Category Archives: Gregg Marshall

Creighton at Wichita State

Jan. 17, 20092:49 p.m.

Final: WSU 74, CU 61. Big win for WSU. Gregg Marshall graciously declines to run a lob play in the final seconds. WSU’s best effort of the season. Shocker fans deserve an assist for an impressive vocal performance. Is there another place in the nation where 10,500 fans show for an 0-6 team? The Shockers made it possible by playing well from the start. Nothing jacks up the fans like players diving on the floor. WSU, for the first time in awhile, combined a good shooting effort with good defense. The Shockers held Creighton to 33.3 percent from the field, its worst of the season. WSU shot 49.1 percent from the field, its fourth straight game of 46 percent or better. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall | Comments (3)

Wichita State at Drake

Jan. 11, 20095:42 p.m.

Final: DU 74, WSU 69. Nice effort. I think that may be WSU’s best signs of progress since the MVC season started. Tough not to get rewarded with a win. Drake, as it was last year, does a lot of smart things, shoots well and makes few mistakes. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall, Recruiting | Comments (2)

Tuesday at Koch Arena

Dec. 30, 20082:39 p.m.

All kinds of notions about the MVC race turned upside down Sunday afternoon. No team benefited more than Bradley, WSU’s next opponent. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall | Comments (0)

Gardner-Webb at Wichita State

Dec. 12, 20087:56 p.m.

Final: WSU 76, G-W 64. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall, Recruiting | Comments (1)

Friday at Koch Arena

Dec. 5, 20087:18 p.m.

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall talked mostly about his offense on Friday before practice. He pointed out the lack of practice time during a four-game stretch between Nov. 27-Dec. 3. The problems on offense are numerous. Bad shots. Bad passes. Lack of movement. Lack of execution. Marshall ticked off several examples of teammates missing open teammates with sloppy passes. Or of players taking ill-advised shots. Other than guard Clevin Hannah, coaches don’t know who is going to show up from game to game and score. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall, Recruiting | Comments (0)

Centenary vs. WSU

Nov. 24, 20086:44 p.m.

Final: WSU 65. CC 44

1:50 remaining: WSU 63, CC 37. Deep subs are in. Shockers hold Gents to 17 points in the second half. Stutz is out with 22. Murry has 13.

7:45 remaining: WSU 52, CC 33. WSU 6 for 6 from the line. The reserves are coming. Bret Michael has his warmup off. That is an early victory cigar. Marshall is definitely giving people chances to show what they can do.

MVC score: UMKC 73, Bradley 61. Ouch.

11:29 remaining: WSU 50, CC 30. WSU’s best stretch of the young season. The Shockers forced turnovers, rebounded, took good shots and made them. And they are 5 for 5 from the line. Stutz has 18. The lineup of Stutz-Clemente-Hawkins-Hannah-Murry made a statement. Now we will see how the others fill in. The Gents are working on six straight empty possessions.

14:59 remaining: WSU 39, CC 28. Murry scores five straight to force the Gents to call timeout. Defense helped produce both baskets. After a miss, Hannah pushed the ball and found Murry open for a three on the wing. After a steal by Hannah, he passed to Murry for a layup. Murry has 13, all in this half. Redus is back for the Gents.

15:38 remaining in the game: WSU 34, CC 28. Murry has eight of WSU’s 10. Two threes and a lovely backdoor layup from Stutz. Defense is now the issue. The Gents scored on three straight possessions.

Hannah replaces Hatch in the lineup to start the second half.

Break almost over. Volleyball team introduced and coach Chris Lamb stumps for fans to come out this week. It will be interesting to see how roles get defined in this half. Other than Stutz scoring and Ramon rebounding, this team lacks definition. Stutz’s 15 first-half points are two more than any Shocker has scored in a game.

Halftime: WSU 24, CC 20. Don’t buzzer-beaters seem to fall against WSU unusually often? Centenary’s Nick Stallings made one to end the half despite good defense. Eleven turnovers is the story for WSU. Stutz has 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Chamberlain has five and Hannah and Kyles two each. Strange, strange box score. WSU coach Gregg Marshall played 11. I would expect him to narrow that down in the second half.  WSU is up in rebounds 22-10. It seems like a game the Shockers should be dominating. They are not because of turnovers.

3:37 remaining: WSU 22, CC 15. Stutz scores six of WSU’s eight to give it a little cushion. WSU is getting the ball inside against the zone defense. The Gents are shooting 28.6 percent. Reggie Chamberlain has give for WSU. Gary Redus, a starter for the Gents, is icing his right ankle. His return looks iffy.

7:57 remaining: WSU 14, CC 11. Both teams heat up when they quit throwing the ball away. Stutz has seven for the Shockers. He improves each time out. Nothing fancy. He uses his height and good hands.

11:43 remaining: WSU 8, CC 3. Three more turnovers for WSU, which cannot take advantage of miserable shooting by the Gents. Centenary is 1 of 10 and 0 for 5 from three. Mantas Griskenas is in for the first time this season. Durley, Kyles, Ellis and Hannah complete the lineup.

15:04 remaining: WSU 5, CC 2. Four turnovers for the Shockers. Defense looks better than Wednesday. Centenary is 1 of 6 with three turnovers. Stutz has all of WSU’s points.

Garrett Stutz in the starting lineup for J.T. Durley. Graham Hatch also starts, moving Toure Murry to the point.

Fifteen minutes until tip here at Koch Arena.

We know who is joining WSU in the CBE CLassic next season in Kansas City’s Sprint Center: Texas, Pitt and Iowa.

Looking ahead to the Old Spice Classic

Around the MVC

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall | Comments (0)

Last practice before Emporia State

Nov. 9, 20082:10 p.m.

The Shockers practiced Sunday morning in preparation for Monday’s exhibition game. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall | Comments (0)

Drake out, WSU recruits, South Carolina search

March 21, 20083:21 p.m.

The postseason looks like a fitting end to the MVC season. The Valley was good this year, but not great. The talent (and experience) drain from 2006 and 2007 has not been replenished. Drake, which got a tough draw against a good Western Kentucky team, was a great story and a very good team. I don’t think the Bulldogs were as good as recent MVC champions, and certainly the conference was not as deep as in past seasons. The results are better in the NIT, which seems about right for the 2007-08 season. SIU’s victory over Oklahoma State, which defeated Texas A&M, Kansas and Baylor as part of five-game winning streak in mid-February, stands out because the Salukis played without guard Bryan Mullins.

Drake’s loss looks bad for the MVC, but I don’t think there is much shame in it. The Hilltoppers are a conference champion from a conference similar to the Valley. It’s a traditionally good program with a NBA-type player in Courtney Lee.

  • Drake’s loss means the MVC goes winless in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since SIU and Northern Iowa whiffed in 2004. The MVC champ – SIU (2007), WSU (2006), SIU (2005) – had won at least one game the past three tournaments.

It appears the South Carolina job search will move on without Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall. That could change if the Gamecocks run through several candidates. Media reports in South Carolina are focused on Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel and at least two season wraps (here and here) make a point to mention Marshall as an unlikely candidate.

Stay tuned, because coaching searches can take dramatic twists. It appears, however, WSU fans can relax.

Anybody who watched the region and national juco tournaments knows Marshall and his staff are full-speed recruiting for next season. Itawamba guard Anthony Brock said he will visit WSU this spring.

I watched Brock on Thursday in a 75-73 loss to Indian Hills. He did not play well. He forced shots and did not play particularly hard. With only look, I won’t make a call on Brock’s ability to help WSU. We know the Shockers need point guards and his credentials look good. After watching four games over two days in Hutch, my biggest impression is that the talent level is down from 10-15 years ago. Prep schools have altered the landscape.

As Creighton proved with Woodfox and Witter, schools can find good juco players. A backcourt with Chipola’s Clevin Hannah and Brock would be quick and good with the ball. I would think WSU would be an improved pressing team with them and difficult to press. If you watched Winthrop this season, think of point guard Chris Gaynor.

WSU signee Garrett Stutz is a two-sport athlete. The way the Marshall family gets involved with recruits, Stutz may have a gallery following him hole to hole.

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall, MVC | Comments (1)

T is for turnover

Feb. 25, 200810:31 p.m.

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.

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall | Comments (0)

Marshall speaks

Jan. 22, 20089:52 p.m.

Which happened first? A media outlet blew a story out of proportion and fudged the facts in the interest of a hot story? Or a coach fudged his or her interest in an open job and toyed with the affections of fans?

That is the chicken-or-the-egg place we are at with the Gregg Marshall-and-South Carolina story. He thinks the attention to the story is overblown and the media is treating him and his family unfairly. As far as I can tell, most of his gripe is with talk radio and TV. KGSO’s Chris Allison gave him a chance to identify the mistakes. Marshall declined, although he later said a report stated he is friends with South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier. In fact, they have never met, Marshall said Tuesday. I can find that reference here at the KWCH Web site. I don’t know if it has been repeated elsewhere. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, Gregg Marshall, MVC | Comments (1)