Shocker Madness

[wusphlash]

SHJ, yes. Will please many. Nuff said.
Asbjorn is the real deal. Don't know what kind of time he'll get this year but will be a very solid 5.
CF looked ready.
RK played like he did the last half of 2016/2017 season.
Rauno was Rauno.
ZB looks like he wants to make a statement his senior year.
DW didn't show me his right hand. Apprehensively waiting.
Thought CJ and Austin could have played a little more solid. CJ's dunk was good though.
Rod Brown looks talented but minutes will be hard to come by.

Considering LS, MM and SM weren't even on the floor I was very pleased.
By the way, LS may not play in the exhibition game simply as a precaution but he looks ready to go to me.

[shoxplode]

The Dance team looked well prepared and in mid season form.

[SHOCKvalue]

Biggest fan turnout I think maybe we've ever had. Could be wrong.

Production quality of the event wasn't the best. No replays on the dunk contest, which really tells you all you need to know about the effort for the balance of the event. It wasn't awful either. Definitely on the wrong side of mediocre though.

SHJ looks to be a legit pick up that's ready to go. I agree that he looks like the most logical second string PG.

God's Bear is a physical specimen to the point that he looks like he could have made a career as a giant in a traveling roadshow a century ago. It's hilarious how much bigger he is than everyone else on the roster. That said, he looked green in the scrimmage. Not really using his size to great benefit, and pretty tentative when he gets the ball. Oh well, he's a freshman; The coaching staff is pumped about him so I will be too.

Rod Brown had some flashes, but has a ways to go. If MM wasn't hurt I would bet money on a RS for Rod, but that's not the case so he'll probably burn a year of eligibility in development.

Dance team this year is... talented.

[ShockTalk]

This may have been the worst ran Shocker Madness.

Sluggish and long down times.

Please, please, please get rid of the DJs. They're awful.

When you give out the rings, have the players line up and go down the line.

Cut back on the 3 point contest. 2 men, 2 women, and 1 shoot off.

I would not have potential Shockers attend if this is all the effort WSU is going to put in it.


Which all this is too bad because:

The crowd turned out and was very good (considering what they were going through).

Loved the lighting and its uses will only get better.

Scrimmages are always fun.

Yes, the Dance Team is ...... talented.

[Aargh]

SHJ - Slick, quick, ankle-breaker. Totally different look at PG than we're used to. Looked surprisingly advanced in the offensive schemes for a JuCo early in practices, but maybe that's just because he can get past people so easily. He's definitely a shooting and driving PG. Fans will love him and his game. Don't know if he's a "run the offense" PG.

Midtgaard - Seemed to get more comfortable later in the scrimmage. Nice putbacks on rebounds and had some nice rim protection. Runs the floor well. Handles the ball well. Catches and throws great. Showed solid fundamentals on pick and rolls and screens. Didn't have the right angles on those to receive a pass even though he was wide open going to the basket. Was not aggressive on rebounds. Nurger got the tipoff against him by 3 or 4". I thought the game needed to slow down for him. A RS year could really help him be a HUGE force. I'd compare his movement and fundamentals to around Stutz' Jr year.

RBrown - Lots of potential and lots of being a Fr. I don't think McDuffie's absence will force him to take off a red shirt.

Willis - Was in the 3-point contest! Release is a little slow, but 6'9" guys don't tend to have their 3-point shots blocked. In the first round Frankamp had 17 counters, Reaves had 16, and Willis had 14.

Reaves - Was the PG opposite SHJ. Frankamp picked him a couple times, but Frankamp seems to have learned some D from Baker and VanVleet. He's just in the way all the time. Reaves was only cleared for practice a week ago, so he's not in the type of game shape he will be in by the beginning of the season.

I thought Midtgaard played a little below what I've heard about his game. He seemed to get better as the scrimmage went on, so maybe he was adjusting to the environment.

Haynes-Jones played WAY above anything I've heard about him or was expecting. It's pretty easy to understand why Shamet and Mcduffie call him the best one-on-one player on the team. He was blowing by anybody and everybody when there wa a route to attack. He put Keyser on his (Keyser's) butt once.

Keyser - Can jump out of the gym. Has some awesome dunks. That's the best I can say about his game. I'm afraid he will maintain the position in the rotation he had last year. SHJ will take all the minutes Smith had and many more. I honestly thought Keyser was playing SG and not doing it well.

[rrshock]

The wife and I took four of our kids with us. It has been a while since we have attended this. I can homestly say I'm not going to be wasting my time with attending anytime in the foreseeable future.

This event should make the athletic department ashamed. We left at 8:30 while the women were stretching still. The DJ guy was not good. The breaks between things were even worse.

Why do this event at all of they can't even half-ass it??

It was good to see the players competing in the 3 point and dunk contests, but why did it take over an hour to do 10 minutes worth of contest?

My kids enjoyed it for a while, but there was no way to keep their attention. And their ages were from 15 to 7, so it's not like they were little ones.

I wish I could have seen the scrimmages, but the event just dragging on forced us to have to leave.

[ShockingButTrue]

SHJ - Slick, quick, ankle-breaker. Totally different look at PG than we're used to. Looked surprisingly advanced in the offensive schemes for a JuCo early in practices, but maybe that's just because he can get past people so easily. He's definitely a shooting and driving PG. Fans will love him and his game. Don't know if he's a "run the offense" PG.

Midtgaard - Seemed to get more comfortable later in the scrimmage. Nice putbacks on rebounds and had some nice rim protection. Runs the floor well. Handles the ball well. Catches and throws great. Showed solid fundamentals on pick and rolls and screens. Didn't have the right angles on those to receive a pass even though he was wide open going to the basket. Was not aggressive on rebounds. Nurger got the tipoff against him by 3 or 4". I thought the game needed to slow down for him. A RS year could really help him be a HUGE force. I'd compare his movement and fundamentals to around Stutz' Jr year.

RBrown - Lots of potential and lots of being a Fr. I don't think McDuffie's absence will force him to take off a red shirt.

Willis - Was in the 3-point contest! Release is a little slow, but 6'9" guys don't tend to have their 3-point shots blocked. In the first round Frankamp had 17 counters, Reaves had 16, and Willis had 14.

Reaves - Was the PG opposite SHJ. Frankamp picked him a couple times, but Frankamp seems to have learned some D from Baker and VanVleet. He's just in the way all the time. Reaves was only cleared for practice a week ago, so he's not in the type of game shape he will be in by the beginning of the season.

I thought Midtgaard played a little below what I've heard about his game. He seemed to get better as the scrimmage went on, so maybe he was adjusting to the environment.

Haynes-Jones played WAY above anything I've heard about him or was expecting. It's pretty easy to understand why Shamet and Mcduffie call him the best one-on-one player on the team. He was blowing by anybody and everybody when there wa a route to attack. He put Keyser on his (Keyser's) butt once.

Keyser - Can jump out of the gym. Has some awesome dunks. That's the best I can say about his game. I'm afraid he will maintain the position in the rotation he had last year. SHJ will take all the minutes Smith had and many more. I honestly thought Keyser was playing SG and not doing it well.

Good recap. You neglected one player though: Nurger. I thought he basically gave Midtgaard a lesson in positioning and hustle. How that plays out against bigs the the AAC we shall see. As a confident Senior I like his chances more than 50 % of the time.

[SHOXAAC]

The production of the evening was substandard and could have been pulled off by the middle school chess club.

SHJ might have been the best player on the floor. I can't remember which SNer said CF can't get his own shot, but he did it twice. RK looked polished beyond the line. The Danish brick mountain looked promising. A good pre-dress rehearsal.

Oh. I ran in to Pogo. He cut in front of me in the season ticket line. All he said to me was "nice day today SHOXAAC, I played golf today...did you?" My reply to him would have made Fever blush!

[wusphlash]

I noticed AC Isaac Brown on his phone and then taking a 360 degree, panoramic shot of the crowd. Had to wonder which recruit he was talking to.

[shocktheheart]

I noticed during the women's scrimmage it looked like Marshall asked someone at the table why they were using a clock that stopped with every whistle. I don't remember either team doing this in the past. I thought they used a running clock

[wichshock65]

[WstateU]

Shocker Madness was maddening (extremely annoying; infuriating)...

[wichshock65]

[shocker43]

I'm not sure what people were missing while watching AM. That guy is going to be great and had a pretty good showing in the short time we got to watch him play. He was pretty dominant on the boards. He didn't score much, but he showed how physical he can be in the post with a move on Nurger towards the end of the scrimmage. He ran the roll on the pick and roll plays pretty well, even though the guards didn't get him the ball.

I was really hyped when Rod Brown signed, and I think he will be pretty good. Other than one defensive lapse, I don't remember him giving Zach Brown any easy shots and fought hard to get through screens. He couldn't hold onto the ball, but part of that was likely nerves. He seemed lost at times on the offensive side of things.

Samajae was really good. I was hesitant after watching a couple of games he played in while at HCC, but his ankle breaker on CJ was awesome.

Austin and CJ did not impress. CJ can dunk, but I'm not sure he's ready to get meaningful minutes. Austin may have just been bad because he was just recently cleared, but it seemed like he was making a lot of silly choices.

[asiseeit]

My take, FWIW. Madness needs to be a mens one hour event. CF is good. RK is a MAN but will help
the team the most around the basket rebounding and playing defense. AM is going to be better than I
thought - just needs some polish. DW needs to play with back to basket posting up. His playing on
the perimeter didn't help the white team. RN still all around steady. Jones looks promising but I want
to see him on a bigger stage. RB also promising but considering our depth I hope he red shirts. We
will miss a full strength LS early. Toss up between AR and Jones starting. CJ is a stud physically but
has a long way to go offensively. If you want/need a defensive stop it's Jones/CJ/ZB/RK and SM.