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Wichita State Pregame Thread


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52 minutes ago, Proud2BAHoosier said:

Hoping they have more intensity than they did for the Bucknuts game....

It was arguably THE most important game of the season; the ticket for the 'last four in' was on the line as most of national experts said. Then, these guys came out of the gate flat and lifeless, and they picked up the pace with 6 minutes left on the clock. Still hard to understand. 

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40 minutes ago, addictedtoIU said:

It was arguably THE most important game of the season; the ticket for the 'last four in' was on the line as most of national experts said. Then, these guys came out of the gate flat and lifeless, and they picked up the pace with 6 minutes left on the clock. Still hard to understand. 

I think that this team has tended to respond to nerves and big games that way for nearly three years. The best players in our program for the last three years have all been good guys but none of them fiery. From James Blackmon Jr. to Rob Johnson to Juwan Morgan to Romeo Langford to O.G Anunoby. The only exception to that would be Thomas Bryant. This means that guys who are pretty good players, but not necessarily leaders are left in no-man's land (Justin Smith, Al Durham, Josh Newkirk, Devonte Green) If you think about big games this year in particular, we have often been flat in big situations. I think that our response to nervousness is to go into a shell and play dispassionately and to not make mistakes. Which of course leads to a lot of mistakes....

We have found a decent balance a couple of times in the past three years (Purdue at home, Marquette, the Michigan State games, and maybe Iowa) but the general trend for our team has been to wait for something good to happen, or to hope that something good will happen, rather than to go make it happen. I think that Rob Phinisee, Jerome Hunter (from what I can tell of his sideline demeanor) and TJD and Armaan Franklin as well as Deron Davis, Jake Forrester and Race Thompson will lead a change in the personality department...

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6 minutes ago, iufaninand said:

I think that Romeo is indeed dealing with back issues. If we were in the NCAA tournament, I think there would be a greater effort made to play. Since we’re not, it’s easier to nurse an ailing back when there’s no high national exposure of the games 

ESPN isn't national exposure?

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1 hour ago, rico said:

ESPN isn't national exposure?

I’m not denying there is coverage, but how much run is given to the NIT by anyone in the media?  IIRC, most on this board wanted to just go home if we couldn’t play in the NCAA tournament. I’m not mad at him, I’m just saying it would be human nature to be more careful when the outcome is an after thought to something bigger

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18 hours ago, mchenry34 said:

I think that this team has tended to respond to nerves and big games that way for nearly three years. The best players in our program for the last three years have all been good guys but none of them fiery. From James Blackmon Jr. to Rob Johnson to Juwan Morgan to Romeo Langford to O.G Anunoby. The only exception to that would be Thomas Bryant. This means that guys who are pretty good players, but not necessarily leaders are left in no-man's land (Justin Smith, Al Durham, Josh Newkirk, Devonte Green) If you think about big games this year in particular, we have often been flat in big situations. I think that our response to nervousness is to go into a shell and play dispassionately and to not make mistakes. Which of course leads to a lot of mistakes....

We have found a decent balance a couple of times in the past three years (Purdue at home, Marquette, the Michigan State games, and maybe Iowa) but the general trend for our team has been to wait for something good to happen, or to hope that something good will happen, rather than to go make it happen. I think that Rob Phinisee, Jerome Hunter (from what I can tell of his sideline demeanor) and TJD and Armaan Franklin as well as Deron Davis, Jake Forrester and Race Thompson will lead a change in the personality department...

True. We had so many 'good' kids who trained hard day in and day out but only to give in when facing tough, physical, and disciplined opponents. Very frustrating to see when good kids lacked character and didn't show fighting spirits when the stake was high. I've always hoped Archie could change this, so we win or lose with efforts and sense of pride. I think we're still in transition, and I feel we may have one more mediocre year next season. I'm also mildly worried about on-court leadership next season with Green and Davis as seniors. Davis can be a good leader (also can be emotional, which is good and bad), but he needs to be injury free and to have conditioning level to stay on the court 25+ min/game. Green is the one who's hard to figure out. Durham can be a glue guy who can be also vocal, but we haven't seen that yet. Smith is introverted and won't express himself much. Moore hardly plays. Leadership development would be a must in the upcoming off season. 

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