Utah game thread

[SHOXAAC]

With the 3-slot today being played by Brown and MM, we rocked!!!!!!!

As Jeff Dunham's buddy Peanut would say..."it's good, it's good, it's good, it's real goooooood!"

[Rlh04d]

Speaking of the number 11, the Big P for Utah was smothered and only scored 11. 3G gave the thumbs up to our 3 headed monsta for that action!!!

Really got to hand it to the coaching staff for their game-plans against Poeltl.

In two full games, he looked like an AA for about a 2:30 stretch in the first half of the first game, scoring 8 points in that span.

In the other 64.5 minutes Poeltl has played against WSU, he scored 15 points on four baskets.

[forevershockerfan]

I believe we held him to a lesser game than even last year

You are correct as usual Dave Stalwart!!! Last year he was a thorn in our flesh. This game he was swarmed by a mob of angry black and yellow Shocks that cramped his style.

[forevershockerfan]

As Jeff Dunham's buddy Peanut would say..."it's good, it's good, it's good, it's real goooooood!"

When we can sub those 2 in and out, it is no rest for the weary foes we will face. They are young but they are Not restless bay-bay!!!!!!!

[wusphlash]

Defense, Defense, Defense. You wouldn't have to say anymore than that to define how we won that game.

However, it would be a great injustice not to point out the improvement in Zach and Markis.

We should also note that we are back to post by committee. We'll done young men, certainly room for improvement but we'll done nonetheless.

[WuDrWu]

Really good win. Can't believe how big Utah is. Can't believe how completely incapable Utah is at ball pressure. Part of being that big is being that slow.

Our guys kept the Utes from getting good shots all night long. How many times were they struggling to get into ANYTHING with 7 seconds left?

I'll bet Larry would have been smiling ear to ear if he'd known before the game they'd hold Freddy and Bake to 17 combined.

Great atmosphere. Internet cell service does not exist. Cannot understand that.

Our team defense is as good as anyone in the country. We're getting better and better. If we can get whole, look out.

[Shoxfan11]

Marshall said something during his interview with Mike Kennedy after the game about how he saw a recruit at the game from "up north" that apparently bought his own ticket to the game. Does anyone know who he was talking about?

[wusphlash]

What fun!

I hope everyone noticed your bracelet, necklace and earrings.

[wusphlash]

There is a 2:25 "All Access" clip on the ESPN Men's Basketball page where Gregg describes exactly, pre-game, how he wanted to play Utah. We executed to a T.

[ShoxRoxMySox]

Marshall said something during his interview with Mike Kennedy after the game about how he saw a recruit at the game from "up north" that apparently bought his own ticket to the game. Does anyone know who he was talking about?

Jordan Lathon. That's all I know

[UteShocker]

Would like to heartily thank Wichita State for showing how much we miss Delon. Last year, the backcourt matchup was deemed a toss-up in pre-game, and ours played good enough to win.

This year, the matchup of backcourts would've been scored KO 1 for WSU. If Utah could've made that equal, it would've had a great chance to win (second most surprising statline was vastly outtripping WSU at the line; that kind of disparity is what road teams often need but rarely get to win against equal/better teams). But WSU's superiority at guard resulted in the lopsided turnover number and Poeltl getting so few touches.

Of course Utah is better than they showed tonight, but a lot of that was because of WSU's defense. It's not like tonight's effort came out of the blue -- we've all been seeing that for years out of a Marshall-coached team. The 34 FGAs Utah attempted was a season-low by 14 shots.

I'm really worried about facing Duke next week. If our guards -- especially Brandon Taylor -- don't get things settled quick, it's going to be 35-point loss ugly.

[Shocker Mama]

I hope everyone noticed your bracelet, necklace and earrings.

They probably did, but hesitated to tell me so, as it would have interrupted me yelling at the referees.

[WillieJeffJeffries]

Great game and Props to AZ for nearly calling the 20 point win. A couple of observations from the court...

For 39 minutes of the game CF looked scared and tentative to shoot the ball, hopefully that last trey will loosen him up. The reaction from the bench on that shot was great.
The D was great, you could see the frustration on the faces of #11 and #21.... Back to back 50 points allowed against top 30 teams is dam impressive D.
8 3-point shots from Wessel is 6 too many....more floor burns and fewer looks is a good thing.
Overall 40% from 3 was great...44% from floor not so great and 50% from the line just plain sux. The way we are playing defense tho!!!!! who cares...WINNING UGLY
Great team win...

[Rlh04d]

Would like to heartily thank Wichita State for showing how much we miss Delon. Last year, the backcourt matchup was deemed a toss-up in pre-game, and ours played good enough to win.

This year, the matchup of backcourts would've been scored KO 1 for WSU. If Utah could've made that equal, it would've had a great chance to win (second most surprising statline was vastly outtripping WSU at the line; that kind of disparity is what road teams often need but rarely get to win against equal/better teams). But WSU's superiority at guard resulted in the lopsided turnover number and Poeltl getting so few touches.

Of course Utah is better than they showed tonight, but a lot of that was because of WSU's defense. It's not like tonight's effort came out of the blue -- we've all been seeing that for years out of a Marshall-coached team. The 34 FGAs Utah attempted was a season-low by 14 shots.

I'm really worried about facing Duke next week. If our guards -- especially Brandon Taylor -- don't get things settled quick, it's going to be 35-point loss ugly.

The guard difference was definitely the change between last year and this year. Poeltl wasn't dominating in either game -- he commanded a lot of focus on defense in both, but other than that they lived with what he was able to create in both. The dramatic change was definitely in the backcourt.

The free throw disparity is probably not that surprising, given Utah's relatively poor perimeter defense, and Utah's size advantage. Utah forced the issue at the basket, WSU usually didn't.

There's definitely a lot less speed for Utah this year, but I'm pretty confident they'll still be a solid NCAA tournament team. You probably won't deal with a defense this smothering for a while at least :D Duke's going to be an entirely different sort of challenge.

[ShockBand]

Points in the paint: WSU 28, Utah 12
Points off turnovers: WSU 25, Utah 0
Second chance points: WSU 10, Utah 2
Points off fast break: WSU 4, Utah 0
Bench points: WSU 28, Utah 13