WSU Versus Evansville Predictions and Pregame Discussions

[Dan]

As others have mentioned, our posts will be ready for Mock. That matchup doesn't really concern me. He hasn't seen defensive post play like ours. Also, they have 2 other players, Brown and DJ. After that, it's a big dropoff. We have talent going 9-10 deep. Baker will put the clamps on Balentine and will sacrifice his offense if necessary. They may hang for 15-20 minutes, but they won't be able to keep up.

[Kel Varnsen]

WSU against the Valley is a lot like the Warriors against the rest of the NBA. You may be able to hang around for a little while, but eventually, both teams put a run on you and it's all over.

[Cdizzle]

Since Marshall got fed up with losing to Evansville and gave the scout to Jans:

WSU 5-0 with an average MoV of 18.2. Closest game was 14 points. They made a couple of defensive changes in 2014, and then improved them last year, holding UE to 43 and 41 points in the two games.*

*Past performance does not guarantee future results.

[Kung Wu]

Yes, Eville hasn't played squat. But they have been beating the snot out of teams that they have played, so at least they aren't just barely squeaking by. Sagarin has them ranked 52, and has the Shox ranked 43 -- I suspect one of those teams will slowly rise and one will slowly fall over the next month. Still, if overlooked, this is a trap game. Fortunately Marshall's teams do not overlook competition. I would say a 10 point differential is likely, if Ballentine is able to do his thing.

It would be fun to put Ballentine and Frankamp in a gym and watch them play one-on-one -- the ball would spend 50% of it's time floating in the air and the 3 point line would just naturally get pushed back further and further until they are in Goudelock range.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Game Notes

SCOUTING THE ACES
• Evansville finished 24-12 last year and captured the CIT title with wins over IPFW, Eastern Illinois, Louisiana-Lafayette, UT-Martin and Northern Arizona. With almost the entire cast returning, they were picked second in the MVC preseason poll.
• Evansville's Mockevicius leads the nation in rebounds (14.4) and double-doubles (13). He earned the MVC Player of the Week Award on Monday for the fourth time this year, after recording his 1,000th-career rebound Saturday during a monster 21-point, 21-rebound effort again Missouri State.
• Balentine (2,089 career points) is third on Evansville's all-time scoring list and needs just 191 more to break the record.
• The Aces also bring the MVC's top scoring attack to town (81.0 ppg). WSU, by contrast, leads the conference in scoring defense (63.2).
• WSU held Evansville to an average of 42.0 points on 30.6 percent shooting in two meetings last year. In those games, the Aces were a combined 3-of-20 (.150) from three-point range. The Shockers limited Balentine to 24 total points on 27 shots (8/27 FG, 1/6 3pt).
• WSU ranks fifth nationally in turnover margin (+6.00) and 18th in turnovers forced (17.00) after forcing 23 against Bradley Sunday, while Evansville leads the nation in assists and has the Valley's top assist-to-turnover ratio.

[choida]

is CBS sports channel on Cox digital cable...or is Saturdays game gonna be on cable?

[ShockdaWorld]

is CBS sports channel on Cox digital cable...or is Saturdays game gonna be on cable?

260 on Cox Cable I believe

[The Mad Hatter]

Shocker Game Notes

SCOUTING THE ACES
• Evansville finished 24-12 last year and captured the CIT title with wins over IPFW, Eastern Illinois, Louisiana-Lafayette, UT-Martin and Northern Arizona. With almost the entire cast returning, they were picked second in the MVC preseason poll.
• Evansville's Mockevicius leads the nation in rebounds (14.4) and double-doubles (13). He earned the MVC Player of the Week Award on Monday for the fourth time this year, after recording his 1,000th-career rebound Saturday during a monster 21-point, 21-rebound effort again Missouri State.
• Balentine (2,089 career points) is third on Evansville's all-time scoring list and needs just 191 more to break the record.
• The Aces also bring the MVC's top scoring attack to town (81.0 ppg). WSU, by contrast, leads the conference in scoring defense (63.2).
• WSU held Evansville to an average of 42.0 points on 30.6 percent shooting in two meetings last year. In those games, the Aces were a combined 3-of-20 (.150) from three-point range. The Shockers limited Balentine to 24 total points on 27 shots (8/27 FG, 1/6 3pt).
• WSU ranks fifth nationally in turnover margin (+6.00) and 18th in turnovers forced (17.00) after forcing 23 against Bradley Sunday, while Evansville leads the nation in assists and has the Valley's top assist-to-turnover ratio.

It's amazing the stats you can rack up when playing Kenpom's 306th rated strength of schedule. In spite of leading the nation in assists and leading the Valley in scoring, EU's adjusted offense ranks #47 in Kenpom compared to #52 for WSU, with our offense being well behind our defense (EU has the #75 adjusted defense compared to #26 for WSU).

[shockerfan]

When the Shox have been healthy how have the high octane offenses done against them? Not well. Good defense will neutralize their offense. Then Evansville will have to play our game of defense. We win. Just look the offenses that have come in averaging 80ppg and ask how it turned out for them.

Shox - 72
Evansville - 61

[Shocker-maniac]

Evansville Courier & Press

http://www.courierpress.com/sports/c...364313281.html

[DwShock]

Shockers more than 60 Purple Pimps 59-50. I see nothing that says they can score more than Utah. Just another valley Home win.

[ShockdaWorld]

Still looking for a couple of tix to this game if anyone has anything available, let me know where and how much you need for them. Thanks

[Shockers5150]

73-58

[ShockerPhi]

As long as we prevent Mock from getting his average of 14 rebounds, especially offensive ones, and defend the perimeter well, I think we can control this game pretty easily.

Shockers by 15.

[Kel Varnsen]

I say we win by 10-15. Slow start, and we put a big run on them late first or early second half.