12/23 games

[glm38]

Watched most of the game. I actually thought the Shox didn't play that bad. Hawaii just played great and hit a lot of big shots. Gutsy win for WSU.

Zach Brown and Kelly look like a couple of nice players that I hadn't seen much of.

Is there any concern about the Shox FT shooting? 4 Shockers are shooting in the 50% range or less? That's kind of surprising for a Greg Marshall team. That might be an Achilles heel in any close Valley (if there are any) and NCAA tourney games.

[Cdizzle]

Watched most of the game. I actually thought the Shox didn't play that bad. Hawaii just played great and hit a lot of big shots. Gutsy win for WSU.

Zach Brown and Kelly look like a couple of nice players that I hadn't seen much of.

Is there any concern about the Shox FT shooting? 4 Shockers are shooting in the 50% range or less? That's kind of surprising for a Greg Marshall team. That might be an Achilles heel in any close Valley (if there are any) and NCAA tourney games.

I think Hawaii was playing a little above themselves. Part of that, IMO, was due to the addition of their center who just became eligible on Monday. The other part, was due to some shoddy WSU defense and turnovers, both of which led to the kind of confidence that can keep a team in it.

I expected Brown to be the most game-ready non-redshirt this year. Freshman jitters and a lack of playing time to gain confidence and get in the flow have slowed him compared to my expectations. I think he'll be in the rotation going forward. Kelly has figured out that he is really good at the one thing (rebounding) and that Marshall values one thing more than just about anything else (rebounding). I do not know if Wessel will remove him from the starting lineup by the time he returns. I expect Kelly will continue to expand his game as he becomes more comfortable on the floor, but if he can be an elite rebounder and a plus forward defender, that will be a big step for the team.

At this point, I think it's fair to be concerned about the FT shooting, though I think it will improve. Cotton, Carter and Wessel have always been below-average FT shooters, and I would expect that to continue. The real issue, at least to me, is that Baker and FVV have not been getting to the line enough, and when they do they have been well below the 85% FT shooters they should be, and can be. Those two almost look like they have FT yips right now, and I would expect them to starting regressing to the mean at some point, hopefully soon. Still, I think the overall FT% is going to be down. Just not as down as it is right now. We've been spoiled the last 6 years with a foul-drawing big man that could shoot 75%+ from the line (Stutz/Cle). We don't have that this year. I think it could very well cost us a couple of games this year (you could very easily argue that it already cost the Utah game, though you could counter that by saying it won the Hawaii game last night).

[Kyle]

Laughing hard at the guy that thinks we've got "4 or 5" road losses in us. I think 2 of 21 games last year in the Valley were inside of 10 points. Some of you are acting like WSU is an NIT team.

Nobody said you've got 4 or 5 road losses in you.

[BCPanther]

We knew WSU would miss Cle, but I can't believe they miss Lufile as much as they do.

Nobody has the same physical presence that he did...