Shaq Morris wants to fit in Wichita State basketball’s picture

Wichita State center Shaq Morris orders Caesar salad instead of pizza. He finished a mile run, something he couldn’t do during his redshirt season. His weight is down to 261 pounds, lowest in his 15 months as a Shocker.

Promising signs for Morris, a 6-foot-8 package of potential and frustration. Coach Gregg Marshall isn’t all that impressed. He wants to see more, a lot more.

The Shockers begin their full-team practices Friday and Morris is healthy, which is a good start. Marshall estimates Morris missed between 49 and 60 (depending on who is counting) practices last season with a variety of minor ailments, mostly sore knees. WSU needs big men to step forward following the departure of centers Chadrack Lufile and Kadeem Coleby. Morris, by virtue of his redshirt season, ranks second on the roster in experience among centers. Marshall has little idea what he can expect.

“He’s not a count-on-me guy,” Marshall said. “Some guys have count-on-me written all over them. He’s not one of those guys.”

Morris knows his coach is skeptical.

“It definitely starts (Friday) in practice, to show him for 2 hours and 30 minutes that I can consistently go hard and I can give him my all up and down the court,” Morris said. “Especially on defense and rebounding, which I know that’s what he really wants.”

Marshall wants Morris to fight through fatigue, to play hard for more than a few possessions and to defend and rebound. Morris says his attendance at practices over the summer and fall was perfect. With the weight loss, down from 280 when he arrived in 2013, he is optimistic he can break the cycle of poor conditioning leading to injury, which leads to poor conditioning, and on and on. He would like to drop around five more pounds before the season starts.

When he eats with friends, he tries to stay away from pizza and hamburgers.

“I definitely had to get rid of carbs,” he said. “My work ethic over the summer, compared to last year, has definitely been better. I feel lighter and I’m getting in better shape.”

Former Shocker J.T. Durley was not regarded as a count-on-me kind of guy early in his career, either.

He redshirted in 2006-07, coach Mark Turgeon’s final season at WSU. Marshall inherited Durley, a 6-foot-7 center with a smooth scoring touch, and the two battled from the start. Durley didn’t play hard enough for Marshall, especially on defense. He gradually improved and earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors as a senior, although Marshall remains unhappy that Durley didn’t defend and rebound with more enthusiasm. He led the 2011 NIT champions in scoring (11.2 ) and ranked second in rebounding (4.9).

“They do have a lot of similarities,” Marshall said. “The biggest thing with either one of them is that they don’t want to push themselves beyond their comfort zone.”

Last spring, Durley returned to WSU and talked with Morris and watched him play.

“I’ve seen the talent,” Durley said. “He’s more athletic than me. He’s bigger than me. I was telling him that he could dominate in the Valley.”

Durley, pushed hard by Marshall and his coaches, decided he didn’t want to return home to Pittsburg, Texas as the person who couldn’t handle NCAA Division I basketball.

“You don’t want that under your name,” he said. “That’s what motivated me. That’s a better story than if I had transferred from Wichita State. It was either change or leave.”

Morris is in a similar situation. Durley told him to use WSU’s support system, the same one that helped him, and use strength and conditioning coach Kerry Rosenboom. Durley, who played professionally in Spain last season, credits those people with pushing him to change and encouraging him when times got tough.

“They wanted to see me do good,” Durley said. “But at the end of the day, it’s up to you. They can’t do the work for you.”

Rosenboom is hard at work on Morris’ body and mind, as well, trying to change a friendly, talkative kid into a chiseled weapon. He sees improvement. He sees room for much more.

Morris finished a mile for the first time in early September, with a time of 8 minutes, 38 seconds. When Morris recently lowered his mile time to 6:45, he needed help from teammates who, literally, pushed him to finish and save the team from another running session.

“He is getting stronger,” Rosenboom said. “He is getting a better work ethic in the weight room. I think he’s starting to feel good about that, but the the sky is the limit. He should have one of the best bodies in this conference, if he was motivated and dedicated to it.”

Every step forward that Morris makes is a reminder of his potential. Rosenboom looks at Morris’ shoulders and legs and sees a body that could rank with players such as Maurice Evans and Xavier McDaniel.

“He’s got such a natural structure, that if he decided to push himself he could have one of the five-best bodies I’ve worked with,” Rosenboom said. “Shaq needs to make a lifestyle change. It’s got to be where extra conditioning is his choice, not because coaches are telling him.”

The Shockers could use Morris at his best as they defend their MVC title and work on a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. He owns size and scoring skills that can carry a team and five years to develop them. As a senior at Edmond Memorial, he averaged 19.9 points and 8.4 rebounds and earned Player of the Year honors for Oklahoma City’s large schools.

“He’s big and strong and explosive around the basket,” Marshall said.

Expectations are different than when Morris signed in November 2012. Now the Shockers think of themselves as a team that wants to return to the Final Four and win a national title. Marshall wants Morris to help and he will not accept Morris coasting on defense. As long as Morris is a Shocker, Marshall will push him every day. Many days, it won’t be fun for Morris.

“Keep hammering, keep hammering,” Marshall said. “I told him I’m not going to stop. If you get tired of hearing it, you can go somewhere else, but I’m not going to stop. I’m going tell you like it is. I’m going to tell you the truth, and you probably don’t like it, just like J.T.”

Morris, Marshall is convinced, wants to contribute at WSU.

“This is a big year for him,” Marshall said. “This is a big year for him, in that regard.”

Morris listened to Durley. He doesn’t want to return to Edmond known as the player who failed to take advantage of his potential.

“I definitely want to avoid being that guy,” Morris said. “I want to be the redshirt freshman who comes in and people say he’s a guy who does what he needs to do off the court and on the court.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Shaq Morris wants to fit in Wichita State basketball’s picture."