OFFICIAL FINAL 4 GAME THREAD-WSU VERSUS LOUISVILLE

[BenWSU]

If the bracelets were made in China, expect them to say Play Angwy

[mjbaker84]

did kevin ware get the basket from the alumni and the nifty nuthouse?
kind of shows how nice and caring people here are

[Rlh04d]

Just want to point out:

Marshall coached circles around a guy about to get inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.

[kstarheel]

Lutz has written a number of terrific articles about the Shox throughout the NCAA tournament. Give the guy some slack. There were 2 huge inserts in the Eagle today totaling 84 pages. The Eagle used 8 writers to cover the Shox with that coverage today.

The love for this team has been absolutely amazing. Our daughter lives close to the Rolling Hills CC. When she came to our house to watch the game wiht us, she drove right by the CC and noticed that most of the golfers on the course were wearing yellow and black. She also heard that KU players who attended the game in Atlanta today wore Shocker colors, too. And, she also heard that the KC Royals are going to wear some black & yellow on their uniforms for their first home game in KC on Monday. We'll have to verify that one but it sounds pretty good at this point.

I agree with everything other than Lutz. He is way more excited when the Cardinals are playing well. One of his first articles was admonishing Shocker fans to act like they had been here before. Whatever Bob...

[WuDrWu]

X-Man sighting.

@WuDrWu: sighting.

Shox up by 1.


LOVE

And you didn't at least come by and punch me in the head or something? Kind of disappointed.....

[WuDrWu]

My wife was telling me that the Alumni Association had ordered 1700 wrist bands with the words, "Play Angry" on them. They were to be shipped in time for the pep rally but thanks to bad weather in China, the shipment was delayed. I knew there was a legitimate reason why we lost. Bad Karma.

Lol at 1700 for the pep rally. Glad they didn't make it because that would have been about half enough.

If there was bad karma, it was from the song introduced at the rally, but, and I'm going to say this 1000 times, our guys were great.

[WuDrWu]

Baker take the damn shot

IMHO, this was the turning point. Baker should have shot that (no duh) but his BBIQ was in a little overload right there. You can hardly blame him...natural instinct does not tell to NOT pass the ball to a chiseled wide open 7 foot beast 2 feet from the basket. I felt terrible, for both of them.

Baker shoots that...in that spot, as open as he was, I give him about a 90% chance of making it. He makes it, the lead's back to a dozen and the D gets turned up another notch and I seriously doubt Henderson gets another 3. The game, while certainly not over with 12 and change, would have taken an entirely different tack. Perhaps the outcome would have been the same, but I doubt it. Credit the Cards, they got up off the floor and hit the big shots when they had to....we knocked them down and they continued to get back up...one time too many unfortunately.

[vancedave56]

Yep - Baker is a "team" player. The pass to EO did draw the 4th foul on their big, but the 3 points would have been great. Overall, I am just very proud of our team, coaches, and the entire program. Fantastic season!

[garylee]

I'm not gonna lie. It stung tonight. We were up double digits midway through the second half in a National Semifinal game. We were beating a team that nobody was giving us a chance in (again). A couple of key stretches really made the difference in the game. The sequence where EO was in hurt. We were up 12, had the ball, and EO was fouled. Airballed the 1 and 1. Louisville walk-on hits a wide open 3. Baker passes up a 3 from straight on, passes to EO who gets fouled again. EO misses 1 and 1. Same Louisville walk-on hits another wide open 3 from the corner. It's a 6 point lead then and Louisville's smelling blood.

The turnover sequence in the last 4-5 minutes hurt. Armstead was not good on the offensive end tonight but we missed his presence late. Was he on the bench too long with the 4 fouls? I dunno. But FVV cracked a bit. He was forcing some dumb, albeit freshman stuff and turning the ball over.

The phantom double foul really hurt. Baker has taken more shots to the face this tournament than a player maybe sees an entire career. His reward for it? The opponent's possession. Baker got slapped in the face. It was inadvertent but I thought maybe flagrant 1 possibility? I guess that's only with the elbows though. But then somehow the play is called a double-foul and instead of Baker shooting 2 throws, Louisville somehow gets the ball on alternate possession. Are you kidding me? That was also 4 or 5 point swing.

Amstead getting the ball taken out of his hands in the final couple of minutes was absolutely disastrous. I was pretty pissed with that one. That CANNOT happen. Brutal to watch after playing their defense so well for 30 minutes.

Overall though, it was a FANTASTIC season and boy, what a run. This team and coaching staff has done so well and has represented WSU with HIGH-LEVEL class that should make every fan here proud and thankful they came here. Could have not enjoyed a better 3 weeks. This town was abuzz like nothing I've ever seen before. Truly special. And it's something we all will NEVER forget. And those memories have come from these group of fine, young men. They did it. They took this city and nation by STORM. SO PROUD. While we're not satisfied, we are more than thankful and proud about what has been accomplished. And while the sky's the limit with those program, I don't think a lot of us realize how difficult it is just to get to this spot, even for the blue-blood programs. Who knows for sure how soon it will happen again. It will though and it may even be sooner than we think.

I love this team. We'll miss the seniors. Thanks for all of your contributions. Oh, what a ride. What a truly amazing ride.

excellent summary

[shoxlax]

Isn't ironic how we griped about not feeding the post all year? That was my thoughtright after it happened.

[Ta Town Shocker]

The thought went through my head several times as to which would be better.
1. The two fouls on Dieng with him picking up his fourth
or
2. Two extra possessions

I actually thought that even though they picked up 6 points on the exchange that if we attacked the lane, as it was wide open with Dieng out, that we would have a chance to extend the lead. FVV did a good job attacking but we weren't able to take advantage on a couple of subsequent possessions. Nevertheless it was still a very memorable game and this team proved they could play with the best team in the nation.

[RefChick]

IMHO, this was the turning point. Baker should have shot that (no duh) but his BBIQ was in a little overload right there. You can hardly blame him...natural instinct does not tell to NOT pass the ball to a chiseled wide open 7 foot beast 2 feet from the basket. I felt terrible, for both of them.

Baker shoots that...in that spot, as open as he was, I give him about a 90% chance of making it. He makes it, the lead's back to a dozen and the D gets turned up another notch and I seriously doubt Henderson gets another 3. The game, while certainly not over with 12 and change, would have taken an entirely different tack. Perhaps the outcome would have been the same, but I doubt it. Credit the Cards, they got up off the floor and hit the big shots when they had to....we knocked them down and they continued to get back up...one time too many unfortunately.

I agree...I thought that pass from Baker to EO was a huge turning point. But as most have said on this board , wow what a season! So proud of how far they made it in spite of all odds. What a fun ride, thanks Shox for an awesome season!

[vancedave56]

So, what are we doing Sunday afternoon in Atlanta? Taco Mac? Fan Fest? Six Flags? Decisions, decisions...

[WuDrWu]

When I can shut down the tear factory, I'll let you know.

[1972Shocker]

IMHO, this was the turning point. Baker should have shot that (no duh) but his BBIQ was in a little overload right there. You can hardly blame him...natural instinct does not tell to NOT pass the ball to a chiseled wide open 7 foot beast 2 feet from the basket. I felt terrible, for both of them.

Baker shoots that...in that spot, as open as he was, I give him about a 90% chance of making it. He makes it, the lead's back to a dozen and the D gets turned up another notch and I seriously doubt Henderson gets another 3. The game, while certainly not over with 12 and change, would have taken an entirely different tack. Perhaps the outcome would have been the same, but I doubt it. Credit the Cards, they got up off the floor and hit the big shots when they had to....we knocked them down and they continued to get back up...one time too many unfortunately.

I agree with you 100% Doc and I told my wife at the time it happenned that would allow L-ville to get back into the game. I don't think Ron's BBIQ tookover because you should know by now that passing the ball into EO simply is a low percentage play. Ron made the exact same play in on of our previous NCAA games. I think what overcame Ron was not so much BBIQ but his unselfish nature and willingness to make an extra pass to a teammate. Maybe he didn't realize how open he was. How ironic that a team built on unselfish play would be undone by an unselfish play.

Still there was plenty of time to play, but the momentum had changed and they just made more plays over the last 10 minutes than the Shocks did.

The two treys by the L-ville walkon were huge. That kid probably wasn't even on the scouting report. He was 4-17 for the year on 3-point shots.

We did a great job with the L-ville frontcourt and we also shut Siva down. The X-factor was obviously Luke Hancock who had a great game. I don't know if that caught us by surprise or if we simply game planned to try to stop other players and Hancock took advantage of the opportunities that gave him.

Hurts more today thinking about the opportunity missed than it did yesterday. Still there is no way I can be upset with this group of young men. The way they played, the way the handled themselves, not just in the tournament but throuhout the year was simply magnificent. I will forever be thankful that Wichita State was blessed with having these young men represent us.

Go Shocks!!