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  • Official Meltdown Thread

    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.

  • #2
    Guess we're not going 29-2.
    Deuces Valley.
    ... No really, deuces.
    ________________
    "Enjoy the ride."

    - a smart man

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    • #3
      Originally posted by ShockerFever View Post
      Guess we're not going 29-2.
      I'm impressed that you managed to read that entire thing in only a minute...

      ...or maybe you thought you knew enough of what I was going to say that you already had that quip ready? I'm pretty sure that virtually everything in that post is nearly identical to something you have already said in other threads.

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      • #4
        I will take that one step further and say I'm extremely disappointed. That being said this loss should make us work and prepare harder moving forward. We got hit in the chin tonight but it's time to start preparing for UNI.
        We are definitely missing Ron Baker as his three point shooting ability would improve our ability to score against the zone.
        Shocker fan for life after witnessing my first game in person, the 80-74 win over the #12 Creighton Bluejays at the Kansas Coliseum.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Ta Town Shocker View Post
          We are definitely missing Ron Baker as his three point shooting ability would improve our ability to score against the zone.
          More shooters are always nice, but we have to get them open. Wiggins is shooting over 50% from three for the season, but we never got him open.

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          • #6
            I'm sure part of this is just timing. This is the perfect time of the year for a let down game. School is back in session, practice time rules are back in effect, fairly short turn around time between games. Hell the weather sort of sucks. 2 losses still wins the conference.

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            • #7
              ...but not likely 4. We can afford 1 more loss, as long as it isn't to Creighton.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by CBB_Fan View Post
                More shooters are always nice, but we have to get them open. Wiggins is shooting over 50% from three for the season, but we never got him open.
                If we had Baker back and Baker and Wiggins could be in at the same time, that would open up the inside.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by 1979Shocker View Post
                  If we had Baker back and Baker and Wiggins could be in at the same time, that would open up the inside.
                  Too bad Wiggins was so covered up last night. Because the trees were ahead most of the night, they could maintain their grueling weave offense to the point that we seemed to hit the panic button somewhat. Then they packed that zone and sealed us out of our inside game. With a Baker, Wiggins and Cle combo last night, we might have got a lead with more offense and then the trees would not be able to pack the zone to nullify our bigs because we could hit some needed shots. I would have never thought they would outscore us in the paint and outrebound us that way they did. At times on loose balls, we looked as sluggish as fsf after eating too much turkey, stuffing, and the fixins on Thanksgiving Day. This has not been the case much this Season whatsoever.

                  We just did not find the seams in their zone to open them up like a can of worms. With their lead most of the night, they just stuck to their gameplan and it worked which was hard to stomach. Every zone will be thrown at us that can be imagined from here so we better find some solutions to penetrate the seams and get the rock to our bigs inside which will in return open the outside up maybe for some more open shots. I hope we take alot of shooting practice because shooting under 30% from the field does not suffice into much most of the time at this level.
                  Shocker basketball will forever be my favorite team in all of sports.

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                  • #10
                    I realize Baker took (and consequently made) more 3pt shots than Wessel. But his 45.8% from 3 before he went down would be nice to have as well right now.
                    "He called me around noon and was thrilled," Brandt said. "He said he was going to be a Shocker forever." -- RIP Guy, you WILL indeed be a Shocker forever!

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                    • #11
                      It was obvious very early that WSU had problems against the zone. ISU's game was no revelation.
                      Phi Alpha

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Speed View Post
                        It was obvious very early that WSU had problems against the zone. ISU's game was no revelation.
                        Funny, because during the pre-game interview, Coach was asked by Kennedy what kind of defensive schemes the Sycamores had and he said "Man... just man... it's a Valley team, Mike". Uh....whoops.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by SPEShockAlum View Post
                          Funny, because during the pre-game interview, Coach was asked by Kennedy what kind of defensive schemes the Sycamores had and he said "Man... just man... it's a Valley team, Mike". Uh....whoops.

                          hahahah That's kinda funny. Painful. But funny.
                          Kung Wu say, man who read woman like book, prefer braille!

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by SPEShockAlum View Post
                            Funny, because during the pre-game interview, Coach was asked by Kennedy what kind of defensive schemes the Sycamores had and he said "Man... just man... it's a Valley team, Mike". Uh....whoops.
                            I took that to mean that Valley teams are known for grind-it-out defense--not a piece of cake.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by SPEShockAlum View Post
                              Funny, because during the pre-game interview, Coach was asked by Kennedy what kind of defensive schemes the Sycamores had and he said "Man... just man... it's a Valley team, Mike". Uh....whoops.
                              Hence the reason why I think we got outcoached. We weren't prepared for anything different and while I like Marshall, he was completely owned by this quote

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