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Since I guess I'm expected to make one after a loss now, here are my thoughts on the Shockers:
After the Evansville and Tennessee losses, I was angry. Angry that we let things take away wins that really we could have had. We fouled too much against Tennessee, but it was a winnable game despite that. We turned the ball over too much at Evansville, but it was a winnable game despite that.
After this loss, I am not angry. I am disappointed. I am disappointed that a Gregg Marshall coached team could put out an effort like that. It was honestly embarrassing, and I am not talking about the final score. Our team is built around toughness, yet we were clearly the weaker team on the court today. We are built to outwork teams, not just outplay them, and yet we were flatly outworked in every facet of the game. Indiana State wanted it more, and we should never let that be the case. If we were Creighton, getting outworked would not be horrible, but we are Wichita State. We should not lose at our own game.
We still have a lot of potential. Every "big" game we have played has ended with a "W." And yet, all of our losses are to teams that have at best an outsider's chance at the tournament. We need to find consistency, because this type of game will always be lurking around the corner until we fix our problems. Right now, those problems seem to be basketball IQ, our zone offense, and consistent effort/energy.
Our BBIQ needs to get higher quickly. It was apparent in this game that we really don't use our strengths very well, and we still make a lot of dumb mistakes. However, I find the things we aren't doing to be the real problems. We aren't making crisp passes, we aren't feeding the post, and we aren't exploiting mismatches. We could play on another level if we could up our mental game.
Secondly, I think it is obvious that we need work against the zone. Every team should play primarily zone against until we figure it out, because it is working like clockwork right now. We simply don't have a clue how to attack it despite having plenty of outside threats (Early, Wiggins, Armstead), and we don't really do anything until about 30 seconds into the shot-clock. We cannot rely on desperation shots and put-backs to win games. Again, this is something we have the tools to fix, but it is definitely a big problem right now. I'd hate to get matched up with a GOOD zone team in the NCAA tournament (we've been beaten by three man teams playing a slightly practiced zone, not Syracuse), because it would be a huge mismatch for us.
Finally, it feels like we don't always play up to our potential. The guys play extremely well under the brightest lights, but have struggles in games they should win. The only thing I can think is that we probably cannot approach any game with the mindset of "We can beat this team without going 100%."
And before you think I am just building my reputation as a doom-and-gloom specialist, let me say that I still have very high hopes for this game. In many ways, this is a much better loss than our previous two and we will probably only drop a seed or two and a couple spots in the polls. Since we cannot have this game back, I hope we learn from it and build off of it.
If we can fix our problems and learn from our mistakes, I see no reason why we cannot still accomplish our goals in March.
After the Evansville and Tennessee losses, I was angry. Angry that we let things take away wins that really we could have had. We fouled too much against Tennessee, but it was a winnable game despite that. We turned the ball over too much at Evansville, but it was a winnable game despite that.
After this loss, I am not angry. I am disappointed. I am disappointed that a Gregg Marshall coached team could put out an effort like that. It was honestly embarrassing, and I am not talking about the final score. Our team is built around toughness, yet we were clearly the weaker team on the court today. We are built to outwork teams, not just outplay them, and yet we were flatly outworked in every facet of the game. Indiana State wanted it more, and we should never let that be the case. If we were Creighton, getting outworked would not be horrible, but we are Wichita State. We should not lose at our own game.
We still have a lot of potential. Every "big" game we have played has ended with a "W." And yet, all of our losses are to teams that have at best an outsider's chance at the tournament. We need to find consistency, because this type of game will always be lurking around the corner until we fix our problems. Right now, those problems seem to be basketball IQ, our zone offense, and consistent effort/energy.
Our BBIQ needs to get higher quickly. It was apparent in this game that we really don't use our strengths very well, and we still make a lot of dumb mistakes. However, I find the things we aren't doing to be the real problems. We aren't making crisp passes, we aren't feeding the post, and we aren't exploiting mismatches. We could play on another level if we could up our mental game.
Secondly, I think it is obvious that we need work against the zone. Every team should play primarily zone against until we figure it out, because it is working like clockwork right now. We simply don't have a clue how to attack it despite having plenty of outside threats (Early, Wiggins, Armstead), and we don't really do anything until about 30 seconds into the shot-clock. We cannot rely on desperation shots and put-backs to win games. Again, this is something we have the tools to fix, but it is definitely a big problem right now. I'd hate to get matched up with a GOOD zone team in the NCAA tournament (we've been beaten by three man teams playing a slightly practiced zone, not Syracuse), because it would be a huge mismatch for us.
Finally, it feels like we don't always play up to our potential. The guys play extremely well under the brightest lights, but have struggles in games they should win. The only thing I can think is that we probably cannot approach any game with the mindset of "We can beat this team without going 100%."
And before you think I am just building my reputation as a doom-and-gloom specialist, let me say that I still have very high hopes for this game. In many ways, this is a much better loss than our previous two and we will probably only drop a seed or two and a couple spots in the polls. Since we cannot have this game back, I hope we learn from it and build off of it.
If we can fix our problems and learn from our mistakes, I see no reason why we cannot still accomplish our goals in March.
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