I know it's very early, but after two league games....

[small tyme baller]

Please explain to me why you feel compelled to bash one of our TEAM members, JRS,
when he has not even played lately? That was a "small time" dig out of nowhere

Looking back, my post was not in good taste, even as a joke. Thx for the call out, my apologies.

[Bluzrover]

Oh, and things for which I'm surprised:
- Evan Wessel is far more important to this team than I thought
- Tevin Glass has had zero impact in games
- DC has not exhibited that patented 3G JUCO 2nd year explosion
- Ron Baker is a better defender than TC (not my thoughts, those of Mark Adams)
- There haven't been daily "******* is an ass" rants on SN

Re-affirmed:
- We miss Cle
- We miss Jans
- The Frosh are going to take some time learning how to be Shocker Play Angry But Smart basketball players

[RoyalShock]

The game yesterday affirms what Evan means to this team. There is so much hustle in him, I bestowe on Evan a new last name: Wustle. The back of his jersey needs updated.

Not only that, when he is on the floor, what used to be called a "50/50 ball" will now be called an "80/20 ball".

[RoyalShock]

And I do think Valley coaches spent the summer and fall game-planning for Fred and Ron.

[_kai_]

- Illinois State is who we thought they were. 12 of the last 13.

- Salukis are God awful. Just shocking how horrible they are. RPI currently at 325.

- I still stand by my preseason rankings of 1) WSU 2) UNI 3) Missouri State 4) Evansville

- I think I definitely messed up putting Loyola last, and SIU at 6.

- Loyola and Milton Doyle have the ability to knock off anyone on any night if Doyle is ready to put up 25 or 30. I'd be real worried about our match up in Chicago against them.

- Mockavicious (sp?) is a beast, I'd trade any of our post players aside from Kelly and Carter for him. If we had him and Carter in the post, it'd be insane.

- Marshall from MSU is their key. If he isn't on, or he gets injured, MSU is 225+ RPI bad. With him, they're on the verge of Top 100 RPI. It's just consistency issues with them. Definitely could be 3rd in conference, or could end up 7th. Depends if they can string it all together.

- I think regardless of Indiana State's start, they're going to be the maker of nightmares for the top half. I think they end up somewhere like 5th, but with a win or sweep over the top of the league. They'll also lose to Bradley and SIU though.

- WSU to me, is clearly the favorite for #1 in the MVC still, even with UNI up this year.

- That said, I think WSU drops at least 2 in conference play this year. I think we lose to a team in the middle of the MVC or at the bottom on a night where we can't hit anything, and they have a guy or two who just can't miss. We've dodged that bullet last year, I don't think we can work our Matrix magic and Neo the bullet.

- The team is tenacious as ever but I still feel like we're not even close to the ceiling it can reach. I figured that we'd be closer to the ceiling than we currently are, but I have to remember that we're playing all new guys and the learning curve can be steep. If the guys can get to a point where mental mistakes stop ruining our tempo, we'll be scary good on offense.

- Shox desperately need someone in the post to step up, and step up consistently. Carter goes out of the game and we just stutter offensively. If we play a team with a good post presence we get worked downlow the entire game. If we play a team with elite post presence, I think we get steamrolled.

[Cdizzle]

Not only that, when he is on the floor, what used to be called a "50/50 ball" will now be called an "80/20 ball".

My section tried that for a while. But it wasn't enough. We now just call them an "Evan ball" because they are always his.

His offensive rebound amid 4 red jerseys was incredible. Apparently they had watched tape, because once he got a hand on the ball they all just started backing away.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Surprise: Post defense. I thought it would a little better. Not great, but better.
Surprise: I under estimated how much we would miss Cleanthony. Grossly under estimated.
Surprise: Bench scoring. I did not expect the moon, but I thought it would be better than it has been.
Surprise: There does not seem to be any there there - the wow factor.
Surprise: I thought at least one freshman would play reasonably well initially and improve as the season progressed.
Surprise: Because of our returning core, I though we would be a kick ass team.

[Dan]

And I do think Valley coaches spent the summer and fall game-planning for Fred and Ron.

You nailed it. That is all fine and dandy but they didn't spend enough time game-planning for the other teams in the leaague. They get their one shot to upset big ol' WSU then blow it against the lower tier teams.

[wufan]

I agree...

One thing that Mitch and Adams said yesterday that took me aback, and I'm not sure I agree with, is that ISUr has the best talent in the league...did I hear that right?

Mark quoted HCGM with that one. Top to bottom they are very good.

[jdshock]

Mark quoted HCGM with that one. Top to bottom they are very good.

I'm sure there's some truth to the statement. Part of it's gotta be that HCGM is just talking up his competition, though. Muller is the type of guy to vote his team number one in the preseason against a team that is coming off an undefeated regular season and a single digit national ranking. HCGM is the type of guy to build up the teams he goes against. Other elite coaches are always doing that too. I always hear Pitino, Cal, and Coach K talking about how great their opponents were and how much work their own team has to do.

[shockerfanmas]

Muller just seems like one of those guys where he has an excuse for everything. I can just hear it now. "I didn't have my top 2 players. If I had them, we'd have beaten Wichita St. by 15 and my preseason pick would have looked even better." I'd be surprised if after the game he wasn't thinking something along those lines.

[molly jabali]

Muller just seems like one of those guys where he has an excuse for everything. I can just hear it now. "I didn't have my top 2 players. If I had them, we'd have beaten Wichita St. by 15 and my preseason pick would have looked even better." I'd be surprised if after the game he wasn't thinking something along those lines.

I think there are times where NOT having your best relaxes you as players and allows you to maybe play better. I'll never forget many years ago playing JUCO ball and hosting a team down to 7 players, and missing 3 starters, that we had beaten by 15 at full strength at their place. Of COURSE they beat us by 18!:) So I ain't buying what Muller MIGHT be thinking!

[wufan]

Oh, and things for which I'm surprised:
- Evan Wessel is far more important to this team than I thought
- Tevin Glass has had zero impact in games
- DC has not exhibited that patented 3G JUCO 2nd year explosion
- Ron Baker is a better defender than TC (not my thoughts, those of Mark Adams)
- There haven't been daily "******* is an ass" rants on SN
Re-affirmed:
- We miss Cle
- We miss Jans
- The Frosh are going to take some time learning how to be Shocker Play Angry But Smart basketball players

I think Carter is averaging 12 and 7 versus 8 and 4 last year. Fairly explosive.

[shockerfanmas]

I think there are times where NOT having your best relaxes you as players and allows you to maybe play better. I'll never forget many years ago playing JUCO ball and hosting a team down to 7 players, and missing 3 starters, that we had beaten by 15 at full strength at their place. Of COURSE they beat us by 18!:) So I ain't buying what Muller MIGHT be thinking!

I agree with you, I was just stating that Muller seems like the type of guy to think along those lines.

[wusphlash]

Surprises:

• Fred and Ron’s free throw shooting struggles (relatively speaking)
• Total failure of Barry Hinson and Geno Ford
• How much I would miss having Chadrack and Kadeem on the floor
• That we haven’t established a substitution pattern by conference play
• Loyola (although I had hope down the road)
• Darius would be 100% from 3
• None of the freshmen would step forward on a consistent basis

Reaffirminations

• Our starting backcourt can play with anyone
• We wouldn’t win all our regular season games
• Greg Lansing, Ben Jacobsen and Porter Moser are solid
• Darius is not a true 5
• We would be leading the Valley after two games
• Shockernetters will disagree on about any possible subject
• Creighton will still be a target on this board
• Gregg can coach (Duh)