Shockwaves

WSU guard Gal Mekel is back in his home country of Israel and will play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Why was he here? It seemed a strange match from the start and it never really paid off.

Go back to the summer of 2007, when WSU is coming off a Sweet 16 spot and the No. 1 priority is replacing center Paul Miller. WSU’s final recruit that summer was Mekel, landed in part by new assistant coach Scott Spinelli’s international connections. The roster is loaded with guards - Braeuer, Ogirri, Bradley, Preadom, Couisnard.

Concern: Out of that group, only Braeuer is a pure point guard. I can understand looking for help in the backcourt, but not at the expense of the front court, and only if that addition at guard is a slam-dunk difference maker. Bigger concern: WSU is short on big men entering 2007. The three freshmen seem long shots to contribute immediately, and that proves to be accurate. Phil Thomasson does some of what Miller did, but not enough.

Serviceable big men are not easy to find, so maybe it’s not fair to say “Why didn’t WSU get some kind of big man to help Wilson, Martin and Thomasson instead of another guard?”

Why didn’t WSU get some kind of big man to help Wilson and Martin instead of another guard?

With the benefit of hindsight, Mekel was the wrong player at the wrong time. He is a point guard who needs to dominate the ball to play his game. That did not fit with WSU under coach Mark Turgeon or Gregg Marshall. The adjustment from the international game was too tough for him to make. WSU, it appears, was over-sold on Mekel’s ability to come in and be a difference-maker immediately. He is not a great athlete. He is not a great shooter or scorer. Had he been that kind of player, the gamble might have worked in 2007. Imagine that team if Mekel had matured into a dynamic scorer off the bench by mid-January or February.

He wasn’t. Mekel was a hard worker who took his basketball seriously and wanted to win. His desire to play the point and his love of the “beautiful” play didn’t fit at WSU. Given time, in the right system and situation, Mekel had the skills to play for a coach who could live with a few turnovers. He needed to go somewhere we was needed to run a team, not just be a part.

For Marshall’s program, it’s best that Mekel move on and remove the doubt. His future was always going to be an issue because of his ties to Maccabi. It’s best to break it off clean when WSU can recruit and fill his scholarship.