Senior night represents the end of an era for Wichita State on Tuesday against Evansville. Doesn’t it always? Sure, but this is not just about the players.
Former coach Mark Turgeon’s influence on the program’s roster ends when this season ends, just one year after his departure. Tuesday, P.J. Couisnard and Matt Braeuer play their final home games (as do Phil Thomasson and Lance Harris). Couisnard and Braeuer are the last significant links to the 2006 MVC champions and Sweet 16 team (Junior Wendell Preadom was a reserve on that team and Thomasson a redshirt transfer). When Couisnard and Braeuer depart, the program switches totally from Turgeon flavor to first-year coach Gregg Marshall.
It is stunning, and a measure of the recruiting misses and mistakes, that the 2008-09 roster will have, at most, two players (Gal Mekel and Preadom) who played in a game for Turgeon and none who started. Turgeon recruited Ramon Clemente and Graham Hatch (who honored their commitments to WSU this season) and J.T. Durley (who redshirted in 2006-07). So that’s five players connected to Turgeon (three whom he coached), at the most, and we know it’s possible some of those will not return next season.
That is a lot of turnover, and a reminder Marshall faces significant challenges when he continues to remodel the roster next season.