2017 WBB Non-Conference Games

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 72-63 UMKC

The Shockers jumped to an early lead of 13-1 when they started the game hitting 6 of 7.

After scoring only two in the first half, Rangie led the Shockers with 19. Diamond had 16 (twelve and four) and both Sabrina and Jeliah had 10.

After trailing 23-10 at the quarter, the Roos got as close as four very early in the fourth quarter. They helped themselves with a press that caused a number of turnovers before the Shockers began handling it the vast majority of the time. There were some really ugly decisions for awhile though.

The Roo offense picked up when they went to a three-man game at the top of the key which the Shockers never defended particularly well. The Shockers faced yet another zone - this one, a 2-3.

[1972Shocker]

A badly needed win for the Lady Shocks but I am a little disappointed the game was a close as it was considering UMKC came in at 0-7 in D-1 games with an RPI of 302.

[1972Shocker]

flyingMoose did you attend the UMKC game. I did not. I left the hosue at 7:15 am for Grandkid stuff and returned at 2:45 pm just in time for the WSU - OSU men's game Because of that men's game I did not expect much a crowd and from what little I could see from the highlights that was the case. I will not be at the Chicago State and Alcorn State games this weekend either due to family commitments not that those games are particularly appealing to me anyway.

I do really like HCKA so far and I think she was a good hire. In the Shocks 3 home games against South Dakota, Missouri State and UMKC average paid attendance was 1,718 although I don't believe we are anywhere close to that in average butts in the seats attendance. Not sure who all those tikcets have been sold to.

Lambo took over a program that had even less fan interest than WSU WBB 18 years ago and has developed a pretty solid support base and fan interest in Shocker Volleyball. But he had some advantages Keitha doesn't have. For none thing he isn't vying for fan interest and time up against a perrenial Top 20 men's volleyball program like Keitha faces with 3G's juggernaut. Also Volleyball has done a good job changing their game to make it more fan friendly and interesting. Volleyball matches are generally very entertaining to me. I don't find WBB quite as appealing in general. The game of volleyball seems to me to be an upward trajectory. Not really seeing that for WBB. Part of the issue may be that Volleyball is syphoning off a large portion of the talent pool that would otherwise be available to WBB.

I will say this though, HCKA is trying very hard to connect with the fans. The key, of course, is putting a relatively successful and entertaining team on the court consistently. Not sure she will be able to build the fan base to the degree volleyball has done under Lambo primarily because of the huge shadow of the men's basketball program but hopefully she can maybe get to about 60-70% of what the Volleyball program's attendance is (and by that I mean fans showing up to games). I wish her well and hope she is successful. If not it won't be because of a lack of effort.

[flyingMoose]

flyingMoose did you attend the UMKC game.

Yes. Some of the "points" details were from reviewing the play-by-play or box score, but I was there. Like you, I have a conflict with the Saturday game. I haven't decided about Friday yet, but I do know that if the NCAA VB Tournament was Friday, I would be at home watching that. :)

I realize it is hard to do some of the things you want as a coach because these are not players recruited to fit the style you want to play, but this year is not going to be pretty (they can really finish 6th in the AAC?). Next year will be even worse with the graduation of Rangie and DIamond. It's going to be another couple of years before we see the light at the end of the tunnel - the equivalent of Jessica Diamond and that crew.

My estimate of the score against UConn keeps getting worse. I am guessing 115-45 now, depending how kind Geno wants to be. He normally play six or seven until well into the fourth quarter.

[1972Shocker]

I don't disagree with any of your comments. The Shocks are picked to finish 10th in the AAC ahead of only Houston and ECU although it looks like Houston may be better than projected. Houston is currently 8-2 with an RPI ranking of #33.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2017/10/15/womens-basketball-shockers-picked-10th-in-preseason-poll.aspx?path=w_bkb

That said I don't think the bottom half of the AAC is very good. After you get past UConn and USF I'm not sure there are any teams the Shocks can't beat if they play well although probably not any teams they can't lose to if they don't play well. At least we only play UConn and USF once this year.

I think the Shocks are capable of doing better than 10th but I would not make a major bet on that at this point.

I agree that next year will be even more of a challenge and that this is not a quick fix.

[flyingMoose]

The 6th place was pulled from my ever-faltering memory. Silly me to rely on that. :)

[1972Shocker]

Been there, done that.

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers host the Shocker Winter Classic this Friday and Saturday. Well, it is not yet winter and these games will not be classics, but whatever. Oral Roberts plays Alcorn State and the Shockers match up against Chicago State on Friday. On Saturday, the Shockers and ORU switch opponents.

As a preface to these games, see this article from the Eagle. HCKA's comments in this article about the team are about the same as some of the earlier comments in this thread.


Shockers 66-63 Chicago State

This game was back and forth the entire game. The Cougars had a two-point lead very early on, and the Shockers had a six-point lead inside the last minute of the game. Anytime the Shocker built a three or four-point lead, Chicago State would come down and sink a three. The Cougars only had six three-pointers, but the Shocks had none, only attempting three.

Instead they relied on their size advantage in the paint. Both Rangie and Angiee had 18 and Diamond added 15. The Shockers out rebounded the Cougars by 40 to 25 and fouled out two interior players of Chicago State.

Tyeshia Banks, whom we never seemed to care to guard, led Chicago State with 28 with 20 of those coming in the first half. The Shockers started in a man defense, switched to a 1-1-3 zone in the second quarter and played it much of the second half. They also used a light zone press at times - a 2-2-1 in the first half and a 1-2-2 in the second half. I think the coaching staff is still searching for this team's most effective defense(s).

It seemed like this was another game where the opponents played harder and smarter than the Shockers for much of the game. They were just not as athletic.

I think this was the worst officiating crew we will have this year. They were not awful, they were just not as good as they should be.

HCKA postgame


Also tonight, Oral Roberts 76-52 Alcorn State.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks edge Chicago State 66-63 in Koch Arena Friday night. Chicago State came in to tonight's game 0-10 on the season with an RPI ranking of 327 and on a 46-game losing streak.

This is a team that lost a game to the Valley's Loyola two weeks ago by a score of 46-28 and then followed that with an 84-39 loss to Wright State before losing at Valpo 71-60 last time out.

The Shocks get a win but not one that brings any warm and fuzzies with it.

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 87-46 Alcorn State

(As quick as I can make this while waiting for VB match to get on the air. All comments from the stats.)

Shockers led 23-8 after the first quarter, and the result was never in doubt. Six players in double figures: 15 for Rangie, 12 for Diamond and Sabrina, 11 for Aingee, 10 for Keke and Cesaria. They shot 65.4% for the game.

Jeliah fouled out with only 12 minutes of playing time and 1 point. Nobody else had more than two fouls. That smells like an attitude problem.


Oral Roberts 73-43 Chicago State

[1972Shocker]

That's more like it when have haven an 324 RPI SWAC team in the house.

[1972Shocker]

Perhaps the best thing to come out of this weekend was the play of Angiee Tompkins who is clearly the Shockers most athletic post player. I guess we will find out Wednesday how much of that was a product of playing subpar competition as the Shocks will play on the road against a very good South Dakota State team.

Also good to get some scoring out of Cesaria. She looks like she can be a very solid player for the Shocks and gives us needed size at the guard position.

A good final test before starting AAC play. I don't expect the Shocks to win that game but would nice to see them play well.

[1972Shocker]

South Dakota State scored the first 10 points of the game and lead 10-0 only 2:15 inot the game. The Shocks played the 'Rabbits even the rest of the quarter and trail 21-11 at the end of the 1st quarter. The Shocks committed 7 fouls in the 1st Quarter to only 1 on the Rabbits with the Rabbits hitting 8-10 from the line vs the Shocks 1-2.

The Shocks narrowed the lead to 7 at 18-25 but then SDSU went on a 9-0 run to open up a 34-18 lead midway into the second quarter.

Shocks trailing 49-30 at the half and it took 2 free throws with 12 seconds left in the half followed by a steal and a layup at the buzzer to get it that close.

SDSU shooting 65.4% from the field including 6-11 treys. The Shocks are shooting 39.3% from the field and are 0-1 on treys.

Rangie leading the Shocks with 17 of the Shocks' 30 points. I guess the best thing you can say about the Shocks is thay other than Rangie they have had balanced scoring with 5 players with 2 points and 1 with 3 points (and yes I'm being facetious).

I wasn't expecting the Shocks to win this game but was hoping they might be able to stay within 15 to 20 points. Doesn't look like that is in the cards.

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 64-96 South Dakota State

The Jackrabbits shot 69.2%!! from the field and 55.6% (10-18) from beyond the arc. Rangie with 25 and Angiee with 12 are the only Shockers in double figures.

[1972Shocker]

Record-wise the Shockers are right about where I thought they would be at the end of the non-con at 5-9. Basketball wise I am not quite sure what to think about this team. The Shocks' 5 wins have come against teams with an average RPI of 276 with their best win at home over 197 Missouri State. So not much to take away from that.

Realtimerpi.com (not the greatest source) is predicting the Shocks will go 3-13 in the AAC this year winning three of their first six games than losing 10 in a row.

Hopefully, the will do a little better than that but we will see.

[1972Shocker]

Moved to 207-18 WBB American Athletic Conference Thread

[flyingMoose]

Walking to our seats, we passed the Wichita South girl's basketball team on the concourse. I had forgotten that Kendrian Elliot, a WS alum, was at Tulsa.

Random observations:

Tulsa started in man, switched to a 2-3 zone for much of the game before playing some more man late. I don't think it made much difference to the Shocks - played about the same against both. They shot well early which probably prompted the switch to the zone.

The Shockers played a 1-2-2 zone press to help get them back in the game in the fourth quarter. There were a few Tulsa turnovers out of it, but mostly it seemed to disrupt Tulsa's rhythm.

Diamond had a tough night shooting. She had several shots rim out as did other Shockers.

Speaking of interesting timeouts - HCKA called a timeout before our made basket late in the game. This allowed her to get the press set up I suppose, but it also prevented Tulsa from calling a timeout and advancing the ball to the front court. She was voicing the timeout before the shot by the Shockers hit the backboard on its way to the hoop.

1972Shocker - do you intend to start a conference thread and move these there?

[1972Shocker]

Yes. That be a good idea. I will copy my post to a new thread and then you can do the same.