St Louis vs Wichita State game thread.

[ciaomichael]

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.

I think it's none other than Percival A. Friend, former Central States pro wrestling promoter and manager. Does he still carry that goofy briefcase around?

[Shockadelica]

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.

Carter has been very productive when he's on the floor. Problem now is that he is struggling on the finer points of the game, like defensive positioning (being an undersized 5) & holding on to the ball.

I'm confident that he'll get it worked out and be a huge factor for the rest of the season.

But it seems to be a trend to not start him in the 2nd half. It is sort of a reward for the young big that plays well in the 1st half.

[wufan]

Take the promising 3 Freshmen you just mentioned, add our 5 starters, and throw in 2 more Freshmen in Shaq and Henderson, and that may be our main 10 in our rotation of players. Even so, Coach Marshall will also find ways to include the remaining players in the mix with opportunities to blend into our rotating mix as well. Every player will get a fair shake in helping us to win games.

I think we have our top 9 as evidence in who has played every game and who is averaging greater than 10 mpg:

FVV, RB, TC, EW, DC
RH, SM, RN, RK

Numbers 10 and 11 are:

CHJ, BW

The rest are deep reserves this year.

[shock-it-to-me]

Like others have said, IBA is my only chance to see a game live, and if they want to go to two games a year, I'd certainly be there for both!

[ShockerFever]

Think it was mentioned earlier but that fadeaway by Baker was filthy. NBA quality. He gets that in is arsenal by the end of the year and he will be unstoppable and unfortunately League bound.

That was beyond dirty. I mean, disgustingly dirty.

[forevershockerfan]

Baker put up 10 shots counting throws and only missed 1 and had 18 points. Just another busy day at the office for Ron even though he draws much attention from our foes as if he was at Grand Central Station.

[im4wsu]

I don't get the negative atmosphere and venue comments. It seemed great in row D... It has been great when i have sat in the upper bowl. It looks and sounds great on TV.

Oh and 50% more fans.... Actual nearby entertainment and food. I would take a full season at IBA.

The noise meter recorded exactly the same levels as at CKA even with 42.813% more people. [check your sarcasm meter, also]

[Steeleshocker]

Some have mentioned wanting to see Rauno rebounds more, but what I noticed in this game was significantly improved box outs by the post players. So much so that they let a lot of guards just swoop in and pick up the ball.

[ShockTalk]

I think we have our top 9 as evidence in who has played every game and who is averaging greater than 10 mpg:

FVV, RB, TC, EW, DC
RH, SM, RN, RK

Numbers 10 and 11 are:

CHJ, BW

The rest are deep reserves this year.

At this point, I think your first 9 are well out in front of the rest, but I'm not so sure about CHJ and BW being much separated from the rest of the reserves. Corey has a long way to go to being FVV's backup. I'd be more comfortable with Ria'n at the point if it was between just those two. At the rate RN, SM, and RK are developing, Bush "Dubya" will struggle to see time without quicker improvement. His 5 rebounds in 6 minutes of play was nothing. 3 were uncontested missed FTs and 1 was an offensive rebound of his own missed shot that he again missed. Zach Brown may actually be number 10, or the best of the rest at this time, but his positions (2/3) are also the most crowded.

What's great about all this, however, is that our "bottom 4" are freshmen or first year jucos, early in their 1st season.

[Ricardo del Rio]

I think we have our top 9 as evidence in who has played every game and who is averaging greater than 10 mpg:

FVV, RB, TC, EW, DC
RH, SM, RN, RK

Numbers 10 and 11 are:

CHJ, BW

The rest are deep reserves this year.

I hope Zach Brown makes the second bunch. He just has that look of lottsa potential.

[Dave Stalwart]

Some have mentioned wanting to see Rauno rebounds more, but what I noticed in this game was significantly improved box outs by the post players. So much so that they let a lot of guards just swoop in and pick up the ball.

Coach might be teaching this. I would imagine you can break rebounding down into pieces and teach it one by one until all the pieces begin to fall together. Coach might be saying to the centers "I don't want you going after the ball until you have mastered boxing out first. I have the best rebounding guards in the nation to go after the ball. YOU just need to be creating space and keeping opposing forwards off the boards. Half the time the ball will fall into your lap." Once they get used to the positioning fundamentals, they can add in the aggression but you need to know one before the other to be truly dominant.

[Ricardo del Rio]

For the game, the Shockers had 23 personal fouls and 15 turnovers. For a moment, I was chagrined. It is way too many.

The I noticed the following:
Reserve players personal fouls - 16
Reserve players turnovers - 7

Fouls:
Kelly - 4
Holland - 4
Morris - 3

[1972Shocker]

Like others have said, IBA is my only chance to see a game live, and if they want to go to two games a year, I'd certainly be there for both!

Scheduling considerations will probably determine that. If we can pick up another high quality opponent by agreeing to play at IBA then 2 games might happen. Too bad SLU lost so much of their great team from last year. This year's version of the Billikens is not really IBA quality, but it was fun. Shocks now 5-0 at IBA. I'm sure that stat has added greatly to 3G's enjoyment level.

[WuDrWu]

I hope Zach Brown makes the second bunch. He just has that look of lottsa potential.

Agreed, but to me, more importantly, is finding at least a few quality minutes for CHJ. Both he and Brown need to play with Baker and Cotton when it matters, at least for a bit. We'll need CHJ over 40 games at some point.

[pinstripers]

Cory Henderson is a long way from being a point guard at all. Got potential as a 2, though.