Putting all formalities aside...

[valleychamp]

Putting all trolling aside...

I think this year's WSU team is one of the biggest enigmas in recent MVC history. I think its completely realistic to predict them to finish at .500, and it is also completely realistic to predict them to finish in the top 2. Huge range of possibilities for this team, in my opinion.

[MoBraves]

Putting all trolling aside...

I think this year's WSU team is one of the biggest enigmas in recent MVC history. I think its completely realistic to predict them to finish at .500, and it is also completely realistic to predict them to finish in the top 2. Huge range of possibilities for this team, in my opinion.

I agree. I'm picking them to finish 5th just because of the experience of other Valley teams. I went with Evansville finishing ahead of the Shox just because of the Colt-factor.

[Wufan]

Here is what I saw:

1. Carl Hall is with out a doubt the best player on the team, or at least was today. You may remember him as the 6'8" PF/C who's shooting range was 5ft. That is not the case. He had 18 points (in 30 minutes), and went 7-9 including two 15-17 foot jumpers.

2. Orukpe was slightly improved. He scored the first points of the scrimmage with a hook shot over Hall, then scored again after Hall answered him. He also had 4 blocks.

3. Jake White and Derail Green are dangerous shooters. I think Green was 3-3 from the 3pt line, and White made a number as well.

4. Evan Wessel looked good. Not quite starter good, but he'll get rotation minutes. Not a scrub anymore.

5. Early looked closer to being ready than Wiggins. He won the dunk contest, shot some 3s (2-3) and blocked Orukpe once. Wiggins seemed to disappear sometimes.

6. Kadeem Coleby played, though he will sit out this year. Not flashy, but effective. Blocks a few shots, gets a few rebounds, scores a few points, but not starter material yet.

7. Baker didn't shoot as much as I thought he would, but was playing PG instead of SG because FVV was sitting out. He looked capable of running the offense.

8. Speaking of that, four players didn't play because of injuries: FVV, Chadrack Lufile, Demetric Williams, and Zach Bush.

9. Overall, both teams were scoring with good efficiency. Both ended up over 50% and they shot a combined 11-23 from the 3pt line. Some of that is probably playing lower intensity defense than they would play in a game, but I'm encouraged most by the shooters and their length.

If they started playing today, I think the line-up would be:

PG: Armstead/Baker
SG: Cotton/Wessel
SF: Early/Wiggins/Wessel
PF: Hall/White/Early
C: EO/Hall

Though Demetric Williams and FVV will change that once they fully recover from their injuries. This team should be one of the hardest to match up against in the Valley, though the inexperience will probably negate that somewhat until later in the season.

I was there. Pretty spot on! Wessel hustles and hit a couple shots but he cannot defend. Got blown by twice. Slow feet, but will be a decent bench player.
Hall and Early are players! Hall will be the center. Its his comfort zone. He ventured out and hit a couple mid range jumpers but for a "4", not active enough. Early likes the perimeter. Once he figures what he can do underneath, he could be unstopable.
E.O. Hit a couple of bunnies but he is still lost out there and has no clue how to pass. We quit counting at 6 fouls. He had 3 in 2 minutes. Strickly a backup.
White hit a couple of shots. He literally shot the ball every time he touched it. didn't get a lot of touches. Same with Cotton. He was invisible. Gregg was not pleased with shots being taken after 1 pass (though several went in)
Wiggins is Greggs whipping boy. Athletic but seemed lost on the court.
Armstead looked good, he is not a PG that will push the ball up the court. Forget about putting 5 out there and running people off the court.
Baker did a good job taking care of the ball. Hit 1 driving shot. Nothing fancy but steady.

Thanks for the objective review of the Shockers!

[Wufan]

Putting all trolling aside...

I think this year's WSU team is one of the biggest enigmas in recent MVC history. I think its completely realistic to predict them to finish at .500, and it is also completely realistic to predict them to finish in the top 2. Huge range of possibilities for this team, in my opinion.

I agree. I'm picking them to finish 5th just because of the experience of other Valley teams. I went with Evansville finishing ahead of the Shox just because of the Colt-factor.

I really have no problem with this. Pre-season projections mean nothing, but the person making the pick doesn't do so with the intent of being wrong. Disagreements aside, Evansville was one of the worst defensive teams in the country last year and they only managed a combined 16 offensive points (8-8 final) in a ten minute scrimmage. Of course "madness" events mean almost as little as pre-season projections.

[C0|db|00ded]

Here is what I saw:

1. Carl Hall is with out a doubt the best player on the team, or at least was today. You may remember him as the 6'8" PF/C who's shooting range was 5ft. That is not the case. He had 18 points (in 30 minutes), and went 7-9 including two 15-17 foot jumpers.

2. Orukpe was slightly improved. He scored the first points of the scrimmage with a hook shot over Hall, then scored again after Hall answered him. He also had 4 blocks.

3. Jake White and Derail Green are dangerous shooters. I think Green was 3-3 from the 3pt line, and White made a number as well.

4. Evan Wessel looked good. Not quite starter good, but he'll get rotation minutes. Not a scrub anymore.

5. Early looked closer to being ready than Wiggins. He won the dunk contest, shot some 3s (2-3) and blocked Orukpe once. Wiggins seemed to disappear sometimes.

6. Kadeem Coleby played, though he will sit out this year. Not flashy, but effective. Blocks a few shots, gets a few rebounds, scores a few points, but not starter material yet.

7. Baker didn't shoot as much as I thought he would, but was playing PG instead of SG because FVV was sitting out. He looked capable of running the offense.

8. Speaking of that, four players didn't play because of injuries: FVV, Chadrack Lufile, Demetric Williams, and Zach Bush.

9. Overall, both teams were scoring with good efficiency. Both ended up over 50% and they shot a combined 11-23 from the 3pt line. Some of that is probably playing lower intensity defense than they would play in a game, but I'm encouraged most by the shooters and their length.

If they started playing today, I think the line-up would be:

PG: Armstead/Baker
SG: Cotton/Wessel
SF: Early/Wiggins/Wessel
PF: Hall/White/Early
C: EO/Hall

Though Demetric Williams and FVV will change that once they fully recover from their injuries. This team should be one of the hardest to match up against in the Valley, though the inexperience will probably negate that somewhat until later in the season.

I was there. Pretty spot on! Wessel hustles and hit a couple shots but he cannot defend. Got blown by twice. Slow feet, but will be a decent bench player.
Hall and Early are players! Hall will be the center. Its his comfort zone. He ventured out and hit a couple mid range jumpers but for a "4", not active enough. Early likes the perimeter. Once he figures what he can do underneath, he could be unstopable.
E.O. Hit a couple of bunnies but he is still lost out there and has no clue how to pass. We quit counting at 6 fouls. He had 3 in 2 minutes. Strickly a backup.
White hit a couple of shots. He literally shot the ball every time he touched it. didn't get a lot of touches. Same with Cotton. He was invisible. Gregg was not pleased with shots being taken after 1 pass (though several went in)
Wiggins is Greggs whipping boy. Athletic but seemed lost on the court.
Armstead looked good, he is not a PG that will push the ball up the court. Forget about putting 5 out there and running people off the court.
Baker did a good job taking care of the ball. Hit 1 driving shot. Nothing fancy but steady.

E.O. hit a couple of bunnies? Bunnies for him maybe. His skyhook over Hall is unblockable and coach said he makes a lot of 'em in practice. He made every shot he took last night except for a dunk that was missed because he tried to take off from two legs about a 1/4 mile from the rim. He also got stuffed by Early. Several of the baskets he made were waved off due to him fouling by being to aggressive while attacking the rim or clearing space. That is eons beyond where he was last year when he would receive a pass and then break out his scientific calculator thinking about what to do next.

He has no clue how to pass? So you didn't see the high-low fastball he curved under the basketball for the easy layup? Sure he still gets locked up from time to time, and he still has a ways to go, but he will be on the court this year a lot swatting MVC balls into the stands as well as scoring efficiently. This year's EO ain't last years EO. All he has to do is manage his fouls and he is going to be a strong contributor.

White hit a couple of shots? Try 12pts. White does everything right. He's strong, rebounds, defends, passes, shoots, drives.. He could easily average double figures this year. He is that effective.

"Forget about putting 5 out there and running people off the court."

WTF? I hope you are talking about our opposition. Our depth and speed is going to literally wear the soles of the shoes of our competition. We don't lose anything when we go to our "bench". In fact, I heard they aren't even going to announce 5 "starters" at the beginning of our games. We are just going to announce the whole roster every game.

Get a clue friend and stop breaking wind in my thread.


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[C0|db|00ded]

Is Orupke going to start?

If not, he may go down as the most overhyped, overrated player in the entire history of the MVC.

I remember somebody telling us before last season that he had a good chance at being an NBA lottery pick.

EO will start as center. He is an automatic possession at the tip-off. He has a couple of effective moves at the post now and isn't afraid to use them. He dramatically alters the game plan of the opposition's slashers. If he can be smart with how he picks and chooses his time to block (he loves to go after the block), he will be a huge asset for us. He is extremely efficient with his hook and it is unblockable. If he is given even an inch around the basket he will dunk. He is the strongest player on our team (has set lifting records that have stood for decades in our gym) and he is 7 feet tall.

While it would take some big steps this year for him to become an NBA lottery pick, his ceiling is unlimited. And if he doesn't make the NBA in 2013-2014, he certainly could the following year or the year after that. This guy is the son of an engineer and is currently a mathematics major at Wichita State. He is brilliant, huge, strong, athletic and 7 feet tall. All he needed was to start playing basketball at a young age instead of soccer and he would have never touched foot on our campus.

Valley fans are going to be amazed at his improvement this year and see just what I'm talking about. If he continues to improve this year and starts to get a few double-doubles, the NBA scouts will start filling our arena because some of the physical assets EO possesses cannot be taught and are rarely seen. He has the body and athleticism to be another Dwight Howard. But can he develop the skill? That's a whole other story. I can assure you this, he has three times the intelligence of Dwight Howard.


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[ictjay]

Is Orupke going to start?

If not, he may go down as the most overhyped, overrated player in the entire history of the MVC.

I remember somebody telling us before last season that he had a good chance at being an NBA lottery pick.

EO will start as center. He is an automatic possession at the tip-off. He has a couple of effective moves at the post now and isn't afraid to use them. He dramatically alters the game plan of the opposition's slashers. If he can be smart with how he picks and chooses his time to block (he loves to go after the block), he will be a huge asset for us. He is extremely efficient with his hook and it is unblockable. If he is given even an inch around the basket he will dunk. He is the strongest player on our team (has set lifting records that have stood for decades in our gym) and he is 7 feet tall.

While it would take some big steps this year for him to become an NBA lottery pick, his ceiling is unlimited. And if he doesn't make the NBA in 2013-2014, he certainly could the following year or the year after that. This guy is the son of an engineer and is currently a mathematics major at Wichita State. He is brilliant, huge, strong, athletic and 7 feet tall. All he needed was to start playing basketball at a young age instead of soccer and he would have never touched foot on our campus.

Valley fans are going to be amazed at his improvement this year and see just what I'm talking about. If he continues to improve this year and starts to get a few double-doubles, the NBA scouts will start filling our arena because some of the physical assets EO possesses cannot be taught and are rarely seen. He has the body and athleticism to be another Dwight Howard. But can he develop the skill? That's a whole other story. I can assure you this, he has three times the intelligence of Dwight Howard.


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Cold, count how many times you used "if" in your EO annointing.

[jwa123]

I respect the enthusiasm the Shocker fans have for their school. That kind of enthusiasm is fun and contagious. However, this is October. Let's revisit this come March.

[C0|db|00ded]

Is Orupke going to start?

If not, he may go down as the most overhyped, overrated player in the entire history of the MVC.

I remember somebody telling us before last season that he had a good chance at being an NBA lottery pick.

EO will start as center. He is an automatic possession at the tip-off. He has a couple of effective moves at the post now and isn't afraid to use them. He dramatically alters the game plan of the opposition's slashers. If he can be smart with how he picks and chooses his time to block (he loves to go after the block), he will be a huge asset for us. He is extremely efficient with his hook and it is unblockable. If he is given even an inch around the basket he will dunk. He is the strongest player on our team (has set lifting records that have stood for decades in our gym) and he is 7 feet tall.

While it would take some big steps this year for him to become an NBA lottery pick, his ceiling is unlimited. And if he doesn't make the NBA in 2013-2014, he certainly could the following year or the year after that. This guy is the son of an engineer and is currently a mathematics major at Wichita State. He is brilliant, huge, strong, athletic and 7 feet tall. All he needed was to start playing basketball at a young age instead of soccer and he would have never touched foot on our campus.

Valley fans are going to be amazed at his improvement this year and see just what I'm talking about. If he continues to improve this year and starts to get a few double-doubles, the NBA scouts will start filling our arena because some of the physical assets EO possesses cannot be taught and are rarely seen. He has the body and athleticism to be another Dwight Howard. But can he develop the skill? That's a whole other story. I can assure you this, he has three times the intelligence of Dwight Howard.


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Cold, count how many times you used "if" in your EO annointing.

Your attempt at a point falls flaccid.

"If he is given even an inch around the basket he will dunk."

Who wants to take me up on a bet that EO get's at least 30 dunks this season?


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[LJay]

Wichita fans, I'm glad he belongs to you.