Who do we lose to this year?

[BostonWu]

If we lose 4 games then this isn't a top 10 squad.

[forevershockerfan]

Here's the deal. Let's rewind back to the Cohen days. Even way back then, eternal optimist such as fsf,
had big expectations. One such Season, we even defeated Oklahoma State, Alabama, which were big wins, but we only dreamed of results our Shockers are now achieving.

What does this all mean? On Seasons that various teams have strong Senior leadership such as we have now, results will most likely follow. With that said, yes, we will win the Valley, and yes, we will have a solid overall Season. Yes, there could very well be some setbacks along the way but foes will have to be on fire and get some breaks along the way or forget such pipe dreams our foes will have.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. How will our Shocks Dance with the Stars? No, we won't play the Celtics or Lakers but a normal Shocker bracket is not what folk call a cake walk. I'm not worried as Subgod used to exclaim. If we are injury free and peaking as teams usually do with strong Senior leadership, we will be finer than a froghair. Can u dig it?

[wufan]

If we lose 4 games then this isn't a top 10 squad.

I'm not saying we aren't a top 10 squad, or that we are going to lose 4 or more games. I'm saying winning isn't ever easy and don't take it for granted. If we go 30-0 or 25-5, you can bet your ass they earned it and it wasn't given to us based on preseason prognostication.

[wusphlash]

Have we reached the point where deep runs in the tournament are primary and win/loss records are secondary?

[WSUwatcher]

Have we reached the point where deep runs in the tournament are primary and win/loss records are secondary?

With this team, and FVV and Baker back for a last hurrah, I believe so.

Having said that, I think And's 1.5 over-under is a reasonable guess. After all, last year's Shocks lost just three in the regular season, and there's good reason to believe this team will be better. It's true that the schedule could be a bit tougher overall, but not that much, and this time Utah is a home game.

[MTXE31]

I'm a huge fan of the Shockers and obviously that's what I'm on here. But we all have to be realistic, losing games is almost inevitable. When we went 35-0 the out-of-conference quality of opponents were not as difficult as the ones we potentially face to start this season, not to take anything away from that team because I still think that it is the best team we've seen so far (though this year's squad might be even deeper and better). But remember when we went 35-0 those games early on in the season it seemed like half the time we would either be ahead by a few points or even trailing at halftime. We would have to be on the ball from the start of the season because playing teams like Notre Dame who is expected to be a top 15 team to start the season or possibly even USC who could very well be a top 25 team is no easy task of especially so early in the season. And that's not to mention that they'll have played the night before. Maybe the night before we get more of a match then we had planned for? And perhaps it goes into overtime and Baker and/or VanVleet plays 35+ minutes, they would be EXHAUSTED going into the next game and faced with the task of going up against the speedy guards of ND.
Not to mention that we won't have the team chemistry right out the gates, with Anton Grady and an underclassmen being in the starting lineup. (I feel that Zach Brown being a 6'7 guard should fill the void Cotton left.) But lack of team chemistry between ALL 5 starters could come back to bite us. I remember in that George Washington game last year we could not move that ball on offense against a 1-3-1 zone to save our lives, and that reason being a lack of team chemistry.
I'm far from a Negative Nancy so please don't think of me as such I am just trying to provide reasons as to why we could lose, but I fully and 100% support our guys and see a world of potential in this year's unit and wish each and every guy, including the coaching staff nothing but the best (I know I'll be closely following every bit of coverage the team gets along the way.)
I'd like to make a final little statement though.
I think that it would be best for our team to lose 1-2 games this season because going into the tournament undefeated is absolutely NOT a good thing in my opinion. As we saw when we went undefeated everyone outside of our fan base tried to degrade the achievement by saying we didn't play a challenging enough schedule to ever even run the risk of losing, and as a result the committee put us in the toughest bracket against SEVERAL under seeded teams. And also our now hated rival, thanks to them our perfect season, Kentucky (although they should have with 10 pros on their team) couldn't even go undefeated. They were expected by everyone to go undefeated so if they did win it all then what? Everyone would be saying they shouldn't be allowed to celebrate because it's what they should have done. And since they lost they got laughed out of the gym. I'm not a fan of Kenticky by any means but in their defense from this past season and our own from a couple seasons ago, your damned if you do and damned if you don't as far as going undefeated.
NOBODY in my opinion can go undefeated anymore in a regular season without losing in the tourney and that's okay. That's not saying that we can't lose a few games and still win a championship. Because a team ever year loses a few games and still goes on to win it all. But nobody goes undefeated anymore.

[lemuel777]

Talk like this thread sounds like we have confirmed that yes we have a weak schedule and yes we have a weak conference. Which I bellieve neither is true. We will do really well and have high expectations but the MVC will be really tough even though some of great players left rhe conference. Saying that, I think that FVV will come out with such a big chip on his shoulder like we have never witnessed. He will lead this team to amazing heights that will make it look like we are playing a weak schedule. I can't wait.

EDIT: And FVV and company will make it look like the NCAA tournament field is weak this year too

[Shoxalum]

Mtxe what you said makes sense. I totally expect to lose a game maybe two I'm just wondering who it will be. After reading your guys comments I feel more and more like it won't be Notre dame but will be some mvc teams. I think every shocker and coaching staff will be looking to that tournament as a statement that we belong and we can get revenge for last season. I do think Loyola, and Evansville are the two teams to probably beat us, a real head scratcher. Loyola plays us well and Evansville is stacked with seniors. That could be the difference

Ps. UK just stole isaac humphries from Australia. We were on his final four. Uk wasn't at all but snuck in their. Payback for when we stole stutz from them

[Art Bunch]

for the record, I don't like to talk about losing. I think we should talk about winning.

[shockmonster]

for the record, I don't like to talk about losing. I think we should talk about winning.

I agree. I think that we'll win almost all of our games this year.

[sdshox]

John Higgins and his band of merry men. Twice.

[Cdizzle]

John Higgins and his band of merry men. Twice.

Nice!

First ref-complaining, 3 months before the first game. That's well done.

[ShockerEngineer]

Nice!

First ref-complaining, 3 months before the first game. That's well done.

Gotta raise our game somehow.

[Aargh]

It's happened before that we've been facvored to win every game on our schedule. Last time it happened was probably last year, but 2 years ago, it was more likely - and the Shox did it.

I can see where a team with Early, VanVleet and Baker could go undefeated. UK played the rest of the NCAA tourney without Cauley-Stein. If they play the Shox without Cauley-Stein, they lose and the Shox are likely to be NC's that year.

It's a bit surprising, but this year the Shox have a much tougher schedule and are likely to be the favorite in every game they play.

There's no way I can predict a loss before the NCAA's. Even then, it's going to be hard to predict a loss in the first 2 weekends. Baker, Wessel, and VanVleet have shown that they refuse to lose. They've demonstrated that on some big stages. Those 3 are simply better than almost any other 3 guys on any D1 team at refusing to lose.

[sdshox]

Nice!

First ref-complaining, 3 months before the first game. That's well done.

Just expecting a couple more "another Saturday in the Valley" type games this year. I hope I'm wrong, but nervous that a tough night from the stripes on Fred and Ron leaves us more vulnerable this year than last.