WSU VERSUS PITTSBURG PREDICTIONS AND PREGAME DISCUSSIONS

[shockmonster]

Alan Parsons.

Some great music. Serius? Yeah that's sports related song for. Actual sports? Eh, not so much.

Wow. A shot from the past. The eye in the Sky and The Raven are old but pretty good.

[RomeoCrennel's Belly]

Pitt doesn't seem like a bad group of guys. I can certainly understand their feeling of being underseeded.

[kcshocker11]

74 to 69 Shockers

[calfan]

No prediction, but the keys to a WSU win are:

1. Demetric Williams saaid when he came to WSU that he was as good as Elijah Johnson at KU.
Demetric, it's time to show me!
2. Early needs to be the 1st Team MVC player people think he is.
3. The hardest one, EO must find a way to be an offensive presence, playing good D won't be enough.

Those are my keys to a WSU win on Thursday.

[shocker22]

No prediction, but the keys to a WSU win are:

1. Demetric Williams saaid when he came to WSU that he was as good as Elijah Johnson at KU.
Demetric, it's time to show me!
2. Early needs to be the 1st Team MVC player people think he is.
3. The hardest one, EO must find a way to be an offensive presence, playing good D won't be enough.

Those are my keys to a WSU win on Thursday.

We will need early to score!
I disagree with EO, if he rebounds and plays great defense against tehir 7 footer who will play in the league then that is enough. Hall will need to score.

[ShockerPrez]

We need all our players to play well. This is the NCAA. They all need to come with their A game, and we need multiple scoring options against a defensive team like Pitt.

[garylee]

No prediction, but the keys to a WSU win are:

1. Demetric Williams saaid when he came to WSU that he was as good as Elijah Johnson at KU.
Demetric, it's time to show me!
2. Early needs to be the 1st Team MVC player people think he is.
3. The hardest one, EO must find a way to be an offensive presence, playing good D won't be enough.

Those are my keys to a WSU win on Thursday.

well, those things would be nice but certainly NOT ones I would encourage. DW and EO need to focus / play solid D and CE has to be patient on offense and not force things. hope he has a great offensive outing but with pitt's D i'm not counting on it. what I am counting on is intense TEAM defense to create some easy scoring opportunities and making them earn every basket. if those two things happen we will have a good chance. rebound and take care of the rock.

[SubGod22]

I'd like to see us try to push the ball as much as possible. A half court game is not our strong suit.

[BOBB]

No prediction, but the keys to a WSU win are:

1. Demetric Williams saaid when he came to WSU that he was as good as Elijah Johnson at KU.
Demetric, it's time to show me!
2. Early needs to be the 1st Team MVC player people think he is.
3. The hardest one, EO must find a way to be an offensive presence, playing good D won't be enough.

Those are my keys to a WSU win on Thursday.

If by offensive presence you mean cleaning the boards and setting good screens, you are right. If you mean scoring, not so much.

[Ta Town Shocker]

I'd like to see us try to push the ball as much as possible. A half court game is not our strong suit.

Don't get your hopes up. All indications are this will be a defensive battle much like the VCU game.

[forevershockerfan]

The last time we visited the visited the Dance and won 2 games, we had SO shooting and making 3's from the outside the 1st game and around 7 more players playing tough. Then against Tennessee, Cooz stepped right up and was making big shots with around 7 more players doing their part. After all, Tennessee beat our future Coach 3G with a lucky corner shot so we had to avenge that for him too. Pearl's team did not know what hit them and I think the experts believed we would lose those games too?

[shockmonster]

Pitt doesn't seem like a bad group of guys. I can certainly understand their feeling of being underseeded.

I've seen a couple of messages on here that Pitt was underseeded (or maybe that's just Parsons, and media types). But it's odd that the bracketologists had them at a 6 seed prior to the Selection Show and us at the 10ish range. But if you look at the resumes of both teams, there wasn't much difference. In fact our RPI was a little higher. They had more Top 50 and 51-100 wins than us but they also had more opportunities. However, our percentages of Top 50 and 51-100 wins was very comparable. So our seedings should be very close as they ended up. If they were a 6, then we should have been a 6-7.

[The Mad Hatter]

I've seen a couple of messages on here that Pitt was underseeded (or maybe that's just Parsons, and media types). But it's odd that the bracketologists had them at a 6 seed prior to the Selection Show and us at the 10ish range. But if you look at the resumes of both teams, there wasn't much difference. In fact our RPI was a little higher. They had more Top 50 and 51-100 wins than us but they also had more opportunities. However, our percentages of Top 50 and 51-100 wins was very comparable. So our seedings should be very close as they ended up. If they were a 6, then we should have been a 6-7.

By RPI, yes things look comparable. It is the other statistical measuring system (including KenPom, where Pitt is #7) that Pitt looks like they should be higher than an 8 seed. I posted this link earlier is the thread, but here is the Massey Composite of 40 different rankings:

http://www.masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm

Given our injury situation throughout the year, we certainly may be under-ranked compared to the team we will field in the NCAAs, but Pitt's numbers are very good. That being said, these rankings were in our favor last year in our match-up with VCU, so they don't perfectly predict outcomes, but it does tell you that Pitt is a very good team and that we could have gotten a statistically easier draw (such as UCLA, UNC, NC ST, or Illinois).

[ShockerPrez]

The selection committe pretty much stated on ESPN that they moved teams all around in the 6 or 7 through 12 seeds to make the brackets work. So reading much into the seedings is not really relevant. They are a big mish mash together.

[shockmonster]

I don't think that the committee uses the Massey which is a compilation of all the ratings, do they? I think that they use the RPI and maybe the BPI. They also get injury reports, and good wins, vs bad wins from the entire year, and probably some other things. But the Massey (the was I see it) is a compilation of different ratings groups that all have a different methodology of rating the teams.