Musings from the 1st Row

[Dan]

Conner is money with the mid range game. I'd like to see more of that.

[WSUwatcher]

If you move people around against UNI from the positions they regularly play you can really mess them up. They want certain people to take certain shots on the floor. Turg told me that way back when. You beat them by those people making shots or putting your scorers in different positions than they are on video. Not unfamiliar positions just different.

It seemed to work pretty well with Grady for a while. Too bad about the fouls.

[Dan]

It seemed to work pretty well with Grady for a while. Too bad about the fouls.

Grady was one of the guys they were willing to gamble on beating us. He did his part, Shaq too, to a lesser extent. We needed some production (any production) from Brown/Wessel/McDuffie/Frankamp. These guys shriveled up in the bright lights.

[ShockdaWorld]

I must say, of all the threads I've seen on SN since I've been here, I've never been happier to see one go AWAY from the OP.

[SHOCKvalue]

SIU has a sweet sixteen banner hanging....are they too good for the MVC? Look. I'm not saying WSU isn't the best program in the MVC right now. I'm not saying WSU shouldn't be trying to get out of the MVC. But in reality, its been a 4 year run. That is 1 recruiting class cycle. (not saying 1 recruiting class is responsible). Staying power will be tested next year, which I fully believe will be better than this one has turned out. I just don't feel like WSU isn't quite ready to claim they are ABOVE this league until they can consistently (you know, more than 1 time in 30 years) win the conference tournament. I agree, 18-0, 17-1, 16-2 is dang impressive and signifies that nobody was really close to WSU. But even KU wins the B12 tournament once in a while. WSU can't even make the Finals most years. And that is with the 1 or 2 seed rather frequently lately.

Four year run?

What?

We have all kinds of things that Trump the MVC yesterday, today, or tomorrow: F4's, E8's, volumes of S16's, NCAA tournament appearances and wins, all-sports trophies coming out our ying-yang, sports team budgets that are multiples of MVC average (less WSU), fan base volume, fan base attendence, fan base giving, damn good facilities, and on, and on, and on.

We are a football-less MWC or AAC type of school stuck in fairness-ville with schools either holding on to dear life to maintain status quo, or in other cases still trying to complete the conversion from D2 to D1.

Just because you want to ignore something, doesn't mean it is not there.

[pie n eye]

too many times, especially in the second half, we gave up on ball movement which could have
produced a good shot in favor of Fred dribbling out the clock up top and waiting ( often too long )
to get anything decent. at least try moving the ball to see if we can get a good shot and then,
if we can't, we can still give it to Fred with 8 seconds left and let him do his thing, BUT why waste
20 seconds or more moving the ball that could get us a bunny or a wide open fifteen footer?

The pick and roll can become less effective late in the shot clock because they can double the ball handler without having to worry about the subsequent recovery required because the shot clock limits the amount of passes that can be made at that point. Not to mention shooting as the shot clock runs out may add pressure to the shooter or cause them to rush their shot? I dunno.

[Kel Varnsen]

The pick and roll can become less effective late in the shot clock because they can double the ball handler without having to worry about the subsequent recovery required because the shot clock limits the amount of passes that can be made at that point. Not to mention shooting as the shot clock runs out may add pressure to the shooter or cause them to rush their shot? I dunno.

Great point.

[pie n eye]

Grady was one of the guys they were willing to gamble on beating us. He did his part, Shaq too, to a lesser extent. We needed some production (any production) from Brown/Wessel/McDuffie/Frankamp. These guys shriveled up in the bright lights.

That seems a little harsh, IMO. Although they didn't shoot well, Brown and Wessell both secured several offensive rebounds. Frankamp hit the big 3 to put us up by 1. In his case I think he just needs more opportunities. And to be more aggressive. We've been saying it since he started playing but we need him to defer less and take charge more. At least from my view point. Maybe he's doing exactly what the coaches want but for my money I think he might be our best option at getting a bucket as the shot clock runs down. But what do I know?

[shockmonster]

We got outcoached. It has happened before and will happen again. Jans would probably made the difference.

Pin isn't wrong. I tend to think that usually an individual loss is more complex than just coaches competing but they are the bottom line and it makes a loss easier to understand if coaches are the bottom line. Losing trend lines and multiple losses are definitely on the coach.

[Shock Top]

Grady was one of the guys they were willing to gamble on beating us. He did his part, Shaq too, to a lesser extent. We needed some production (any production) from Brown/Wessel/McDuffie/Frankamp. These guys shriveled up in the bright lights.

I agree we need more production out of the underclassman, but they whole team needs to look to step it up. The talent is there.

McDuffie had arguably his best game against their best opponent of the season (Utah). Wessel has his biggest game last season against KU. Conner's best game in his college career probably came for KU against Standford in the tournament. ZB played well against KU as well.

They all have a history of playing big in big spots, so to say they can't perform on the big stage is a little overblown, IMO.

[WSUwatcher]

Grady was one of the guys they were willing to gamble on beating us. He did his part, Shaq too, to a lesser extent. We needed some production (any production) from Brown/Wessel/McDuffie/Frankamp. These guys shriveled up in the bright lights.

Not sure I'd say Frankamp shriveled -- he only got three shots, and he made half of his (and WSU's, sad to say, three pointers). I suppose you can argue that he should have been looking to shoot more, however, and that's probably true and needs to get fixed -- both by him and his teammates looking for him -- and there's definitely not much printable stuff to be said about the offense of the other three. So the UNI gamble on selective defense paid off big time, just as it did in Wichita.

Molly talked about Warrior ball, and it's true that NBA teams seem to find a way to get shots and do so much more quickly than college teams do, but even they can go south once in a while. The Warriors just lost to the Lakers(!) by shooting 4-30 on threes (1-10 from Curry, even); and the almost equally imposing Spurs -- this season could produce TWO of the five best NBA regular season records of all time, both in the same conference -- just lost to Indiana by going 4-28 from three. Even the best aren't completely immune.

[shockmonster]

I watched the replay and we didn't play bad except for our shooting. We probably should have gotten the ball inside aittle but until the end, we got pretty good shots. We just couldn't hit them. I think Grady fouling out hurt us in the final minute because he is hitting his shots. People will get mad at this statement but UNI played pretty good. Carlson's bank shot was a killer at the time he hit it and when we got them down, we didn't put our foot on their throat. They got back into the game. UNI definitely took out Fred and Ron. McDuffie, Conner, and Brown didn't hit shots.

[ShockdaWorld]

2-24...that alone makes it pretty difficult to put the loss on any one or two people. That's not SOMEONE shooting poorly. That's EVERYONE shooting poorly.

[ShockTalk]

Grady was one of the guys they were willing to gamble on beating us. He did his part, Shaq too, to a lesser extent. We needed some production (any production) from Brown/Wessel/McDuffie/Frankamp. These guys shriveled up in the bright lights.

Shriveled up or not used at what they are doing best?

Brown is a 30% shooter from 3 and has taken (IMO) way more 3s all season than he should. I believe over 50% of his total shots. 0-4 from 3...too many again?

Wessel didn't score. Well, Wessel didn't scored in the other 2 UNI games either, but he did have 7 rebounds in 25 minutes. He's not someone I'm looking at for scoring but he also put up 0-4 from 3 as a 27.5% 3 shooter for the season. Too many?

McDuffie was 0-5 from 3, but 2-2 inside the arc. He has been struggling mightily from the 3 for the previous 13 games going 5-25 and 1-7 the previous 6, yet 12-23 inside the arc. This game he goes 2-2 from 2, but shoots 5 3s. Too many?

Frankamp, the player we want shooting 3s goes 1-2 from 3 while the ones we shouldn't have taking a bunch goes 0-13. I find it somewhat hard to put blame on his doorstep.

[Shock Top]

If WSU matches even UNI's poor 3pt shooting (including one step back bank shot. Gag.), they win going away.

Hopefully all WSU's banks, bounces, and good fortune is being saved for the big dance.