Live: ISU at Wichita State
ISU MBB No Comments »WICHITA, Kan. — Hello all. Koch Arena is pretty empty right now … but its 45 minutes before tipoff. Shockers fans will be here in force momentarily.
Nothing new to report on the Sycamores … which is a good thing. No one stumbled and broke a foot coming off the bus or anything catatrophic like that. All eight Sycamores are ready to go.
What should be expected tonight? I have no earthly idea. I feel like its opening day. I’m as curious as all of you are about how the Sycamores deal with their devastating injury woes.
In the wake of the injuries, one thing I’ve heard and read that I disagree with is the assertion that the redshirts shouldn’t have been redshirted. First, that hindsight 20/20 critiquing at its worst, but also, everyone presumes that the redshirts would have been productive out of the box. I seriously doubt that would have been the case.
Why? In R.J. Mahurin’s case, he needed to put on significant bulk and hone his skills to be a factor at this level. To Mahurin’s credit, he’s done just that. He looks a lot bigger than he did in October. Mahurin works hard. I think he’s come as far as any of the redshirts have in my observations.
In Jake Odum’s case, he looked good in preseason games, but he wasn’t going to be effective he had a year in Kevin McKenna’s offense, which is not easy to learn. Ask Jake Kelly, who said to me several times that getting used to ISU’s offense on the fly was more difficult than he anticipated. Odum was not going to come in and control games at ISU as he did at Terre Haute South. Very, very, VERY few freshman do that.
To Odum’s credit, he’s been immersing himself in just that … learning. Why waste a year of his eligibility to have him learn on the fly? The ISU program will be better for him getting four solid years under his belt.
As for the Eitel’s, they had to get used to the speed of collegiate basketball and find their comfort zone.
Back to tonight’s game, one logical thing to expect is that ISU will pump up its share of three’s. With Rashad Reed, Jordan Printy, Aaron Carter, Koang Doluony, Carl Richard and Josh Crawford, ISU still has capable shooters.
I was told that ISU worked on some “junk” defenses at practice upon arrival in Wichita. Why not? Throw everything and the kitchen sink at this problem on both sides of the ball.
I talked for a while with former WTHI sports director Jamison Coyle, who is here interviewing for a job with one of the affiliates here in Wichita after leaving the media madness for a job in public relations. He wants back in … good luck to him.
More trifling news, the Koch Arena P.A. announcer asked the crowd who they wanted to win the Super Bowl. The Colts won by a sizable decibal count over the Saints. See … Shockers fans aren’t all bad.
Around the Valley, Southern Illinois is trying to shock Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, winning 44-41 with about four minutes to go. Creighton-Drake and Drake-Illinois State will tip at the same time the Sycamores and Shockers do.
Meanwhile, Bradley crushed Evansville 83-63 at Roberts Stadium. That was probably the last chance for the Purple Aces to avoid 0-18. I don’t see another win for them, especially since they have two with Wichita State and one with UNI.
Here’s the ISU starters: Brant Leitnaker, Koang Doluony, Rashad Reed, Jordan Printy and Carl Richard. For WSU, Aaron Ellis, Clevin Hannah, Graham Hatch, Toure Murry and J.T. Durley.
It’s almost time for tipoff and Koch is filled with LOUD NOISES!
First half
[] ISU 11-4, 14:37. Lo and behold, the Sycamores have come of the gate scratching, clawing, and hitting their 3-point shots. Printy is 2-for-2 from 3-point range and Reed has another one. ISU is 4 of 6 from the field overall.
But ISU has the lead due in equal part to its mixing of defenses as ISU is making the Shockers work for shots and WSU is just 1 of 8 from the field so far. ISU couldn’t ask for a better start than what its had.
[] ISU 21-6, 11:02. What the heck is going on here? Well, ISU is shooting lights out … 72.7 percent at present … and WSU can’t find the ocean at 12.5 percent. ISU is getting some bounces here and there, including a Doluony putback off a short Reed 3-point miss. WSU also seems overly passively to me on the offensive end, a lot of settling for jump shots, etc.
Still, I never in a million years thought I’d here booing from the Koch faithful tonight, nor a 15-point ISU lead. Heck of an effort so far.
Elsewhere, UNI just survived SIU by a 55-51 count.
[] ISU 31-19, 6:03. Hatch at the line for WSU. The Shockers are starting to generate offense more consistently, but they haven’t completely broken through as ISU is still shooting over 70 percent. The Sycamores are running a lot of screen-and-rolls and deftly utilizing a lot of dish-and-drives, especially on back door cuts. Reed deserves a ton of credit, he is running the team very well right now. ISU is also dealing with WSU’s hard traps and press OK for now.
I will say this, the officiating crew, none of whom I recognize, is helping a bit too, letting a lot of calls go, especially traveling.
[] ISU 33-23, 3:46. How do you know you’re having a good night? ISU broke WSU’s press with some difficulty as Carter tipped it twice trying to catch the ball. After he finally got his hands on it, he took a wild fall-away shot that went in to restore ISU’s double-digit lead. ISU is still shooting 70 percent (14 of 20). There’s a long way to go and you have to wonder what affect WSU’s press will have fatigue-wise later, but what an effort by the short-handed Sycamores.
[] ISU 37-28, halftime. ISU cooled at the end of the half, missing its last four shots, but it still shot 60 percent for the half. You won’t find many more inspiring halves of ISU basketball in recent years or non-recent years for that matter.
Second half
[] The officials I didn’t recognize? Hal Lusk, Rick Randall and David Stevens. Only Lusk’s name remotely rings a bell.
[] ISU 44-37, 15:53. Here come the Shockers, playing much more inspired on their offensive end, as they cut the lead to four at one point. However, Printy answered with a three and Leitnaker made a leaner to put the Sycamores back up by nine. WSU has a chance to slice its deficit to five or four again. Richard finally missed his first shot on ISU’s last trip down the floor, breaking a 5-for-5 start. ISU has four more four-minute bites to survive … it will be very tough.
[] ISU 52-42, 10:46. Martin at the line for ISU.ISU isn’t going away, if anything, the Sycamores have re-assumed control of the game, restoring a 12-point advantage on a Crawford layup at 11:43. After WSU was really getting its bodies into the Sycamores, ISU took it and re-established what got it going in the first half … unselfish passing to set up sound shots.
[] ISU 58-46, 8:21. The Sycamores took a 15-point lead after Doluony drained a three at 9:50. ISU wisely just called a timeout to extricate Doluony from a WSU trap. If ISU can hang on, this would be an all-time stunner.
[] ISU 58-46, 7:49. WSU at the line. Printy just made the kind of play a team can’t make on the road with a lead. He fumbled the ball and winged it aimlessly as mid-court. Hannah stepped in front of it, and while he couldn’t convert the layup (Richard, playing out of his mind, blocked it), but WSU got to the line as Crawford picked up his fourth foul.
[] ISU 60-49, 7:06. Timeout WSU after a loose ball scramble which came after an ISU turnover led to two WSU 3-point misses. You keep waiting for the Shockers to make a run. You still feel like they have it in them.
[] 63-63, 3:47. Unfortunately for ISU, that WSU run has come. The Shockers are on a 16-3 run as their press is giving all kinds of fits to a clearly tiring ISU team. When ISU has broken it, they’ve taken an awful lot of quick shots too, which hasn’t helped. Hannah and Murry have shot the Shockers back in it. ISU’s cause isn’t helped when Hannah flopped and Reed was called for a charge just before the timeout.
[] WSU 72-67, 1:11. Hannah might have just made the kill shot for the Shockers. ISU doubled down on Durley, who’s been a load in the second half, and Durley found Hannah wide open at the top of the key for a killer 3-pointer. Koch’s noise-meter is off-the-charts right now.
[] WSU 76-70, final. Great, great effort by the Sycamores, but WSU’s press, its inside play with Durley, Hannah’s shooting and the Koch crowd ultimately proved too much to overcome.
Don’t laugh at the crowd part, when you come to a place like Koch, you understand the advantage WSU has with a full, loud crowd over a half-empty, mostly-quiet Hulman Center. It made a difference tonight.
WSU scored on 18 of its last 22 possessions. Part of it was free throws, but another part is that ISU simply got gassed. The positive for the Sycamores is they proved to themselves they can still compete in their remaining games … and that’s pretty big.
McKenna appeared pretty perturbed with the officiating late in the game. There were some calls, notably the Hannah flop on a Reed charge call, that were pretty dicey. My guess, though, is that a lot of it is frustration on a near-miss on what would have been an amazing victory.
WSU coach Gregg Marshall was very demonstrative in his praise for the Sycamores in the postgame handshake.
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