Springfield After Action Report

[shoxlax]

Unbelievable trip fellas. A few observations:

-This is a easy drive. Less than four hours from most places in ICT metro. No reason we don't have 1,000 fans there like the Lady Bears used to seem to bring to the games here. The days of having to go through town after town to get to the Ozarks are over.

-We did have a good following but hard to tell how many because we were all scattered. I would say 300-500 easily. We were heard and heckled.

-It was hot in JQH last night. Not just uncomfortably warm but hot. I actually think this helped us down the stretch...conditioning, conditioning, conditioning.

-Great to see @moshock: there. Nice to have Shocker Nation in other league opponents neck of the woods. He told me at half time MSU had some ability to blow leads and he was right.

-Bear fans were damn good despite the obnoxious foul mouthed students. Too bad it takes us to fill up a beautiful facility like that.

-MSU has a great future the next three years. Ruder will be a pain in our ass, Marshall as we know is solid and Williams and McCullough will just get better. No reason they shouldn't be a NCAA contender starting next year if the pieces stay together.

-I don't know why but at the 7 minute mark I had no doubt we were going to win in regulation or go to overtime. The bench was fired up but it wasn't an out of control scene, just a very confident "we love this moment" attitude.

-Not sure who the knucklehead was that threw the ball at Ron after the game but it was lucky for that moron that someone stepped in between Baker and the baseline where it happened.
Hopefully, that person will be called out and banned. It may have been a yell leader.

-All in all a great experience and another reason to be so proud of this bunch of tough SOBs.

[AndShock]

There were also students throwing their newspapers at Ron when he went out of bounds past the cheerleaders. I know it's paper, but people shouldn't be throwing ANYTHING at players.

Most of the SWOMO fans I encountered were very kind (like they have been the past 3 times I've attended) but this was the first year that there were some douchebags sprinkled in. I will forgive them considering their team had just blown a 19 point lead. I was disappointed I didn't have some Shocker fans closer to me but being able to hear some DEFENSE and Let's Go Shockers chants echoing throughout the building was an awesome experience.

[newshock1234]

good job, you guys were definitely loud and I could hear the chants.

[shockmonster]

Unbelievable trip fellas. A few observations:

-This is a easy drive. Less than four hours from most places in ICT metro. No reason we don't have 1,000 fans there like the Lady Bears used to seem to bring to the games here. The days of having to go through town after town to get to the Ozarks are over.

-We did have a good following but hard to tell how many because we were all scattered. I would say 300-500 easily.

I may be wrong but i think that your estimation of 300-500 is quite low. There were two lower bowl sections that were almost full of Shocker fans and those sections probably number several hundred. The south upper bowl had several hundred yellow and black fans too. I couldn't see the other upper bowl sections. I would think that the number may approach 1000 or so.

[shoxlax]

Unbelievable trip fellas. A few observations:

-This is a easy drive. Less than four hours from most places in ICT metro. No reason we don't have 1,000 fans there like the Lady Bears used to seem to bring to the games here. The days of having to go through town after town to get to the Ozarks are over.

-We did have a good following but hard to tell how many because we were all scattered. I would say 300-500 easily.

I may be wrong but i think that your estimation of 300-500 is quite low. There were two lower bowl sections that were almost full of Shocker fans and those sections probably number several hundred. The south upper bowl had several hundred yellow and black fans too. I couldn't see the other upper bowl sections. I would think that the number may approach 1000 or so.

You could be right because I couldn't see what was above and behind me. I hope you are right. Plus I couldn't see very well because I was wiping the sweat out of my eyes all night.

[pogo]

[QUOTE=shoxlax;445830]

You could be right because I couldn't see what was above and behind me. I hope you are right. Plus I couldn't see very well because I was wiping the sweat out of my eyes all night.

How could you sweat in shorts and a mesh shirt? Or do you only wear that to baseball games in February?

[moshock]

I would say the number was around 1000. I wore my black Shocker sweatshirt and I sat with my cousin's party of 6 and they all had black on. The yellow stands out but the black blends in.

[Bluzrover]

Props to all you Shox fans that represented in JQH. Maybe you are one of the reasons they had their third best attendance on record! I always pay close attention to who's sitting in the stands when they show the fans during games as there are ALWAYS Wichita State fans in attendance of a Shocker game.

Couldn't be more proud of SN and the Shox, particularly given the fact that our team game back from 19 down with less than 12 minutes to go in an arena packed to the gills with wild, loud and rowdy fans for the opposition!

[shoxlax]

[QUOTE=pogo;445907]

How could you sweat in shorts and a mesh shirt? Or do you only wear that to baseball games in February?

I like to be cool whatever the surroundings.

[shocker3]

I would say the number was around 1000. I wore my black Shocker sweatshirt and I sat with my cousin's party of 6 and they all had black on. The yellow stands out but the black blends in.

I think there was over 1000 shocker fans.

There were probably 500 or more Shocker fans sitting in the upper sections of DD, EE, FF, & GG alone. I looked up the total seats in those sections and there are 1118. I believe we probably outnumbered them overall in those sections. There was a lot of yellow up there and there were many others wearing black. Those sections also got very loud for the Shockers. I couldn't see section CC that so there might have been even more up there. There were Shocker fans spread though out the arena. I think there may have been some Shocker fans in every section including the student section. There were a lot of Shocker fans in the end opposite the student section and a lot behind the Shocker bench. I believe when you total it all up there were well over 1000 Shocker fans there.

[im4wsu]

I think there was over 1000 shocker fans.

There were probably 500 or more Shocker fans sitting in the upper sections of DD, EE, FF, & GG alone. I looked up the total seats in those sections and there are 1118. I believe we probably outnumbered them overall in those sections. There was a lot of yellow up there and there were many others wearing black. Those sections also got very loud for the Shockers. I couldn't see section CC that so there might have been even more up there. There were Shocker fans spread though out the arena. I think there may have been some Shocker fans in every section including the student section. There were a lot of Shocker fans in the end opposite the student section and a lot behind the Shocker bench. I believe when you total it all up there was well over 1000 Shocker fans there.

Two "aside" comments. Heard that Seattle-49er tickets go on sale today but will not be sold to anyone with a California address. Second, some schools like Kansas State purposely split the "visitior's section" tickets and intersperse them with season ticket holders to make coordinating of cheering more difficult.

[ShockerEngr]

Two "aside" comments. Heard that Seattle-49er tickets go on sale today but will not be sold to anyone with a California address. Second, some schools like Kansas State purposely split the "visitior's section" tickets and intersperse them with season ticket holders to make coordinating of cheering more difficult.

for that to be effective, the season ticket holders would need to show up.

[DUShock]

A nice AAR, thank you @shoxlax:

[wsushox1]

Let me add my thoughts....

I saw all three Kansas teams in action on Saturday. Woke up at 5AM and drove to lawrence for KU-KSU then drove to Springfield for WSU-MSU. I didn't eat anytihng until the second half of the MSU game due to time restrictions. I was feeling like death in the second half of the game so I left with around 11 minutes to go. I went to my buddies apartment near the JQH and watched the rest of the game while eating/hydrating. Amazing come back. Am I mad I missed the comeback in person? Yes, but I don't regret leaving early considering how I was feeling.

From my short time at the JQH...there really isn't that much of a difference between the Q and the Kansas Coliseum or even AFH for that matter. They just feel like massive sheds with small concourses. The crowd was pretty loud. I was impressed. Most of the MSU students that I went to the game with were very drunk - some didn't remember the first half (a real shame considering how the game turned out). It's a shame MSU can't get those kinds of crowds consistently. Would help recruiting immensely. Ramon Clemente recently said that he didn't come to WSU for the tradition or because he particularly liked Wichita but because the Fans were amazing even in a somewhat down year. Valley schools could use that to their advantage if they could all have amazing fan support like we do.

It's been pretty obvious that WSU has been "over helping" on dribble drives the past couple of games and I thought that was evident in the first half allowing MSU to get open 3's - especially with Ruder. Good adjustment by Marshall to not help off the dribble as much and to stay locked in on the perimeter. Don't know why Thurman didn't play in the second half, he was a tough matchup for us. The Marcus Marshall leg kick foul that they called on Ron was horrible.

I don't have too much more time to offer thoughts (if anyone cares to hear them) as I have to start heading towards Wichita for the game.

[pogo]

As far as attendance goes for most schools its the chicken or egg dilemma. Fans will show up if you are successful but to be successful you have to have fans show up. Wichita has always had good to great support even when we sucked really bad.