St Louis vs Wichita State game thread.

[ShockerFever]

Mike Kennedy, the University and the fans deserve better. Gotta get the radio and shocker vision problems fixed.

Embarrassing. Embarrassing. Embarrassing.

Will it ever change? Doubt it.

[ShockerFever]

On a completely different note... Who is the goober that sat behind the Shocker bench tonight? I've seen him at home and road games for over a decade. Was in the student section for years, now I see him in different places from game to game. Ski cap, same button up yellow and black shirt every game, gotee, sunglasses. Tonight he added some sort of ski mask part of the time and just acted like a goon for the cameras. A wild and crazy shockernetter perhaps?

Well, it appears he seems to get pretty good seats from time to time. I've seen him behind the bench in nearly every IBA game, in a few road games, and even a few Koch games. He either is a huge Shocker fan and is forking out some decent coin to support his team, or Gregg Marshall must like him and gets some good hook-ups.

While I agree he may not be the hippest looking fan out there, he seems to be a big supporter of the university, staff and team, and perhaps the feelings are mutual.

But you, of all people, to call somebody a goon.... now that's priceless right there.

[ShockerDropOut]

My take on the game from Section 215 Row Q: We are good. Really good. St. Louis is not very good. That they have beaten 3 MVC teams prior to tonight makes me cringe at the level of competition (or lack thereof) in this conference. It should also make those three teams have nightmares about the beatdown they are likely to receive at the hands of the Shockers this year.

Evan Wessel must be seen live and in person to be truly appreciated. First team all-floorburn, grit, hustle, determination. I hope our freshmen are learning that from him. Talk about leaving a legacy! St. Louis tried to get the ball inside and take advantage of the size difference they had at the 4, but were unable to execute very much at all. Against a more talented and athletic team, the size difference could be an issue. This could be a little premature, but I would say his shooting stroke is back! Awesome performance. He had good looks and nailed them. You gotta love that development.

Baker, VanVleet, Cotton.......wow! Cotton finally got his steal and monster slam after deflecting several passes. That little fade-away jumper in on the block by Baker was SICK! Fred looked like what I expected him to look like. He is the floor leader. We are in good hands.

Holland had a very nice game. Lots of quality minutes. HCGM rotated his guards to the bench and left Ri'an on the floor. I thought this was a very positive sign of his development. He played pretty good defense too. It seemed from way up where I was, that he was at a definite height disadvantage (maybe someone with a better view could confirm or deny this for me). The Billikens weren't able to take advantage though. I liked what I saw here.

I didn't think Carter had a very good game. He didn't seem to be able to get his shot off over their bigs. At least he didnt get in foul trouble, but still didnt play as much as I expected. Part of this could have been due to the score also. I don't know. Interesting that Nurger started the second half. Well it was to me anyway.

Nurger had a great game. He played solid D, but could rebound a little more. He is a weapon on offense though, especially behind the arc.

I like Shaq. I like Kelly. They both have great upside. When they start to tap in to that potential more consistantly (March maybe?) it will be fun to be along for the ride.

Brown, Glass, Wamukota have some work to do. After seeing them in person for the first time, I find it hard to foresee them making meaningful contributions this year. I could be, and hopefully am wrong, but based on tonight, they may need some more seasoning.

Last but not least is Henderson. I thought his performance tonight was lackluster. I am not going to go and bash this kid, let's just say that in my opinion, based on tonight, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Ok, now the disclaimers. I am not, nor have I ever implied that I am a great evaluator of basketball talent. This was the first game that I have seen ANY of these players in person. These are my opinions and observations made from an admittedly small sample size.

It was great to be at IBA tonight and cheer for our Shockers as they put a whoopin on St. Louis. My wife and I had a wonderful time, watched our beloved team, and cheered with fantastic fans. It was the highlight of our week.

[chicagoshocker]

Nurger was awesome. However, I can't believe they didn't give Player of the Game to Evan. That defined Player of the Game, pretty much in all facets. It was great to see the kid truly light it up. Hometown proud. You gotta give him that honor.

The Cox tv crew did give POG to Evan. Radio guys try to spread things around and had given POG to Evan for the Utah game, so I think they were spreading the love on a night when both players played at their best.

[1972Shocker]

Very enjoyable evening even with the longs lines at the gate. Ate at Bite Me BBQ for the 1st time after the game. Very good eats. Nice place. The speed painting at halftime was something different.

Did our cheerleaders retrieving the stuck ball make ESPN's Top 10 tonight?

Loved seeing Evan knocking down shots and even his misses were right on line.

Have we ever had a 6-10 Freshman with the skill set of Rauno? Going to be interesting watching that young man develop.

Seton Hall crushed Rutgers today. Tuesday's game should be the real deal.

:poster_shocks:

[pinstripers]

Holland was outstanding in the first half.

[SoulStar]

Not sure if already posted but SLU's starters combined for 11 points. The leading scorer of this bunch was McBroom who had 3 points (on 3 free thows). The other 4 starters had 2 points apiece.

[1972Shocker]

This might be a stupid question, by why does the st. louis team never have people ready to rebound their free throw shooting?

Saint Louis coach Jim Crews played prevent defense when his team went to the foul line. Four Billikens went to half court and left their teammate alone. Crews saw no point to placing his players in the open slots on the lane for a rare chance at a rebound. “We’re not a good offensive rebounding team and we’re a pretty good free-throw shooting team,” he said. “It gets us set defensively, because (WSU) runs different things. It saves you trips up and down the floor. Their used to be six reasons, but I can only remember four or five now.”

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

[shockmonster]

A great time this evening. I like our Freshman(Holland, Henderson, Brown, etc.)guards and think that there is a lot of upside there. I also hope that our signees this year are a step up. But for those who didn't like the Frankamp recruitment, you just need to look at the game today to see why he and our new signees are so important. Today's game showed how much of a step down, there is between Fred, Baker, and Cotton and the next guards in the game.The Freshmen will get better, but they have a long way to go if we don't want our program to step down after the Big Three.

[top20shock]

This was an all out destruction tonight and we got an awful lot of scoring out of Evan and Rauno. This was a perfect response to the loss this week. 30 point blowout plus a bunch of losses by other top 25 teams will keep us up high in the polls. We just need to carry the momentum into this next week where we will need to look very sharp against solid opponents.

Wessel > Frodo.

Go Shox!

[proshox]

As always, I thought the IBA game was awesome. I would take them all down there....

I like the aggressive EW. He doesn't have to make all of them, but he needs to be a threat for floor spacing.

It was great seeing RN get going. Hopefully this is a launching pad game for his career.

[WuDrWu]

Not sure if already posted but SLU's starters combined for 11 points. The leading scorer of this bunch was McBroom who had 3 points (on 3 free thows). The other 4 starters had 2 points apiece.

That's unreal. So our freshman post reserve player, Nurger, outscored the opponents starters by 4.

Nurger > St Louis, combined. Wow.

[shockerfan]

While I agree it would be nice to see Nurger rebound better. There was more than one time I saw him box out big time and someone else grabs the rebound. A couple times he boxed his guy out all the way out of bounds. That is as good as a rebound IMHO. But I am sure coach will continue to help him progress in this area.

[molly jabali]

My take on the game from Section 215 Row Q: We are good. Really good. St. Louis is not very good. That they have beaten 3 MVC teams prior to tonight makes me cringe at the level of competition (or lack thereof) in this conference. It should also make those three teams have nightmares about the beatdown they are likely to receive at the hands of the Shockers this year.

Evan Wessel must be seen live and in person to be truly appreciated. First team all-floorburn, grit, hustle, determination. I hope our freshmen are learning that from him. Talk about leaving a legacy! St. Louis tried to get the ball inside and take advantage of the size difference they had at the 4, but were unable to execute very much at all. Against a more talented and athletic team, the size difference could be an issue. This could be a little premature, but I would say his shooting stroke is back! Awesome performance. He had good looks and nailed them. You gotta love that development.

Baker, VanVleet, Cotton.......wow! Cotton finally got his steal and monster slam after deflecting several passes. That little fade-away jumper in on the block by Baker was SICK! Fred looked like what I expected him to look like. He is the floor leader. We are in good hands.

Holland had a very nice game. Lots of quality minutes. HCGM rotated his guards to the bench and left Ri'an on the floor. I thought this was a very positive sign of his development. He played pretty good defense too. It seemed from way up where I was, that he was at a definite height disadvantage (maybe someone with a better view could confirm or deny this for me). The Billikens weren't able to take advantage though. I liked what I saw here.

I didn't think Carter had a very good game. He didn't seem to be able to get his shot off over their bigs. At least he didnt get in foul trouble, but still didnt play as much as I expected. Part of this could have been due to the score also. I don't know. Interesting that Nurger started the second half. Well it was to me anyway.

Nurger had a great game. He played solid D, but could rebound a little more. He is a weapon on offense though, especially behind the arc.

I like Shaq. I like Kelly. They both have great upside. When they start to tap in to that potential more consistantly (March maybe?) it will be fun to be along for the ride.

Brown, Glass, Wamukota have some work to do. After seeing them in person for the first time, I find it hard to foresee them making meaningful contributions this year. I could be, and hopefully am wrong, but based on tonight, they may need some more seasoning.

Last but not least is Henderson. I thought his performance tonight was lackluster. I am not going to go and bash this kid, let's just say that in my opinion, based on tonight, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Ok, now the disclaimers. I am not, nor have I ever implied that I am a great evaluator of basketball talent. This was the first game that I have seen ANY of these players in person. These are my opinions and observations made from an admittedly small sample size.

It was great to be at IBA tonight and cheer for our Shockers as they put a whoopin on St. Louis. My wife and I had a wonderful time, watched our beloved team, and cheered with fantastic fans. It was the highlight of our week.

good job!

[Bob Sacamano]

I am still not sure whether this year's Shox can be a top 5 type of team this year, but I will say one thing... They are so consistent and so good at exposing opponent's weaknesses that I just don't see how they could possibly lose more than 1-2 games the rest of the way given the relatively few quality opponents left. This team is going to be a top 3 seed come March and have yet another gaudy record.

On a completely different note... Who is the goober that sat behind the Shocker bench tonight? I've seen him at home and road games for over a decade. Was in the student section for years, now I see him in different places from game to game. Ski cap, same button up yellow and black shirt every game, gotee, sunglasses. Tonight he added some sort of ski mask part of the time and just acted like a goon for the cameras. A wild and crazy shockernetter perhaps?

Dude usually has good seats. I always assumed it was Cold and the ski cap was a reference to his shockernet name.