How has Marshall led us so far? One word: metagaming.

[Speed]

And that's what you save your first post in over a week for?

Somebody didn't get anything from the Easter Bunny this year.. :cry:

I take it back and apologize if since I was missed.
Serioysly apilogize

[Speed]

And that's what you save your first post in over a week for?

Somebody didn't get anything from the Easter Bunny this year.. :cry:

I take it back and apologize if since I was missed.
Seriously I apologize. A comment from a ling time ago struck a chord.

[molly jabali]

'Lazy coaches'???? I'm pretty sure none of these opponents are lazy...degrees of smartness, perhaps....

[ShockerFever]

I take it back and apologize if since I was missed.
Seriously I apologize. A comment from a ling time ago struck a chord.

No worries. Sorry if I offended you by a comment in the past.

Go Shocks!

[Ricardo del Rio]

Why do you always go into to troll mode when you see one of my posts? It does nothing good for you or the Shockernet community. I did not title the thread "HEY SHOCKERFEVER, please come derail a thread and make it about your personal grudges!" Good thing too, that probably wouldn't fit in the title box.

In all seriousness though, the one thing that has hurt us is our opponents getting to the line. Both Gonzaga and Ohio State had runs sparked with FTs. I think Ohio State cut our 20 point lead down to 9 points without making a single FG.

Obviously we've met expectations. But still, we came awfully close to missing this opportunity entirely. From what I've heard, our game against Pitt was supposed to be a 7-10 or 6-11 game that got changed to a 8-9 game to meet NCAA regulations regarding rematches with conference foes. While virtually every bracket had us in, we were in a lot of "Last Four In" lists despite our final ranking. When we lost 3 games in a row, we definitely were starting to risk missing the tournament.

Fever does have a good point.

The Shockers are leading the tournament in personal fouls. The stats are as follows:

Michigan - 40 (UNI like)
Syracuse - 52 (Zone)
Wichita State - 78 (Almost 20 per game)
Louisville - 79 (Frenetic aggression)

As added information, turnover stats are as follows:

Michigan - 39
Syracuse - 43
Louisville - 46
Wichita State - 46

M.H.

Yes, you are correct. I had a compilation error.

The stats, which I posted, were not intended to project game match-ups. Rather it was intended to provide a general sense of the team's tendency relative to personal fouls.

I assume you have read Coach Merfeld's quote. If not, it is posted here someplace. It is interesting.

[The Mad Hatter]

Fever does have a good point.

The Shockers are leading the tournament in personal fouls. The stats are as follows:

Michigan - 40 (UNI like)
Syracuse - 52 (Zone)
Louisville - 69 (Frenetic aggression)
Wichita State - 78 (Almost 20 per game)

As added information, turnover stats are as follows:

Michigan - 39
Syracuse - 43
Louisville - 46
Wichita State - 46

You might check your math on Louisville. By my count, they have committed 79 fouls in the NCAA tournament (1 more than WSU). It is also important to compare how many fouls were committed by opposition to get a sense of how much can be put on style of officiating and margin advantage over opponent (format is team fouls/opponent fouls):

Michigan - 40/52
Syracuse - 52/80
Louisville - 79/82
WSU - 78/79

Really Syracuse is the only team in the bunch that has a sizable advantage on the foul front. Wichita State and Louisville are pretty much mirror images of each other on this front.

[Ricardo del Rio]

You might check your math on Louisville. By my count, they have committed 79 fouls in the NCAA tournament (1 more than WSU). It is also important to compare how many fouls were committed by opposition to get a sense of how much can be put on style of officiating and margin advantage over opponent (format is team fouls/opponent fouls):

Michigan - 40/52
Syracuse - 52/80
Louisville - 79/82
WSU - 78/79

Really Syracuse is the only team in the bunch that has a sizable advantage on the foul front. Wichita State and Louisville are pretty much mirror images of each other on this front.

You are correct. See above.

[Ricardo del Rio]

You might check your math on Louisville. By my count, they have committed 79 fouls in the NCAA tournament (1 more than WSU). It is also important to compare how many fouls were committed by opposition to get a sense of how much can be put on style of officiating and margin advantage over opponent (format is team fouls/opponent fouls):

Michigan - 40/52
Syracuse - 52/80
Louisville - 79/82
WSU - 78/79

Really Syracuse is the only team in the bunch that has a sizable advantage on the foul front. Wichita State and Louisville are pretty much mirror images of each other on this front.

Coach Merfeld's quote:

Get to the line. "If there is a weakness to the Shockers' defense, it's the propensity for fouls; their foul-shot-to-field-goal-attempt ratio is 37.8 percent, No. 278 in the country. "Get to the free throw line" is not a particularly sophisticated piece of advice, but it is without question the path of least resistance against the Shockers' D."

[The Mad Hatter]

Coach Merfeld's quote:

Get to the line. "If there is a weakness to the Shockers' defense, it's the propensity for fouls; their foul-shot-to-field-goal-attempt ratio is 37.8 percent, No. 278 in the country. "Get to the free throw line" is not a particularly sophisticated piece of advice, but it is without question the path of least resistance against the Shockers' D."

Regardless of whether it is big numbers of fouls or small, if we can get to line at the same or better rate as Louisville (and hit them), we should be fine in this area because Louisville has a propensity to foul as well. If we let them get a big edge in free throw attempts, we are in trouble.

[Rlh04d]

Coach Merfeld's quote:

Get to the line. "If there is a weakness to the Shockers' defense, it's the propensity for fouls; their foul-shot-to-field-goal-attempt ratio is 37.8 percent, No. 278 in the country. "Get to the free throw line" is not a particularly sophisticated piece of advice, but it is without question the path of least resistance against the Shockers' D."

I don't mind the fouls. Much like Louisville's numbers show, aggressive, in-your-face defense often results in high foul numbers. Also, like Louisville, we've been blowing out our opponents, and we all know officials tend to help the team that's getting beat up on a bit (honestly I don't think we beat Gonzaga if the officiating hadn't evened out once they took the lead on us, so it's helped us as well ... although mostly in that it was SO one-sided to that point).

I do mind dumb fouls, though. Fouls from aggression are fine. Dumb fouls need to be eliminated, and we all know we still have some of those.

[shockmonster]

There are tons of good stats that are listed here. But I'm a simple man and there are a few that you haven't mentioned (and they may be the most important).
WSU/Pitt 73-55
WSU/Gonzaga 76-70
WSU/LaSalle 72-58
WSU/OSU 70-66
Gregg Marshall's career wins 333-152