WSU VERSUS INDIANA PREDICTIONS AND PREGAME DISCUSSIONS

[WuDrWu]

That's interesting. You know IU better than any shocker fans here, I'm sure. It seems like looking at your roster that Yogi would be giving up 4 inches to Baker. My immediate reaction is that Baker will just pull up and shoot over Yogi and FVV will take advantage of being guarded by a bigger (and presumably slower?) player by driving into the lane frequently. Those are Baker and FVV's greatest strengths, so it seems like that would just help our offense.

Is Yogi quite a bit better of a defender than your other guards?

One thing that's been pretty darned consistent over the years is that our sets generally are pretty effective against teams that haven't seen us a bunch. I would suspect that combining a younger and less experienced Hoosier squad that's defensively challenged with their first look at "what we do" is going to be worth at least a couple of extra baskets here and there. Enough to make a difference? Who knows.

[Hysteria]

You forgot Utah.Our record would be 2-2.Just factulizing things that seem to get smudged up time to time by the opposing fans.

Thanks! My bad!

[Hysteria]

That's interesting. You know IU better than any shocker fans here, I'm sure. It seems like looking at your roster that Yogi would be giving up 4 inches to Baker. My immediate reaction is that Baker will just pull up and shoot over Yogi and FVV will take advantage of being guarded by a bigger (and presumably slower?) player by driving into the lane frequently. Those are Baker and FVV's greatest strengths, so it seems like that would just help our offense.

Is Yogi quite a bit better of a defender than your other guards?

IMHO, yogi is very quick and very strong. He usually can lock his man down & has been put on the best offensive matchup throughout the year. Robert Johnson isn't slow- he's 6'3-4 and has long arms, although just a freshman. He is also very strong. He holds his own but usually never "locks down" anybody.

[thefro]

That's interesting. You know IU better than any shocker fans here, I'm sure. It seems like looking at your roster that Yogi would be giving up 4 inches to Baker. My immediate reaction is that Baker will just pull up and shoot over Yogi and FVV will take advantage of being guarded by a bigger (and presumably slower?) player by driving into the lane frequently. Those are Baker and FVV's greatest strengths, so it seems like that would just help our offense.

Is Yogi quite a bit better of a defender than your other guards?

Yogi is clearly the best defender out of our starting guards and is pretty good at guarding 6-3/6-4 guards that he gives up some size too. Robinson is a good individual defender off the bench but we're giving up a lot of offense when he's in there.

One thing that's been pretty darned consistent over the years is that our sets generally are pretty effective against teams that haven't seen us a bunch. I would suspect that combining a younger and less experienced Hoosier squad that's defensively challenged with their first look at "what we do" is going to be worth at least a couple of extra baskets here and there. Enough to make a difference? Who knows.

I'd actually say the same thing for IU's offense this year, although you will have an edge in that you're probably used to playing teams that won't roll out a true post player. But it's generally taken teams a half or so to figure out how to defend it.

[hoosierweebey]

First, thanks to everyone who answered my 4 questions yesterday. I enjoyed reading them all.

That's interesting. You know IU better than any shocker fans here, I'm sure. It seems like looking at your roster that Yogi would be giving up 4 inches to Baker. My immediate reaction is that Baker will just pull up and shoot over Yogi and FVV will take advantage of being guarded by a bigger (and presumably slower?) player by driving into the lane frequently. Those are Baker and FVV's greatest strengths, so it seems like that would just help our offense.

Is Yogi quite a bit better of a defender than your other guards?

Yogi is our best defender, but he's our best offensive player. Thus, this year he has been given sort of a "reprieve" from the coaching staff on the defensive end. Yogi is 5'11" and doesn't possess the freakishly long arms that a lot of smaller guards do these days. He struggles guarding the post. If Baker has any sort of post up game for a guard, Yogi won't matched up with him. Cotton would be my best guess.

In any case, IU's 4 perimeter players on the floor will switch almost all ball screens. The easy pick'en's against IU's defense aren't exactly up top beating your guy one-on-one. It will be taking advantage of our horrid defense away from the basketball.

I know Marshall likes to initiate a lot of his offense with a ball screen, but the easy pay-off will be in making the extra pass to a teammate who is flaring away from, or cutting behind, a sleeping Hoosier help defender.

[Stickboy46]

First, thanks to everyone who answered my 4 questions yesterday. I enjoyed reading them all.



Yogi is our best defender, but he's our best offensive player. Thus, this year he has been given sort of a "reprieve" from the coaching staff on the defensive end. Yogi is 5'11" and doesn't possess the freakishly long arms that a lot of smaller guards do these days. He struggles guarding the post. If Baker has any sort of post up game for a guard, Yogi won't matched up with him. Cotton would be my best guess.

In any case, IU's 4 perimeter players on the floor will switch almost all ball screens. The easy pick'en's against IU's defense aren't exactly up top beating your guy one-on-one. It will be taking advantage of our horrid defense away from the basketball.

I know Marshall likes to initiate a lot of his offense with a ball screen, but the easy pay-off will be in making the extra pass to a teammate who is flaring away from, or cutting behind, a sleeping Hoosier help defender.

Baker actually has decent post game from what I've seen.

If Cotton is guarded by a 5'11 guard .. I predict at at least 1 #SCTOP10 dunk over him.

[Slalomshocker]

Thank you to the IU fans that have ventured over here. Very intelligent conversation going on here. In my opinion if IU struggles to defend the post, Carter might have a good game down low. And anytime Darius Carter is at least an even matchup in the paint, WSU is tough to beat. The matchup seems to play to both teams preferences since both struggle with size down low. Should be a good game. If IU plays undisciplined defense, FVV will make them pay for it. If IU plays physical defense and takes away passing lanes...WSU will struggle on offense. WSU Def vs IU Offense should be a fun matchup.

Should be close:

WSU 68
IU 64

[ShockerExpress]

Baker actually has decent post game from what I've seen.

If Cotton is guarded by a 5'11 guard .. I predict at at least 1 #SCTOP10 dunk over him.

Baker has posted up a bit this year, I have seen it. He has been more aggressive toward the hoop with pretty good results all season. I wish he was a bit faster, but don't we all.

[ShockerFever]

Sounds like a repeat of Saturday in St. Louis. That worked out well, didn't it?

When will people learn to enjoy and relish in each game and not be entitled? smh

So much fail.

It's pretty mind boggling how bad things are being run now. It ironically correlates with the continuous rise of the basketball program. Is that how things are supposed to work?

[Stickboy46]

I personally think our X-Factor this game is Shaq. He has a good 40-60 lb weight advantage on ANY of their big men that actually play. With the combo of Darius at 6'7 245 and Shaq at 6'7 260 they can start to wear down Indiana's 6'7-9 200-220 lb men. Thats a pretty big weight difference. If Shaq shows up .. we win ..

[Stickboy46]

Reading on the IU board (peegs) .. Someone just asked what it meant when people refer to WSU as a "Valley" team ... One answer said "Ohio Valley Conference" .. Just thought that was kind of funny.

[Cdizzle]

If Shaq shows up .. we win ..

Marshall has been telling this to Shaq, in reference to the tournament, for about 10 months now.

[another shocker]

iu ran up points at the highest clip in the big10. wichita state? well, they played walk it up in the valley. that's bothersome. big10 is a different level of animal.

[Cdizzle]

iu ran up points at the highest clip in the big10. wichita state? well, they played walk it up in the valley. that's bothersome. big10 is a different level of animal.

That's true. And their gameplan was so successful they went 9-9.

[Stickboy46]

iu ran up points at the highest clip in the big10. wichita state? well, they played walk it up in the valley. that's bothersome. big10 is a different level of animal.

Per Ken Pom

53

Indiana 10

B10

20-13

.7762

116.6

10

104.7

216

12

Northern Iowa 5

MVC

30-3

.9080

113.8

15

93.2

16

First Rating is Adjusted O, Second is Adjusted D. So they are slightly better Adjusted O than UNI but WAY worse on D. Not that different of animal