Two struggling teams turned in a struggle. Thirty-six fouls. Fifty-six free throws. Fifty-nine missed shots. Evansville struggled in the first half. WSU built the softest 11-point lead in the history of 11-point leads. WSU struggled in the second half and the Aces won.
WSU could be, some would say should be, on a three-game winning streak and coming home for a game Saturday. Instead, they are tied for last in the MVC after two losses. It is one thing to blow a 15-point lead to Creighton. Blowing an 11-point lead to the Aces is another thing.
More than anything, I think the loss shows WSU’s fragile mental state. When things started to go bad, the Shockers had no way to get out of it. Nobody stepped up to make the big basket or the big play. Instead, the Shockers made mistakes, looked tentative on offense and lost their defensive edge. Losing teams lose their confidence and that might be the toughest item to recover.
“I don’t have a whole lot of answers for this team, otherwise we would win more games and look a little better,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “We can’t play 40 minutes. We don’t have the depth nor the talent to play 40 minutes.”
One example of WSU’s mental problems is its defense. The past two games, WSU has played good, sometimes very good, defense in the first half. Both games, WSU played defense in the first half in front of its own bench, where the coaches could yell instructions and demand effort. Both games, WSU’s defense faded in the second half when they defended far away from the voices of the coaches. Several Shockers said that’s not coincidence and I think I will write about that phenomena for Saturday. Fatigue, of course, could be another factor.
One factor fans can forget about is the officials. Evansville shot eight more free throws, and made 10 more, on Wednesday. Marshall was in no mood to blame the refs.
“We were in deep foul trouble because we weren’t working in the first half,” he said. “We were fouling because we weren’t in position and we weren’t working.”