Shockers vs Oklahoma Baptist game thread

[forevershockerfan]

Here's the deal at 21st and Hillside. Scoring against our beloved Shockers is as onerous as pulling hen's teeth. In the ruff and tumble world of basketball, even with the new rules that favor offense, our D-Fence still leaves teams perplexed and scratching their scalps wondering why they had an off night, just like at the Dance last Season. Can u dig it? Groovy graaaavy!!!

Y'all like Mr. Ka-Boom Kadeem keeping his shooting % at a mild roar with more dunks than the local doughnut parlor? I just knew Mr.Carter as going to dunk it twice with one ball on 1 dunk on the same play. Coleby will make our hearts skip-a-beat with fancy smancy dunks while Carter will provide us with points galore inside. FVV is a playa and will quarterback us smooth as silk. Wiggy improved his D. this summer and we all hope he gets more playing time because he sure can score the rock. Rian will add to our new and improved outside shooting % as a team. We really need to focus on making wholesale throws this Season in lieu of the new rules. Baker and Cotton can play the 1,2, or 3 in their sleep, and Early is never to be late and will tone down fouling so he can play more minutes. It is great to have a healthy Wessel back. Shaq has our back and joins an improved Lufile inside. Mr. Green will get his chance and he too can drain the trey.

Let me say this about that. On paper, we are deeper and better than last Season. Unlike last Season at this juncture, the prognosticaters are expecting an impressive Season both in the Valley of Death and overall for our beloved Shocks.. Stay-tuned. The Black and Yellow trek started tonight and, so far, so good.

[Dan]

I didn't think CJ was much of a factor. It's going to be difficult to keep Kadeem off the floor. CJ will take EO's minutes from last year, Kadeem will take Hall's.

[The Cat]

After the game coach graded his team a B or B plus. He singled out FVV and said that he better be in shape because he is going to play a lot of minutes. He was asked about red shirts but he did not give any names or insight on whom it might be. Like I have been saying all along I think Shaq will red shirt. Carter gives us so much flexibility that I don't think Shaq would play much this year. I know many on this board are big fans of Green but the kid looked lost and has very slow feet. I realize he is 6-7 but because of his build he is most likely going to be on the perimeter quite a bit and he will get eaten alive off the dribble. I know I am looking way ahead but I see a transfer in the coming year. Just my thoughts.

[CBB_Fan]

Very happy with the frontcourt. It would be interesting to see what CJ was showing in practice to get the start, as he wasn't showing it tonight. It is clear that Carter and Coleby came to play; both players are an order of magnitude more coordinated than Orukpe was and also seem to dunk the ball with an inch of space. I liked the hook shot and the alley-oop dunk the most. If CJ is really as good as Coleby, then we have without a doubt the best frontcourt in the MVC.

Seemed like our opponent was more athletic than some Valley teams, and they probably are a top level team in their division. Seemed like the first half was mostly a test of our defense, while the second half was mostly about the offense and the newcomers. I noticed Marshall ran a lot of different defensive sets even when we had the new guys in the game. Even though our starting backcourt got some burn, it seemed like they were somewhat passive so that the new guys could get their feet wet. I'm expecting Baker, Van Vleet, Wessel, and Cotton to get more minutes and more shots in a real game.

[The Cat]

OK Baptist is a very good NAIA team and won the national title in 2010. I saw somewhere where they were preseason #2 and went to the equivalent of the sweet 16 at the NAIA level last year. Very good team.

[jocoshock]

OK Baptist is a very good NAIA team and won the national title in 2010. I saw somewhere where they were preseason #2 and went to the equivalent of the sweet 16 at the NAIA level last year. Very good team.

They were 25-8 last year and according to Mike Kennedy that was considered a down year. They have gone to the NAIA national tournament 12 consecutive years.

[jocoshock]

I didn't think CJ was much of a factor. It's going to be difficult to keep Kadeem off the floor. CJ will take EO's minutes from last year, Kadeem will take Hall's.

I think it is too early to tell how good CJ will be. Kadeem will surely be the starter and get more minutes but I think CJ will prove go be worthy player off the bench. We need to see everyone get afew games under their belts against D1 competition to see what CJ, Nick, and Derail have to bring early on. Overall, I am optimistic on all of them long term.

[wsushockerdude]

Overall I was very impressed with the team, but I feel like we may be sorely missing our loveable 7-footer come MVC play. I'm not sure Kadeem proved to me tonight that he was going to be as aggressive as Carl on the glass. I know that DC and Kadeem will eventually "play angrier", but I was scared of what I saw down low.

Anyone feel the same?

[jocoshock]

Overall I was very impressed with the team, but I feel like we may be sorely missing our loveable 7-footer come MVC play. I'm not sure Kadeem proved to me tonight that he was going to be as aggressive as Carl on the glass. I know that DC and Kadeem will eventually "play angrier", but I was scared of what I saw down low.

Anyone feel the same?

I think the coach shares your concerns about the front court rebounding across the board right now.

[smm]

Agree on FVV. How good is this guy already and how good is he going to be? Fred is going to have to play major minutes, not sure about backups yet at PG, thought Ron was a little shaky with ball handling being pressured at the point, but Ron does make everyone else better and he and Tekele can make up 10-12 mins per game without a huge drop off and Rian has potential and will learn this year

[shockerfan]

Agree on FVV. How good is this guy already and how good is he going to be? Fred is going to have to play major minutes, not sure about backups yet at PG, thought Ron was a little shaky with ball handling being pressured at the point, but Ron does make everyone else better and he and Tekele can make up 10-12 mins per game without a huge drop off and Rian has potential and will learn this year

If Ron being shaky is 4 assists, 1 turnover and 4 steals....I will take it. I agree you can tell he isn't a natural point guard. Be he did ok in my book. Fred is the man though, the whole offense just runs better with him in. Ron is a suitable backup for now though

[ShockerFever]

This is the quietest I've ever heard CKA. Reminds me of a game at OU

1. It was an exhibition game.
2. It was against Oklahoma Baptist.
3. It was a double-digit lead from about 4 minutes into the game onward.
4. The game production crew didn't have their best outing which killed a lot of crowd momentum.
5. The whistles sucked. There was no flow at all to the game.

There have been worse whistled games so far out there, but wow, why do we all of a sudden have to give so much benefit to the offensive players now? What is a defender supposed to do avoid getting a foul called? Just stand in one spot and hope your opponent misses? Marshall said he overheard a ref say there pretty much was gonna be no charge calls this year and that they were all gonna be blocks. Does that sound appealing to anybody? If I was a defender in those situations, what's the point of even defending if the offensive player has so much of an advantage there, where if they put their head down, drive into you, throw an elbow, push you down, throw up a shot, and you get the fouled called on you? Seems to be counterproductive. I don't wanna watch 60 free throw snooze fests every game. I think most don't either. Don't ruin a good thing, NCAA. Let them effing play.

I think there were several chances for the crowd to get into it and several plays where we were about to unleash hell that were halted for pointless foul calls where jerseys were fingertipped.

Other that that rant, we looked pretty good. Very solid defensively against a good lower-division team. We need to shoot free throws better. We need to rebound better. We need our bigs to hit more than 20% of their inside 5 feet shots.

Intro video, when having sound, was pretty good. I like those highlight reels from our run more so than videos of the guys pumping iron in the weight room.

[1979Shocker]

[pie n eye]

I think less charge calls will benefit WSU. Think about UNI. Their offensive and defensive strategy is based around the block/charge call and flopping. Take away the charge and all of a sudden they're a weaker defensive team.

While there were quite a few fouls called I don't remember disagreeing with a while lot. We were bigger and stronger and they had a hard time guarding us man to man. On the other hand we seemed to do a better job of corralling dribble drives and defending ball screens. All without committing too many fouls.

We have so many guys who can take it to the rack this year. Cotton looked great on the drive, VV of course, Cle, Carter, Wiggins. The back court is just stacked.

Two of the three freshmen impressed me tonight. Holland is fearless. He doesn't look like a freshman out there. I thought the offense ran better with him at point instead of Ron.

Shaq showed a lot more tonight than at Shocker Madness. That dude is going to be a player. He's huge. He's got good hands and feet. Very exciting potential. In my opinion it's a tough call on redshirting him. Physically he's ready to go from day 1 but I don't know enough about the rest of his game. Seems like a guy who could help sooner than later. Same with Holland. Obviously the level of competition isn't what they'll normally face but they both showed things that would translate to D1 competition.

Derail looked a little tentative. He missed a couple of easy looks down low. The guy is a redshirt freshman. Id like to see him play a little more before we just get rid of him.

I like what I saw tonight. They have room to improve but they're already at a high level.

[pie n eye]

Oh and I really like the new gold unis.