITA STATE (8-5, 0-0) Game Thread

[Stickboy46]

I'm not a Mills apologist but to be fair it must be pointed out that Mills was at ORU for 6 years while GM was at Winthrop for 8. Point being with the ball rolling chances are 7 & 8 would have been pretty good for Mills.

He also was not a one team wonder as besides having the undefeated season he had another team that went to the Sweet 16 in those 6 years

Eh .. Just going to have to disagree. If Abmas leaves this year, does their ball keep rolling? Nothing suggests they do. The Sweet 16 is nice .. but that regular season wasn't a good regular season. They were 18-11, finished 4th in the Summit League and was 182 in Kenpom entering the postseason. That was a bad team that had a couple lucky wins on the back of some crazy performances by Abmas and Obanor. (also of note, that year was the weird Covid year with teams schedules getting all weird and limited fans in the NCAA tourney)

Last year was his only year with a team finishing better than Top 125 in KP (they ended 72) .. and that was built against the 260th best schedule.

So really, he had 1 good year, and a couple good post season games. The remaining 4.99 years were bad.

[Stickboy46]

there's no longer an excuse for not having energy, or a sense of urgency. We have 2 extra guys now and everyone needs to play all out until they're gassed and ready for a breather. I don't know how many times I see one of our guys miss a shot or even make a shot and then jog down to play D only to get beat to the rim by the opponent. Not even paying attention to what's happening on the court.

Not just the 2 extra guys .. but we have 2 guys that are on bench that never play. This season is a lost cause. Joy should be getting extended run at this point IMO. Let him try to get some confidence. Germany was a complete waste of a 1 year scholarship, but might as well use him to pull one of the big guys when they don't hustle, or don't box out, or let someone way smaller than them grab a rebound while they just stand there and reach.

[molly jabali]

And once again, one of the players (as has the coach a few weeks ago) said after the game that they “didn’t have the right intensity”. WHY NOT? Not being ready to play is not excusable.

1000% AGREE....you can't always shoot, but you can ALWAYS make up SOME of it by hustle and want-to....

[Atxshoxfan]

I say run Rogers off of 4 screens and let him jack it up and let Ridgnal roll to rebound if he misses. If he puts up 60- 70 shots a game we might have a chance in some of the remaining games.....lol

Coach Brown, I didn't know you were on SN.

[1972Shocker]

While we do seem to have a team that is dominated by misfit toys. However, a lot of seems to be due to HCPM trying to implement a system that does not fit with the toys he has and that these toys simply are not talented enough to successfully execute. I would love to have the players that can execute an NBA offense successfully but we don't and are not likely to have enough of those in the future to make it work. Tough to jam square pegs into round holes. Makes for some ugly basketball. HCPM needs to re-evaluate what he is trying to do.

Unless HCPM decides to go scorched earth with is roster we only have 1 scholarship open for next year. I do think KP will enter the portal again this year unless HCPM revamps his scheme to better utilize KP's skill set. Whether or not any of the other guys leave probably depends on what happens with the NCAA's rules for multiple transfers.

It's possible wholesale roster changes won't come until after next year when, as things stand today, 7 guys will have completed their eligibility: Pohto, Rogers, Bell. Cortes, Ballard, Beverly and DeGray. With only KP not having used his first-time transfer waiver.

I also think Abidde might enter the portal this year as his playing time seems to be diminishing. First 6 games Ike played 23.7 mpg, next 4 games he played 14.5 mpg and the last 4 games his has played 10.8 mpg capped by only playing 2 minutes against North Texas. I was unable to watch the North Texas game but I have not read or heard any reports of an injury. I can easily envision Ike being the next Shocker to depart only to flourish somewhere else.

At this point I really am not that concerned about how many games the Shocks win this season. However, we must start seeing signs of an improving team with an approach that makes the team better than the sum of its parts. Losing the team is one thing. Losing the team and the fan base is exponentially worse, especially with men's basketball being the lynch pin of the entire athletic department.

[shocks02]

This is why Pohto should spend more time in both the high and low post areas. He's done a good job at seeing openings and passing lanes when put in a position to do so. Though it also helps if you have guys not just standing around doing nothing when he gets the ball. Some of the times he forces things is because nobody gives him any other options.

Yes, but he's going to get doubled every time once he puts the ball on the floor. Last year he could be surrounded by Walton (40% 3P%), Porter (36% 3P%), and a streaky Jaron Pierre. This year there is only Colby, everyone else has no problem leaving their man.

[shockrah]

In its last five losses, WSU has essentially turned the ball over on one-fifth of its possessions (14.4 turnovers per game at a 19.9% rate).
From todays Eagle

[Aargh]

If Pohto is played at the high or low post, then Ballard is sitting. There are 3 centers and zero PF's on the roster. There are (effectively) zero PG's on the roster.

That leaves a lot of wings and SG's. Only one of those wings and SG's is a threat to score if left open. Beverly is effective driving to the basket against the bottom 1/3 of D1 teams. Other than that Beverly is (as secribed by his role at his previous school) a secondary ball handler, which now seems to mean he can dribble fairly well. If he was a scoring threat against decent competition, he wouldn't be here.

[shocks02]

Can't help but think today how much Max Abmas would've helped this team. Not saying him alone would've turned this into an NCAA tournament team, but a playmaker with an outside shot would've done wonders for this team. Although that statement holds true for most elite college players.

[Singeril]

Do any of you who go to the games pay attention to the pre-game shoot around? Just curious. How many of our players do you see hitting most of their perimeter shots? Last night I watched pretty closely. We are not good at making uncontested pre-game shots. Now add a 6'7" freak athlete coming at you with arms raised. CR is our only option. Period. That is a huge problem.

Yup. I have seen that as well. And last night, they seemed so “loose”…dunk after dunk…but not shooting anything farther away than that the last 10 minutes before the game started.

[Singeril]

Thank you Sub ! Now see if you can get that through to Singeril and a few others

Go ahead and ignore what he’s been doing when he gets the ball.

[asiseeit]

Go ahead and ignore what he’s been doing when he gets the ball.

Where is your criticism of the others that have contributed much less? You seem to have it out for KP. Would you start him? How would you use/play him on this team?

[pinstripers]

While we do seem to have a team that is dominated by misfit toys. However, a lot of seems to be due to HCPM trying to implement a system that does not fit with the toys he has and that these toys simply are not talented enough to successfully execute. I would love to have the players that can execute an NBA offense successfully but we don't and are not likely to have enough of those in the future to make it work. Tough to jam square pegs into round holes. Makes for some ugly basketball. HCPM needs to re-evaluate what he is trying to do.

Unless HCPM decides to go scorched earth with is roster we only have 1 scholarship open for next year. I do think KP will enter the portal again this year unless HCPM revamps his scheme to better utilize KP's skill set. Whether or not any of the other guys leave probably depends on what happens with the NCAA's rules for multiple transfers.

It's possible wholesale roster changes won't come until after next year when, as things stand today, 7 guys will have completed their eligibility: Pohto, Rogers, Bell. Cortes, Ballard, Beverly and DeGray. With only KP not having used his first-time transfer waiver.

I also think Abidde might enter the portal this year as his playing time seems to be diminishing. First 6 games Ike played 23.7 mpg, next 4 games he played 14.5 mpg and the last 4 games his has played 10.8 mpg capped by only playing 2 minutes against North Texas. I was unable to watch the North Texas game but I have not read or heard any reports of an injury. I can easily envision Ike being the next Shocker to depart only to flourish somewhere else.

At this point I really am not that concerned about how many games the Shocks win this season. However, we must start seeing signs of an improving team with an approach that makes the team better than the sum of its parts. Losing the team is one thing. Losing the team and the fan base is exponentially worse, especially with men's basketball being the lynch pin of the entire athletic department.

We ALWAYS have had 2 or 3 leave, even in the best of times

[Onegreatracer]

I'm adverse to singling out college age kids for criticism, but Bell cost the team pretty big right before half....two missed free throws then a costly turnover,....I know there is not a lot of love for Bijan but the ball does not die in his hands....

Frankly, I'm not a fan of the offensive style...not much movement....

You can see glimpses of what Mills wants to run when Bijan is playing PG. The only problem is so far he has been Mr. Oppenheimer with how he's crafted atomic bombs. But at some point, let him and Joy run that system and fail as much as they have to because it just looks so much better.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

Depends on how he sees things are going ... if he thinks he has a big buffer on results because everyone is giving him a break for "what he inherited" .. then no we probably wont see him running off the players that aren't AAC level players. If he knows he has 3 years to get results or his seat is going to be really hot? then maybe we might.

I don't even want to think about the state of the fanbase if WSU doesn't have an NIT-level team next season.