Wichita State (9-3) at Temple (7-5) Game Discussion: Jan 03 (Fri)

[Aargh]

yes...." in position to win".... but in the blink of an eye where it went from 4 up to 10 down... a time out... a reset.... maybe even a joke... who knows? but a coach has to nurse the team home...

I watched Mick Cronin yesterday try to coax his UCLA guys to a win in an obviously hostile Nebraska gym... he did not succeed but he called good timeouts, made timely subs... Nebraska went from 2 up to 12 up, but Cronin was actively trying to to stem the flow.... it just didn't work...
in fairness, he has better players than Mills

The game went south when Washington got his 4th foul with about 10 minutes to go. When he got back in with about 5 minutes left, he picked up his 5th in under a minute.

Washington not in the game seems to be the most obvious difference between when the Shox were winning and whn they were losing.

Mills is always going to take heat when the Shox lose a winnable game, but not everything is something he can control. This loss might be more attributable to DeGray's and Meeks' injuries than to Mills' coaching. With both actual PF's are hurt, that's a problem.

[1972Shocker]

Unless we get some MAJOR NIL donations, there's not much reason to expect a good recruiting class. Players sign with the highest bidder. I'm not a Mills fan, but he's what we've got for the next couple of years. VMI says they are paying $4 mill in NIL, and they are not paying a football team.

In the current era with NIL and the portal, the quality of basketball a school can put on the court is directly related to the amount of money that school can pay players. It appears that WSU is losing the NIL arms race. As long as that is lost, a coach has limited ability to attract quality players.

Arkansas paid Ricky Council $250,000, which was probably more than WSU paid to the entire team. Council would go for considerably more in today's market.

National relevance for WSU basketball is probably dead unless there are big changes to NIL rules or WSU can raise the $7 million in NIL funds that Saal says the program needs. $7 mill won't put WSU in competition with the power conferences, but would put us toward the top end of the non-power conference teams. If that's where you want to be, then find a way to get that $7 mill. In the meantime you can gripe about how the coach can't recruit. Firing the coach just increases the expenses of the athletic department, and uses money that could otherwise go toward NIL.

The $7 million PER YEAR that ADKS said we need includes $650k per year over the next 10 years to replace the revenue the NCAA will be withholding to fund a legal settlement for Retroactive NIL Payments, $2.6 million per year in revenue sharing for athletes, and additional $2.5 million to fund cost of attendance for significantly expanded roster limits. The other $1.25 million would presumably be used to cover current operating deficits (not including severance payments to coaches). The athletic department itself does not raise NIL funds (or presumably are not supposed to be doing that) but perhaps the "revenue sharing arrangement" will offset the NIL need to some extent although not for highly coveted players. I guess if we implement a "revenue sharing" arrangement with athletes that will perhaps involve making them employees of the University. How that will all shake out with Title IX remains to be seen.

I simply do not see how this is sustainable, at least for most but the most well-heeled programs and I think it will even be difficult for them to sustain the current model over the long run. As you can tell I am not very optimistic about the future of Shocker Athletics but I am hoping ADKS can pul a rabbit out of his hat.

[ShockTalk]

Counter point, he had the team in a position where they could lose it .. and they did. If we want to be where we SHOULD be .. That Temple team shouldn't have even been close. Mills let Temple go on a run and completely flip the game.

I assume you mean early in the first half on Temple's run. One could say, Temple allowed us to jump out to a very early lead in the first 4 minutes (11-2). Mashburn hit a 3 just before the first TO to make it 11-5. They caught back up during the next few minutes which included a quick missed layup by Bell and 2 missed FTs by Ballard.

Pretty much a dog fight after that wasn't it? At least until late in the game.

[JVShocker]

Agree we have to get creative. Especially next season attempting to recruit an entire roster.

Yeah. Again. Just like last year. I imagine the care factor will fall pretty hard at this rate. I can understand the choices many great coaches have made to get out of the biz. At some point the inmates will be running the asylum.

[ShockRef]

Aargh,
Absolutely a spot on and reasonable analysis.
HCPM will always take the heat for a winnable game gone bad. But he is short on personnel to win those type of game and as the Doc pointed out earlier, this may become an unwanted trend as the league season moves on.
Lack of depth and the grind of league games will take there toll on this group.
Do they have the leadership and toughness to win out against a watered down league (Memphis the exception) this year?

The next 4 are very winnable game (3 on the home court). They had better go 4-0.
After the Memphis game, the schedule becomes much more unfriendly and the depth and toughness issue will really move to the forefront.
I guess DeGray will be back by then, but will be be in game ready condition?
Meeks? I've given up on him this year. Major league bust.

That is all.

[shock]

Every program has taken a hit. Look at KU, Duke, UNC, etc. Water always finds its level. Eventually, a new norm will establish and things will even back out. Until then there will be significant growing pains.

WSU is not unique. HOF level coaches are quitting for a reason. Some are willing to put up with player “empowerment” and the attitudes that come with it. Most aren’t.

[forevershockerfan]

Is there even remotely even a possibility that Meeks could receive another year to play at WSU?

[Stickboy46]

Is there even remotely even a possibility that Meeks could receive another year to play at WSU?

At WSU no. We have no idea how to fill out the paperwork. If he transfers? Sure he's guaranteed one

[pinstripers]

Is there even remotely even a possibility that Meeks could receive another year to play at WSU?

if he doesn't wanna play this year, why would he wanna play next year?

[Stickboy46]

I assume you mean early in the first half on Temple's run. One could say, Temple allowed us to jump out to a very early lead in the first 4 minutes (11-2). Mashburn hit a 3 just before the first TO to make it 11-5. They caught back up during the next few minutes which included a quick missed layup by Bell and 2 missed FTs by Ballard.

Pretty much a dog fight after that wasn't it? At least until late in the game.

From the under 8 to the under 4 we went from up 2 (after being up 5 with all the momentum shortly before that) to down 10.

[Dan]

The game went south when Washington got his 4th foul with about 10 minutes to go. When he got back in with about 5 minutes left, he picked up his 5th in under a minute.

Washington not in the game seems to be the most obvious difference between when the Shox were winning and whn they were losing.

Mills is always going to take heat when the Shox lose a winnable game, but not everything is something he can control. This loss might be more attributable to DeGray's and Meeks' injuries than to Mills' coaching. With both actual PF's are hurt, that's a problem.

Maybe we should have another decent sized player on the bench, but alas all we have is guards.

[Aargh]

Maybe we should have another decent sized player on the bench, but alas all we have is guards.

We have 2 PF's on the bench. This season would probably look better if DeGray and Meeks weren't injured. Injuries happen, but when they hit the same position and are long-term, that's a different situation.

[Dan]

We have 2 PF's on the bench. This season would probably look better if DeGray and Meeks weren't injured. Injuries happen, but when they hit the same position and are long-term, that's a different situation.

I get it, but they are 2 seniors, one of which has a history of injuries. Meanwhile we have several bench players, all guards, that never play, which is a waste of scholarships.

[WstateU]

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DqQBZcksC/?

[Kung Wu]

I will remind y'all. I think there is a path to getting one more year out of Ballard, if he wants another one.

Keeping Ballard would give us a shot at keeping Washington. Add in Meeks and Matej potentially getting another year.

We would be looking for guards, guards, guards.