WICHITA STATE (8-8, 0-3) at #23 FAU (13-4, 3-1) Pregame Discussion

[C0|dB|00ded]

I can't wait to Evansville someone

What an outstanding goal for our program. Do you even realize what you're saying?

image.png


I quickly Googled the AAC standings for the first time in as long as I can remember...

SMU escaped by buying a ticket into the ACC. Look at that top 4! I only recognize one school. Are we in the WAC/Sunbelt now?


Google searches that will be trending after tonight's game:

"Is FAU Division I?"

"What happened to Wichita State?"

"Is Wichita State Division I?"

[Onegreatracer]

What an outstanding goal for our program. Do you even realize what you're saying?

image.png


I quickly Googled the AAC standings for the first time in as long as I can remember...

SMU escaped by buying a ticket into the ACC. Look at that top 4! I only recognize one school. Are we in the WAC/Sunbelt now?


Google searches that will be trending after tonight's game:

"Is FAU Division I?"

"What happened to Wichita State?"

"Is Wichita State Division I?"

We play on Thursday.

[WstateU]

I’m glad it’s Thursday; two additional days to prepare myself for the beating.

[ShockerFever]

We play on Thursday.

Hahaha. Some fan.

He probably still has Covid brain.

[Kung Wu]

Look at the stats and you will see KP is still one of our top three or four in scoring and rebounding despite not being used correctly. Needs more time not less.

Our team is better on offense with Ballard on the court.

Ballard has matched or beaten Pohto in ORtg the past eight games. Even the one where Pohto went off in the second half of the game, Ballard had the exact same ORtg as Pohto:

ORtg for past several games ...

Memphis: Pohto 75 (terrible), Ballard 92
Temple: Pohto 113, Ballard 113
North Texas: Pohto 82 (awful) , Ballard 160 (very nice!)
Kansas: Pohto 91, Ballard 103
K-State: Pohto 91, Ballard 122
SIU: Pohto 80 (awful), Ballard 101
SDSU: Pohto 65 (wtf terrible?!), Ballard 214 (WOWOWOW!)
Missouri: Pohto 84 (bad), Ballard 216 (SHWING!)

Ballard has impacted our team offense monstrously in at least two games against tough competition, and had another excellent game on top of that. Pohto is just leaving turds laying all over the court for our team, game after game after game.

On top of that, Ballard's seasonal Box Plus/Minus is 4.8 (not bad). Pohto's is 0.5. This includes all the cupcake games.

[Kung Wu]

They better hurry and install an extra defibrillator in Koch Arena for when Cortes' ORtg straight up flat lines.

[Stickboy46]

https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...284329304.html

[pinstripers]

https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...284329304.html

he still thinks it's working

[Stickboy46]

he still thinks it's working

Yea, I started to post a couple head shaking quotes from there .. but then deleted it.

[SubGod22]

“I would attribute it more to discipline than anything else and that’s on us as coaches.”

There are some on here who think the coaching staff isn't responsible for the actions of the players on the court, but Mills disagrees with them, as do I.

“When you’re headed in a direction, you have to focus on the direction and not the destination,” Mills said. “I don’t think you push people out of the car simply because something didn’t go well.”

This sounds like there won't be near the change that had previously been alluded to.

[shock]

“What we’re trying to do is dominate the simple,” WSU first-year head coach Paul Mills said. “We’ve just got too many simple things that I think we should be good at, messed up.”

“I believe in this team and I like the guys in our locker room,” Mills said. “I don’t even believe we’re halfway through our season yet, so there’s so much room for growth. Those guys still show up and they approach it with joy and they continue to work. I’m not panicking. I’m confident that we’ll get better.”

“Some of it is discipline. You have to be super disciplined as a player,” Mills said. “Guys know how to utilize shot fakes, but you can’t fall for that kind of stuff. You have to stay down. Nobody is getting penalized if they are the second jump. Where we are getting into problems is when we’re the first jump and we’re not ever asked to be the first jump.

“I would attribute it more to discipline than anything else and that’s on us as coaches.”

“I don’t think that’s even asking a lot: don’t let the other team take it away from us more than eight times,” Mills said.

“It’s really easy to cut down, in my opinion. We don’t need to make all of these one-foot plays. Just play under control, play off of two feet. If you go back and look at our turnovers, we have way too many that are one-foot plays. If we continue to work on playing off of two feet, I think we can drastically cut that number by at least 25%.”

“When you’re headed in a direction, you have to focus on the direction and not the destination,” Mills said. “I don’t think you push people out of the car simply because something didn’t go well.”

Kind of interesting when you look at the quotes in context instead of cherry picking like CNN.

[rjl]

We looked like butt the first half of last season, but right around now is when the team took a turn and started playing a lot better. "Better" being a relative term. But it was good enough that I went from "fire Isaac Brown at all costs" to "I could see keeping Brown around one more season to see what he does and make firing him cheaper."

Who knows if any improvement is coming this season.

[SubGod22]

We looked like butt the first half of last season, but right around now is when the team took a turn and started playing a lot better. "Better" being a relative term. But it was good enough that I went from "fire Isaac Brown at all costs" to "I could see keeping Brown around one more season to see what he does and make firing him cheaper."

Who knows if any improvement is coming this season.

Did we turn it around? At this point last year we were 9-8. We finished the season from here on out 7-6 and then 1-1 in FTW.

I suppose we could have looked better despite no change in W/L record. I don't recall as I was just ready for that era to be over.

[rjl]

Did we turn it around? At this point last year we were 9-8. We finished the season from here on out 7-6 and then 1-1 in FTW.

I suppose we could have looked better despite no change in W/L record. I don't recall as I was just ready for that era to be over.

We looked a lot better. Pohto went from looking... well, like he's looked so far this season to a bit better player. We finished better around the basket. My recollection, anyhow. I don't have time to look at the stats.

[asiseeit]

Our team is better on offense with Ballard on the court.

Ballard has matched or beaten Pohto in ORtg the past eight games. Even the one where Pohto went off in the second half of the game, Ballard had the exact same ORtg as Pohto:

ORtg for past several games ...

Memphis: Pohto 75 (terrible), Ballard 92
Temple: Pohto 113, Ballard 113
North Texas: Pohto 82 (awful) , Ballard 160 (very nice!)
Kansas: Pohto 91, Ballard 103
K-State: Pohto 91, Ballard 122
SIU: Pohto 80 (awful), Ballard 101
SDSU: Pohto 65 (wtf terrible?!), Ballard 214 (WOWOWOW!)
Missouri: Pohto 84 (bad), Ballard 216 (SHWING!)

Ballard has impacted our team offense monstrously in at least two games against tough competition, and had another excellent game on top of that. Pohto is just leaving turds laying all over the court for our team, game after game after game.

On top of that, Ballard's seasonal Box Plus/Minus is 4.8 (not bad). Pohto's is 0.5. This includes all the cupcake games.

Things would be much better for KP if they would go to him more down low but they DON'T. That is not KP's fault. We lack a back to the basket down low player. He is the ONLY one that can play with his back to the basket. He proved he was dangerous doing it the 2nd half of last season but he just doesn't fit well into Mills' offense and seldom gets a good entry pass even when he is in good position. Not KP's fault !