Shockers vs. Alabama Game thread

[Shocker Mama]

Wow -- gutsy win. It's going to take forever to fall asleep tonight.

[Rlh04d]

I think Kelly is ready to take over a starting spot if Wessel can't go. That could do great things for Kelly's game. If he's relied on, it might move him from "contributor" to "stud". I think he's got that capability, but has probably been deferring to the AA's on the perimeter.

I think we have the Fr version of Early replacing the Sr version of Early. If Wessel can't go, getting Kelly some extra minutes at this stage of the season doesn't seem to be a big negative for the overall success of the season.

I definitely want to see Kelly playing more. I don't think there's any reason to assume that Wessel can't go when he literally came back into this game, but whether he can or not ... I want to see a lot more Kelly.

[forevershockerfan]

I just don't understand how we won that game. Awesome. The Marshall Era is so much fun.

Down 11 with 5:50 left and they were all the sudden shooting threes on us. I was bracing for the loss. I mean, this is Alabama, not MoST. The fact that these guys ripped the W away from this tough Tide team is a really big deal.

Yeah it was ugly, but this feels like a turning point game even though we are already doing well.

We almost always win such close games. Tonight the missed throws along with Bama controlling the tempo and executing much of the night, disallowed one of our patented runs until the very end.

[jocoshock]

I think Kelly is ready to take over a starting spot if Wessel can't go. That could do great things for Kelly's game. If he's relied on, it might move him from "contributor" to "stud". I think he's got that capability, but has probably been deferring to the AA's on the perimeter.

I think we have the Fr version of Early replacing the Sr version of Early. If Wessel can't go, getting Kelly some extra minutes at this stage of the season doesn't seem to be a big negative for the overall success of the season.

Even with a healthy Evan, we need Kelly taking over the 4 spot. Let Evan and Tekele wreak havoc from the 3..

[wusphlash]

How many of our naysayers turned the game off and went to bed only to be surprised in the morning?

[CBB_Fan]

Very excited after the game. However, we need two tons of work. Not the 11th best team in the country right now, but we could be much better. Unfortunately, some of our problems are hard to fix, namely the fact that we are ridiculously tiny and still terrible from the line. We can't grow taller, and we'll probably still be flat out pathetic from the line at the end of the season but we can get FVV and Cotton back on track mentally and physically.

I think these games have been close because decent teams have learned how to exploit their size advantage on us and have played on this year's much more timid Fred. Hopefully improvements from our freshmen will take pressure off our starters and also help out our size problem. Still a lot needs to happen by March for this team to reach its potential.

[jocoshock]

Once the Tide’s main rim protector, Jimmie Taylor, fouled out with 4:27 left, Baker and VanVleet finished with more consistency around the basket and attacked the lane with ferocity.

Wichita State isn’t as talented or as dynamic as last season with Early, but these two second-half comeback wins show that this team can still make big plays and rally around each other in the final minutes of a game to pull out a victory.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/16/no-11-wichita-state-rallies-from-double-digits-to-shock-alabama/

[forevershockerfan]

Wasn't it the Mo-State away game last Season we were 21 down with 11 minutes left but still won? They kept fouling us, stopping the clock and we made the throws, they quit making all the long 3 pointers and we started making our throws. Then years ago versus Illinois State on the road, we were about 7-8 down with 40 seconds in the win we had that Cotton got kicked in the jaw.

[bunck]

I definitely want to see Kelly playing more. I don't think there's any reason to assume that Wessel can't go when he literally came back into this game, but whether he can or not ... I want to see a lot more Kelly.

Evan is definitely going to be feeling a lot worse tomorrow.

[Steeleshocker]

I'm exhausted and wired all at the same time.

[forevershockerfan]

Evan is definitely going to be feeling a lot worse tomorrow.

True and we hope he heals up quick as young athletes do.

[Rlh04d]

Evan is definitely going to be feeling a lot worse tomorrow.

No doubt. Long break until the next game, though. And he can easily sit against Loyola.

[mjbaker84]

Went to the game with my wife and it was pretty awesome tonight.
The last 3 minutes had the loudest cheering I had ever heard in koch arena for a game I have been to. When Alabama chucked the inbound out of bounds, carters dunk, and the last second shot missing the rim. The place was ROCKING.

My observations:
Officiating was REALLY poor. There were a lot of travels that were not called on Alabama, on that same aspect there were questionable calls against wsu. Some tie-ups that were in WSU's possession that went the other way, that last tie up before the end of the game etc.

Nurger looked bad
Morris had his ups and downs.
Wessel played hard as usual
Cotton has some shooting issues (his hand still?) and his defense was even lacking.
Baker played pretty well but def had some defensive issues at times.
Van Vleet started playing like the player we know he is when he started driving and trying to score instead of just passing it away.
Kelly played really well
holland and Henderson both gave the team a spark and fresh legs.

Alabama played a masterful defense game for about 35 minutes but also got away with some pretty rough play.
The officials seemed to disagree about a lot of calls, they almost looked like they were kind of getting into it during timeouts.


Also does anybody have a replay of the game? I forgot to DVR the game
Any replays of Evan's ankle turn? I figured right away he stepped on somebody's foot and rolled it?

also Vitale was there early and chatting with everybody before the game started and went into the crowd to was generally really friendly.

[forevershockerfan]

I'm exhausted and wired all at the same time.

Bama gave us their best shot and kept our touches to a mild roar and kept executing until the very end. Scoring in the game was like pulling hens teeth and we did not help things by missing so many throws. Toward the end of the 1st half, Carter and Cotton were out with 2 fouls and Wessel came out with an injury before that after scoring. That was 3 starters on the pine which allowed Bama to believe they could get out of here with a win.

[jocoshock]

. Kelly might have had the best five-point, four-rebound game in Shocker history just because of when those points came.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/bob-lutz/article4543427.html