WSU vs Louisville

[Aargh]

Shox would have been a lot better prepared with at least one competitive game before this tourney. They got punched in the mouth early and didn't appear to have any idea what to do when that happened.

The lack of a leader on the floor who can keep everybody calm and focused was incredibly apparent.

Reaves had a good game for a true Fr, but that isn't what's needed against a team lik UL. Shamet looked like a player who had taken a year off. Willis looked like a JuCo who wasn't ready for this level of competition. No one was able to figure out that layups weren't happening. They were going to be swatted.

The inexperience showed big time. By March, a lot of that inexperience should be gone. I think we were all expecting some ups and downs this season. I'm counting this game as one of the "downs". Losing by 10 to the #10 team in the nation (and they're likely to move up in the polls if they beat Baylor) isn't a big issue with a young team early in the season.

The Vegas line didn't help. This was a different UL team than the one that played last night. Something lit a fire under them.

[im4wsu]

Second half stats: Doesn't look so bad.

http://www.goshockers.com/boxscore.aspx?path=m_bkb&id=3745

[another shocker]

Shox would have been a lot better prepared with at least one competitive game before this tourney. They got punched in the mouth early and didn't appear to have any idea what to do when that happened.

The lack of a leader on the floor who can keep everybody calm and focused was incredibly apparent.

Reaves had a good game for a true Fr, but that isn't what's needed against a team lik UL. Shamet looked like a player who had taken a year off. Willis looked like a JuCo who wasn't ready for this level of competition. No one was able to figure out that layups weren't happening. They were going to be swatted.

The inexperience showed big time. By March, a lot of that inexperience should be gone. I think we were all expecting some ups and downs this season. I'm counting this game as one of the "downs". Losing by 10 to the #10 team in the nation (and they're likely to move up in the polls if they beat Baylor) isn't a big issue with a young team early in the season.

The Vegas line didn't help. This was a different UL team than the one that played last night. Something lit a fire under them.

u of lou seemed to come out determined not to let the quick turnaround bother them. much better than last night. that's on pitino.

shockers seemed to come out thinking that u of lou would be fatigued. they were fumbling and bumbling from the start.

[1972Shocker]

I thought the Shocks were too impatient on offense. Forced things a little bit too much at times.

Now we know what Fred, Ron, Evan brought to the table that we have not yet replaced. That is their mental toughness and their drive to do everything possible to win.

That will come for this team in time although maybe never to the level those 3 guys possessed those intangibles.

A couple more 3's go down, a 70% FT shooting performance and one more defensive stop and the Shocks win this game. I thought the Shocks battled pretty well especially in the 2nd half.

Disappointed the Shocks were unable to take advantage of a great opportunity but I'm still pretty positive about this team's possibilities. It will certainly be interesting to see how they respond tomorrow vs Michigan State.

[ShockerPhi]

First half was certainly hard to watch. But our young team fought pretty hard and made it a respectable game. Louisville's offensive rebounding killed us.

Start McDuffie over Rashard, please. Rashard was nothing more than a warm body out there today. Learn from it and play with your hair on fire tomorrow.

[Blackmag]

Didn't shoot good, didn't hit free throws, didn't rebound, shot selection was questionable when we had multiple chances to cut the lead under 6 puts. Agree that Kelly needs to play within his abilities as does Brown. Too many out of control plays by those two. Shaq needs to keep his game in the paint not the perimeter. Conner needs more shots, we're young and it showed today but our defense was still pretty good. I think by January we will see a much better alround team. We won't play anyone that plays any better defense. Now let's kick Spartys ass.

[shoxlax]

Just to show you how weird college basketball is, LSU is about to beat ODU in regulation, something Louisville couldn't do

[William]

Billy's final thoughts

Conner- more shots
Reaves- more minutes
Kelly- lay ups and dunks only
Darral- throttle back a notch
Shaquille- stay with inside game

K-bye

[Ricardo del Rio]

4 of our players had never payed players of UL's ability. though willis was in headlights.

sorry for tyoing

[ShockerFever]

Start McDuffie over Rashard, please. Rashard was nothing more than a warm body out there today. Learn from it and play with your hair on fire tomorrow.

Agreed. I just can't trust Kelly on offense. He rebounds pretty well from time to time but he's just too damn soft. His offensive abilities do not allow for as many shots as he takes, especially outside of 10 feet. But even near the hoop, he gets swatted a lot and simply cannot finish. He tries hard and gives good effort but his shot selection should be limited and should pretty much be a last resort.

Brown is known as a defensive specialist and he got burned badly today. He also forces way too much. He drives to the hoop and loves to initiate contact, which in theory, is fine. But his FT shooting seems subpar. He needs to stay within himself and stop forcing everything all of the time. And man, his outside shooting is pretty hit and miss. He lays a lot of wide open bricks from 3 point range. Just not dependable enough with his shot making.

McDuffie just played too antsy and out of control today. He has sick offensive skills and makes NBA type moves when he's under control. He had some mind-numbing turnovers off the dribble or just by simply fumbling the ball around while trying to rush the shot. I'd still prefer him way more than Kelly. He probably should get the starting nod now that we finally had our "nothing is wrong, don't change anything" streak end.

CF has to search for his shot more. When our offense struggles, it seems it's because he's being too passive. He's too solid of a scorer and shotmaker to defer all of the time.

[SB Shock]

Learning lesson for WSU and their newcomers. I wasn't really all that impressed with Louisville - overall I thought it was a lost opportunity by WSU. Tomorrow is an important day and team just needs to put today behind them.

[Keyser Soze]

CF has to search for his shot more. When our offense struggles, it seems it's because he's being too passive. He's too solid of a scorer and shotmaker to defer all of the time.

Once he initiates the half court offense, the ball rarely gets back to him in rhythm. Unfortunately that means to shoot more he'll have to take out of rhythm catch/shoot shots or all off the dribble. Our guys basically treat him like he's Doug Gottleib...while Pitino's scouting report treated him like he was a no leave cover.

[shock]

Once he initiates the half court offense, the ball rarely gets back to him in rhythm. Unfortunately that means to shoot more he'll have to take out of rhythm catch/shoot shots or all off the dribble. Our guys basically treat him like he's Doug Gottleib...while Pitino's scouting report treated him like he was a no leave cover.

I think this is 100% on the coaching. They have given CF FVVs role. Facilitate the offense, and take shots only when called upon late in the clock or when bringing the ball up the court. This was perfect for Fred. Its not Conners strongsuit. They need to add sets that find conner as a point. Their answer right now is to pull the 2 man and put smith in there with conner. Thats just not going to cut the mustard. You need Shaq, Zach, McDuffie, Reaves, and Conner on the floor at the same time when theres 2:00 on the clock and you're down by 10. There needs to be a (oh god, kill me now) Bill Self style Run and Gun offense that you can run at times.

They fought hard against a very good team coached by one of Marshalls few peers. This was a quality loss.

[CBB_Fan]

A team learns more from defeat than victory, and this game will be far more valuable than the blowout wins we've had so far in the season. We now know who should be starting and who shouldn't, where our offense should come from and where it shouldn't, and how the team responds to pressure.

Louisville didn't play all that well, we just played badly. I know that is sometimes what it looks like when you face a team with a good defense, but honestly we made mental mistake after mental mistake and got tight and much of it wasn't from the defense. The defense didn't hold us to 1-8(?) FT shooting in the first half, it didn't compel us to drive into 3 players time and time again.

We need to:

* Focus on jump shots. We are shitty in the paint, minus McDuffie or Shaq. We have lots of jump shooters.
* Run a LOT of FT drills. One reason we suck in the paint is the free license to tackle us. Going 0-2 or 0-1 in a 1&1 is a TO, and we've done that a lot.
* Start McDuffie over Kelly. Kelly is our worst offensive player, McDuffie our best. Kelly can't finish through contact or shoot FTs and isn't a jump shooter.
* Work on pass outs. We drove too deep quite often and a 2 foot shot against a 3 trees is worse than an uncontested 20 foot jump shot. Louisville passed out after drives.
* Get Willis and Frankamp some confidence. They are both capable of being redhot scorers, but Willis gets shaken and Conner just doesn't shoot. Willis also needs to pass.
* Keep the effort and focus up. When Louisville punched us in the mouth, we starting giving up easy rebounds and buckets and didn't fight hard for balls.
* Have a plan before we get the ball. Against a zone, the key is knowing what do as the pass is in the air. Wait and think, and the defense adjusts. We were taking 2-3 seconds to move the ball or drive.
* Feed the hot hand.

Despite getting shaken and losing our mental composure, we had a chance to beat a top 10 team and possibly the best defense in college basketball. A little time and reflection could make us a dangerous out in March, but we aren't there yet mentally or strategically. We have a better idea of what offense we need to run and the type of effort it takes to win a high level ball game now than we did before tip-off and that's a positive. Our identity is starting to take shape, and once we get a better idea of who we are and who we need to be we'll be able to turn games like this into wins.

[ShockTalk]

CF has to search for his shot more. When our offense struggles, it seems it's because he's being too passive. He's too solid of a scorer and shotmaker to defer all of the time.

Can't defer as much when you are shooting better than your teammates and that deferring leads to only 1 assist.

@shock: may have something about changing the combination of the guards. I think CF/AR and DS/LS might make better combos. With CF/AR you basically have 2 PGs in the lineup who both can shoot. Opponents never sure who's point, who's shooter. With DS/LS, Landry wouldn't be the only guard who penetrates or goes to the rack, so he could back off that some. These combos also have a more "experienced with the system" guard in each, but still splits up a tall and shorter guard for each combo as well.