The OFFICIAL Shocks vs. Runnin' Utes Game Thread

[AZ Shocker]

Great analysis as usual from this VERY knowledgeable fan base. Not much more to add except a few perhaps "off the wall" observations...

1. Fred VanFleet is NOT a night owl. This is normally a good thing in one's life...but the late game start was waaaaay past his bedtime. Lol. Yes his adrenaline finally kicked-in the last couple minutes of regulation as he told himself..."okay...we're down...and we ain't gonna lose on my watch." Awesome last minute or so by Fred! BUT...I was hoping the Kentucky lose on Fred's last 3 ball attempt from 107 feet out would've taught him to come up with a different move this season in a similar situation. It did not. Go to the hole young man OR when triple teamed throw it to the rim for a open alley-oop. Can we get a Do-over!!!???

2. Ron Baker needed some coffee as well. I was kinda laughing seeing him on the sidelines on timeouts. He did not look his usual self and appeared to be like..."these late games are for the birds...and my ass is tired."

3. Ron Baker exploded for a monster dunk....well almost. He got higher than I've ever seen him (elevation???) and may have been surprised how high he was and just missed a sure fire monster SC Top-10 moment. Arrrggghhh. Next time buddy!!!

4. We are SMALL!!! I'm a little perplexed how we don't have a true BIG after all the recent success within the program. 6'-7" at the 5??? Really??? And three Freshmen bigs in case 6'-7" doesn't work out (fouls)???? Freshmen??? Playoff's??? Playoff's?????

5. I rest my case on why I NEVER want to see the Shockers move to the Mountain West. Never!!! AAC timezone and geography is way more suited for Wichita St. if we are ever lucky enough for an invite. Rocky Mountains causes too many added variables when "game-planning" for a team from the Midwest. Even Pac-12 teams are not super happy about going to play in Salt Lake and Boulder these days.

Oh...and last but not least (even though he played a pretty decent game)...Shaq...you got stuffed at the rim going for that dunk big guy. Don't EVER let that happen again! Play Angry my friend...play ANGRY!!!!

Regroup guys! Keep improving! Learn from any mistakes! Trust yourselves and each other! Start another streak!
We love ya all's! GO SHOCKS!!!

[WSUwatcher]

Believe me, you won't catch me getting down on FVV, jdshock. And I agree that he's worthy of all the accolades he gets. It was just one of those nights, and as I said, his career FT percentage is more than respectable by college standards -- it was actually a bit higher than I expected, and he finished last year at .830, so he's improved since coming to WSU. He may just be in a slump right now, which happens to lots of great players, even those better than himself.

But I'm still eager for the time when I can just assume he's going to hit a pair in that spot, instead of hoping nervously he makes the first, as I was last night.

[Shocker-maniac]

Apparently there may have been some gamesmanship by the Utes. Read the last bullet in Sully's article today. I'm sure the favor can and will be returned next year.

The Huntsman Center is an excellent basketball venue and the 14,319 fans made plenty of noise. I would rank it behind Utah State and San Diego State, places WSU lost games in recent seasons, for an intimidating atmosphere. When I travel to power-five conference schools, there is always an expectation of luxury awaiting. Instead, the Shockers dressed in a tiny room with no lockers and few showers. Several had to scamper across a hallway in a towel to another locker room to shower. One member of the traveling party asked, “Do you make UCLA dress in here?”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/sports/college...#storylink=cpy

Apparently we're not the only ones to think this:

One thing he used, however, is to point out one area Huntsman's chemical money and designer flunked at — probably on purpose: the visitor locker room.

"Boy, they've got the worst dressing room I've ever seen anywhere," he said. "There isn't room for three or four coaches let alone a team. I talked more about that. If you wanted to get your team mad, just get them worked up over that."


http://m.deseretnews.com/article/590039990/Win-at-Huntsman-Only-Andy-knows.html?pg=all

[HockeyShock]

Someone showed me that "Rock Chalk Blog" tweeted "Wichita State is about to lose their first regular season game in 642 days. Funny things like that happen when you play good teams for once."

Things like that seem to happen to the Chickenhawks even when they're not playing good teams.

KU won't play us. We call every year, we get turned down every year. Therefore, KU fans have no room to ***** about our schedule. In fact, the only place they still make that b.s. is on message boards where they can be anonymous. It's been three-plus years since a beaker has made that claim to my face - because they know that KU absolutely refuses to play us, even when ESPN wants the game and will pay seven figures to make it happen.

Sean Keeler said that we were 1-2 in our last three games against "name" opponents (a term that annoys me to no end). IIRC, KU is 0-3 in its last three NCAA tournament games against the Missouri Valley.

[Shoxfan11]

I wouldn't worry much about what KU fans say. They're still a little sore after getting absolutely destroyed on national TV by Kentucky a couple weeks ago. There's an obsession from them, and I kinda like it to be honest. I love the attention that Wichita State gets. I remember I used to be excited just to see them on the ESPN scoreline.. yesterday, they (and Evan Wessel) were trending on Twitter after an early season game in December. Times have changed.

[ShockerEngineer]

Someone showed me that "Rock Chalk Blog" tweeted "Wichita State is about to lose their first regular season game in 642 days. Funny things like that happen when you play good teams for once."

Things like that seem to happen to the Chickenhawks even when they're not playing good teams.

Yeah, well.. I think many of us knew that as soon as we dropped a game, KU fans would be saying exactly that. No matter who it is, the circumstance, home or away, etc.

What's funny to me are the KU fans that deny the whole "nothing to gain" argument about playing us (didn't Self actually say that was the case?) and claim it's because they have so many important quality games, pre-season tournaments, etc, that there's simply no room for us on the schedule. Those people have their heads up their asses.

[AZ Shocker]

What's funny to me are the KU fans that deny the whole "nothing to gain" argument about playing us (didn't Self actually say that was the case?) and claim it's because they have so many important quality games, pre-season tournaments, etc, that there's simply no room for us on the schedule. Those people have their heads up their asses.

Yep. That's the most oxymoron statement a ku fan can possibly say. How can you knock Wichita St. schedule on one hand and then on the other hand say ku won't schedule the Shocks??? I've even heard ku fans try to argue that teams like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, UCLA, Louisville type blue-bloods won't schedule the Shockers either because it does those teams no good. But yet those fans still attempt to knock our schedule. Oxymoron...Oxymoron...OXYMORON'S!!!

[BOBB]

I think it might be worth taking our lumps to keep DC at the 4 and see which of Shaq, Nurger or Bush want to play at the 5 on any given night. We are tournament bound regardless and we are going to need these guys.

Regardless of the above DC cannot be fouling dudes out past 17 ft.

[Shockeriffic]

Sean Keeler said that we were 1-2 in our last three games against "name" opponents (a term that annoys me to no end). IIRC, KU is 0-3 in its last three NCAA tournament games against the Missouri Valley.

And why stop at the last three games? Oh right because before that there was that pesky run to the Final Four against name opponents.

[SHOCKvalue]

I'm not sure why we need to defend this loss, nor anticipate a precipitous drop in the polls. We lost an overtime road game by a single point, to a ranked team that was favored (and who did not cover). I'm sure there was a healthy margin of Shocker fans who anticipated this game as a strong chance at an L anyways. If we were not going to go undefeated again (an unrealistic expectation) this was a great game to lose, and a fairly decent fashion and capacity to take a loss.

Someone mentioned the Sean Keeler article elsewhere on SN today, and my goodness what a hyperbolic POS article that was.

[Schmakey]

I think the Frankamp jinx has begun.....

[kochHead]

As much as it sucks for us fans for the guys to lose a game, I guarantee they feel a thousand times worse, and replay all the what-ifs over and over. St. Louis is in for a thrashing Saturday!

I having trouble processing this loss. I keep telling myself the "L" beside that game stands for "Late night game"

[ShockerFever]

I wonder what it feels like to get curbstomped by 30 to Kentucky?

We wouldn't know.

[Kung Wu]

I'm not sure why we need to defend this loss, nor anticipate a precipitous drop in the polls. We lost an overtime road game by a single point, to a ranked team that was favored (and who did not cover). I'm sure there was a healthy margin of Shocker fans who anticipated this game as a strong chance at an L anyways. If we were not going to go undefeated again (an unrealistic expectation) this was a great game to lose, and a fairly decent fashion and capacity to take a loss.

I'm with you. I don't feel terrible about this loss at all. Our boys fought hard and our newcomers just played a Top-25 team for their very first time and with -- what -- four Division 1 games of experience behind them, and exactly _zero_ true road games prior to that. I was proud of them for not folding when down by 9 with something like 4 to 5 minutes to go. We lost by one freaking point.

[HenryMuto]

I just got home from work and I was shocked to see you guys lost and kind of sad too I really wanted another undefeated regular season for you guys. It was just on too late for me to stay up to watch. Sorry to see you lose but the game sounded exciting with a great comeback. Good luck in future games.