Got the Shockers of Wichita State tonight in the second game of the First Four in Dayton, Ohio at UD Arena. Tip off is set for 8:10 PM CT/9:10 PM ET and will be televised by TruTV, part of the Turner Network of stations. On Directv, TruTV is on channel 246, on Charter HD Cable, it’s on channel 772, on Dish Network, it’s on Channel 204, and on Comcast it’s 841, I believe, not positive on Comcast, but I know it does air on Comcast. The other station listings are accurate.

The Shockers finished their season at 24-8, losing to a really good Northern Iowa team in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, 57-52. Northern Iowa is a very good team that won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, though Wichita State won the regular season title, and I picked Northern Iowa to defeat Texas in their first round matchup Friday night in my bracket. Northern Iowa actually beat North Carolina, 71-67, at home in November, so they’re for real and losing to them is nothing to get down about, that’s for sure. Northern Iowa finished their season 22-12, and 11-7 in the conference. The Shockers were 16-2 in the conference with losses to Illinois State on the road, 58-53, which is coached by former Commodore assistant Dan Muller, and Northern Iowa at home, 53-50. The Shockers don’t have any major wins and have losses also to Alabama, 64-60, in a tournament in Orlando in late November, Tulsa, another tournament team, 77-67 at Tulsa,  and Iowa, a very solid Big Ten team in the tournament, at Orlando in November, 84-61. 

They did go to the Final Four three years ago in 2013, and have a two or three players from that team, one of whom is Ron Baker, a redshirt senior 6’4″, 210 guard, who averages 14.2 ppg. He shoots 36% from three, 59-of-155, which is a little lower percentage than he has been shooting the past couple of years. But he’s always been a big time player for them. Their point guard, Fred VanVleet, is 6 feet, 186, and averages 12 points per game and 5.7 assists per game. He’s outstanding. He doesn’t take a ton of threes, but he’s a 41% three point shooter, 40-of-97. Both are good free throw shooters, Baker shooting it at 79% and VanVleet at 82%. The Shockers defend well, giving up only 59 points per game, and they average 73 points per game themselves. They average 37.5 rebounds per game, and we average 38.6. We give up 67 points per game, so we are going to HAVE to defend well and hit the glass hard. 

Wade Baldwin averages 14.2 points per game and 5.2 assists per game. We need a really good night from Wade. We average about 12 turnovers per game, and we really need to keep that down under 10 and even in the 6-7 range. Damian is averaging 14.2 ppg and 6.9 rbg. He also has 52 blocks this season. Luke is averaging 9 points, but pulls down 7.2 rebounds per game and has 82 blocks on the season. We need that kind of intimidating presence in the paint from Damian and Luke. And we need them to score. Luke needs to give us 10-12 points and eight or 10 boards with some swats to go along with those other skills, and Damian needs to give us 16-18 points and 8-10 boards. MFD and Jeff need to do what they do, which is shoot it well, play solid D, and just make their typical hustle plays. Need six or seven threes from those two combined. Riley, Josh, Nolan, Joe, Cam and even Samir, if Kevin needs him, need to really be impactful when they’re on the floor. 

But we really need to defend and board from the opening tip. We usually shoot it well, though we didn’t against UT in the first half last Thursday and that cost us along with Tennessee sinking every shot they put up. 

We’ve just got to be ready to play at the start of the game and have a sense of urgency right away. This is it for us. It’s win or go home. We don’t want to go home.

Prediction

Wade and Damian play well, along with the other three in our starting five, and Riley and the bench give us good minutes, and our defense gets the job done because we’ll have to defend. Like our guys to move on tonight and play Arizona Thursday Night at 8:20 CT/9:20 ET in Providence, Rhode Island on TNT in the South Regional. But this is all we need to worry about, this game, tonight.

VU 66, Wichita State 62

Baseball swept Xavier last weekend. We are now 15-1 and ranked No.2 in the country by D1baseball.com, the preeminent authority on college baseball. We have Northern Illinois today at 6:30 PM CT/7:30 PM ET on SEC Network+ on the computer, and Mississippi State will come into the Hawk this weekend for games Friday through Sunday. Friday’s game is at 7 PM CT/8 PM ET on the SEC Network, and Saturday’s game is at 7:30 PM CT/8:30 PM ET on the SEC Network. Sunday’s game is at 1 PM CT/2 PM ET on SEC Network+. Will have much  more on baseball coming up this week for sure, along with women’s tennis, which has been struggling a little lately with two losses on the road last week in SEC play against South Carolina and Florida, two outstanding teams, but will right the ship very soon, starting with a home match Thursday at 4 PM CT/5 PM ET against a good A&M  team. The match will be broadcast by SEC Network+. Then we have a home match Saturday at noon CT/ 1 PM ET versus a good LSU team, they’re all good in this conference, which will not be televised, but I’ll have a report on it. The girls are 8-4 and ranked seventh in the country by the ITA, the International Tennis Association. Feel very confident Geoff and the girls will get it going, starting Thursday. I’ll also talk some golf, too. Men have a match this weekend at the Schenkel Invitational at Statesboro, Georgia on Friday.

Also, football information that comes up, will be posted here. Spring game is Friday, March 25th, at 6 PM CT/7 PM ET, in the stadium and will be televised on the SEC Network.

Will have a full report tomorrow on tonight’s game and a recap of baseball from today and what’s going on with the baseball team. It’s going well. Hopefully, our bball team gets it done tonight in Dayton.

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