Redturd Game Thread

[pie n eye]

If it were me I would've tried Vleet, Frankamp, Baker, Brown, McDuffie (or Rashard) against their zone when Shaq got in foul trouble. They played a small ball lineup with Hawkins basically as their 5 man. Shaq did a good job against him but it seemed pretty obvious that Grady struggled to guard the quicker guy that night. Why play a true center when they're not?

I agree with KungWu that we got away from using our depth and rotations to our detriment.

I love when people take something that happened in one game and turn it into a systemic issue that can never be corrected. "This thing happened in a game so it will happen every game."

[Bluzrover]

One other takeaway from Saturday: I hate receiving my Wichita State Basketball Google Alerts after a loss. What a way to start off a Monday back in the office.

[pie n eye]

Somebody said we should've pushed the pace more in that game. While that would've been nice, it's kind of hard to do when every defensive possession ends with foul shots which cuts down transition opportunities.

When we're at our best offensively we're sharing the ball and moving. When we're at our worst we have a couple of guys who want to dribble around in one spot until the shot clock runs down then force up a contested jumper.

[Stickboy46]

Actually a pretty big drop in raw score, from about .915 to just under .900, and a major drop in offense -- from 27th at 113.0, to 47th at 110.8, which is what shooting that way will do to a team's rating. I don't remember the raw AdjD score, but the rank actually rose from 10th to 8th.

Tonight was a reminder of why it would be nice to have Shamet back -- Baker is playing a lot of minutes and may be a little tired, Landry could spell him some, and in a game where just one guy being able to shoot might have been enough despite all the other struggles, it would have been nice to have one more candidate to be that guy.

Anyway, just get by Drake on the short turnaround and then through the busy home stretch with NMSU added in a week from next Monday; and try not to get worn out while doing it. Keep the home streak going, and a 24-6 regular season is still perfectly realistic, and probably more likely than not; meanwhile, Illinois State may just have put itself in the opposite bracket in St. Louis, which isn't the worst thing that could happen.

So all is still well as long as the Shocks avoid any further foolishness. Personally, I'll continue to hope for WSU to work their way to a #6 seed, although frankly I'd be happier with #11 (which is not that different except that you wear black -- not that I think they'll fall that far) than with #8 or #9. Stay away from #1 as long as possible, although the way #1 candidates are dropping this year, maybe that really isn't much to be afraid of after all.

Update to the Kenpom for Monday. We are sitting at 16 still, but only .0002 points away from being 14
14. Iowa St - .9001
15. Purdue - .9000
16. Wichita State - .8999

[wusphlash]

Should I feel ashamed about getting angry about our second loss in 48 conference games? I'm not sure how I should feel.

[Eric]

ISU return game is senior night? Ok. They should check with UNI to see how that will go. I imagine we will avenge the loss with extreme prejudice.

[_kai_]

Lots of practice against the zone this week I bet.

Congrats to the Redbirds on snapping the consecutive regular season conference streak for the Shockers.

[ShockerPrez]

Should I feel ashamed about getting angry about our second loss in 48 conference games? I'm not sure how I should feel.

Feel angry.

[ShockerGorilla]

On senior night, they won't be playing angry -- they'll be playing pissed!

[WSUwatcher]

Relax, guys. It is all part of the Marshall Plan. He wants to exhibit a total inability to score against a zone defense and against most of the remaining teams we will still have sufficient scoring to win handily. Then when we play the good teams, they will commit to the zone and 3G will take the leash off and destroy their zone defenses. They will tehn shift back to their man defense (which they haven't been practicing) and will fall into our trap.

Great point, im4, and that's why Marshall is the craftiest SOB around. Now he has everyone thinking the Shocks can't handle a zone, when in reality no team can handle any defense if it can't ever put the ball in the basket. If you're standing on the beach and can't throw it in the ocean, you're going to look bad -- that's all there is to it.

[molly jabali]

I'll admit I did not wade through the entire thread...any suggestion to Ron in the middle on occasion?

[Stickboy46]

In a drastic difference from our threads .. there is a serious conversation going on at the redbird forums ... in our game thread .... about whether they should force people to sit down all game except during good plays. In order to "respect" the older fans that can't stand all game ....

[pie n eye]

In a drastic difference from our threads .. there is a serious conversation going on at the redbird forums ... in our game thread .... about whether they should force people to sit down all game except during good plays. In order to "respect" the older fans that can't stand all game ....

Based on the ILSU home games I've seen this year they won't have that problem the rest of the season unless the empty chairs magically come to life and stand for defense.

[XManCometh]

Well, we're still ranked even after that bad loss to ISU. Guess the "sky is falling we're outside of the bubble" crowd is wrong yet again.

[Eric]

In a drastic difference from our threads .. there is a serious conversation going on at the redbird forums ... in our game thread .... about whether they should force people to sit down all game except during good plays. In order to "respect" the older fans that can't stand all game ....

You lost me at "serious conversation going on at the redbird forums"