(UTSA 8-14, 2-7), at (WSU 9-13, 1-8) GAME THREAD

[Woodrow]

Nice game to be at. Glad HCPM let the bench guys get some time and we still won by 20.

[wichshock65]

Great effort by the guys tonight. Wins are fun!

Love love love Quincy.

Beverly is really good when he takes care of the ball.

Joy sighting! His stroke is much better than Bell. Much much better.

First game this year I've come home horse. Great to have something to chear about.

[Woodrow]

It feels like we are starting to gain confidence. The guys played hard tonight. Fought for rebounds like they wanted them. We were right there against FAU on the road. Perhaps we will win our 2nd in a row on Sunday. Feeling pretty good about it.

[JVShocker]

A little off on the Ballard prediction....but not by all that much honestly lol

11 pts 6 rebs 3 blocks

To be fair, Ballard could have played a few more minutes to my liking. He could always play a few minutes more.

[molly jabali]

Ok…. Can we talk Germany a bit? How can a guy be the NINTH ALL TIME LEADING SCORER in a D1 program, and not EVER get on the floor? I’m not saying he should… but how does that happen???

[WuDrWu]

Indeed. A win is a win and always feels better - even if UTSA was awful tonight.

Dare I even ask - after looking at the upcoming schedule, could WSU win enough of what's left to avoid playing on Wednesday in Dallas?

Just asking...

That is all.

I took a VERY brief check of the schedules. It's difficult to see Rice, Temple or UTSA getting to more than 6 wins (maybe just 5 BUT someone has to win those head to head games). Tulsa could win 3 more without any trouble (ok, it would be trouble but they have winnable games and they're a game up on us).

ECU is 2 up on us and it's kind of silly to talk about passing them at this point.

8 wins (6-2 down the stretch) and we for certain aren't playing Wednesday. I THINK 7 will be enough assuming one of the 5 wins is over Tulsa. 6? MAYBE. Tulsa is going to win a game or 2. If we beat them here and we end up tied, I'm not sure of the tiebreaker but I have to think our win over SMU helps.

Anyway, beat Rice, Temple and Tulsa at home (all pretty much must wins) and try to find 2 more, somewhere. A tall task if you ask me. I could even buy beating ECU but that only gets us to 6. What's sad is that if we just beat Temple (absolutely should have) and ECU (again, no excuses) and we're 4-6 instead of 2-8 and .500 season is certainly within reach.

I'd plan on being in Ft. Worth on Wednesday.

[Regul8te]

To be fair, Ballard could have played a few more minutes to my liking. He could always play a few minutes more.

The shot blocking is obvious but it seems like the offense is more efficient with him on the court as well. Like we downshift when KP comes in. Maybe it’s just my imagination though?

[forevershockerfan]

How about those first 2nd half 5 minutes for the Shockers?

[JVShocker]

The shot blocking is obvious but it seems like the offense is more efficient with him on the court as well. Like we downshift when KP comes in. Maybe it’s just my imagination though?

It can't be imagination if it's true. So, no, I don't think it's your imagination. The Shockers "look" like a basketball team when Ballard is on the floor. They tend to play like a real basketball team with him on the floor.

[forevershockerfan]

Cortes sure played better tonight. Last game was one of his worst games and this game one of his best IMO. It was good to see Joy, Abidde, and Germany play. I'm intrigued with Joy but only seen him limited minutes in 8 games. Could he develop into a defensive stoppers in due time? We might have up to 7-8 guards next Season if all eligible players return and are kept?

Germany had over 1300 pts. at UTSA. At first, I really thought he would do good here. Many things this Season have had me scratching my head including my off Season on accurate game predictions.

Early on this Season, we were told how good of a rebounder Abidde could be this Season. DeGray really has come on with some hustle and solid minutes which may be why IA suddenly got parked on the bench.

[Stickboy46]

Its really hard to glean anything off this game with how bad UTSA is. That said hopefully the team can at least gain some confidence. That might all come crashing down Sunday, but hopefully not. FAU is a Jekyl and Hyde team. So hopefully we get our good game and their bad game.

[Atxshoxfan]

The shot blocking is obvious but it seems like the offense is more efficient with him on the court as well. Like we downshift when KP comes in. Maybe it’s just my imagination though?

Ballards development is impressive. And you are not imagining. KP is and always has been weak. While he is tall, he is not cutout to play D1 ball. I hate badmouthing a player like him, who seems to be a good kid and puts good effort into the game, but facts are facts.

[Dan]

Looking at the box score, the one thing that stood out is that Ballard only played 16 min. How is this possible? The offense runs better with him in the game even if he’s not scoring. We were getting wide open drives to the rim, not to mention his defense. I get that his endurance isn’t great, but PM needs to figure out how to play him more than that.

[another shocker]

ballard is a great athlete. he looks the part, too. better not lose him, coach.

[pinstripers]

Does it matter whether it's Wednesday or Thursday?