Official Final Four Melt Down Thread

[The Mad Hatter]

It's not being satisfied when you celebrate after a win. Why is it being satisfied when you acknowledge the success of our entire season following the end of it?

We weren't satisfied when we beat Gonzaga. We took a moment to celebrate our accomplishments and move on. Did the same against La Salle. Did the same against tOSU.

Sucks that we lost, but we still have a LOT to celebrate. This was a tremendous team and they had a tremendous year. They had the chance to do more, but they have NOTHING to be ashamed of.

This team deserves to celebrate their overall accomplishments right now. It has nothing to do with being satisfied with how it ended.

Amen. If you can't celebrate anything but a National Championship, you are going to be a bitter person most of the time (even if you are at Kentucky, UNC, Duke, etc.). You shouldn't start celebrating the accomplishments while a National Championship is still on the table, but once the season is over, you can be happy about what was accomplished without forfeiting the right to want even more going forward or even of wishing that we could still be playing this year.

[Rosewood]

The title is this thread was a troll trap and I see I snagged a few. Mission accomplished.

[KirkUofLGrad]

Y'all are ****ing nuts if you think we are going to melt down after that game. The shox played their hearts out and played our game. What a run. I love these guys so much. As soon as we know when they are getting in we need to be there to support them.

Shockers for life!

Your team played fantastic and your coach had an amazing game plan that the team executed almost to perfection. UofL is very lucky to get out of the game with a win. Good luck and I hope to see Wichita State make more runs like this in coming years. It would be nice to have you guys on our schedule.

[KirkUofLGrad]

They still should have won.

Ahead 47-35 under 10 and your opponent is in serious foul trouble, you should win the game.

Opportunities like this come along once in a life time.

If Armstead has a Drake like game they win. However, he had a Southern Illinois game and therefore they lose.


Proud of them?

Absolutely.

But the opportunity was there for the taking and it was missed.

That is all.

Look at the way Early played. He is a special player and sometimes some play doesnt show up on the stat sheet. Your team played just fantastic defense all game. The game plan was to stop Russ/Siva and for the most part the game plan worked. You all played us as close as any team in almost two months. It was a special game to me and Wichita State has some fantastic forwards and great guards on defense.

However, when you stop the guards and stuff the middle it does leave things open. UofL finally was able to exploit that but still you guys almost pulled it out. I would be heart broken a little bit to if Wichita State was my team but take heart you have a great coach coming back and some fantastic players coming back. As a fan of NCAA BB in general and not just a UofL fan I will be paying more attention to how your team does next year.

[GarH]

It was definitely a game we could have won, but that is usually the case by both teams in a final four game. Sure I was disappointed the Shockers didn't win, but they showed so much heart and grit on their incredible run. It's the day after now and I just feel so proud of the team. I'll always remember this team as the team that put the Shockers back on the national stage.

[Rhatigan]

They still should have won.

Ahead 47-35 under 10 and your opponent is in serious foul trouble, you should win the game.

Opportunities like this come along once in a life time.

If Armstead has a Drake like game they win. However, he had a Southern Illinois game and therefore they lose.


Proud of them?

Absolutely.

But the opportunity was there for the taking and it was missed.

That is all.

If we can get Marshall to stay put this won't be "once in a lifetime".

[forevershockerfan]

Bingo -- I said the same thing watching that the Cards looked frustrated... the key to me was Baker not shooting the three but passing to the post ... although fouled the post man (big dude whose name I am not even going to attempt to spell) throws an air-free throw. Cards walk on hits the first of two consecutive three's ... to me that was a HUGE momentum turning point cause the Cards were unraveling up until then...

Coach Marshall let Baker know all about that before the throw was ever missed. Yes, EO was open but Baker had already made 3-3's for us and we were begging for him to shoot another one in that situation. Baker is such an unselfish team player and that is why he made the pass. I can't fault him for that. Baker had 11 points and 8 rebounds as a FRESHMAN who missed 21 games due to an injury. How's that for a young man from Scott City with 2 stop-lights? How many stop-lights in Atlanta? Not sure and I can assure you I won't get back to you on that.

Here was even a bigger potential 4 point turn around at the 4:52 mark in the 2nd half. FVV under our basket inbounds a long pass to Hall. Hall has great hands but could not catch the pass. Why? Van Treese was going up to steal that pass and smashed into Hall and knocked him back from the pass and flatter than a pancake? What no call? You have to call that? Hall has the right to jump straight up and catch that pass? All 3 refs swallowed their whistle and instead of Hall getting 2 throws, L-Ville gets an uncontested lay up. We will call that a potential 4 point swing in our 4 point loss. Go back and watch it. Unbelievable swing for them in their rally back. No call? WOW!!!

So the question becomes this. Is it better to be good or lucky? BOTH teams were good but down the stretch, Louisville was also lucky. The other huge lucky call for them was when Hancock wraps both arms around Baker's arm as todays paper clearly shows beyond a show of a doubt. The photo makes it clear at that point, he has not touched the ball yet but is fouling. What's the call? A jump ball and they have the possession arrow at the end of the game. Really?

Now let me reiterate that Louisville is good, very good and so were we. THE double foul where Baker got hit in the face twice was another call that I thought would be a flagrant foul on them but rather it was called a double foul? YEAL right. I'm just glad they played that back for the whole world to see with astonished eyes. However, these things happen and refs make mistakes too and that strange call cut deep, very deep .

We did not stop the Hancock show. Their bench players hit huge shots. They had 8 steals, we had 5. They had 9 turnovers, we had 11. THEY blocked 3 shots, and we blocked 1. They just kept pressing relentlessly and finally gained an advantage. Thus, we were both solid in this game, but at the end, they were very lucky with some calls that seemed to all slant their way? No, I am not proclaiming a conspiracy theory because my rose colored glassed slant to black and yellow which disqualifies me. Last night, I was numb and kept my trap shut about all of this . However, after reviewing these plays over and over today, I can conclude that it helps to be both good and lucky and get all the breaks down the stretch than just good .

Here is the kicker. I am still hoping Louisville beats Michigan soundly. Why? That way, the whole world understands that we gave the winner of the Dance, by far the best game. We were told they would beat us by ten more. In conclusion, I could not be more proud of all of our beloved Shocks. They all played, and they all gave us all they had. We can't ask for more. This is a new beginning for us. We traveled to places we have dreamed to visit,and Shocked the world. Now we want to keep meeting like this and make it a habit and shoot for the stars and have more shining moments .

[wsushox1]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Baker not shooting and passing to orukpe as being one of the more pivotal points in the game.

[60Shock]

For what it is worth, after the game ended, three Michigan and one Syracuse fan came up, commented on what a great game we played, andstated they thought the refs handed the win to Louisville right at the end of the game.


Sure, MA and Fred scored very few points, but they did a tremendous job of breaking Louisville's press for the vast majority of the game. And if any of you don't think that didn't perhaps take an edge off their shooting, you are sadly mistaken.

Our guys gave it their all. Sure we could have done one or two more things differently on the offensive or defensive ends and we might have won. Nothing but a National championship would have truly satisfied most of us. But I am totally proud of every one on our players knowing they played like true champions and left nothing on the court.

[jocoshock]

For what it is worth, after the game ended, three Michigan and one Syracuse fan came up, commented on what a great game we played, andstated they thought the refs handed the win to Louisville right at the end of the game.


Sure, MA and Fred scored very few points, but they did a tremendous job of breaking Louisville's press for the vast majority of the game. And if any of you don't think that didn't perhaps take an edge off their shooting, you are sadly mistaken.

Our guys gave it their all. Sure we could have done one or two more things differently on the offensive or defensive ends and we might have won. Nothing but a National championship would have truly satisfied most of us. But I am totally proud of every one on our players knowing they played like true champions and left nothing on the court.

amen.. +1

[jocoshock]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Baker not shooting and passing to orukpe as being one of the more pivotal points in the game.

We had gone 26 minutes without a turnover. We made 7 turnovers in the last 5-7 minutes. Any one of those turnovers could have been and was as much of a factor as a shot not taken. You could (but I don't) also say that a decision to leave a walk-on open for two uncontested 3 point shots was a bigger factor. But I won't. If you are FVV and have to make a decision to guard a walk-on who had hit 4 3s all season, or help on Luke Hancock who had a very hot hand, what would you do? We need to stop looking for that one play that turned the game. It wasn't one play. It was a collection of plays that all of us knew could (and did) happen in this game. These guys played their guts out in front of 70,000 people in an epic game and came up short. We were one of the last 4 standing out of 347 teams.

Let it go..

[forevershockerfan]

[QUOTE=60Shock;394789]For what it is worth, after the game ended, three Michigan and one Syracuse fan came up, commented on what a great game we played, andstated they thought the refs handed the win to Louisville right at the end of the game.

Thanks for sharing this 60Shock. We have much to be thankful for. We have Baker from the great town of Scott City with 2 stop-lights. We have Mr. Cotton from Atlanta with lights galore. We have Wessel as a Soph. from the great City of Wichita who we really missed and was leading our team in 3 point accuracy before his injury and was also playing tough D. We had Mr. Hall about 2 hours from Atlanta and I could go on.

My point is this. Coach Gregg (not George) Marshall finds players that fit the mold of his style of play and blends them into team players that also work hard in the Off- Season to develop their games to a higher level. With that said, I would not trade any one of these young men or our Coaching Staff to anybody.

This was a Season to remember that we far exceeded expectations. How did we get more wins than last Seasons Team after losing 5 key players and having 3 starters injured for too many games this Season? Dunno, but count me in as elated and proud to be a Forever Shocker Fan.

[1972Shocker]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Baker not shooting and passing to orukpe as being one of the more pivotal points in the game.

I was really, really, really upset with Ron at the time that play happened and that did seem to be the point in the game where the Shockers became more passive and L-ville became the aggressors.

Dealing today with the After Shock of what transpired I have to admit I have no clue what would have happened if Ron had taken that shot. Maybe he misses, L-ville gets a long rebound, fast break and really gets it going. We did pick up the 4th foul on Dieng on the play.

The real killer was probably the 5 turnovers in 7 possessions a little later in the game.

So many plays during a game that you can point to. Sometimes the ball just bounces the wrong way. For example, on the missed free throw by Hancock at the end of the game if that ball doesn't bounce quite so hard off the rim Ron would not have lost his balance reaching back for it and Hancock would not have been able to foul, er I mean tie him up. Maybe we hit a tying three, maybe we don't.

Sports can be both thrilling and agonizing. I guess the agony of defeat is what makes the thrill of victory, well so thrilling.

[jocoshock]

[QUOTE=forevershockerfan;394804]

For what it is worth, after the game ended, three Michigan and one Syracuse fan came up, commented on what a great game we played, andstated they thought the refs handed the win to Louisville right at the end of the game.

Thanks for sharing this 60Shock. We have much to be thankful for. We have Baker from the great town of Scott City with 2 stop-lights. We have Mr. Cotton from Atlanta with lights galore. We have Wessel as a Soph. from the great City of Wichita who we really missed and was leading our team in 3 point accuracy before his injury and was also playing tough D. We had Mr. Hall about 2 hours from Atlanta and I could go on.

My point is this. Coach Gregg (not George) Marshall finds players that fit the mold of his style of play and blends them into team players that also work hard in the Off- Season to develop their games to a higher level. With that said, I would not trade any one of these young men or our Coaching Staff to anybody.

This was a Season to remember that we far exceeded expectations. How did we get more wins than last Seasons Team after losing 5 key players and having 3 starters injured for too many games this Season? Dunno, but count me in as elated and proud to be a Forever Shocker Fan.

We just finished the greatest season in Shocker History. We should focus on how we exceed that next year. GO SHOX!!!:poster_shocks:

[im4wsu]

What's to meltdown about? Only 8 teams of 38 Louisville played were withiin 4 points at the buzzer:

Duke	-5
Illinois State	3
Kentucky	3
Syracuse	-2
Villanova	-9
Georgetown	-2
Pittsburgh	3
Notre Dame	-3

Really pretty good company on that list. The other 30 teams lost to Louisville by an average of 20.97 points.