Shockers undefeated heading into the tournament!

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Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0

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Wichita State wins MVC tournament championship by easily beating Indiana State 83-69. Think about this. If they are fortunate enough to win the national championship, they will go 40-0!!
 



station19 said:
Are they for real?

How far will they go?
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the team seems legit but it's impossible to say with who they've played. beat SLU on the road for best win. haven't had many close games. It'll be interesting to see how they respond if they get in a tight game down the stretch
 

upnorthkid said:
the team seems legit but it's impossible to say with who they've played. beat SLU on the road for best win. haven't had many close games. It'll be interesting to see how they respond if they get in a tight game down the stretch
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You know why I'm asking.
 


station19 said:
Are they for real?

How far will they go?
Click to expand...

Like what has been said, they haven't played anybody. All I know is this, they have been down by more than 15 points on a couple of occasions against inferior competition and came back to win. If they go down double digits against a good squad, they won't come back. I will be against them out in Vegas.
 

station19 said:
You know why I'm asking.
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did i miss something? i don't stay as up to date on some of the dumb convos that happen here if there was sarcasm underlying that post. if so, my bad
 


Pretty impressive this season. But they haven't played anyone. Not one ranked team all season. Sorta like how Gonzaga does so well.
 



Since no one else has said this, I will. It's shocking. ;)
 

What seems to be forgotten is that this team went to the Final Four a year ago.

Did they play the most difficult schedule? No. Why is that? Because nobody will play them.

It would have been interesting had Creighton still been in the MVC this year.

I don't know that the Shockers will be in the Final Four, but they are very good and Gregg Marshall is a really good coach.
 

I'll have at least one bracket where I have them losing their #1 vs 8/9 matchup.
 

Face The Facts said:
I'll have at least one bracket where I have them losing their #1 vs 8/9 matchup.
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Interesting. That would be a big upset. Not many 1's have fallen to a 8/9. A couple maybe?

As of now I figure Florida is a fairly big favorite to win the whole thing. The key/interesting will be to pick the Final Four teams.....that looks wide open.
 



XMan said:
Pretty impressive this season. But they haven't played anyone. Not one ranked team all season. Sorta like how Gonzaga does so well.
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But Gonzaga never went to the final four and took a double digit lead on the #1 overall seed and eventual national champions. The Shockers did. Probably should have won the game as well, they blew it.
 

die hard gopher said:
But Gonzaga never went to the final four and took a double digit lead on the #1 overall seed and eventual national champions. The Shockers did. Probably should have won the game as well, they blew it.
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Yeah, I'd say they're total pretenders if this wasn't the case. They made a run last year and showed they are for real. Same crew is back this year. I would say that they are overrated as a #1 seed this year, but I'll probably have them in the sweet sixteen at least in my bracket and wouldn't be...wait for it...shocked if they made the final four. The Zags being #1 last year was an absolute joke. I actually picked them to lose to Pitt, not WSU, but tomato tomahto.
 

I don't think you can say this WSU team is the same as the one that took the court in the tourney last year. It is a different team. Some of the same parts are back. But they lost a couple major cogs to that machine. In my opinion Wichita State is not quite as good this season as they were in the tourney last year. They clearly peaked in the tourney and it had to do with getting Baker back from injury and putting him in the starting lineup.

Early is a baller, no doubt a stud. Baker is great against the MVC but all he does against top BCS teams is hit draw fouls and make a high percentage of FTs. Van Vleet has come on this year but is not a great defender, last year they could throw Armstead at you who was a much more athletic, tougher player defensively and Van Vleet was able to come in and add some scoring punch off the bench. They have a couple nice players at the C postion this year but I don't think any of them individually are as good as Carl Hall was, as Hall was a jack of all trades type big man who was versatile and could do a lot of things for you in every game. Cotton has stepped up his offensive game, that is good for them but he is still a supporting player offensively. But I don't think they have as many viable scoring options this year as they had last year in the tourney. And I don't think they are as strong defensively.

Overall Wichita State this season looks like a Sweet 16 team to me, they could go farther but it all depends on the matchups. They had a special blend last year, and it does take a special blend to get to the Final Four without an NBA player - losing just one key guy from a team like that is enough to upset the balance and result in a shorter tourney stay, & they lost two.
 

Jeshurun said:
Yeah, I'd say they're total pretenders if this wasn't the case. They made a run last year and showed they are for real. Same crew is back this year. I would say that they are overrated as a #1 seed this year, but I'll probably have them in the sweet sixteen at least in my bracket and wouldn't be...wait for it...shocked if they made the final four. The Zags being #1 last year was an absolute joke. I actually picked them to lose to Pitt, not WSU, but tomato tomahto.
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I don't think it was that obvious that the Zags weren't #1 seed caliber last year. Kelly Olynyk was a superstar last season, I don't think many people appreciate how good that kid was for them. Very few college teams have a player as good as Olynyk was for Gonzaga last year. Not easy to take that team down with Olynyk, Harris and Pangos. Gonzaga didn't have much on their resume but they were a tough team to beat, and they would have annihilated Pitt had they played them.
 

Last year gonzaga played three ranked teams during the regular season and lost two of those games. Wichita state's schedule this year is even less than that. Not saying they aren't good teams but to get the number one seed in the NCAA tournament should require you to beat some quality opponents. Gonzaga didn't. Wichita state didn't.
 

XMan said:
Last year gonzaga played three ranked teams during the regular season and lost two of those games. Wichita state's schedule this year is even less than that. Not saying they aren't good teams but to get the number one seed in the NCAA tournament should require you to beat some quality opponents. Gonzaga didn't. Wichita state didn't.
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I would be with you if it weren't for the fact that Wichita State was in the Final Four last year. Sure it was a year ago and shouldn't matter much, but I think that proved they are a legit team. Anytime a team can go undefeated, they probably deserve a #1 seed. Even great teams lose games they should win.
 

First team since UNLV to enter the tournament undefeated. If the two teams played head to head in their prime I'd take Vegas by 40.
 

LongLiveMilesTarver said:
First team since UNLV to enter the tournament undefeated. If the two teams played head to head in their prime I'd take Vegas by 40.
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That Runnin' Rebels team was an all-star team with LJ, Greg Anthony, and Stacey Augmon. Add Anderson Hunt and Elmore Spencer and you wondered how any college team could possibly stop them. Coach K had to have come up with the perfect game plan in the semis that year. 40 points might be a stretch, but I could see a 20 point blowout easily.
 

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