Wichita State Shockers - VS - Tennessee Volunteers **GAME THREAD**

[GoShockers89]

#WatchUsSh!tTheBed

Sigh. Well, at least we're back in the ICT until January. Plenty to work on before we hit the road again- hopefully tasting the Top 25 for a couple weeks makes us hungry to get back in. It'll take a while though.

[shocks771]

We were horrible. Didn't understand the defensive game plan, didn't understand why we are so mentally weak and really didn't understand why we didn't feed the ball to Carl every possession since he was the only player who could do anything. Incredibly frustrating game. We have to get smarter out there on the floor and with our game plans. I was extremely disappointed with our coaching tonight. Looking on the bright side, I honestly don't think we could have played much worse than we did tonight yet we were still up 1 with four minutes left. We have the pieces, we just can't have the mental breakdowns that we have. Time for me to have a beer and just forget this game.

[forevershockerfan]

29-36 for a charitable win for The Orange. 12-20 for us and there was a huge factor. Where has that % been all year for Tennessee on the line or from the field? That was around 17 more throws than we got and we were not even making our own throws as good as we should. The Vols play very physical and were rewarded greatly by the way the game was called to the max. However, they still had to make the shots. They did, and down the stretch, we did not. I was surprised we did not play more zone. Golden was solid for them. McRae was a huge boost for them off the bench. Stokes fouled out and should have been whistled for about 10 more fouls at least, in his short duration.

Hall played good, but as a team, we just did not have it tonight. Even on several shots we did make, we were mauled and rarely a whistle. Even so, on the road, stranger things have happened. We will learn from this and move forward. Gregg just said "we will try to win 9 of our next 10." Sounds good to me Coach!!! We will Not allow an occasional setback to stop us from our big picture. That's all I have to say about that.

[Aargh]

Maybe our guys were off their games because they actually have to take their finals??

Lots of strange things happen in finals week.

If Tennessee plays like that AT HOME the rest of the season, they won't lose many games there.

[KC Shox]

Let's try to get over this quickly. No one here thought WSU would run the table this year, losses were going to happen. Better to lose this game rather than to MO State for example. That said, we'll be fine as long as we take care of business the rest of the year. First off, we need to beat Southern Miss and finish off the non-con at 11 - 1. Then, at minimum, need to split with Creighton, ISU red and UNI and not lose the 'bad' games in the Valley. We need to go undefeated against the bottom 6 of the Valley.

[pinstripers]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/boxscore/NCAAB_20121213_WICHST@TENN

[ShockerFever]

What sucks is there's still another full week to try and forget about this one until the next game.

Any decent team on their home court would have beat us by about 20 with that effort. I guess we are thankful that Tennessee isn't very good but the SEC RPI will make them appear as if they are.

[pinstripers]

9 turnovers from our PG's

[shockall]

Humpfff....lost to a team that really wasn't very good!

[shoxlax]

I had us at 10-2 in our non conference, worst case scenario 8-4 and 11-1 as best case. We sucked, the refs sucked, and our game plan sucked. That coupled with Tennessee shooting out their arse at the line made us easy victims. Yet, we still led with less than four minutes left in the game.

So I'm trying to be a big picture guy, put this behind me and watch some long legged volleyball players. I need some Wstate pictures to cheer me up.

[ShockRef]

Disappointed in...

1) HCGM tonight.
Did little to adjust his defense to a very simple game plan from HCCM.

Got really tired of watching TGolden abuse Armstead over and over on the dribble drive. No adjustments were made or even tried.

2) CE looked very JuCo-like tonight. Nights like this early in the season are expected from JC players.
Tonight was his.

3) Jake White needs to get serious about the weight room and now.
WSU has one, if not the best weight and conditioning programs in D-1 ball. Yet JW gets pushed around in the paint like a HS player. Soft and white come to mind.

4) EO looked like he hadn't played in a couple of weeks.

5) I will not comment on the officiating. However, if pushed I would offer that it was not consistent at both ends.
If it's a block at one end and similar at the other, its a block.

6) This team blinked at crunch time. Better now than in a couple of months.

7) That is all.

8) Oops one last thought... More FVV and the sooner the better.

[shockmonster]

We weren't horrible. We didn't play our best game and received a little "home cookin" from the refs (numerous more foul calls on us in a physical game for both teams). However, there certainly seemed to be a lack of respect for Tennessee from experts on this board, especially for a game against a physical, athletic team on the road. They lost to three very good teams and hadn't beaten anyone of substance until us, but they may have been the best team we've played so far. I predict that they have a good season and will beat a lot of good teams yet. They finally shot great from the line (evidentally more like last year than the first part of this year) while we were very bad from the stripe(might have given us an extra 5-6 points). We'll see who they beat in the SEC soon but I think that this game won't end up being a bad loss on the road.

[CBB_Fan]

If Tennessee plays like that AT HOME the rest of the season, they won't lose many games there.

I disagree; Tennessee did not play very well. Nothing about that performance impressed me about them. Their defense isn't bad, but they really don't have anyone that should be scary on offense, unless they a bad defense like Wichita State. Our defensive gameplan and execution just let a team that has struggled to score 40 put up 69 without doing any thing more than driving and getting fouled, and the worst part is that we did not even try to adjust.

[shoxlax]

1) HCGM tonight.
Did little to adjust his defense to a very simple game plan from HCCM.

Got really tired of watching TGolden abuse Armstead over and over on the dribble drive. No adjustments were made or even tried.

2) CE looked very JuCo-like tonight. Nights like this early in the season are expected from JC players.
Tonight was his.

3) Jake White needs to get serious about the weight room and now.
WSU has one, if not the best weight and conditioning programs in D-1 ball. Yet JW gets pushed around in the paint like a HS player. Soft and white come to mind.

4) EO looked like he hadn't played in a couple of weeks.

5) I will not comment on the officiating. However, if pushed I would offer that it was not consistent at both ends.
If it's a block at one end and similar at the other, its a block.

6) This team blinked at crunch time. Better now than in a couple of months.

7) That is all.

8) Oops one last thought... More FVV and the sooner the better.

That is one team I would zone press and zone the entire game. Especially when they get any call they want on their end.

[forevershockerfan]

It was almost as if Tennessee came in, really needing to win, playing their best game of the Season, and playing their tempo. They executed way above their curve on their shooting, especially the oodles of throws they were receiving and getting, and still receiving all night long. They seemed to play tough minded. seemed focused, with an urgency to win. I would love to play them again at the Dance. Some nights, the home cookin is better than usual, the breaks and calls go your way, but you still have to execute.

Mr. Hall played tough but our overall team play was subpar. With around 4 minutes left, the game was still up for grabs. All Season long, we found ways to execute and win. Not tonight. 3G assured us he will watch the tape and find solutions to get us back on track and try to win 9 of the next 10.