Wichita State vs Tulsa GAME THREAD

[DPruett2333]

I loved last year's lineup and would love to see Wessel starting at the four. We don't have the need for two big men on the court at the same time, unless one of them can be a threat from the outside(Cle). Playing Wessel at the four lets us add another shooter on the floor and helps to keep other defenses honest on the three point line, instead of helping off the other big man and clogging the lane.

At this point, I'd start Van Vleet, Shamet, Baker, Wessel, and Grady.

Not sure if coach will switch it up, though.

[WuDrWu]

Tulsa fan here. Great game by Baker! I've always admired his tenacity. I thank the number of you that have acknowledged Tulsa's talent this season. Looking forward to continuing the series. The only qualm I had tonight was that the ESPN3 (cox) broadcast was pretty piss poor. I've worked with the ESPN crews that have come in to the Reynolds Center during the past, and this one seemed pretty amateurish. Like one of your voices called two of our players RashaRd the entire night when they're both named Rashad. I know you guys have a Rashard... but that's the kind of thing that should be noticed during the week of preparation that your broadcasters had for the game.

Again, I really enjoy our rivalry and wish all of you Shockers the best going forward! Hope you get a good tourney seed!.

The game should always be played. Great rivalry. The team that wins isn't always, but should always be, the team that plays the hardest. That was certainly TU tonight. They deserved to win and they got it. That's a nice team you have there and this fan certainly hopes you guys have a fantastic season. Play that hard for 40 minutes every night and I suspect you're going to be exceedingly happy at the end of the day.

[ShockRef]

Its still November...

The College basketball season lasts almost as long as the NHL. Relax folks.

I mentioned at the START of last season how much I was going to miss Tekele Cotton. Guys like him, who do what they do so well, don't come along very often.
Tonight, he was missed as much as Ron Baker will be missed next year.

The passing of the stud defender crown to Zach Brown will have to be postponed.

A couple of missteps led to tonight
1) FVV should have never seen the floor against Charleston Southern. Hammy pulls are tough to heal and only one thing truly works - time and rest.
Same goes for between now and Orlando. The only appearance he should make against ESU in on the bench - in a nice suit.
2) Shamet may not have burned down Tulsa tonight, but that dude has big time talent and will be Valley FOY - and it isn't even close.
3) It's been a while since I've seen a player that is the enigma of Shaq. So much talent but whatever is rolling around in his cranium is an unsolved mystery.
4) I can't find a Bush lover with a search warrant.
He is an excellent teammate, works his tail off and represents the university in a first class manner. However, he is not a D-1 level player. He just has D-1 level height.

Grady is the real deal.
When he slipped on their piece of **** floor and landed awkwardly, I almost choked on my dinner. Fortunately, he appeared to be ok.

Ron Baker is a warrior in every sense of the definition.

Have I mentioned how much I miss Tekele Cotton?

That is all.

[molly jabali]

The College basketball season lasts almost as long as the NHL. Relax folks.

I mentioned at the START of last season how much I was going to miss Tekele Cotton. Guys like him, who do what they do so well, don't come along very often.
Tonight, he was missed as much as Ron Baker will be missed next year.

The passing of the stud defender crown to Zach Brown will have to be postponed.

A couple of missteps led to tonight
1) FVV should have never seen the floor against Charleston Southern. Hammy pulls are tough to heal and only one thing truly works - time and rest.
Same goes for between now and Orlando. The only appearance he should make against ESU in on the bench - in a nice suit.
2) Shamet may not have burned down Tulsa tonight, but that dude has big time talent and will be Valley FOY - and it isn't even close.
3) It's been a while since I've seen a player that is the enigma of Shaq. So much talent but whatever is rolling around in his cranium is an unsolved mystery.
4) I can't find a Bush lover with a search warrant.
He is an excellent teammate, works his tail off and represents the university in a first class manner. However, he is not a D-1 level player. He just has D-1 level height.

Grady is the real deal.
When he slipped on their piece of **** floor and landed awkwardly, I almost choked on my dinner. Fortunately, he appeared to be ok.

Ron Baker is a warrior in every sense of the definition.

Have I mentioned how much I miss Tekele Cotton?

That is all.

pretty spot on, ref....

[CBB_Fan]

Here's my takeaway after a cooling down for a bit.

Freshmen and sophomore are freshmen and sophomores. They'll improve, maybe quicker now that they've been knocked down a peg. But this loss rests on their shoulders, and possibly our season. Fred, Ron, Evan, and Anton will be solid contributors night in and night out, but we need our young guys to contribute as well.

The reffing crew was average, even good. Most of the fouls were real, they mostly let them play. Noticeable problems (kick that turned into a goaltend was an easy, easy call), but overall a light year better than the atrocity of our first game.

We are always terrible against the zone until midway through the conference season, or even until the postseason. I don't understand why any team ever runs man defense on us in this early on. Year in, year out we aren't a zone-busting team and it shows. It takes away our drives, limits the creativity of Fred and Ron off ball-screens, and always makes us shoot terrible shots. If I had a complaint about Ron and Fred's games tonight, it was that they didn't really attack the zone or look for better shots, and took a lot of unnecessary jumpers (arguably even most of the ones that went in). This is also on the freshmen failing to get open though.

Tulsa was a solid team. I don't think they are as good as Utah was last year, but they are a top 25 level team. I thought going in this was 50/50, but that was probably optimistic given Fred injury's status and how many minutes we need from our young blood. They should be able to compete for a title in their league if they stay healthy and play as well as they did tonight.

Fred needs to rest till next Thursday. He played awesome in spurts tonight, so I'm not blaming the injury, but I want him 100% healthy as soon as possible.

Anton needs as many touches as we can feasibly give him.

We usually shoot terribly early on in the the year and improve. So the shooting performance will not hopefully be something we see in March. This goes back to shot selection though. Looking forward to see what Frankamp gives us on that regard, and the added depth will be highly beneficial. I think he is a potential starter or first small off the bench if he plays heady and gives consistent minutes, especially if he is really the best shot on the team.

Don't think we can beat UNLV, Utah, etc. with a game like that. Honestly, I think the effort was worse than the final score, which was buoyed a lot by Fred's hero 3s at the end of the first half. They outshot, outrebounded, and outassisted us. We'll need big improvements from our young guys throughout the year.

I do not care about a fall in the polls, though some fans definitely will. Wouldn't be shocked to fall 2-3 spots, wouldn't be shocked to end up at #17-78 behind Tulsa. Ultimately even a loss will be better for our RPI and SOS than a game against a Valley level opponent, and the regular season is only important so far as it sets us up for the post-season. This is a year I'm fine taking knocks and losing 3-5 games if it means we learn our lessons and have a deep run.

[RoyalShock]

The College basketball season lasts almost as long as the NHL. Relax folks.

I mentioned at the START of last season how much I was going to miss Tekele Cotton. Guys like him, who do what they do so well, don't come along very often.
Tonight, he was missed as much as Ron Baker will be missed next year.

The passing of the stud defender crown to Zach Brown will have to be postponed.

A couple of missteps led to tonight
1) FVV should have never seen the floor against Charleston Southern. Hammy pulls are tough to heal and only one thing truly works - time and rest.
Same goes for between now and Orlando. The only appearance he should make against ESU in on the bench - in a nice suit.
2) Shamet may not have burned down Tulsa tonight, but that dude has big time talent and will be Valley FOY - and it isn't even close.
3) It's been a while since I've seen a player that is the enigma of Shaq. So much talent but whatever is rolling around in his cranium is an unsolved mystery.
4) I can't find a Bush lover with a search warrant.
He is an excellent teammate, works his tail off and represents the university in a first class manner. However, he is not a D-1 level player. He just has D-1 level height.

Grady is the real deal.
When he slipped on their piece of **** floor and landed awkwardly, I almost choked on my dinner. Fortunately, he appeared to be ok.

Ron Baker is a warrior in every sense of the definition.

Have I mentioned how much I miss Tekele Cotton?

That is all.

Landry may be the best freshman in the Valley, but he won't get the minutes to put up the numbers that two or three Bradley freshman will get. Thus, no FOY award. I hope I'm wrong, but unless he averages double-digit points during MVC play, I don't see it.

[1979Shocker]

We needed a zone buster

We have a lot of zone busters. The problem is, our zone busters all seem to be inconsistent.

[wufan]

Rashard Kelly has played well in both games this year. I like the direction he is headed.

[Stickboy46]

We have a lot of zone busters. The problem is, our zone busters all seem to be inconsistent.

Then they aren't zone busters lol

[Bluzrover]

Quite frankly, I think the loss (and I hate losses but have been spoiled by the incredible run the Shox have been on for the last three years) will be ultimately good for us. We can dispense with "undefeated season" monkey that was bound to take root with every succeeding win. I'm pretty sure Marshall will correct many of the mistakes and lack of effort we saw last night. It was an odd game. I never felt comfortable, even though we kept the game close up until the last three minutes.

[Eric]

Had an uneasy feeling all day. Meh, much of last night was youth and inexperience up against determined veterans. Welcome to D1 young uns! Time to sack up and improve!

[wusphlash]

Landry may be the best freshman in the Valley, but he won't get the minutes to put up the numbers that two or three Bradley freshman will get. Thus, no FOY award. I hope I'm wrong, but unless he averages double-digit points during MVC play, I don't see it.

I think Landry will get plenty of minutes come MVC time. If he is who we think he is I believe he will have a good chance at FOY. Bradley's freshmen are still going to be on the 9th or 10th place team.

[ShockerEngineer]

Had an uneasy feeling all day. Meh, much of last night was youth and inexperience up against determined veterans. Welcome to D1 young uns! Time to sack up and improve!

I felt like I did during last year's @ UNI game. Oh well, I went into yesterday thinking a loss doesn't affect the big picture and hopefully it lights a fire under some of the young guys.

[Stickboy46]

I think Landry will get plenty of minutes come MVC time. If he is who we think he is I believe he will have a good chance at FOY. Bradley's freshmen are still going to be on the 9th or 10th place team.

On that same note. I think Newcomer of the Year is Grady's to lose. He's going to destroy the Valley competition.

[Stickboy46]

I felt like I did during last year's @ UNI game. Oh well, I went into yesterday thinking a loss doesn't affect the big picture and hopefully it lights a fire under some of the young guys.

I'd much rather have this loss early, and have the young kids get a reality check now, than later in the season. We have see how little early losses matter come March.