WSU Exhibition - Oklahoma Baptist (#2 Ranked NAIA Team)

[Aargh]

With a little over 10 minutes to go in the half, Shox up 13 - 4 when OBU scored their first field goal. OBU put up 97 points in their previous game.

Lufile = starting center
Ron Baker = backup PG
Darius Carter = Beastlike

[Zardoz]

WSU up 31-8 at the half. Not much flow to the game with all foul calls.

[Zardoz]

Shocks win 73-29. I can't describe the game. We won the game big, good. No flow bad.

[shockem]

I'll chime in: Valley team are being put on notice, meet Kadeem Coleby. We'll be just fine in the post.

[glm38]

With a little over 10 minutes to go in the half, Shox up 13 - 4 when OBU scored their first field goal. OBU put up 97 points in their previous game.

Lufile = starting center
Ron Baker = backup PG
Darius Carter = Beastlike

Did Baker not start? Or do you mean he started at the 2?

[Wufan]

With a little over 10 minutes to go in the half, Shox up 13 - 4 when OBU scored their first field goal. OBU put up 97 points in their previous game.

Lufile = starting center
Ron Baker = backup PG
Darius Carter = Beastlike

Did Baker not start? Or do you mean he started at the 2?

Baker started at the 2, but was also the primary back-up at PG.

[CBB_Fan]

10 observations from the game:

1. Early did not start due to a concussion. He had a very quiet 10 points, missing a few free throws and then a three to begin the game. Still, he looked very dangerous driving to the hoop and clearly had more confidence in his first step.

2. Lufile started the game, but beyond a couple of free throws didn't have much impact and only played for 11 minutes. Supposedly he's been playing much better in practice in order to win the starting job.

3. Carter and Coleby are very good. Both are much more coordinated then Orukpe and can dunk with less space than Hall, and seemed active on both ends of the court. In 12 minutes Carter got 6 points and a rebound, while Coleby got 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 19 minutes.

4. Oklahoma Baptist was surprisingly athletic. There is no doubt that at their level they are a very good team. Still, they simply couldn't score against our starters, with only a single FG in the first half.

5. The gameplan was clearly about the newcomers. After focusing on defense in the first half (with a lot of Coleby and Carter), Marshall started playing the freshmen. At one point we had 4 freshmen in, including one walk-on. The starters only played a total of 83 minutes.

6. The defense was changed quite a bit throughout the game. Though the Shockers played man for the majority of the time, they also tried several variations of press (man, zone, trapping zone, zone into man in the halfcourt) and a couple of different zones in the halfcourt.

7. While the teams shot a reasonable combined 46 FTs, the new rule emphasis was clear. Neither team was dynamite from the line, with Oklahoma Baptist shooting only 33% for the game (making none in the second half) and us making only 67.9%, though that included 10-12 shooting in the second half.

8. Second half was a lot more offensive than the first. The Shockers shot 56%/50%/83% and OB more than tripled their points.

9. We were best in transition, scoring 21 points off TOs. Oklahoma Baptist did not score off TOs and got only 2 second chance points. Most of the scoring came off the bench (47 points), though Baker was the best at forcing TOs (4 steals). The other notable stat is the number of dunks, which was high (7 or 8), including an impressive alley-oop.

10. In general, it appears that the defense is still strong and the rebounding still good (46 to 25). Obviously it is hard to take away much from an NAIA exhibition game, but I was impressed by the athleticism in the frontcourt. Our backcourt wasn't really featured much, which I'd guess comes from the fact that they didn't need to get their feet wet like the rest of the team.

[iSASO]

It is very hard to take a lot away from exhibition games, even if they are the #2 ranked team in the nation.

Darius Carter and Kadeem Colby do not need to be shown where the rim is. It is their friend.

You simply have to love Ron Baker. Dude was throwing his body to the floor to get a loose ball in an exhibition game when the team was up by 25 points in the second half. Jeff VanGundy is right, he does have an NBA stroke.

Cleanthony Early has to be the least demanding star player I have ever seen. You never see him directing traffic like McDougie does so that he gets his touches.

Oh, the fouls. Marshall was right. Depth is King. If you don't have high quality depth at every position you are just out of luck. I think a couple of our conference mates should be given an exemption and be allowed to add 2-3 more players so that they can continue having their inferior players clutch and grab more talented players and not worry about having 3 guys left on the floor with 16 minutes to go in the 2nd half.

Good luck to everyone in the non-con. Go get some scalps for us.

[sixth ace]

[Black]

:huh: