Bears v. Shox, Wednesday 7pm CST

[MSUDuo]

I will say this about the Shox and Bears. Outside the RPI numbers, they are strong in Sagrin and KenPom. Wichita State sits in the teens in both and Missouri State sits at 66 and 64.

It's going to take something magical but what if the Bears finish the season on a 9-2 run? That's at least one win over WSU and another win over CU or WSU in STL. A 22-12 record all of a sudden doesn't look so bad. You could be looking at a top 50 RPI and top 40 Sagrin/Pom.

After seeing these numbers, WSU is in as long as they don't lose more than 2, including STL.

Will it happen? Probably not. If we can continue to start games like we did against UNI we could do it. Sure would like to see 3 teams in the Dance and for Weems to finally get there

[shockem]

I don't know much about Gulley, but it will be interesting to see who our shockers matchup against on defense. Height-wise, I'd say Hall on Weems although I'm not sure he can hang and it doesn't do us much good having him defend the three point line. That probably puts Murry and Ben Smith on Weems and Hall on Gulley, which is a big size mis-match. Who are the other big men for the Bears this year, outside of Kirk and Patterson?

[Bear4Life]

I don't know much about Gulley, but it will be interesting to see who our shockers matchup against on defense. Height-wise, I'd say Hall on Weems although I'm not sure he can hang and it doesn't do us much good having him defend the three point line. That probably puts Murry and Ben Smith on Weems and Hall on Gulley, which is a big size mis-match. Who are the other big men for the Bears this year, outside of Kirk and Patterson?

That's about it...We have Rhine who will have to play some minutes tonight with Patterson likely out and we also have a JUCO Corbin Thomas, but he hardly plays...More of less when Patterson is out or on the bench we go small, and for the most part we have been pretty effective in that way. Stutz presents a whole different problem though, so be interesting to see how we try to handle him.

[Aargh]

If Patterson is out, the Bears have to sag on D to block passing lanes to Stutz or Stutz goes off for 30+. If the Shox have their touch from 3 back, and the Bears sag, it will rain 3's in JQH.

If I were Lusk, I'd force the Shox to win from the 3-point line. If the Bears guard tight on the perimeter, Stutz against Kirk on the block is suicidal for the Bears.

I do realize that my opinion is worth exactly how much I get paid to coach.

[TNMSUFAN]

If Patterson is out, the Bears have to sag on D to block passing lanes to Stutz or Stutz goes off for 30+. If the Shox have their touch from 3 back, and the Bears sag, it will rain 3's in JQH.

If I were Lusk, I'd force the Shox to win from the 3-point line. If the Gears guard tight on the perimeter, Stutz against Kirk on the block is suicidal for the Bears.

I do realize that my opinion is worth exactly how much I get paid to coach.

We have gone small with Weems even playing the 5 in some games. The first match up against Creighton that is what we did most of the 2nd half. I can see us doing that if Kirk gets in foul trouble or can't handle Stutz at all. Really looking forward to the game.

[shocktheheart]

If Patterson is out, the Bears have to sag on D to block passing lanes to Stutz or Stutz goes off for 30+. If the Shox have their touch from 3 back, and the Bears sag, it will rain 3's in JQH.

If I were Lusk, I'd force the Shox to win from the 3-point line. If the Gears guard tight on the perimeter, Stutz against Kirk on the block is suicidal for the Bears.

I do realize that my opinion is worth exactly how much I get paid to coach.

We have gone small with Weems even playing the 5 in some games. The first match up against Creighton that is what we did most of the 2nd half. I can see us doing that if Kirk gets in foul trouble or can't handle Stutz at all. Really looking forward to the game.

I hope MSU does have Weems play the 5 and maybe we can get him into foul trouble with Stutz or Hall.

[DoubleJayAlum]

I don't predict many games, but I have the Shockers winning this one. They are the better team, they are coming off a heartbreaking loss and Marshall will have them ready to play. Missouri State is Playing for respect, but Wichita State is playing for a seed in the dance. Nobody will be looking ahead and everyone will be focused. When that happens, the good money is on the better team.

Agreed - I don't see WSU losing back to back games.

[DoubleJayAlum]

If Patterson is out, the Bears have to sag on D to block passing lanes to Stutz or Stutz goes off for 30+. If the Shox have their touch from 3 back, and the Bears sag, it will rain 3's in JQH.

If I were Lusk, I'd force the Shox to win from the 3-point line. If the Bears guard tight on the perimeter, Stutz against Kirk on the block is suicidal for the Bears.

If I were designing a D to try to stop WSU this year, it would be to deny Stutz/hall the ball and make WSU hit threes. WSU can shoot it well from the outside, but can sometimes be lured into just chucking it and taking really dumb shots.

I know WSU fans had some complaints with the way UE/UNI played physical, clutch and grab defense. Be forewarned: MSU plays defense the same way.

[DoubleJayAlum]

If Patterson is out, the Bears have to sag on D to block passing lanes to Stutz or Stutz goes off for 30+. If the Shox have their touch from 3 back, and the Bears sag, it will rain 3's in JQH.

If I were Lusk, I'd force the Shox to win from the 3-point line. If the Gears guard tight on the perimeter, Stutz against Kirk on the block is suicidal for the Bears.

I do realize that my opinion is worth exactly how much I get paid to coach.

We have gone small with Weems even playing the 5 in some games. The first match up against Creighton that is what we did most of the 2nd half. I can see us doing that if Kirk gets in foul trouble or can't handle Stutz at all. Really looking forward to the game.

I hope MSU does have Weems play the 5 and maybe we can get him into foul trouble with Stutz or Hall.

If Weems is playing the 5, I'd be more worried about him getting Stutz into foul trouble.

Weems seems to play better on the road in hostile environments than he does is in the confines of home.

[shockem]

Easy to collpase on Stutz and force the outside game but you also have to contain Carl Hall on the inside. He's been in a funk lately but he's also shown the ability to go off when teams concentrate too much on Stutz. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.