The 2017 Shocker Melt Down Thread

[1972Shocker]

Goal. Tend.

Hurt, but wasn't the difference. The Shocks only have themselves to blame. Too many missed open looks early, too many unforced turnovers in the 2nd half. Kentucky was ripe fo the picking. Our reach came up just a smidge short today. That said you certainly can't fault the effort the Shocks gave. Just needed to make a couple more plays along the way.

[wusphlash]

I had hoped to go to Memphis. I knew we had a chance to win. We had some mistakes but so does every team not called National Champion. Couldn't be prouder. This team came a long way this year and starts the next about 5 rungs higher on the ladder.

[shockmonster]

Hurt, but wasn't the difference. The Shocks only have themselves to blame. Too many missed open looks early, too many unforced turnovers in the 2nd half. Kentucky was ripe fo the picking. Our reach came up just a smidge short today. That said you certainly can't fault the effort the Shocks gave. Just needed to make a couple more plays along the way.

The Goal Tend may not have been the difference but it was shocking that it was missed. It was such an easy call.

[BOBB]

Tremendous game. I feel the missed calls and missed opportunities broke about evenly. For everyone of our coulda/woulda/shouldas theybwould have had one had the game gone the other way. Only bitching would be the seeding, but that is more of a Dayton problem. Proud of our guys. Only 16 teams playing next week.

[Cdizzle]

Can't rationally explain to me how it was not the difference.

[jdshock]

Hurt, but wasn't the difference. The Shocks only have themselves to blame. Too many missed open looks early, too many unforced turnovers in the 2nd half. Kentucky was ripe fo the picking. Our reach came up just a smidge short today. That said you certainly can't fault the effort the Shocks gave. Just needed to make a couple more plays along the way.

It's hard to ever say a single blown call is the difference maker, but it's not like it was a five point game. It was only three because we intentionally fouled.

Give us those two points and (on top of McDuffie not feeling like he had to take a heroic, pressure shot) we're down one defending to win the game.

[Cdizzle]

It's hard to ever say a single blown call is the difference maker, but it's not like it was a five point game. It was only three because we intentionally fouled.

Give us those two points and (on top of McDuffie not feeling like he had to take a heroic, pressure shot) we're down one defending to win the game.

We're up 1 getting intentionally fouled.

And unlike fouls and other calls, there is nothing subjective about that call.

[Shockers5150]

I hope Willis feels like an idiot. Shut up and play next year.

[Dan]

I hope Willis feels like an idiot. Shut up and play next year.

Willis had one decent stretch and one where he got abused and spanked like a baby.

[Topshock]

I hope Willis feels like an idiot. Shut up and play next year.

Exactly, maybe his mouth was worth 2 points of motivation to Kentucky

[Shoxfan11]

Like I don't even understand it. There's nothing wrong with talking during the game as you're backing it up, we've had plenty of players that do that. But to do it before the game when you know your defense is pretty weak in the first place?

[jdshock]

To be fair to Willis (and I don't think he should've said it), he said we were going to shut down Bam's rebounds. He had 10 vs 18, in a pretty low scoring game. That's quite a bit worse than he had against NKU.

[pinstripers]

To be fair to Willis, I would suspend his azz if I was coach

[Shocker Mama]

Kellen Marshall @KelMoney24
2017-18 is going to be a special year for #ShockerNation

Thank you for all of your support and love all year long. I love Wichita. My home.

[HockeyShock]

It's a common trope when dealing with big sporting losses to look for the conspiracy theory, the referees, the advertisers, the more affluent teams, the networks. It's so common an initial reaction that nobody even takes offense to it anymore. It's treated like one of the normal stages of grief. You ***** about the refs, the missed goaltending call, the missed flagrant foul, and then you take a breath and go on with your life.

But, at this point, with the fourth straight year of being either comically underseeded or forced to play another team that is comically underseeded, it's really hard to see this as the normal trope, or even just a conspiracy theory. This is fact for Wichita State fans at this point. We went into the tournament with 30 wins. Three-zero wins. Three of our four losses were to other tourney teams, and the fourth was to a team that was done just about as dirty as we were, kept out of the tourney despite having 27 wins. But, that's life for Wichita State now. I don't know who we are on the bad side of at the NCAA, if it's the advertisers who want to make sure easily digestible brands get to play as long as possible, or if it's members of the P5 cabal working on finishing the job they were so close to doing in 1989 when Princeton lost to Georgetown by 1 and made the underdog a ratings-maker again, or if it's the lasting influence of that most reputable and upstanding of organizations: The University of Kansas. The same University of Kansas that would have had the former Wichita University turned into a satellite campus rather than join the Kansas Board of Regents. The same University of Kansas that blocked the creation of the Wichita State University School of Medicine and co-opted the project into the University of Kansas School of Medicine - Wichita. The same University of Kansas, employing Roy Williams at the time, that called the NCAA and initiated an investigation of the WSU Men's Basketball program simply because we signed Maurice Evans, a Wichita native.

I don't mean to turn this into another KU-bashing post, but I cite them as things that actually happened. They're not conspiracy theory, they are recorded fact, just as WSU's treatment by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has been for the last four years. It hasn't been a fight just this year, it's been a fight since the early 60's when we first petitioned to join the Board of Regents. No matter how much we prove ourselves, we are always set up to fall just this much short. And once we do, it's all apologies and "I wish they could still go on" (nothing against anybody here, I hold your honest sympathy in high regard) and "there's always next year," but next year is going to be the exact same Sisyphian slog this year was, and last year, and the year before that. It will be some roll-the-dice non-con games, hoping that that the few recognizable teams we can get to actually play us won't crater out their RPI next year, and then an eighteen-game utterly meaningless conference season leading up to three days of sheer terror in St. Louis. And, we know that even if we run the table, there will be serious talk about how we shouldn't be a 1-seed in the tournament, and that we'll probably have to play the New Orleans Pelicans on the first Sunday anyway. It's exhausting, even as a fan.

Meanwhile, a team we share a state with, that couldn't even win half of its conference games and is coached by someone who washed out of both the Missouri Valley and the Big 10, gets in.

So, I'm sorry that I can't talk about how phenomenal that game was, how both teams absolutely left everything they had on the court, that it went down to a last-second try again, as God intends such games to go. I'm too hung up on the missed goaltending call, and the missed flagrant foul, and the nagging idea that Coca-Cola wants to make sure it's stupid commercial is relevant for the next two weeks. I'm tired of coming up this short when all of the objective evidence points to us being one of the top 10 programs in the country. I'm tired of having to swallow Karl Hess double fouls and slow timekeepers and snide remarks from people that bought their fandom in the clothing section of Wal-Mart. This one hurts. Every one of these hurt nowadays.

Soon, I will. Soon, I will salivate at the thought of another year of Landry Shamet, one more year of Shaquille Morris, the further development of Markis McDuffie and Austin Reeves, and one last chance for Conner Frankamp to go City League on a recognizeable name in a blue jersey. Right now, I just can't.

(X-posted from another, friendly, message board I frequent, just because I don't want to type it all out again.)