UMKC Postgame; AKA No Meltdown Needed

[Shockra]

Let me start out by saying this is the first time seeing the Shox live this year. After the hype of our new guys, I took a nice dose of realism and expected some ups and downs, so did most of you. This is a young team that is still learning. It's expected. We know this team will be a lot better the second half of the season.

My initial postgame thoughts:

Hatch is a totally different player. He had some great outside-inside passes and added a little dribble drive to open things up to his game. A very pleasant surprise, even after the initial reports that he had improved his game significantly.

Kyles seemed uncomfortable on the court at times.

Ramon is Ramon. 'Nuff said.

We forced the outside shot way too much tonight, even when we had the inside advantage. We will learn.

UMKC looked more composed tonight. They didn't rush as many shots and showed more patience on D.

I liked Clevin's D. At times it reminded me of our beloved Matty B.

Free throws...ewwwww.

With that said, we will learn. We will get better. Relax. I'm glad I am not in the locker room post game.

[kochHead]

UMKC is a young team on the road with IMO less talent than our shockers. I think the road trip to Kansas may have had them better prepared to play this game. That being said...FREE THROWS!!!

[KC Shox]

I'm going to meltdown. For the next upcoming year, I'm buying stock in the makers of Zantac 150. The basketball season is looking bleak, our baseball team is so damn young and with key injuries that I'm not looking forward to that, and our volleyball team will prove all the critics right and get eliminated in the first round of the tourney.

[kochHead]

I'm going to meltdown. For the next upcoming year, I'm buying stock in the makers of Zantac 150. The basketball season is looking bleak, our baseball team is so damn young and with key injuries that I'm not looking forward to that, and our volleyball team will prove all the critics right and get eliminated in the first round of the tourney.

Maybe you could take about 150 Zantac and report back tomorrow on the results.

[1972Shocker]

I'm going to meltdown. For the next upcoming year, I'm buying stock in the makers of Zantac 150. The basketball season is looking bleak, our baseball team is so damn young and with key injuries that I'm not looking forward to that, and our volleyball team will prove all the critics right and get eliminated in the first round of the tourney.

Very hard to be positive after tonight's performance.

No doubt it was a tough loss. 15 good minutes (10 at the beginning and 5 at the end) and 11-24 FT shooting leaves one to wonder how in the world were we even in this game.

On a positive note, HCGM did find a little known rule deep in the NCAA rule book that allows you to use a 5th grade little girl as a designated free throw shooter and word is we did sign the little girl who shot free throws at half time, so our FT shooting should improve going forward. (Sorry, I have to laugh to keep from crying.)

The nice thing about sports, especially early in the season, is that you have plenty of chances for redemption. Looking forward to seeing how the guys repsond to this performance.

[HockeyShock]

I'm going to meltdown. For the next upcoming year, I'm buying stock in the makers of Zantac 150. The basketball season is looking bleak, our baseball team is so damn young and with key injuries that I'm not looking forward to that, and our volleyball team will prove all the critics right and get eliminated in the first round of the tourney.

That being said....

Folks, this is a young team, a mostly NEW team, learning a brand new system which, if memory serves me correctly, isn't the most simple college basketball system out there. We started a redshirt sophomore at center, two junior college transfers, a transfer from St. Bonny, and a true freshman. Our first players off the bench were another true freshman and a sophomore who was rumored not to even be coming back this year. There wasn't a person on that floor who didn't look, at some point or another, like he was trying to remember what to do. Our guys got rattled from the FT line. They looked exactly like what they are: a young and inexperienced team.

And they still almost pulled it out. One thing they DIDN'T do, was quit.

I need to take note of who all is saying we're not going to be any better than 11-20 this year and see what tune they start singing after we put together two or three wins in a row, and it's gonna happen.

:clap: :wsu_posters: :yahoo: :clap:

[ShauXTyme]

Wasn't the other team "just as young as us?" 2nd year coach, mostly new players, etc...... And, it's early in the season for everyone - quit using this as the excuse. Everyone is going to get better the rest of the year, it's not like we're gonna get better, and everyone else will stay the same. Come on.

[ShockerFever]

Mark me up for the 11-20 crowd. More downs than ups. We may win 3 in a row, but that would come in the form of TCU, North Dakota, and the third game escapes me.. not exactly powerhouses.

When we get into the Valley and play decent competition is when you'll see games like tonight look even worse.

When we actually get a flow to the offense, quit chucking up 3's with 30 seconds left on the shot clock, and jump over our advantages in a game, then come talk to me.

It's still early. A lot can be done. But don't expect too much this year.

I hope we stay within 25 of G-town though.

[shockar25]

Extremely nerve wracking--absolutely. Suprising, not really. We've all said it (including many on this thread)--that there will be lots of ups and downs with the new team. UMKC is an ok team, but bottom line is they'd be getting the 'L' and not us had we made those free throws.

Just like last game, I kept telling my wife, "They need to get it inside!" Particularly when Garrett was playing because we had such a height advantage. Sure, they probably would've double-teamed him eventually, but that would leave more open shooters outside.

Garrett was a bright spot. He is still improving. He's going to be something else as we all know, and I think we're going to see some of it before this season is over. No, he won't dominate, but there are going to be times when it will become immediately obvious how good he's getting. There will be other times when he'll get beat on defense too. Part of the learning process.

Ramon... what can be said that we don't already know? I mean 17 rebounds!!! What a machine! We're going to miss him next season and I hope we get more rebounding out of others over the course of the season to soften the blow when he does graduate.

JT--another quiet night. When he did try and take it strong he did ok, but unfortunately that only happened one time that I saw. Aaron E. is still finding his place. Toure showed that he's still a freshman and is a lot like the team as a whole--great at times, inconsistent most times. He will improve.

AJ was better--we need him to get better yet though. Some silly charges though were a little frustrating, but at least he's going in the right direction.

Now with my primary complaints. GUARD play. Clevin didn't look as confident even from the beginning. He seemed just a little off. Reggie wasn't very much better. We are just settling too easily on outside shooting. JT and Garrett have to bang their way in there. When this starts happening regularly, then we'll start winning a lot more games.

Defense in the first half wasn't bad, and sometimes in the second half. There were just some obvious lapses at key moments when it really caused things to get away from us.

Ok. Enough, but overall, none of these things are really suprising, and ALL of us knew they were going to happen. Sure, we all (including myself) thought they'd find a way to win this one. Well, I think this team will learn. You learn a lot more from mistakes than you ever do from doing everything well. Let's hope they do just that.

[shockerfan]

LOL this board is hilarious after a loss. I guess that can be said about any team's board...but still.

It's one game in a year that I thought pretty much everyone agreed there were going to be early lumps and inconsistent play. Hmmm...now everyone is acting like they didn't expect those lumps after all. I'm not down at all, because I meant it when I said I expected early lumps. Well this was a "lump". I will ONLY be concerned if it continues game after game and we don't show any improvement at all. I have ZERO reason to believe we won't improve as the year progresses. We can still be a good team and dangerous in the Valley, no doubt about it.

Didn't SIU lose to a Div II team early in the season and go on to the Sweet 16? I think that was in the same year, if not I believe they ended up having a good year just the same. Now our team is completely different from that SIU team and I'm in NO WAY saying we can hope for the Sweet 16....but still it shows that an early loss no way spells gloom and doom for the rest of the year.

I'm not changing my mind or how I feel the year can turn out because of 1 stupid game.

Time to let this one go and look forward to the next one. GO SHOX!

[ShockerFever]

shockerfan,

I hope you can agree that you weren't gonna count UMKC as one of those lumps. Yes, I expected growing pains. Yes I expected lumps. Yes I expected ups and downs. I expected most of this to occur into Valley play. How could you honestly not be disappointed in a loss at home to UMKC? I think you're lying about that one because there's no excuse for that crap.

And for the record, the year SIU lost to D-2 Anchorage was 2006, the year they got blasted in the first round to West Virginia. They had a decent year, but they wouldn't have made the NCAA's if they hadn't won in St. Louis.

[shockar25]

LOL this board is hilarious after a loss. I guess that can be said about any team's board...but still.

It's one game in a year that I thought pretty much everyone agreed there were going to be early lumps and inconsistent play. Hmmm...now everyone is acting like they didn't expect those lumps after all. I'm not down at all, because I meant it when I said I expected early lumps. Well this was a "lump". I will ONLY be concerned if it continues game after game and we don't show any improvement at all. I have ZERO reason to believe we won't improve as the year progresses. We can still be a good team and dangerous in the Valley, no doubt about it.

Didn't SIU lose to a Div II team early in the season and go on to the Sweet 16? I think that was in the same year, if not I believe they ended up having a good year just the same. Now our team is completely different from that SIU team and I'm in NO WAY saying we can hope for the Sweet 16....but still it shows that an early loss no way spells gloom and doom for the rest of the year.

I'm not changing my mind or how I feel the year can turn out because of 1 stupid game.

Time to let this one go and look forward to the next one. GO SHOX!

I do agree. There was improvement from certain players. Of course there was a lot of ugly too, but that's par for the course. The sun will rise tomorrow, and Centenary will show up at Koch Arena on Monday, and hopefully we'll keep improving and come out on top.

:wsu_posters:

[shockerfan]

shockerfan,

I hope you can agree that you weren't gonna count UMKC as one of those lumps. Yes, I expected growing pains. Yes I expected lumps. Yes I expected ups and downs. I expected most of this to occur into Valley play. How could you honestly not be disappointed in a loss at home to UMKC? I think you're lying about that one because there's no excuse for that crap.

And for the record, the year SIU lost to D-2 Anchorage was 2006, the year they got blasted in the first round to West Virginia. They had a good year, but they wouldn't have made the NCAA's if the hadn't won in St. Louis.

Actually lumps are just that lumps...ie losing to teams that you shouldn't probably lose to. At least that is what it means to me. I have no idea where or when those lumps will come, but in a way I knew it COULD happen tonight. Just as we COULD get another lump against Centenary...or TCU....or Gardner-Webb....and on and on. Now I don't feel that ALL of those we will lose. But any one of them we could because of our inexperience. Those would be LUMPS.

And regardless of SIU, they still went on and competed well in the Valley and didn't finish in the bottom of the league. It was just an example.

[ShockerFever]

The bad thing is, we, even as fans, circled this one for reasons such as last year and UMKC thinking they were better than us and 'had no respect for our program'.. and yet even with that as a motivation, we still drop a deuce. That's what concerns me the most. What will we do with teams like UMKC that we don't have a lot of extra motivation with?

Lumps are lumps yes.

I'm sorry, but UMKC is inexcusable. We should be able to own those guys with our cheerleaders.

[shockar25]

shockerfan,

I hope you can agree that you weren't gonna count UMKC as one of those lumps. Yes, I expected growing pains. Yes I expected lumps. Yes I expected ups and downs. I expected most of this to occur into Valley play. How could you honestly not be disappointed in a loss at home to UMKC? I think you're lying about that one because there's no excuse for that crap.

And for the record, the year SIU lost to D-2 Anchorage was 2006, the year they got blasted in the first round to West Virginia. They had a good year, but they wouldn't have made the NCAA's if the hadn't won in St. Louis.

Actually lumps are just that lumps...ie losing to teams that you shouldn't probably lose to. At least that is what it means to me. I have no idea where or when those lumps will come, but in a way I knew it COULD happen tonight. Just as we COULD get another lump against Centenary...or TCU....or Gardner-Webb....and on and on. Now I don't feel that ALL of those we will lose. But any one of them we could because of our inexperience. Those would be LUMPS.

And regardless of SIU, they still went on and competed well in the Valley and didn't finish in the bottom of the league. It was just an example.

I think Kennedy stated it well tonight when he said something to the effect that this team is going to lose games--some of which most people might have thought they should win easily. He also said that it's a good chance they will end up beating some teams that they aren't expected to.