Wichita State Set for Shocker Madness

[ky-mike]

No espn coverage yet.

[Purple Mustache]

For those that weren't there, they handed out brochures for a Final Four commemorative poster. Go to www.mytown-media.com/wsu It's $20.

[MadaboutWu]

We're on the U.

[shocksrbest]

I think one of the reasons Wessel disappeared was because Nick was guarding him--didn't give Evan much room at all. I hope that continues because I love Nick's offense...hope his defense allows him to see the court more often this year.

[WuDrWu]

My quick report:

Fred - great.

Baker - Better than I expected. I think many of you know what I expect from Ron.

Cle - OMG

Coleby - Not battling CJ for starting center.

Cotton - Still needs to work on jumper. Best D in the land.

Green - DNP minor injury

Lufile - Moves great. Very solid 5 backup.

Simon - Thanks his grandparents every practice

Bush - Needs Kerry's cell number. Has talent.

Carter - sic athleticism. O needs polishing. Dunks do not.

Shaq - It's not high school anymore young man. Might redshirt. Starts for at least 5 Valley teams today.

Holland - insane leaping ability. INSANE. Don't see how he redshirts with DJ out.

Nick - Talented but struggling. Starts for 6 Valley teams.

Wessel - Could be All Big 12 football with that body. Will help in a lot of ways for us in basketball.


First 5 likely are Coleby, VanVleet, Baker, Cotton, Early. Carter and Wessel provide almost no dropoff. Lufile is more than serviceable. Holland will get minutes. Wiggins, Green, Shaq and Bush have work to do to get time. Simon plays mop up only.

[Blackmag]

madness

Finally got some airtime on espnu. They talked with marshall for a few minutes and that was it. We had a pretty good turnout. The talking heads Bilas and I believe its Frank Greenburg talked about 30 seconds about the Shocks (all good) but started talking about the guys up north K.u and were slobering all over themselves. Then back to Carrier Dome , Kentucky, you get the picture...they have gone to Stillwater a few times...its 11.10 pm...will they come back to Koch Arena...stay tuned

[Shox1979]

When your 2nd unit would probably be picked 2nd in the Valley, it's gonna be hard for anyone to stick out too much. For a few minutes, Cle made things look easy. Ron handled the ball well and Fred looks as confident and relaxed as ever. Kadeem is a freak of nature. Could be good from day one. Tekele may go down as the most underrated player we've ever had as most fans still don't realize how special he is. With those guys you don't need Evan, Nick and company to be all-stars. Play good defense, knock down open looks and don't turn the ball over and we are gonna be hard to beat.

[Aargh]

1) We have a backup PG. A very good one. It's Baker. Don't know if he's got the stuff to be the end of the shot clock play maker, but getting it up the court, setting up the offense and distributing the ball were solid.

2) Darius Carter cannot guard Cleanthony Early. I don't know what that means, but Early was pretty much scoring at will in any way he wanted.

3) Baker has learned how to defend FVV. Fred got nothing uncontested close to the hoop. Fred's shot was off, but he still got significant points. He probably took some ill-dvised shots. His FG% looked pretty weak.

4) FVV can throw the oop and Coleby can finish it. Put an ! on that!

5) I didn't detect a backup post player. I'm skeptical that I noticed a starting post player. Post D looks like it will be workable and the lobs are working, but I didn't see much posting up or much back to the basket offense from anyone.

6) I'm going to guess that Morris is behind Lufile on the depth chart. Lufile looks better than last year, but not much.

7) Green tweaked a knee a didn't play.

8) Wiggins more or less disappeared.

9) Wessel looks like he needs some time to get back into game mode. A year off can do that.

10) Cotton's shot (like many others) ws off, but I didn't notice any SG's on the other team doing anything.

[Shox1979]

Its a terrible thing when your pick for Valley POY plays that well and is only the 3rd best player on the floor tonight (behind Cle and Fred) eh Doc? I laugh to myself when I think how bad it's gotta make teams feel that we have Ron and Fred for 3 more years.

[The Cat]

Shaq looked a bit lost. I think a redshirt is in order for the young man so he can work on his game and get into the weight room. I thought it was odd that Shaq was the only one wearing sleeves and my immediate thought was that he needs to get in the gym and away from the buffet table. I know it is just a scrimmage but he had position in the post several times and the guards did not feed him once.

[1972Shocker]

Who are the girls playing?

The girls played their male practice squad.

[Aargh]

Its a terrible thing when your pick for Valley POY plays that well and is only the 3rd best player on the floor tonight (behind Cle and Fred) eh Doc? I laugh to myself when I think how bad it's gotta make teams feel that we have Ron and Fred for 3 more years.

I can't agree with that evaluation. Early was the guy no one could stop. Baker was the guy getting the ball to him, and Baker had a pretty good game - ballhandling, passing, shooting, and defense. I think that defines a pretty complete player.

FVV made some questionable decisions on drives to the hoop. FVV plays with better BBIQ in a systematic game than he does in a scrimmage-type game.

[ShockerFever]

Well, I'm pretty excited after what I saw. Then again, I get excited every year about this time as Shocker basketball is officially back on the burner. I see no possibility of not winning the Valley by less than 3 games. Our preseason #16 ranking is definitely valid and definitely a reward for what previous teams have done for the program, notably last year's.

I was very excited to see 7,000 in attendance. That was a good turnout and well-deserved. The organization of the event was sloppy at times, but overall, I felt good about it. I'm now going to watch ESPNU on the DVR and hope it came away well on TV. By the sounds of it, it appears we're getting shafted on the coverage. Big surprise. But at least we're on it at all. Any Big East teams on? Didn't think so.

[Shox1979]

Baker handled the ball really well, and did a nice job getting Cle the ball. And you are right, nobody could stop Cle. He slashes so easily. Missed a couple easy ones after dropping 4 straight in about 2 minutes.
Fred just looks really smooth and under control. He's a bit like Tekele in that bc he isn't as flashy as other guards he gets overlooked sometimes. Especially when compares to Joe Ragland and Malcolm. I wouldn't trade Cle, Ron or Fred for anyone else in the league and I'd say by seasons end all 3 could be first teamers.
I'm just saying how nice it is that we have a team full of potential POY candidates. We can stick Tekele on other teams best player. Other teams don't have that option bc we have so many options.

QUOTE=Aargh;421846]I can't agree with that evaluation. Early was the guy no one could stop. Baker was the guy getting the ball to him, and Baker had a pretty good game - ballhandling, passing, shooting, and defense. I think that defines a pretty complete player.

FVV made some questionable decisions on drives to the hoop. FVV plays with better BBIQ in a systematic game than he does in a scrimmage-type game.[/QUOTE]

[Blackmag]

I dont see them redshirting Shaq, I see him playing minutes at the end of games, getting in shape and maybe being more of a contributor by the end of the year.