ILS Game Thread

[ShockerEngineer]

The hard part is that we haven't improved since December. Same weaknesses, same strengths. When we hit 3s, everything clicks and when we don't we have nothing else. We don't have size, we don't have penetration. We need to hit 3s, and unlike most Valley teams we don't have legions of cloned white boys born and raised for the task. For a team whose offense relies on one shot, we can go absolutely dead cold. All teams do when we miss is pack the paint and play zone, stopping both our drives and our posts. We aren't good in late-game situations because we don't run any plays except "watch Fred shoot a 3" and every team knows that. We have no consistent producers from the bench as well, not even Shaq.

We still have a really high level of play when we are hot, but we are not consistent. In the dance you need to play well every game to win, but only have to play bad once to lose. Luckily good backcourts usually do well in the dance, and Wichita State has the best, but unluckily we also have the smallest frontcourt in the tournament. Any team with a single quality post player can give us tremendous fits, and we'll have to really amp it up to win a game or two let alone go further. However, it says something that after ending in a crappy way we will get at least a 6 seed and make the tournament for the 4th year in a row for the first time.

I agree with some of this. But, about the post players... I seem to remember that we had to go through two teams with future NBA big men (Olynyk and Adams) on the way to the final four two years ago, so you never know what will happen. ;)

Yeah, it sucks that this game didn't go our way, and I'm sure it will cost us seed-wise.. And I'm also expecting Illinois St to lay a huge egg tomorrow. All we can do is look ahead, though. Our biggest problem right now is worrying about which higher level seed we'll be.

[SB Shock]

We need to hit 3s, and unlike most Valley teams we don't have legions of cloned white boys born and raised for the task.

next year WSU will have C.F.....

[Kung Wu]

FVV made a great clean steal and got a whistle on him. 4 point swing right there.

Preach! Just like from the Bible! Amen, amen!

[AZ Shocker]

next year WSU will have C.F.....

Problem is...I don't see that kid being able to ball in a game like today. Today's game was a war.

[JJClamdip]

next year WSU will have C.F.....

The great white hype!

[wu_shizzle]

Problem is...I don't see that kid being able to ball in a game like today. Today's game was a war.

Ron left his shot in the hotel room today. It would have been nice to have another elite shooter to break that zone up.

[Ricardo del Rio]

I disagree with d. It's a huge concern. But if we hit our throws today we win. We can do that. We will recover. Our biggest issue is 4/5. Period. We need Shaq to continue to improve.

If the Shocks had won at the line, then Shocks would have shot 100% from the line (8/8).

I am not going to research it, but I doubt, if the Shocks shot 100% from the line this year.

See item d above. "Weak free throw percentage."

[Ricardo del Rio]

Ron left his shot in the hotel room today. It would have been nice to have another elite shooter to break that zone up.

ZB.

[ShauXTyme]

Whoever it was earlier looking forward to playing an "over-rated 3 seed" in North Carolina should probably think that through just a little longer.

[ShockerFever]

I really do hope they win. They played great today. They played like a team that can win a game in the dance. If they can somehow get in, the MVC is poised to make quite a showing.

Are you on Jamar drugs?

**** Illinois State. GO UNI.

[Fozzy]

Thought the foul on Fred was big, but I think the turning point was probably them taking the lead after half. We made turnovers, they made shots, and they had the momentum. Tekele going down a couple times and Ron going down may have hurt each more than they led on. The foul on Fred was a momentum killer, as was the missed FT's by Darius, and Fred taking the ball into the paint and getting blocked.

Tough loss but maybe it'll be a learning loss. Any team we play in a couple weeks is probably going to study the film and ones of the other three losses to see how to best attack the Shox. But the Shox will have two weeks to work on things and get healthy and rested - players and coaches. We didn't play much of the bench today and the starters played hard so Sunday may have been brutal with the guys getting pretty tired as the game went on.

I think we played a team that wanted the game more today as it's their only ticket to the big dance - we knew we were going regardless. I switched over to the KSU vs Texas game afterwards and they were at halftime and the announcers talked about the WSU game and then said the loss could make the MVC a three-bid conference if Illinois State wins on Sunday and how the P5 bubble teams should be nervous. I'm sure all the KSU and Texas people who were watching thought the same thing, as well as the guy at the Pasadena Post :)

The loss sucked, but all things considered, being 28-4 and waiting to find out who we play in a couple weeks isn't bad.

[AZ Shocker]

Ron left his shot in the hotel room today. It would have been nice to have another elite shooter to break that zone up.

True...but I just can't believe Conner could play that physically in a game like today. You're right he could bust a zone like nobodies business...but man...today was brutal.

On another note...had Wichita won today...I don't think they would have had enough gas in the tank to take down UNI tomorrow. Same thought for Illinois St. tomorrow. I don't know if they will have enough for tomorrow by blowing their you-know-what today either. UNI had an "easier" path to the title game. Here's one Shocker fan hoping the Birds win it all though. 3 teams in and a stoo-pid lame big-12 bubble team OUT!!!!

[Rlh04d]

You might get your wish. ILS only graduates Knight, Jones and Stawarz. http://www.goredbirds.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

The Redbirds are a pretty young team. Lynch is only a sophomore.

They're a very young team. Six of their eight players are underclassmen.

Illinois State has all the makings to become our rival -- the games are intense and the fans and coaches legitimately dislike each other. The only missing component has been competitive results. We've got that now, and they're going to beat us again soon. If we go undefeated against IlSt in the next two years, I'll be extremely surprised.

[Rlh04d]

The hard part is that we haven't improved since December. Same weaknesses, same strengths. When we hit 3s, everything clicks and when we don't we have nothing else. We don't have size, we don't have penetration. We need to hit 3s, and unlike most Valley teams we don't have legions of cloned white boys born and raised for the task. For a team whose offense relies on one shot, we can go absolutely dead cold. All teams do when we miss is pack the paint and play zone, stopping both our drives and our posts. We aren't good in late-game situations because we don't run any plays except "watch Fred shoot a 3" and every team knows that. We have no consistent producers from the bench as well, not even Shaq.

We still have a really high level of play when we are hot, but we are not consistent. In the dance you need to play well every game to win, but only have to play bad once to lose. Luckily good backcourts usually do well in the dance, and Wichita State has the best, but unluckily we also have the smallest frontcourt in the tournament. Any team with a single quality post player can give us tremendous fits, and we'll have to really amp it up to win a game or two let alone go further. However, it says something that after ending in a crappy way we will get at least a 6 seed and make the tournament for the 4th year in a row for the first time.

I strongly disagree that we haven't improved since December. Strongly.

[Fozzy]

They didn't show the start of the handshakes after the game, so can anyone who was at the game give an update on the head coaches handshake? Was it the usual quick and move on type between the two?