Print edition: 
Wichita State guard Joe Ragland needed a coach who wasn’t afraid to bark at him, discipline him, sit him on the bench.
He chose the right place.
While Ragland didn’t always enjoy those parts of the process at Wichita State, the result is a thriving partnership with coach Gregg Marshall and a season that is bound for the NCAA Tournament. Ragland is rarely on the bench these days as he completes progress from a junior-college transfer to the Missouri Valley Conference’s top point guard.
“Coach, I know he’s gritty and he’s tough and when he’s mad, I can tell,” Ragland said. “I’m used to gritty coaches and tough coaches. That’s why I came here.”
No. 24 WSU (22-4, 13-2 MVC) plays Missouri State (16-11, 9-6) Wednesday night at Koch Arena. WSU can clinch a tie for the conference title with a win.
Ragland, a senior from West Springfield, Mass., plays basketball like a clenched fist. He is all coiled energy, ready to strike. Sometimes that gets him in trouble. At Northern Iowa, he threw Carl Hall a look and a pout after Hall didn’t catch a pass. Marshall pulled Ragland, and later said the bad body language plucked at his very last nerve.
When Ragland returned to the game, he scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half to help the Shockers rally and win 71-68.
“It shouldn’t take that, but sometimes everybody messes up and that’s why we have a coach to get on us,” Ragland said. “Either you’re going to fold, or you’re going to step up. I had to step up.”
It is not the first time.
When Ragland skipped classes last semester, Marshall benched him for Shocker Madness and kept his NIT ring until his grades improved. Marshall knows Ragland needs somebody to push him to get the most out of his potential.
“He’s a tough kid,” Marshall said. “He responds. I’m not sure how he would respond to coddling and a soft coach. I don’t think it would be very well.”
It is not unusual to see Ragland in a heated conversation with coaches or teammates. It is the way he works and the way the Shockers work. Marshall enjoys his relationship with Ragland, and he certainly enjoys the production on the court. He said he promised Ragland he would stay on him this semester to make sure he earns his diploma.
“Basketball is very important to Joe,” Marshall said. “He’s the type kid who watches games when he goes home, sometimes in lieu of studying. I’d love for him to sometimes not watch games and put a little more time in to his books. The bottom line is he loves basketball. You can tell that in the way he practices, the way he plays, and it’s contagious.”
Center Garrett Stutz and Ragland can snap at each other during a practice or a timeout without damaging the relationship. They call it holding each other accountable.
“We can separate business from personal,” Stutz said. “When we’re on the court or we’re in practice and we get after each other, that’s one thing. As soon as we leave the locker room, it’s over.”
In a recent game, guard Toure Murry challenged Ragland after he failed to help on defense when an opponent drove to the basket. Murry is one of the more soft-spoken Shockers, so he got Ragland’s attention with his words.
“As a senior leader, if a guy is messing up, you pull him by the shirt and say ‘Hey, come on,’ ” Ragland said. “The guys respect that. Coach always preaches to us to hold each other accountable and then he won’t have to yell at us.”
Ragland started the season in the Valley’s second tier of point guards. As a junior, he started 19 games and averaged 7.0 points, mixing moments of superb play with frustrating disappearances. He finished with a strong run to help WSU win the NIT title. Then he went to work over the summer to lose weight and get stronger.
“I’m playing more minutes now and I’m productive in those minutes because I’m in shape,” Ragland said.
Creighton’s Antoine Young and Indiana State’s Jake Odum started the season as the Valley’s most highly regarded point guards. Now Ragland leads the list. Plantar fasciitis slowed Odum and the Sycamores are a disappointment. Young won the first head-to-head matchup with Ragland in December. Ragland scored 24 points and handed out six assists (one turnover) to convincingly claim the second meeting on Saturday in an 89-68 win. The Shockers are in control of the MVC race and Ragland is one of the main reasons. He is quick enough to dribble past many guards and strong enough to score close to the basket. His shooting improved dramatically from last season, just as Marshall predicted.
He averages 13.2 points, tops among MVC point guards, and 10th overall. His shooting percentage of 55.7 percentage ranks seventh and is more characteristic of big men who take most of their shots near the basket. Ragland is not one of those players — his three-point accuracy of 47.3 percent ranks second in the Valley.
While Ragland is more of a scoring point guard than others, his ball-handling is solid. He averages 3.5 assists, eighth in the Valley, and his assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.8 ranks sixth.
Those numbers inspire trust. Marshall knows good things happen when Ragland is in the game.
“He’s got a lot of the juco out of him,” Stutz said. “He’s dropped some of his juco habits and tendencies — relaxing on the court, the way you handle your business off the court. Whenever he goes all out, I know the guys really feed off that energy.”
Ragland proved it with two of the best big-game performances in recent WSU history this season. Against then-No. 18 UNLV, Ragland made 8 of 9 threes and scored 31 points. At then-No. 17 Creighton, he made 9 of 12 shots and scored 17 in the second half.
“I had a lot of flaws and stuff I didn’t do well,” he said. “This year, I learned how to work hard over the summer and be a vocal leader. (Marshall) allows me to be aggressive and make smart plays, because he knows percentage-wise, I’m going to make the smart play.”
