Creighton @ Wichita State

[iSASO]

Just now getting the chance to watch the game. Just before halftime, the 6'2" Tekele Cotton brought some stinky defense while guarding McDermott. Creighton desperately wanted to get the ball to the coaches son, but Tekele simply refused to allow it. Creighton turned the ball over as a result .

[CBB_Fan]

My thoughts:

Reffing:
This is one of the few games where Shocker fans probably came away without hating the referees. I can see where Creighton fans are coming, because there were a lot of over turned calls that went the Shockers way. I did have one major gripe: I thought that the official should have stopped the game after Early's head injury instead of letting Creighton take a 5 on 4 possession.

I don't think reffing decided the game though. They seemed to call roughly the same amount of contact for either side (they didn't call much for either team), which let the game be very physical. That probably played to the Shockers.

Creighton:
I was impressed. Doug played much better than he had previously against the Shockers, and I thought the Shockers did a great job defending him even though the final statistics don't look like it. I was impressed by Echenique, but it appeared that Marshall was conceding the paint to Echenique a little by keeping Orukpe out most of the game. Doing so left 5 fast players that could contest Creighton's shooters, which seemed like a smart decision.

After seeming them in person, I think that they will be a killer match-up for some team in the dance. Wichita State beat them because they were at home, and were able to get a lot of offensive boards and turnovers. If we hadn't shot the ball 16 more times, we would have had no chance. Creighton is a team like KU's nightmare because they will almost always win if the other team out-rebound or force them to turn the ball over. They can simply out-shoot most teams.

Wichita State:
The big thing Wichita State did was create possessions. They shot 71 times in the ball game, or once every 34 seconds. Despite shooting that many times, they didn't convert a lot of shots because they weren't efficient. The fact that they won shooting as badly as they did shows how good their defense can be.

The home crowd was very intense. I don't think any place in the country could have out-done that Wichita State crowd, and the team definitely fed on that energy.

One very noticeable thing was the focus the team had. Most of the time, they played completely differently than they had in their last few games. Sometimes though, you can clearly tell when the team loses focus. The TOs they had were very stupid ones, but thankfully the Shockers only had 6. Another example were the open shots they would occasionally give Creighton when no one even got close to touching the shooter and just seemed to watch them shoot.

I think that the Shockers come away happy with the win (I honestly thought Creighton would get this one), but confident that they can play better. Looking forward to the re-match in Omaha.

[shoxrox]

After initial money on the jays, money now rolling in on the shox to push it back to -3

Vegas is good.

You clearly don't understand how sports betting works.

Clearly I'm just a dumb*** JUCO.

I clearly don't understand that all Vegas cares about is moving the line so they make money. Clearly I don't understand that it is the only purpose of the line and that they don't give 2 sh*ts who wins or loses, but that they just win and have an equal number of plays on one side of the line and the other.

Clearly, when the line settled at WSU -3, that meant Vegas is bad at doing this.

Clearly.

[3ontheway]

the line opened up -3 wsu. in the AM $$ went down on CU to push the line at most sportsbooks to -2 ( it takes many thousands of $$ to do this), it then seemed to move back to -3 2-3 hours before game time only to move to - 2 1/2 in the hour before the game. So according to that, more $$ went down on CU from the opening line (most likely at CU +3 or +2 1/2) so vegas either pushed or win by the hook for the most part, which, in essence, is what vegas does and how they build casinos all the time.

i don't bet, but i do understand how sports betting works.

[3ontheway]

wsu won, in large part, because they took care of the ball, only 6 TOs. If they would have had their average TO #, they likely lose. credit goes to wsu for taking care of the ball, that is how you win when you shoot the ball pretty poorly, have 8 less TOs than your opponent.

[cufan_mvcfan]

That is what college basketball is all about. Anybody
That says those are mid-major teams loses all credibility.
Type of game I expected, but I was wrong about the outcome.
Doug was Doug, but an inexcusable amount of possessions from
CU where Doug didn't not even get a touch. Made zero sense, but
I'm sure WSU defense had something to do with it. Can't wait for
The game in Omaha. Clearly the class of the valley.

[C0|db|00ded]

I have some thoughts about the game but haven't really been able to formulate them to my satisfaction. I expected the Shockers to win the game Saturday, but I didn't expect them to win playing as poorly as they did. If they can shoot the ball even half-assed next meeting, they will blow the doors down in Omaha like they did last year.

Club BJ is a team of unathletic, hot-shooting white boys. They look mid-major in person as well as on T.V. EXCEPT for one player and his name is Gregory "The Cyclops" Eekieneekie. He is greatly improved over last year and I like his attitude. He is a dirty player no doubt (as are a few other BJ's..), but he is a man and has BCS oozing from his pores. BJ fans should be thanking St. Peter that Cy had one of his eyeballs popped while playing for Rutgers so they had a chance at him. Even with one eye, he is still a load.

Grant Gibbs will forever be called SloMo. He has to be the slowest player I have ever seen play basketball in Koch Arena. Early in the game he was able to turn the corner (in the slowest manner imaginable) and drive to the basket. I think his lack of speed was akin to a change-up for our defenders. They figured he was just slowing down to pass when in fact he was full throttle to the basket. I can't explain any other way how he was able to get to the hole on several occasions.

SoW... *sigh* I'm trying to be the big man here. I know he got his season average in our building. I know I asked him to show me something. I know he was defended VERY WELL. But something about his game just screams garbage ball to me. His shots look like prayers that go in. He reminds me of the player that always burns WSU by having their game of the year in our building. The difference with SoW is he does it every game. His fadeaway shots look like B.S. but he always makes them. And he makes them in high numbers. He is unathletic, slow, but hard-working, and has apparently perfected the unblockable, offbalance, fadeaway shot.

SoW is not very big, he is not very strong, and he doesn't play defense. What he has is great work ethic, a tremendous shooting touch, and a coach that designs the entire team strategy around him... with no high-scoring athletic teammates to steal his thunder. If Cleanthony was a BJ.... (just a second, I threw up in my mouth a little), SoW would have to share the ball a bit more because the entire dynamic of how BJ plays ball would change.

SoW is not as big as Larry Bird, and I don't know if he is as good of a passer, but if he maintains his uncanny shooting touch, I suspect he could play in the NBA. I don't know if he will be able to develop into a Korver type, but he should get a shot. He certainly won't be earning a living in the paint in the NBA.

I saw a couple BJ fans walking around the concourse. I hope all Nebraskans aren't that ugly...


T


...

[jaybydna]

Congrats WSU on a good game. You attacked the offensive glass and that was the difference in the game. Also thx to the fans for the atmosphere at the game, and the comments here. That does a great service to college basketball.

And everyone, please do not respond to the baiting drivel above. Not worth it and certainly not his best effort. Make him work harder than that before you feed his ego.

[horacepinker]

Nice try Cold but most of the BJs hardcore posters are MIA! DJA and Deanthony Bowden to name a couple.

[3ontheway]

Yep, confirmed, still a clown. Congrats on the win. The jays played their worst game of the year and still could have easily won if a couple of plays went differently. Shocks are a bunch of brick layers and jm and Ethan will not resemble the shocks masonry work next time. Gibbs has more basketball iq than the entire shocks team combined.

Question, how bad would the shocks blow out another team of slow, athletically challenged players like Butler has? 20 or 30 point win?

McDermott had more than his average actually, must have been really, really lucky yesterday!