2-1 at a star studded Maui Tournament

[tropicalshox]

Just had the pleasure of having my Thanksgiving meal with Hatch and his family. Coach Marshall and Coach Gross stopped by. They think we got robbed at the end of the game.

[pinstripers]

Smith could get close to 30 min a game next year. Why not?

[wufan]

Smith could get close to 30 min a game next year. Why not?

Let's just say for arguments sake that Murry gets 27, Kyles gets 27, and Ragland gets 27. That leaves 39 minutes per game. If Smith gets 30, that leaves Williams with 9 and none for Richardson, Wessel, and Cotton. It's possible, but I see him getting more like 20. We will continue to be talented next year. Hopefully Carl Hall, Jerome, and White are ready to go early!

[ShockTalk]

Ben will get the minutes his effort and production in practice and games warrant. The more legit this team becomes, with good depth, the fewer players you'll see with high minute totals.

Against the better competition, the top players may very well get 28-32 minutes. Average comp, less, and against lower competition, no more than 20 or so. No need to wear down your top players against lower comp unless it's absolutely needed. That's where you keep your 1st off the bench players happy with more PT and give your younger players valuable experience. Just one of the bonuses of a quality program.

[Ixiah]

Just had the pleasure of having my Thanksgiving meal with Hatch and his family. Coach Marshall and Coach Gross stopped by. They think we got robbed at the end of the game.

Well - if you are going to get robbed - its better to have it happen at the start of the season when its just an "L" rather then in the NCAA tourney where it means going home.

[Snapshot9]

I bet Oklahoma went home with a 'hang-dog' look on their faces.

[Ixiah]

Oklahoma shows how much the recruiting stars matter in games. They have had a 5 star recruit each of the last 3 years and several 4 and 3 stars.

[wu_shizzle]

Oklahoma shows how much the recruiting stars matter in games. They have had a 5 star recruit each of the last 3 years and several 4 and 3 stars.

Those guys 4 and 5 star players are gone, hence the current problems with OU.

[150946shox]

2nd Look

Well, I really didn't want to say too much about the officiating in the UConn game. I know how easy it is to see things wrong in person and although some of the calls looked atrocious, I wanted to be able to see them again with the ability to rewind and review before I made too much of them.

Saturday evening, I finally had the opportunity to watch the recorded game and was able to take another look. Now, I am ready to agree that "WE WERE ROBBED"!

Two of Garrett's fouls were very undeserved including the one with just over a minute to go. Hatch had a foul that was very underserved. The block on J.T. was obviously a charge on Walker. Walker also fouled out front either shortly before or after than charge. The play that I considered the turning point, when the Shox had the ball and a 9 point lead and Walker stole the ball, he knocked Toure's arm aside so he could steal the ball and could have (should have) been called for a foul. He had at least 6 obvious fouls and was only called for 3. The all-ball block by Blair late in the game that resulted in a very late whistle against Gabe was a killer. Another all ball block earler in the game was called wrong. I could not get a good enough view on the reversed call on the out of bounds play to make a determination, but some friends who were sitting in the chairs along the sideline, directly in line with the end line, said that there was no doubt that the 1st call was correct. It should have been Shocker ball. There was also another foul called against J.T. that was terrible.

Very seldom will I ever say that the Shockers lose a game because of the officiating. Normally, there might be a horrible call or two that hurts the team, but there were likely some during the game that went just as badly the other way. In this game, that was not the case. Even the 1.9 second game in St Louis was one that the team simply waited too long to finally start playing well and if they had only played up to par the whole game it would have been a rout and the 1.9 would not have happened.

By not seeing my recording until Saturday, I had enough time to calm down and watch the game rationally.

One other thing was the number of fans from other schools who were saying that the Shockers were robbed. I don't believe I talked to anyone there who did not think the officiating made the difference in this game. And, it seemed to be almost all attibuted to one official. It was all in all very smelly.

Well, it is done now and there is nothing to do but hope the team takes care of business all season long. While they rebounded pretty well, and while UConn went on to win it all including a blowout in the championship game, it still would have been much better for the RPI to have beaten UConn and at least one more team in the tournament, so they will need to really show well the remainder of the season to make the NCAA if they don't win in St Louis. I do plan on seeing a winner in Arch Madness, but we know how things can happen there as well.

[Ta town]

Smith could get close to 30 min a game next year. Why not?

Let's just say for arguments sake that Murry gets 27, Kyles gets 27, and Ragland gets 27. That leaves 39 minutes per game. If Smith gets 30, that leaves Williams with 9 and none for Richardson, Wessel, and Cotton. It's possible, but I see him getting more like 20. We will continue to be talented next year. Hopefully Carl Hall, Jerome, and White are ready to go early!

I would think that both cotton and wessel would be in an ideal position to redshirt next year. I would think having Ragland, Williams, Murry, Kyles, Smith and Richardson that redshirting the two in coming freshman makes perfect sense.

[1979Shocker]

With all the depth we're starting to get and will probably continue to get, it's almost a must that our freshmen start redshirting. Unless, of course, one of them is a superstar.

[SubGod22]

The only question is do you really want to redshirt both Wessel and Cotton knowing they'll have zero game experience and you'll be graduating Kyles, Murry, Smith and Ragland?

We'd have Williams with plenty of experience at the point, but after that there'd be next to nothing at the 2 and 3. Richardson will have some. How much we do not know.

They may not get a ton of playing time next year, but I'd think at least one of them will have to play.

[WuDrWu]

At BEST we have 9 returning scholarship players next year and only 6 of those can be considered proven at this point.

Somebody out of that freshman class is going to play, and play a lot.

[Ta town]

At BEST we have 9 returning scholarship players next year and only 6 of those can be considered proven at this point.

Somebody out of that freshman class is going to play, and play a lot.

Sure but you have ragland, kyles, murry, and Williams at the guard spots returning.

[Smooth007]

At BEST we have 9 returning scholarship players next year and only 6 of those can be considered proven at this point.

Somebody out of that freshman class is going to play, and play a lot.

Sure but you have ragland, kyles, murry, and Williams at the guard spots returning.

I really think that 3 of those 4 will be starters (PG,SG, SF) next year. I wouldn't be surprised if the line-up is Ragland,Murry,Kyles, Hamilton?, Stutz.

Edit: Hall could start at the 4.