SIU and Evansville Home Stand

[1972Shocker]

This Lady Shocker team has been tough for me to get a handle in the pre-season because of the relatively tough road schedule and the cream-puff home schedule.

We have not been a good road team in Coach Albrights tenure and this weekend's 2 blowout losses pretty much established that is not going to change anytime soon. Shocks are now 7-54 in road/nuetral site games in Coach Albright's tenure.

The Shocks 6 home wins were against teams with an average RPI (likely to drop as the year progresses) of 263 and we just barely survived to win 3 of those games. So I am not really sure this tells us much, if anything, about how we will do in the home portion of our MVC Schedule.

The Shocks have two MVC opponents this week with RPI's similar to, in fact, a little worse than the Shocks (now at #170), although both teams were picked well ahead of the Shocks in the MVC preseason poll.

Southern Illinois (RPI of 211) comes in Thursday night. I thought SIU and WSU were similar in that they both faced replacing very good inside players this year. Annie Wells for WSU and Carlai Moore for SIU. SIU was picked to finish 5th in the MVC preseason poll.

SIU is not a big team at all. They have a 6'2" Freshman Center that plays about 7 MPG and a couple of 6'0" forwards that play 12-15 MPG.

SIU lost 4 of their first 5, but appear to be playing better lately. On Thursday, they hammered Indiana State (the #3 preseason pick) 95-76 in Carbondale and on Saturday they lost 82-78 (also at home) to #2 preseason pick Illinois State, who may be playing the best of any MVC team so far this year. We will see how they perform on the road, but it looks like the are capable of putting points on the board.

Evansville has an RPI of 176 and was picked to finish 4th this year in the MVC. They also lost at home to Illinois State 75-67 in a competitve game on Thurday, then followed up on Saturday with a blowout home win over Indiana State by an 84-59 score. Again, we will see how they react to playing on the road, but Evansville, which is similar size-wise to SIU also appears capable of putting points on the board.

Indiana State, picked to finish 3rd in the MVC, appears to have been overvalued at this point.

These should be two solid opponents and the first real tests for the Shockers at home this season. Failure to bounce back from this weekend's debacles at Creighton and Drake will be a bad sign for this team.

I wish I could be more optimistic, but I an not confident at all about our chances to win either one of these games.

[boyshocker]

Have to agree with you 72. There is not much to get excited about with this team. Someone needs to post some sunshine if they can find it.

[1972Shocker]

Last night's Jane Albright show featured Taylor Steven and Assistant Coaches Kami Malnaa and Mike Gillespie.

I'm not reading much into this. Actually, I kind of like this format for a change.

All 3 did a nice job. Mike Gillespie was in particular pretty impressive.

Sounds like the plan for SIU tonight is to use the Shocks size advantage and pound the ball inside.

SIU forces a lot of turnovers, so a key will be if the Shocks can keep from having one of their mega-turnover games.

[WstateU]

Have to agree with you 72. There is not much to get excited about with this team.

It's much like waiting for a root canal. :cry:

[1972Shocker]

Shocks fall to SIU by a score of 66-61.

I missed the 1st half, which I suppose was a positive, since the Shocks trailed 41-25 at the half.

Not sure what went on in the 1st half, but the Shocks looked like the much better of the two teams in the 2nd half. I must say SIU was not very impressive at all in the 2nd half. They were obviously much better in the 1st half.

The Shocks made a strong run and cut the lead to 62-59 with about 2:30 remaining, but Jamie Sweere hit a 3-pointer to put SIU back up by 6 and the Shocks were unable to take advantage of some terrible SIU foul shooting down the stretch.

SIU's Sweere is a terrific player and probably the difference in the game finishing with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 5 assists.

Shocks take on Evansville on Saturday afternoon. MSU picked up its first MVC win with a 76-65 win over the Aces tonight, so perhaps the Shocks can do the same Saturday.

[small tyme baller]

1972... SIU shot very well in the first half along with us not defending anything. We also missed a ton of bunnies and had 9 TO's. Defense improved in the 2nd half but still wasn't where it needs to be. Also missed chip shots in the 2nd half but stayed with it and cut the lead down. We looked a 100% better in the 2nd half but with that being said it still wasn't enough to win a home valley game. Just shows they still need to improve that much more to become a successful basketball team. I just hope they can use that 2nd half as a starting point for the rest of the season and build upon it to finish strong.

[1972Shocker]

Evansville sounds like a somewhat similar team to SIU. We should have a size advantage similar to that vs SIU. Hopefully, we can do a better job of exploiting that advantage for a full 40 minutes.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks drop their 4th consecutive MVC game 76-60 to a decent Evansville team.

The game was closer than the final score would indicate as the Shocks trailed by only two at 58-56, before the Aces pulled away with a barrage of free throws down the stretch.

Evansville missed its first 11 shots of the game, but the Shocks weren't much better and when Evansville scored its first basket of the game at the 13:47 mark the Shocks were only up 4-2.

Evansville, then got their offense rolling and led 35-26 at the half.

Evansville led 53-42 at around the 11 minute mark when the Shocks went
a 14-5 run to pull within 2 at 58-56 with about 7:30 remaining.

Unfortuantely, the Shocks could only muster 4 points over the final 7:30 and Evanvsville pulled away shooting 16 free throws in that time including 4 with 4 seconds left after a personal foul and a technical foul on a frustrated Kyrie Kinder to make the score look much worse than it really was.

I thought Kyrie and Kiki both played pretty well and the Ladies played hard. Overall the Shocks did not play a terrible game. However, Evansville was simply the better team with better basketball players and perhaps a better system.

So far the Shock are allowing MVC opponents 77.0 PPG and have made a paltry 3 of 37 three point attempts (8.1%) in MVC play. The Shocks generally will not wins games giving up 77.0 PPG. They just don't have the offensive firepower to keep up.

The good news is that the schedule eases up somewhat over the next 5 MVC games with only a home game vs Illinois State being pretty much a sure loss. Road games at Bradley and at UNI and home games vs Indiana State and Missouri State are all winnable games to finish the 1st pass through MVC play. Of course, the Shocks are capable of losing everyone of these games also.

With the way things are going I have to think that the Shocks will do well to split the 4 winnable games.

Missouri State which entered this week struggling with a 2-11 record, defeated both Evansville and SIU in Springfield, while the Shocks lost at home to both of these teams. Looks like the Bears may be makiing some progress under their new coach and may be tougher than previously thought.

It just isn't happening for Jane and she certainly does not look like she will be pulling any rabbits our of her hat.

It's not like we have great things to look forward to next year. We have a team that struggles to score and with Kiki and Kyrie graduating we will be losing our two most dependable and reliable scoring threats, with no sure replacements in sight.

:(

[dregn]

I have a few comments after watching todays game. It was only my 2nd one of the year with the other being the regular season home opener I think.

We looked like we have improved in that we play at a much faster pace. Makes it a more enjoyable game to watch. What hurts is that we don't have any true shooters on the team and it shows.

Watching how the bench works during time outs and during the game I defineatly think next years head coach is sitting on it.

I wanted to also comment that I think that was close to being the best officiated womens game I have seen in Koch arena.

[SubGod22]

I wanted to also comment that I think that was close to being the best officiated womens game I have seen in Koch arena.

Maybe they got the mens and womens crew mixed up today.....