WSU vs. WKU at midnight (CDT)

[Aargh]

Coleby and Carter are both suffering from "Hero Complex". They're putting it up every time they touch the ball, but they're not the guys who should be putting up shots.

Coleby's D is good, but his offensive game should be limited to dunks. So far tonight, passing the ball to a post player is the equivalent of a turnover. I can't believe that Coleby has been with this team an entire yaer and hasn't figured out that he's not one of the guys who should be trying to score.

VanVleet, Bakee, and Early have some awesome BBIQ. From what I've seen so far, the BBIQ vacuum for the post players is greater than the BBIQ everybody else provides.

[agrinut]

Nice win shocks, nice crowd!

[Snaggletooth]

Suck on this valley - a SELLOUT at midnight.

Insults are really more effective if you just say - "Sellout at midnight - Go Shox". Other team's fans know they'd never do that. You don't need to remind them - they will do it themselves.

How about Bite Me MVC?

[Shockerfan13]

It was pretty ugly at times. But it was a win against a decent team. I am dead tired. Good night world....

[Bradleyfan1]

Wow just wow! Fact is We pack Carver and its a top 20 place to play in the nation! If we were coming off a Final Four we would put 11,000 in da house. Good showing shock!

[BTbird]

The midnight sellout is impressive. Good win!

[iSASO]

That was one hell of a defensive game from the Shox, committing only 16 fouls for the entire game.

Coleby was a little over-aggressive on offense but the dude hit some shots with his back to the basket, answering his critics. And the lobs? Wow.

VanVleet and Baker are just awesome. VV has such a great feel for the time to dish the ball and when to lay down an akle-breaking spin move going to the basket or pulling up for a dagger from the outside.

Baker just plays the game, diving for loose balls when it's not really necessary and letting the game flow to him. He scored 3 points against WKU but not because he had a terrible game. He scored 3 because it wasn't necessary for him to score more than that, others carried the load just fine. Baker will take center stage when the team needs it and has the game to deliver the goods.

[CBB_Fan]

As expected, post play is inconsistent. Major reason why we were only up two at half time was Carter and Coleby combining for 1-9 shooting. I really do like that they immediately become scoring threats when they touch the ball, but we cannot end our offense with 10' jump hooks every time unless they are going in.

On the other hand, they played tremendous defense. And when Coleby started playing in his element and abusing his athletic advantage, he turned into a monster. Lufile looks much better from last year, and was our best post by far until Coleby turned it on in the second half (he was also taking hook shots, but from 2' out).

Biggest thing that needs to change is the rebounding. Early almost had a double-double, but our other posts combined for 11 rebounds. We were outrebounded 43-40, and much worse we worse we got schooled on the offensive end 23-10. That is a big no-no on a Marshall team.

Baker, Van Vleet, and Early look like the heart of the team. Baker may not have asserted himself on offense, but he had 3 blocks, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds in his 34 minutes. Fun fact: 6'3 Baker had more blocks in this game than 6'8 McDermott all last season. Van Vleet and Early will score a lot of points from the line this year (11-14 in this game), and of course all three can get hot from long range.

Finally, the defense is just as strong (if not stronger). Team combined for 12 blocks and 9 steals and held a team favored to win their conference to 49 points on 18-63 shooting (7-30 from deep), and most impressively did all that and never entered the double bonus in the game despite the new rules.

Marshall is relying more on the starters this year, but it will be very hard to beat us if we can be as disruptive as we were tonight.

[Dean Wormer]

Suck on this valley - a SELLOUT at midnight.

There are quite a few things to be impressed about with the Shockers right now, but I am not sure I can think of one MVC program that wouldn't sellout under the same circumstances..season opener off of a Final 4 run, Midnight Game on ESPN.

Sellout and beating WKU. We all expected that, now give us some actual insight in to how you perceived the performance of the team.

[Shockerfan13]

Suck on this valley - a SELLOUT at midnight.

There are quite a few things to be impressed about with the Shockers right now, but I am not sure I can think of one MVC program that wouldn't sellout under the same circumstances..season opener off of a Final 4 run, Midnight Game on ESPN.

Sellout and beating WKU. We all expected that, now give us some actual insight in to how you perceived the performance of the team.

Good defense the whole game. 12 blocks and no one with more than 3 I believe. A lot of shot blocking ability on this team. So that was good to see.

Bad offense first half, along with 9 turnovers. Marshall had them playing a breakdown offense which led to too much 1 on 1 playing and rushed shots. Better offense second half when they went to a high screen offense that we know and love. Coleby showed what he CAN be on this team in the second half. He was outstanding after halftime. Post scoring still a sligh concern, but Lufile and Coleby made shots so if 2 of the 3 (including carter) can show up game by game we will be ok.

Ron gets a lot of assists, but offense runs smoother with VanVleet at point as you would expect. He is probably our most critical player this year.

Post rebounding NEEDS to improve. If it does we will be right with last years team if not better. And I expect rebounding will improve quickly.

That's my breakdown.