WSU mailbag: McDuffie’s return, WSU’s starting lineup, guarding Trae Young, and how to beat OU

It’s Shocker mailbag time before Saturday’s tilt against Oklahoma at Intrust Bank Arena.

In this mailbag, I discuss Markis McDuffie’s imminent return, what it means to WSU’s starting lineup, how WSU can defend Trae Young, and the biggest key for WSU to win Saturday’s game. Let’s get right to it.

No. Fans got their hopes up when I posted a video of McDuffie messing around at Koch Arena before a practice on Tuesday, but it was just that — messing around. Although it was encouraging to see him moving on a basketball court with a ball in his hands, McDuffie has yet to practice with the team in his recovery from a stress fracture in his foot this offseason. I’m told he is nearing his return though and he indicated that he plans on returning for the Dec. 22 home game against Florida Gulf Coast. Right now that’s up in the air, but all signs point toward him being available for WSU’s first American game at Connecticut on Dec. 30.

I haven’t heard officially what exactly was ailing the Wichita native, but everyone I’ve talked to this week has said the situation is improving and they expect Haynes-Jones to be ready to play this Saturday against OU. Marshall speculated earlier this week that the stomach issues could be anxiety-related, but it’s still unclear what exactly is wrong with him. I do know he practiced on Thursday and Friday and will be available against the Sooners on Saturday.

Zach Brown. I think Marshall has the confidence in Brown where he’s going to get the first crack at every leading scorer that plays on the perimeter. Brown has the size advantage on Young, as he will try to use his length to his advantage. When Young doesn’t have the ball, expect Brown to be physical and make off-ball movement for Young difficult. But defending Young is not a one-man job. It’s going to take great communication between all of WSU’s defense to slow him down. WSU’s bigs will have to be assignment sound on their ball screen coverage and then WSU’s help defense is going to have to be on-point because Young has the ability to split a defense with a one-handed rocket. I think an interesting question will be how WSU defends the on-ball screen against Young. Do they hard hedge like usual? Do they trap? Does the guard start going under screens? Do they switch? That will be something to watch on Saturday. I also expect Landry Shamet to get a crack at Young at some point on defense, as well.

I think Zach Brown will start out on Young and I expect WSU to try to be physical with him and not let him get going in transition. I think WSU’s philosophy of hard-hedging screens is a good way to go about defending Young in ball screens. I would also like to see WSU aggressively trap Young when OU sets a ball screen for him and gamble with OU playing 4-on-3, just to get the ball out of his hands and not let him make the pass for the assist. It’s going to take a total team effort on defense to contain Young, so it’s not just who is on-ball against Young. It’s going to be important how WSU’s bigs play the ball screens and also how WSU’s help defense rotates if Young is able to penetrate.

The biggest key is limiting OU’s opportunities in transition. The Sooners are one of the best teams in college basketball when they’re on the run and a quarter of their offense relies on buckets in transition. So if WSU can limit live-ball turnovers, take good shots, which will lead to made baskets and forcing OU to take the ball out, then I think the Shockers can effectively cap a good portion of OU’s offense. I don’t believe you have to shut down Trae Young to beat OU. After all, he scored 28 against Arkansas and the Sooners still lost by nine. Young is going to get his just because he’s a tremendous player and him scoring close to 30 shouldn’t be discouraging. If WSU can limit the supporting cast, then it will be fine on Saturday even if Young goes for his average.

While you won’t find a stat like that in a box score, there are ways of showing Brown’s defensive value on the team. According to Synergy, when Brown is the on-ball defender, opponents have scored 56 points in 68 possessions, which earns a “Good” rating. Opponents are turning the ball over 17.6 percent of the time against Brown’s on-ball defense, the highest rate on the team. Brown is a plus-5.3 defensively in plus-minus, which means he is 5.3 points more valuable than the average defender (third-best mark on the team). I would also argue those numbers don’t show the value of Brown to this team, although they certainly shed some more light than the box score does.

No official word on why Nurger started over Shaq last game, but I suspect it was some kind of motivational ploy by Marshall to try to get the best out of Morris. I think Morris probably starts more than he doesn’t the rest of the season. I really like the second part of your question, as far as who McDuffie replaces in the starting lineup once he’s 100 percent. The two options would be replacing Zach Brown at the three or Rashard Kelly at the four. I think a lot of it will depend on matchups, but it seems like Marshall really likes having Brown’s defense out there and Kelly is a team-first guy who doesn’t mind coming off the bench. So my best guess is WSU’s lineup in February will be Shamet, Frankamp, Brown, McDuffie, and Shaq. WSU’s depth is incredible if its second unit is Samajae Haynes-Jones, Austin Reaves, Rashard Kelly, Darral Willis, and Rauno Nurger — a line-up probably capable of holding its own in the American.

No word yet on who the opponent will be at Intrust in 2018, although WSU does plan on playing a game there. The Shockers will be headed back down to Oklahoma City to play OU again next season, then as you mentioned Baylor will be coming to Koch Arena. I doubt they would pick a conference game to play at IBA, but I suppose it’s a possibility. I would expect to see one of the marquee non-conference games there.

I’m not sure when the new ESPN rankings come out, but I would guess in the spring when high school seasons wrap up and the AAU scene is about to take off. Although WSU has its highest-rated recruiting class in the Marshall era, I think only one player will be in the top 100 and that’s Alex Lomax. Right now Lomax is not on the list, but he’s absolutely shredding right now at Memphis East and I think he’s going to blow up this year and turn into an unanimous four-star recruit by the time he heads into the summer. But just because WSU could only have one doesn’t mean this wasn’t an ultra-successful recruiting class. The upside is there with all of the incoming freshman. It’s safe to say Marshall has reloaded to keep the Shockers winning in 2018 and beyond.

Other questions

Nanci Titus asks “I’ve always wondered when they go on the road do the guys decide who rooms together or do the coaches decide? And do they change each trip?”

The room assignments are assigned by coaches, although the veterans on the team have a little more say on who they room with. As far as I know, they keep the same roommate throughout the season.

Gregg Turner asks “Are the majority of season ticket holders getting priority for this neutral court game at Intrust? Or are they first-come, first-served? It seems like when I have attended big sports events where the Shockers open up ticket sales to the public, the cheering is not as enthusiastic.”

Season ticket holders were given the first opportunity to purchase tickets four days before WSU put tickets on sale to the general public. I know WSU likes the Intrust game because it gives people who aren’t season ticket holders a chance to attend a game and watch the Shockers. Tickets are hard to come by due to WSU’s success, so the game at IBA is an opportunity for others to experience a game.

Chris Ragan asks “Where are the tailgate parties on Saturday?”

For Shocker fans looking to hang out with fellow supporters, the Shocker Faithful are hosting their official tailgate at Lou’s Place at 220 S Commerce starting at 11 a.m. There will be a $10 barbeque buffet, as well as $2 tacos. As for drinks, there will be $15 beer buckets, $5 Shocker punch, and $3 fireball shots.

Braden Pelischek asks “I would like to know the players or coaches’ thoughts on playing at Intrust. While it seats more and has a bigger feeling, does the size cost us some home-court advantage in noise? I went to Intrust twice and I simply looked around saying I would rather play at Koch, strictly for the home crowd advantage and the players have shot (so) many buckets on that floor. Opinion?”

It’s accurate to say WSU has a better home-court advantage at Koch, but that doesn’t mean Intrust has other advantages. For starters, it gives a “semi-neutral” court for WSU to play on in these series against power-conference teams. Not a lot of teams are willing to come to Koch Arena to play a game, so the alternative is to still play the game in Wichita — just at Intrust. As I mentioned above, it also gives fans who aren’t season ticket holders an opportunity to watch the Shockers play. While it not be as loud as Koch Arena, games at Intrust are still important to the program.

Corey Pore asks “Is the Great Dane (Asbjorn Midtgaard) developing enough to get enough playing time during the season to be a contributor or in hindsight would a redshirt have been a better option?”

This is becoming a question I hear more and more often, as fans are wondering this after Midtgaard has played in just three games and a total of 23 minutes this season. Was it worth? That’s a really tough question to answer at this point. I think it was important to keep Midtgaard engaged in practices this season so he could improve as much as he can because he is going to play a prominent role on next year’s team. If he knew he was redshirting from the start, that makes it a little more difficult to ask a first-year kid in a foreign land to give maximum effort in every practice. Even if he doesn’t play, he’s still going up against Rauno Nurger and Shaquille Morris every day in practice. That alone will force him to get better. In my opinion, I agreed with the decision to keep Midtgaard available this season. WSU has a legitimate chance at a Final Four run this season with six seniors and Landry Shamet and Markis McDuffie, so I was of the opinion that you need to maximize your chances of winning this season. If Midtgaard can come in late in the season and be a rim protector and suck up defensive rebounds in four minutes against a top opponent, then I think it will have been worth it if it helps WSU win a game.

Eric Kimler asks “Who do you feel gets the most affected with their minutes once McDuffie returns?”

I think McDuffie is going to average between 25-30 minutes this season, so that’s a large chunk coming out of somewhere. Right now Zach Brown is averaging 25.5 minutes per game and Rashard Kelly is at 23. I would expect both of them to be closer to 20 after McDuffie returns, as he has the ability to play both of their positions. WSU is so deep this season, it’s going to be interesting to see how Marshall manages the minutes coming down the stretch this season.

Terry Boyer asks “Since he has missed on semester already, would it be beneficial to the program to have McDuffie redshirt?

No. As I explained up above, WSU needs to maximize its chances of winning this season with six seniors in place. Now that’s not to say WSU should rush McDuffie back before he’s ready, but all signs point toward him being ready to play by the Dec. 30 game at Connecticut. If he’s able to play the final three months of the season, then that’s well worth it.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "WSU mailbag: McDuffie’s return, WSU’s starting lineup, guarding Trae Young, and how to beat OU."