Wichita State Part III (AAC Tourney Semi-Finals)

[Queens_NYC]

Saturday, March 16th, 2019
5:00 PM
FedExForum
ESPN2

The #6 seed Wichita State Shockers (19-13, 10-8 AAC, Net #87) are arguably the hottest team in the conference currently as they are riding a 6-game winning streak going into this afternoon's bout.

Senior Markis McDuffie produced one of the league's top individual performances of the year last night in the Shockers' 80-74 upset of #3 seed Temple. He scored 34 points to go along with 12 rebounds on 9-19 shooting from the floor (4-9 from 3) and was also 12-13 from the line.

In the Bearcats two match-ups against the Shockers during the regular season, Jarron Cumberland has scored 45 points on 8-15 shooting from 3.

Unlike last night's opponent, Wichita State is much more prone to fouling as they committed 46 fouls in our first two games which resulted in 63 free-throw attempts for us.

While I expect Wichita to match us in effort from start to finish, I am actually more confident going into this game than against SMU as I think we match-up with this team particularly well.

[TheLivingLegend]

Stop McDuffie and I like our chances.

[waterhead]

I was going to post something before the game but got distracted. Not to be a Monday morning QB or anything but I think it will continue to be relevant as we go forward.

I think we will be a very good tourney team if we can get one of the bigs to step up (Brooks and/or Scott) and one of the guards to step up (Jenifer, Broome, or Williams) in addition to Cumberland.

I was thinking 12 plus points from one of the bigs and around 15 from one of the guards. We got 17 and 17 last night which was huge! Of course Cumberland will still have to get his 20 plus. We will need points in tourney and not just D as was apparent last night.

I hope Williams starts to play better (and Broome). Keith seems to feel less and less comfortable figuring out how to get a good/smart shot off between mid range and the rack. He either seems to be getting blocked or putting up a wild shot. He needs to take a page out of Cumberland's book and start using the body more near the rack and also using his step back to get off a make-able mid ranger.

Broome only got 11 minutes last night. But Williams was struggling a bit and he also seemed to get a little lazy getting back at times. We have to get Keith playing at full throttle...if he gets tired we can give him a breather but he can't be lazy if we want to win.

[waterhead]

The last 4 games Brooks and Scott have been trading off nicely.

Scott 17 and Brooks 7
Brooks 16 and Scott 7
Scott 20 and Brooks 2
Brooks 13 and Scott 8

We have gotten 20+ points from them the last 4 games. In the 7 games prior to that...(total points)

12
9
16
6
10
13
12

[waterhead]

The three guards not named Cumberland have combined for 24 plus points in 8 of the last 12 games.

If we can get Cumberland to 20+. The three guards not named Cumberland to 24+. The bigs to 20+. Then we have a well rounded team which would be hard to beat.

[mdchick]

Feel like Keith has been on a short leash for a couple of games now

[skyblade]

Brooks came to play. Scoring and dominating the offensive glass early on.

[mdchick]

Wow the brooks in Canada 8 months ago and the brooks today are 2 entirely different players, he’s dominating them down low

[Queens_NYC]

Originally Posted by skyblade

Brooks came to play. Scoring and dominating the offensive glass early on.

And unfortunately appears to have been getting free throw coaching from Nsoseme.

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by mdchick

Wow the brooks in Canada 8 months ago and the brooks today are 2 entirely different players, he’s dominating them down low

The Cumberland/Brooks two man game is starting to look really good the last couple weeks. Brooks needs to hit a couple of those FT's though (he's usually a soild FT shooter too).