Shocker report: WSU 77, Drake 69

Wednesday’s box

Right play, right decoy, right time

Wichita State’s Rauno Nurger supplied one second-half basket and it shouldn’t be ignored.

Neither should Conner Frankamp’s role in the basket, even though he didn’t touch the ball.

Drake cut WSU’s lead to 68-65 on a three by Reed Timmer with 4:09 to play. That basket got the crowd of 3,024 on its feet.

Nurger’s response stopped that low roar cold. He set a screen for Frankamp, drawing Drake’s Nick McGlynn’s attention to the three-point line. Nurger cut to the basket to take advantage of McGlynn’s step toward Frankamp.

Nurger caught the ball under the basket, faked and banked in a reverse layup.

“I had to slip the screen and I got a wide-open layup,” Nurger said. “If they were going to help on Conner for the three-point shot, I was going to get open. If they weren’t going to help, Conner was going to get the three-point shot.”

Nurger departed the arena with a bag of ice for his left ankle and a sore neck. After that basket, he took a tumble into the Drake bench while chasing a loose ball with McGlynn crashing into his legs.

“I guess they pushed me and I went head-first into the bench,” he said. “I screwed up neck a little bit, and my ankle.”

More McDuffie milestones

WSU’s Markis McDuffie produced one of the season’s most impressive, and oddest, stat lines.

He scored three points and missed seven of eight shots. He also grabbed 14 rebounds and handed out eight assists, both career highs.

It’s his second straight game with 14 rebounds and he has 37 in his past three games. McDuffie secured four offensive rebounds, all in the first half, and missed two of his three follow shots.

His previous assists mark was four, most recently against Bradley on Jan. 1.

More Marshall milestones

Coach Gregg Marshall improved to 250-89 in his 10th season at WSU. He is the 32nd active NCAA Division I coach with 250 or more wins at his current school.

He is the eighth-fastest to that milestone, getting to 250 in fewer games than Rick Pitino (seven), Tom Izzo (13) and 16 fewer than Mike Krzyzewski.

Marshall also passed Phog Allen into fifth place on the Missouri Valley Conference’s career wins list. Marshall is 127-46 in MVC games. Allen won 126 at Kansas from 1907-09 and 1919-28.

Miller’s road memories

Former Shocker Paul Miller visited one of his old Missouri Valley Conference road haunts as the guest analyst for Cox 22’s broadcast.

Miller, a senior on the 2006 MVC champions, experienced a much different conference than the current Shockers are 11 years after his departure. Evansville, Missouri State and Northern Iowa play in different arenas. SIU Arena is full renovated. Creighton is out; Loyola is in.

His favorite times on the road start with times the Shockers played two games and traveled between sites without returning to Wichita.

“We always looked forward to that because you got to miss some school,” he said. “You got to be on the road, just playing basketball, for more than just a night away, a game, and then you’re back.”

Northern Iowa’s old home, the UNI-Dome is his least-liked stop. Until 2006-07, the Panthers played in their 16,000-seat indoor football stadium, placing bleachers, a court and a curtain on the field to produce an atmosphere unlike most. The approximately 75-yard walk from the court to the locker rooms still irritates Miller.

“I hated that place the most,” he said. “We hardly ever won there. It was a bear getting from the locker room to the floor. The venue just wasn’t conducive to being fun to play in. I always liked playing at Creighton, because they had such great crowds. Personally, I always enjoyed playing at Missouri State, maybe because I’m from Missouri.”

The fact the Shockers went 1-3 at the UNI-Dome in games in which Miller played didn’t help. The Hammons Student Center, Missouri State’s home until 2008, holds better memories since the Shockers went 4-0 during Miller’s time.

Worth noting

Drake didn���t make a basket in the final four minutes of the game. … WSU leads the series 104-47, 38-34 in Des Moines. … Before Wednesday, WSU had won four straight over Drake by 20 or more points. …. Some of Wichita State traveling party ate at Splash Seafood Bar & Grill on Tuesday night. The restaurant is owned by former Shocker football player Bruce Gerleman. … Wichita State’s Austin Reaves, out with a dislocated right shoulder, stayed in Wichita to attend class..

Paul Suellentrop

This story was originally published February 1, 2017 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Shocker report: WSU 77, Drake 69."