Indiana State Comes to Koch Arena

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

This will be a tough conference opener for us. It appears we're healthy. I suspect we'll go maybe six deep. We gave K-State their only loss and beat a very good Ohio State team along with going to the wire with Tennessee so there is no reason we won't take care of business on our home court. We need tough boards, defense and balanced scoring.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks will have all they can handle against the 9-1 Sycamores. Indiana State has been the surprise team of the league this year under 1st year head coach Joey Wells who was promoted from an assistant role under Teri Moren who left for Indiana. BTW Indiana State defeated Indiana on the road this year.

Indiana State at #29 and the Shocks at #40 have by far and away the best RPI's in the league. Here are the league RPI's.

I watched Indiana State's win @ St. John's on December 21st which was the last time they played. It was St. John's only loss so far this year. The Sycamores really impressed me with the way the got after it on defense. Very active especially in their half court defense. Unlike the Shockers who have very little depth Indiana State will play 10-12 players. The have 10 players averaging 12.5 to 25 MPG including 7 seniors and a redshirt junior.

Individually 6-1 Sr F Rachel Mahan will be load inside. She is definitely not on the skinny side. 6-0 Sr. Jasmine Grier also impressed me against St. Johns. She is very athletic.

Indiana State shoots about 17 treys per game but as a team are only hitting 27.6% of those shots. They are not a great FT shooting team eiher at 64.1% although both Grier and Cierra Ceazer are at 83% for the year.

I believe what we have are two teams that win primarily with their defense. One very deep team and one team with very little depth which does not bode particularly well for the Shocks.

With the way Indiana State plays defense on the half-court I don't think they will let Alie Decker roam free on the perimeter and I think she will find getting good looks will be much tougher than she has experienced over the past few games.

Hopefully, Alex and any others affected by the illness that hit will be fully recovered and ready to go because even under the best of health their stamina will be greatly challenged in this game.

Too bad that the Top 2 teams in the Valley have to face off opening the season. However, in typical Valley fashion they don't meet again until the final game of the regular season. I think this game carries more importance for the Shocks than the Sycamores simply because it is a Shocker home game.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

We gave K-State their only loss

I would not be overly proud of handing K-State their only win. Yes they are 10-1 but their SOS is 214. The loss to the Shockers was the only true road game they have had. There 10 wins include 1 win over D-II William Jewell and 6 wins over teams with losing records. Their other 3 wins were at home over UTEP (4-4), Texas Arlington (5-3) and Abilene Christian (4-3). Records shown are D-1 games only. We'll see how they fare in Big XII play but I am somewhat skeptical of the Lady Wildcats. Perhaps they will prove me wrong.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

I would not be overly proud of handing K-State their only win. Yes they are 10-1 but their SOS is 214. The loss to the Shockers was the only true road game they have had. There 10 wins include 1 win over D-II William Jewell and 6 wins over teams with losing records. Their other 3 wins were at home over UTEP (4-4), Texas Arlington (5-3) and Abilene Christian (4-3). Records shown are D-1 games only. We'll see how they fare in Big XII play but I am somewhat skeptical of the Lady Wildcats. Perhaps they will prove me wrong.

I'm most proud of how we played against Tennessee. I've been very disappointed by Kelsey's lack of scoring as a senior, as has Jody. If Kelsey is a true threat, it will open it up for others. We're in shape, but we still have no bench. They need to step up tonight.

[Shocker-maniac]

Good win for the Shocks. I only caught the last 5 mins on ESPN3 due to a family commitment, but it's a good way to start the conference grind.

@GoShockers:LIVE: FINAL: Shockers - 63, Sycamores - 52. #WATCHUS http://t.co/e3hGTeRtjz

[1972Shocker]

Good win for the Shocks. I only caught the last 5 mins on ESPN3 due to a family commitment, but it's a good way to start the conference grind.

And a grind it was especially after Indiana State switched to a zone defense. The game was much closer than the final score of 63-52 would indicate. Early on the Shocks were stealing everything and turning those into transition baskets. However, Indiana State got that under control and the Shocks were only up 25-23 at the half.

Once the Shocks started getting the ball into the interior of the zone later in the 2nd half they had pretty good success. Alex Harden was back in the lineup tonight and looked pretty sharp. Alex led the way with a somewhat unusual double-double of 21 points and 11 steals. I believe Michaela was also in double figures.

This was an important win for the Shocks. I think that it was imperative for them to hold serve at home against Indiana State. The Shocks will not return the game in Terre Haute until the final game of the regular season. It would be nice if we had a little more depth developed by then but I don't think that is going to happen.

The Shocks will be right back at it at noon on Sunday hosting Evansville. Let's hope the leg's hold out.

[flyingMoose]

Other scores

Bradley 51-70 UNI
Missouri State 56-65 Evansville
Loyola 60-86 Drake

All of the home teams except the Shocks lost.

[Shox1979]

Alex was getting her hands on everything for the first 5 minutes of the game. Her level of anticipation was incredible. Our best offense was scoring off turnovers. We struggle way too much against the zone. Our movement isn't good and if our 3's don't fall we look really bad offensively. Couple of late threes from Jamillah and one from Alie helped put it away but after taking an early leave the game was very much in doubt for a long time. Got almost nothing from the bench again. Kayla saw the reserve guard minutes in the first half and Jaleesa got the ones in the second. Jaleesa had a short jumper in a situation where she was 1 v 3. Martin got very limited minutes. There were times Michaela, Alie and Kelsey all looked like they could use breather and were getting beat to loose balls. Jamillah looks like she could run for days and only knows one speed. I tweeted that "Jamillah Bonner has the heart of a lion, and lifetime ban to the zoo" #watchus , but it wasn't shown on the big board. haha.
Good win for the ladies. Would love to see the bench contribute but I may be hoping for too much.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

Alex was getting her hands on everything for the first 5 minutes of the game. Her level of anticipation was incredible. Our best offense was scoring off turnovers. We struggle way too much against the zone. Our movement isn't good and if our 3's don't fall we look really bad offensively. Couple of late threes from Jamillah and one from Alie helped put it away but after taking an early leave the game was very much in doubt for a long time. Got almost nothing from the bench again. Kayla saw the reserve guard minutes in the first half and Jaleesa got the ones in the second. Jaleesa had a short jumper in a situation where she was 1 v 3. Martin got very limited minutes. There were times Michaela, Alie and Kelsey all looked like they could use breather and were getting beat to loose balls. Jamillah looks like she could run for days and only knows one speed. I tweeted that "Jamillah Bonner has the heart of a lion, and lifetime ban to the zoo" #watchus , but it wasn't shown on the big board. haha.
Good win for the ladies. Would love to see the bench contribute but I may be hoping for too much.

Four out of five of our starters played 37 minutes or more. Only JB played 33. The bench was non-existent. Kayla hurt us, Brittany didn't fit. Chapel didn't hurt us and her jumper was a poor choice, but fortunately went in. Our starters are in great shape, so that is not that much of an issue, especially if the game is televised or on ESPN3 where there are more and longer timeouts, fouls could hurt us. I just don't see our bench doing much this year at this point in the season.

[WuDrWu]

There are more and longer timeouts when we're on TV?

[1972Shocker]

Four out of five of our starters played 37 minutes or more. Only JB played 33. The bench was non-existent. Our starters are in great shape, so that is not that much of an issue

It is not so much of an issue a dozen games into the season but how will it wear on the starting 5 over the full season especially with the travel partner scheduling used by the Valley where you are generally playing 2 games over 3 days each weekend unless you are playing your travel partner (Missouri State in the Shockers case). That second game of each weekend will be one to keep a close eye on. For example, we play Evansville Sunday at noon. About 39 hours after the high intensity Indiana State game. I hope the Ladies are getting plenty of bounce back juice today.

We get Missouri State on January 9th and February 8th. We have 8 games remaining after the second meeting with MSU.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

It is not so much of an issue a dozen games into the season but how will it wear on the starting 5 over the full season especially with the travel partner scheduling used by the Valley where you are generally playing 2 games over 3 days each weekend unless you are paying your travel partner (Missouri State in the Shockers case). That second game of each weekend will be one to keep a close eye on. For example, we play Evansville Sunday at noon. About 39 hours after the high intensity Indiana State game. I hope the Ladies are getting plenty of bounce back juice today.

We get Missouri State on January 9th and February 8th. We have 8 games remaining after the second meeting with MSU.

That is is good point. Part of the issue is will Jody let the team rest. They've been known to have a 7:00 a.m. breakfast the next day, followed by a tough practice. That doesn't include the banged up girls who need treatment at 6:00 a.m. The team does say, just like the men, practices are much tougher than games.

[flyingMoose]

There are more and longer timeouts when we're on TV?

I think we still just have the standard media timeouts, but I do have the sense they are longer. I need to time them tv v notv and report back.

At the urging of a fellow attendee, I have timed a few of the singings of the national anthem. :) Recently, the one lady was over two minutes! Normally they are just over one minute fifteen seconds.

[Shocker-maniac]

@teldridge24:: Problems still exist (ball movement vs. zone, def. rebounding) but this WSU team is SO good defensively it does not matter vs MVC, at least.

[tgcshock]

I noticed that the InSt coach, in his post-game interview said (after giving proper credit to WSU), and I am paraphrasing, that he took the blame for this loss as a rookie head coach because with the 11 day layoff, the last few days he had practiced his players too hard and, while he believes they are well-conditioned, they were sluggish at the end of the game. I have to say, given how many players they played and the fact that almost all of their starters played 10 minutes less than ours, it spoke well for our women and for Jody's training philosophy that we were fresher than ISU at the end. EDIT: (And I might add many of our players were coming off a bout with the flu!)