The OFFICIAL Shocks vs. BYU Game Thread - KC Championship Style

[WuShock16]

Large Mormon presence and history in Independence, Missouri so it makes sense they would have a good turnout.

"AND I BELIEVE...THAT THE GARDEN OF EDEN WAS IN JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI!"

Sorry, I knew a line of a song from "The Book of Mormon" would come out of me at some point.

[jocoshock]

Watching the replay, Darius Carter had a bit of a breakout tourney. He had a LOT of "want to" last night and was a difference maker at times during the BYU game.

And I earlier mentioned that Ron Baker ended both games....well he put the cherry on top but that was Fred's game to win last night, and now I'm sure Fred belonged on the All Tournament team.

Of the three bigs, last night was definitely Darius's night last night.

But from where I sat on row 4 behind the BYU bench last night, I can tell you that in the final minutes Darius and Kadeem battled under the basket and starting winning the battles of the boards and making some keep stops. The lights are on. Look for better rebounding and more stops in the next few games (from all three). The scoring will follow shortly, especially from Darius. This guy definitely has the makings of our next Carl Hall. Kadeem and CJ will be special in their own right...

[Ricardo del Rio]

1. Remember last year, when the opponent slapped a zone on the Shockers? The Shockers would look like the proverbial deer. I cannot remember the game, but I think the Shockers lost a home game because it could not overcome a zone defense. Perhaps it was nearly lost.

Facing 40 minutes of zone defense last night will serve the Shockers well, when facing a zone in Valley play.

2. Five unathletic white guys stand almost no chance against the Shockers.

3. Darius was pretty active. He looked more comfortable as the game proceeded. I think we will like him a lot by the time Valley play rolls around.

4. The three 5 players delivered 11 rebounds and 13 points. I imagine Coach Marshall is pretty happy with the production. The minutes were Kadeem - 11, Lufile - 11 and Carter - 21. I imagine Carter's minutes will increase.

5. I wonder, if speculation about Cle and his NBA prospects is putting too much pressure on him to perform. Just wondering.

6. Even though Nick's 3 ball accuracy is off lately, he is producing in other ways that he did not last year. He played 23 minutes yesterday.

[WuDrWu]

1. Remember last year, when the opponent slapped a zone on the Shockers? The Shockers would look like the proverbial deer. I cannot remember the game, but I think the Shockers lost a home game because it could not overcome a zone defense. Perhaps it was nearly lost.

Facing 40 minutes of zone defense last night will serve the Shockers well, when facing a zone in Valley play.

2. Five unathletic white guys stand almost no chance against the Shockers.

3. Darius was pretty active. He looked more comfortable as the game proceeded. I think we will like him a lot by the time Valley play rolls around.

4. The three 5 players delivered 11 rebounds and 13 points. I imagine Coach Marshall is pretty happy with the production. The minutes were Kadeem - 11, Lufile - 11 and Carter - 21. I imagine Carter's minutes will increase.

5. I wonder, if speculation about Cle and his NBA prospects is putting too much pressure on him to perform. Just wondering.

6. Even though Nick's 3 ball accuracy is off lately, he is producing in other ways that he did not last year. He played 23 minutes yesterday.

The usual excellent analysis from RDR.

[forevershockerfan]

I like to keep mentioning we have 3 point guards and last night, Baker, Cotton, and FVV all had 3 assists. Baker will normally be a maker of better than 5 of 16 shots which gives me goose pimples on my duck bumps. He also helped our 84% team throw % with 11-11 to match Haws 11-11. Mr. Cotton helped us on our 1st half come-back by penetrating, making shots and he also snagged 6 bounds and covered his man up as usual on D. Cotton was everywhere on both sides of the court. FVV had 12 points but the 8 in a row at crunch time that were as timely as Western Union at high noon. Fred 'Van-Crunch' VanVleet to the rescue.

When Coleby, Early, Chadrack, Carter, Wessel, and Wiggins get settled in to the max.--and that Will happen--watch out. Last but not least, what if a game occurs when Baker, Wiggins, and Cle are all shooting lights out the same game? Lights will go out and the party will be over for our foes. That is scary great to behold. News Flash. Baker, FVV, and Cotton whom are really playing solid already, will all return next Season. U like?

[WuDrWu]

Our starting 1 and 2 are a combined 52-61 from the line, just a shade over 85%. Expecting to come from behind late on this team is playing with white hot fire.

If annoying BYUFan hadn't left early, I could have pointed that out to him as he really had a hard time grasping that possibility.

[ShockBand]

And our offense was off last night. Just think if we shoot 33% from 3 point and mid 40s from the field. Jeebus.

[SpanglerFan316]

5. I wonder, if speculation about Cle and his NBA prospects is putting too much pressure on him to perform. Just wondering.

6. Even though Nick's 3 ball accuracy is off lately, he is producing in other ways that he did not last year. He played 23 minutes yesterday.

I disagree on 5. and agree on 6. My impression is that Early is taking what is there; he is letting other players be the stars and not forcing much. Does he miss some shots? Yes. Do he get a few silly fouls? Yes. But when the bright lights are on, I have no doubt that Early will be amazing.

From the point of view of building a team, letting Wiggins, FVV, Baker, Carter, etc. get the spotlight is better than being Dougie Ball Hog. At the end of the day, does CE's box score record double digit points and a fair number of rebounds, steal, etc.? If so, I'm happy.

[Cdizzle]

And our offense was off last night. Just think if we shoot 33% from 3 point and mid 40s from the field. Jeebus.

I think some credit is due to BYU. How often have we berated our opponents fans for saying "our offense was just off." We missed more than a couple of open shots, but our zone offense still is not a thing of beauty.

[Ricardo del Rio]

And our offense was off last night. Just think if we shoot 33% from 3 point and mid 40s from the field. Jeebus.

My sentiment exactly. I started to post it, but you took care of it for me.

Thanks.

I might mention that it seemed that quirky events seemed to favor BYU. I am thinking about quirky ball bounces, two Shockers coming down with a rebound and fumbling it away, etc.

[1979Shocker]

I like to keep mentioning we have 3 point guards and last night, Baker, Cotton, and FVV all had 3 assists.

Don't forget that those 3 guards had zero turnovers. So that's 9 assists and 0 turnovers, which could have been up to 15 assists and 0 turnovers if we were hitting our shots.

[Shockeriffic]

I've been critical of Carter and Wiggins this year but they both brought it last night. When the Shox were down 13 and needed a spark, Carter grabbed 2 offensive rebounds, scored a basket and blocked a shot. Then Wiggins hit a 3 and the team was off to the races. Wiggins was flying all over the court and saving balls from going out of bounds.

[im4wsu]

BYU shooting 20% from the field in the second half. Amazing!

[jocoshock]

What did Rose think of Wichita State, which made it to the Final Four last year?
"We have played some pretty good teams this year. And I think that their patience on offense was really good, their execution, but I think their defensive game plan, they stayed with it for a long time. It is something that we could never really break through it," he said. "And I think that was probably the difference in the game. I just think that it is a team that stayed with its game plan for the full 40 minutes and it kind of works out."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsbyusports/57188563-65/game-think-state-wichita.html.csp

[MadaboutWu]

We definitely had our share of bad bounces. If we catch the four rebounds that went out of bounds, we win the rebounding battle by 12. Missing those four is on the order of three standard deviations.