Todd Golden is in his fourth season covering Indiana State. He says Wu-Shock reminds him of Kyle Wilson gone horribly wrong.
Q: If Shocker fans squint, will they think they are playing Creighton tonight?
A: To a point. Indiana State runs the same offense, but they rarely press. Indiana State also had enough consistency out of its big men to run the spread offense as intended. No good names either. No Booker Woodfox or P’Allen Stinnett to keep the roster interesting and make P.A. announcers cringe.
Q: Can Isiah Martin develop as a scorer, or is he going to be primarily a shot-blocker during his career?
A: He has work to do to develop as a scorer. As it stands, he’s reliable near the basket, but cannot score reliably away from it. He also needs to work on his defense aside from his shot-blocking ability. He often gets out of position or is too aggressive and gets into foul trouble.
Q: You witnessed Drake and its amazing winning ways twice. Explain.
A: Keno Davis has done a great job maximizing his talent. When you recognize that Jonathan Cox is a better shooter than he is traditional post-up center, and then create an offense that takes advantage of it and the rest of Drake’s shooters, you have to give Davis credit. Adam Emmenecker’s wily ways as point guard couldn’t have been predicted by anyone … not Keno Davis, not Adam Emmenecker, not God himself.
Q: Better NBA player – Bradley coach Jim Les or Indiana State’s Kevin McKenna?
A: Les was lucky enough that he came into the NBA when the three-point shot was accepted as an integral part of a NBA offense, not just something to fall back on when a team was behind, as it was when McKenna entered the league in 1981. Les made a career out of popping long-range, so based on that, I give Les a slight edge because of that. But If Les came in when McKenna did and vice versa, who knows? (As you see, I can suck up with the best of them.)