How far will WSU go?

[rlh04d]

Your stat proves my point. Last year's team would go into halftime already having won the game. This year's team went into halftime with only a single digit lead or actually losing at half then in the 2nd half they would turn it up to get the victory.

Your memory is faulty, as most people's are regarding last year.

In this year's nonconference season, WSU trailed at half time once: vs Alabama. We were tied against George Washington, and had one to four point leads against Utah, Detroit, and Hawaii. That's five games in the entire nonconference schedule that were close at halftime. The other seven games were all 7+ point leads at halftime.

Last year? Look at this list:

30-28 W. Kentucky
38-39 William & Mary
27-29 Tenn St.
31-31 Tulsa
34-36 BYU
28-29 SLU
22-30 Oral Roberts
25-26 Tennessee
33-32 Alabama
36-32 Davidson

That perfect team trailed at half time in six games, tied once, and had three 1-4 point leads, for 10 close games. Double this year. Only three games in the entire nonconference schedule last year were "safe" halftime leads, and one of those was vs Emporia State.

Going undefeated cures all ills, but this:

Last year's team would go into halftime already having won the game.

... is entirely false. Last year's team was a second half team -- they came out in the second half game after game and starting throwing haymakers, building huge runs right out of halftime to blow games that had been close open. This year's team has been FAR better in the first half.

[rlh04d]

Also, last year's team would not to have lost to this year's ISUr in STL.

Last year it took a Kentucky team that has lost one game, in the national title game, since playing WSU, to beat us. By a single basket.

It's tough to say last year's WSU team would have lost to anyone that wasn't capable of playing for a national championship.

I definitely think WSU is weaker this year. I don't think there's any doubt about that. But when you're comparing a team to a team that went undefeated, almost any team is going to lose that comparison. UNI isn't last year's WSU team but that doesn't mean they don't have a tremendous shot at having a great tournament. And the fact of going undefeated makes everything about WSU's team look better in retrospect, even if it's not entirely true, like your belief that last year's team was blowing out everyone in the first half because they were just that talented, when that wasn't the case.

[Championz]

Surely to God the Shockers will beat Indiana..................won't they? It will set the Valley back another two or three years if they don't get the job done.

I guess the Valley survives.

When do the Sycamores play next?

[Snaggletooth]

Looks like 15% of the valley fanbase was disappointed today.

[TheDrake]

We're all wichita state fans for the tourney. Go shockers.

[Kyle]

Looks like 15% of the valley fanbase was disappointed today.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion.

[PantherSigEp]

We're all wichita state fans for the tourney. Go shockers.

Hey, I think you forgot someone bub

[NeutralObserver]

..

[Rambler63]

I think last year's Shocker team was deeper and more physically talented. Without a go-to guy in the frontcourt, this year's team is doing it more on smarts and experience from the starters.

[Wufan]

I think last year's Shocker team was deeper and more physically talented. Without a go-to guy in the frontcourt, this year's team is doing it more on smarts and experience from the starters.

Last years team certainly had a deeper, bigger, more experienced front court. You could say that this years Carter is better than last years Lufile and that Shaq, at this point, is as good as Carter was last year. Perhaps Wamukota can replace Coleby. Even then, Wessel is replacing Early and the Shockers are relying on a more experienced backcourt to cover for the loss.

I think it's fair to say we aren't as big or dynamic as last year at a minimum.