Quote:
Originally Posted by DiracSpike
Have you seen this team play dude? I'm just wondering what your take on them was before the tourney started, I remember reading your posts about the MVC and it seemed like you thought Creighton was the shining star in the region (I did too). Did they show potential throughout the season or are they just playing out of their minds right now?
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The thing with WSU is,they lost 3 starters (Hall, Baker and Evan Wessel) early in the season to injury. Hall missed the first half of the conference season, Baker missed I think 21 games and just came back for the Valley tournament and Wessel is out for the year. During all of this, they took control of the Valley and held it until the last week. They proceeded to lose 3 close games in the Conference....and then dropped the game in Omaha against Creighton giving the Jays the top seed in the tourney.
It's hard to judge. I'm guessing had Baker and Hall not missed significant time this team would've run away with the conference championship.
They are dynamic. Play great defense, have a +8 rebound margin. They go 10-11 deep every game, which is a huge advantage. All of them (except Orupke) have some offensive game.
The biggest thing, however, is that Gregg Marshall is an outstanding coach.
No question they are playing as well as they have all season, but this team could've easily been a 4 or a 5 had things gone just a little differently for them in terms of injury. I don't hear a whole lot of pundits saying they aren't deserving, which is very surprising to me.