WSU VERSUS INDIANA PREDICTIONS AND PREGAME DISCUSSIONS

[Shocker-maniac]

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.

Last night on the radio show, coach did not seemed concerned about their offensive tempo, and indicated that the Shockers would be happy to run with them.

[insaneykaney]

Something along the lines of "they going to learn all about Indiana".... Nothing major, but still not smart either

Is it really talking ish if it "disappears" after 10 seconds?

:p

[adollably]

hey guys, we've got a chance to win it all now!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZlwSOZVwNs

[jocoshock]

hey guys, we've got a chance to win it all now!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZlwSOZVwNs

Nice video. Did all the eggs have the Shox inside or was there a treat inside that particular egg. I see an NCAA investigation in your future.. :-)

[Dave Stalwart]

I'm really glad there was a nice CBS article about HCGM's reasons for staying but I didn't love that line about UNC, Texas and Indiana... Especially if we smoke them like a Blue Jay this week while their AD watches.

[jocoshock]

I'm really glad there was a nice CBS article about HCGM's reasons for staying but I didn't love that line about UNC, Texas and Indiana... Especially if we smoke them like a Blue Jay this week while their AD watches.

We now kmow why we landed a 7 seed against an Indiana team that even Crean thought was headed to the NIT..

The conspiracy against the Shox runs even deeper than I thought. The NCAA needs to investigate tampering between Indiana, Texas, and the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee....

oh... wait..

[adollably]

Our dog's favorite team the huskies didn't make it to the field. Her owners are St. John's Redstorm fans from NYC. Good luck to the Shockers !!!

[Veritas]

Hoosier Daddy? 71
WU's your Daddy 74

[hoosierweebey]

Last night on the radio show, coach did not seemed concerned about their offensive tempo, and indicated that the Shockers would be happy to run with them.

Maybe Marshall was just playing with the media a bit? Otherwise, that would be a mistake, imo. That is exactly how IU wants to play. Nobody will be happier than Crean to have it become an up and down shooting contest.

IU's transition offense is good. It's half court offense can be good, but is easily frustrated with the right strategy. I can elaborate if anyone is interested, if not I won't bore anyone with the details.

If WSU brings it down to a half court game, they can use their excellent defense to slow down IU's offense. Vice versa, WSU can out-execute IU's porous defense on the other end 35 seconds at a time. You don't need easy transition buckets--IU does--because you can get easy looks in the half court.

[RoyalShock]

I just noticed former ISUr player Nick Zeisloft gets 20 minutes/game for the Hoosiers, and is probably their best overall 3-pt shooter (62-137 45.3%). I could just see him hitting 2 or 3 well-timed threes against us. He's only made 12 2-pointers all year, though.

[Anthroshock]

I just noticed former ISUr player Nick Zeisloft gets 20 minutes/game for the Hoosiers, and is probably their best overall 3-pt shooter (62-137 45.3%). I could just see him hitting 2 or 3 well-timed threes against us. He's only made 12 2-pointers all year, though.

Those are Wragge-esque numbers.

I remember Zeisloft hitting some shots, but not being much of a factor against us.

[Rlh04d]

Maybe Marshall was just playing with the media a bit? Otherwise, that would be a mistake, imo. That is exactly how IU wants to play. Nobody will be happier than Crean to have it become an up and down shooting contest.

IU's transition offense is good. It's half court offense can be good, but is easily frustrated with the right strategy. I can elaborate if anyone is interested, if not I won't bore anyone with the details.

If WSU brings it down to a half court game, they can use their excellent defense to slow down IU's offense. Vice versa, WSU can out-execute IU's porous defense on the other end 35 seconds at a time. You don't need easy transition buckets--IU does--because you can get easy looks in the half court.

This is WSU's slowest team in recent memory, so I doubt we're going to be willing to play entirely at Indiana's pace.

WSU has often run at the pace of faster tempo teams in the past and done very, very well doing so. One of the truly great things about Marshall's teams are the ability to place at a high pace while still playing brutal defense. Regardless of what pace we play at, the game is incredibly unlikely to become a shooting contest. If it is, Indiana's going to be making some incredible shots, because WSU has excellent transition defense.

That said, our depth is pretty weak this year, and I seriously doubt we're going to run the starting five up and down the court if we can help it. We just don't have enough quality depth to play at a significant pace this year. We obviously have Shaq Morris playing well as a 6th man in the post, and Zach Brown has put in valuable minutes off the bench and would probably do VERY well in an up-tempo game against a team with Indiana's defense, but there really isn't much after that. We don't have the guard depth to run FVV, Baker, and Cotton like that, regardless of their conditioning, with another game two days later if we win. Playing those three 30-35 minutes in a high possession game would be rough for a theoretical second game. In the past, our willingness to run with up-tempo teams was with teams with extremely deep benches -- this is Marshall's shortest bench at WSU.

So yeah, expect a somewhat slow pace.

[shockmonster]

Shockers will run some. However, they won't hurry and take a lot of bad shots nor hurry and turn the ball over. They will run to get easy baskets and play solid defense on the half court and solid half court offense.

[adollably]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZlwSOZVwNs

[The Mad Hatter]

Maybe Marshall was just playing with the media a bit? Otherwise, that would be a mistake, imo. That is exactly how IU wants to play. Nobody will be happier than Crean to have it become an up and down shooting contest.

IU's transition offense is good. It's half court offense can be good, but is easily frustrated with the right strategy. I can elaborate if anyone is interested, if not I won't bore anyone with the details.

If WSU brings it down to a half court game, they can use their excellent defense to slow down IU's offense. Vice versa, WSU can out-execute IU's porous defense on the other end 35 seconds at a time. You don't need easy transition buckets--IU does--because you can get easy looks in the half court.

On paper, WSU will want to play slower than IU. According to Kenpom, WSU plays at the #298 tempo in the nation vs IU's #84. Our tempo this year is even slower than some years, but we are often over #200. I think we know that we are a better half court team than IU, and will play to that strength.

That being said, I think what Marshall is getting at is dispelling the notion that speeding WSU up is a good way to beat us. The fact that we don't play fast is not the same as that we aren't good playing fast. The best example might be our game against Detroit two years ago (who featured current Sacramento Kings guard Ray McCallum Jr.)

Here was Detroit's Kenpom numbers compared to this year's IU squad:

	Adjusted Offense	Adjusted Defense	Tempo
Detroit 2012-13	#24	#209	#21
Indiana 2014-15	#10	#216	#84

And here is how that WSU's Kenpom numbers compared to this year's squad:

	Adjusted Offense	Adjusted Defense	Tempo
Wichita State 2012-13	#30	#25	#209
Wichita State 2014-15	#20	#15	#298

WSU won that game by a score of 94-79. WSU shot 55% from the field in that game and 40% from 3, while taking 13 fewer 3s than Detroit, but 12 more freethrows.

Detroit actually scored 2 more than their season average, shot right near their average from the field (although low from the freethrow line - shooting their average would have given them 4-5 more points, so still a double digit loss), and their two leading scorers had 29 and 25 points on a combined 50% shooting.

In other words, Detroit got exactly the style of game they wanted, played it pretty well, and still lost by 15. Odds are that we will slow down the game and make it a half court affair, but Marshall comments reflect his confidence that his teams can win the fast tempo game if they need to.