If WSU Shoots 40%+ From 3PT The Remainder of the Season, the Team Will...

[asiseeit]

Back on topic. IMHO we don't get very far at the dance without shooting the three very well. We won't
match up well with most other high ranked teams at the four and five spots so we HAVE to win the
perimeter. That means both offensively and defensively. Fortunately, we have a very good perimeter
team capable of beating highly ranked teams with dominant front lines if we shoot the
three extremely well. Might win a first round game with 38-42% three point shooting but will need to
shoot north of 45% to beat a top fifteen school and keep our turnovers under twelve. We either have to
do that or absolutely smother our opponent defensively taking them out of their game offensively and
hold then to 30% shooting.

[pie n eye]

Back on topic. IMHO we don't get very far at the dance without shooting the three very well. We won't
match up well with most other high ranked teams at the four and five spots so we HAVE to win the
perimeter. That means both offensively and defensively. Fortunately, we have a very good perimeter
team capable of beating highly ranked teams with dominant front lines if we shoot the
three extremely well. Might win a first round game with 38-42% three point shooting but will need to
shoot north of 45% to beat a top fifteen school and keep our turnovers under twelve. We either have to
do that or absolutely smother our opponent defensively taking them out of their game offensively and
hold then to 30% shooting.

I'm curious who the highly ranked teams with dominant front lines are. I hear people talk about them all the time but I've yet to see any team in person that fits that description. Granted, I haven't seen every team play which is why I'm asking. It isn't KU or OU. It isn't Duke.

[shocksrbest]

Iowa looks pretty solid...

[asiseeit]

I believe pie n eye has a valid point regarding my post and "dominant" front lines. I think a
better statement would have been relatively speaking bigger and better than ours. We are
small compared to most top tier teams, are we not?

[pie n eye]

We are small compared to most top tier teams, are we not?

That's pretty much what I'm trying to figure out. Are there any big men out there this year as good as Julius Randle, Carl Townes, or Jahlil Okafor? How good is the rest of their team?

I don't think more height alone necessarily makes a team or a player better than a shorter one. Strength and skill are just as important. I haven't seen a single player or group of post men that our guys couldn't hang with. They handled Zimmerman, Poetl and Mock well for the most part. How many big guys are better than them? That's not rhetorical.

[wufan]

Cal-Irvine might be a tall. Order.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Within the context of any single game, seeding is irrelevant once the ball tips.

Very true. Of course in that context your comment is true. But you quoted me talking about a different context. Why quote me at all? Quoting with a brief, unrelated response only creates confusion.

I'm curious, do you disagree with anything I said in the original post?

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

That's pretty much what I'm trying to figure out. Are there any big men out there this year as good as Julius Randle, Carl Townes, or Jahlil Okafor? How good is the rest of their team?

I don't think more height alone necessarily makes a team or a player better than a shorter one. Strength and skill are just as important. I haven't seen a single player or group of post men that our guys couldn't hang with. They handled Zimmerman, Poetl and Mock well for the most part. How many big guys are better than them? That's not rhetorical.

I think a team with a Zimmerman, Poetl, or Mock that actually has top 25 level talent around that big man... that is a team that will give WSU fits. The Shockers were able to focus on stopping those big men because the rest of the team wasn't full of studs. Utah, UNLV, and Evansville may all end up in the NIT. Those aren't elite teams. I know specifically against Utah, WSU had a handful of steals where the big guy couldn't get the ball at all because their guards were overwhelmed by WSU's guards.

UNLV and Utah currently have 12 losses between them. Evansville is decent, but nothing special overall. The teams WSU will face 2-3 rounds deep in the Big Dance will likely have much better supporting casts, even if they don't have a dominant big man of Randle/Townes/Okafor's level. I think there is plenty of reason to be a bit concerned about WSU's ability to matchup in the post against high level teams.

[asiseeit]

I agree

[Shocker1976]

I think a team with a Zimmerman, Poetl, or Mock that actually has top 25 level talent around that big man... that is a team that will give WSU fits. The Shockers were able to focus on stopping those big men because the rest of the team wasn't full of studs. Utah, UNLV, and Evansville may all end up in the NIT. Those aren't elite teams. I know specifically against Utah, WSU had a handful of steals where the big guy couldn't get the ball at all because their guards were overwhelmed by WSU's guards.

UNLV and Utah currently have 12 losses between them. Evansville is decent, but nothing special overall. The teams WSU will face 2-3 rounds deep in the Big Dance will likely have much better supporting casts, even if they don't have a dominant big man of Randle/Townes/Okafor's level. I think there is plenty of reason to be a bit concerned about WSU's ability to matchup in the post against high level teams.

Please list these teams that have "...top 25 level talent around that big man" that are going to "...give WSU fits."

[pie n eye]

Please list these teams that have "...top 25 level talent around that big man" that are going to "...give WSU fits."

Exactly what I'm trying to get at. It's easy to conceive a theoretical team that would be a challenge for WSU. Heck, the team being described sounds like they would be tough for any college team to handle, let alone the Shockers. But so far no one has stepped out of the abstract and named an actual team. And I'm not trying to be smart @$$ or anything, I am legitimately asking because I haven't been able to watch every team play this year. MSU, KU, ISU, Duke, UNC, ND, Maryland, Iowa, probably a few more I can't remember. I've watched them play and don't think any of them fit the description. Not to say they aren't good teams, just that I didn't see any teams that were out of "our league".

And I think it's interesting that people tend to think in terms other teams are the only ones who are tough match ups for the shockers and not the other way around. Like we don't have any good players that other teams need to worry about? We don't play with a certain style and attitude that other teams would find hard to match?

[WSUwatcher]

Well said, pie.

Too much theoretical worry -- let's see some practical application in terms of examples. Maryland, assuming Diamond Stone continues to develop, might be a popular media choice, but we all have a pretty good suspicion what would happen between LeFred and Trimble, so I'm not as worried about them as the pundit crew might be.

[ShockBand]

Too much theoretical always make me think of:

but if you do seek the data...

http://style.org/unladenswallow/

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Please list these teams that have "...top 25 level talent around that big man" that are going to "...give WSU fits."

To name a few...
Iowa
Purdue
North Carolina
Xavier
Maryland
Villanova

WSU could beat any of those teams on a given night. Fred and Ron are that good. However, all 6 would worry me with the combo of post presence and strong guards.

I'm not saying those teams are out of WSU's league whatsoever. I'm just promoting the idea that WSU has done well against bigs who don't have a great supporting cast. I think the bigs on those 6 teams would be much harder for WSU to handle because the rest of the team is so dangerous.

[asiseeit]

It's NOT the supporting casts that worry me it's the big men combined with pretty good
supporting casts that prevent us from sagging on a single big guy. Almost all top fifteen
teams have bigger, longer, more talented front lines than ours. It's our back court, our
team defense, and our depth that compensates for our lack of size and skill on the front
line. I, for one, have been underwhelmed by our front line players. We have an advantage
over nearly EVERY team with our back court and a disadvantage with every top ten team across
the front line and that includes KU and OU. Don't have to name one - I think it's ALL of them.