What Gregg Marshall is doing to try to fix Wichita State’s slow starts

After 10 minutes on the court with Houston on Saturday, Wichita State was on pace to score 28 points in its rematch with the Cougars.

The Shockers missed eight of 10 shots, committed seven turnovers, and mustered seven points in their first 19 trips down the floor. It was the slowest start in a growing trend of slow starts for WSU in American Athletic Conference play.

Entering Thursday’s game against Central Florida (13-6, 4-3 American), No. 17 WSU (15-4, 5-2) has not led at the 10-mark in the first half in its last four games. It was tied with East Carolina, then trailed Tulsa by seven, SMU by seven, and Houston by nine.

On the season, WSU has not led at the 10-minute mark in 11 of its 19 games — already more deficits than last season’s team faced (nine) in 36 games. While WSU has rallied to victory in eight of those 11 games, coach Gregg Marshall said Monday on his radio show he is exploring “psychological” techniques to improve play from certain players.

“There’s some things I’ve got to become better at in getting guys to play better and believe in their abilities,” Marshall said. “Some guys need to slow down, some guys need to speed up. Some guys aren’t doing what they’re capable of doing and we’ve got too many guys like that right now.”

Coming off back-to-back losses to SMU and Houston where WSU trailed for 72 of 80 minutes, Marshall said on Tuesday the timing for a change to the starting lineup currently featuring Landry Shamet, Conner Frankamp, Zach Brown, Rashard Kelly, and Shaquille Morris was “more suitable.”

Could that mean Austin Reaves, Markis McDuffie, Darral Willis, or Rauno Nurger return to the starting five on Thursday against UCF?

“We’ll find out Thursday,” Marshall said. “We’ll determine that by who practices well in the next couple of days.”

Something will need to change to address WSU’s poor offensive starts in its last four outings.

In the first 10 minutes against ECU, Tulsa, SMU, and Houston, the Shockers shot 29.6 percent from the floor and 20.8 percent on three-pointers. That translated to 50 points in 67 possessions for 0.75 points per possession — far below WSU’s season-average output of 1.14.

“I don’t know what the deal is and why some of them are playing the way they are,” Marshall said on his radio show. “We’ve got to work through it. We’ve got to instill some confidence in them and calm some of them down and get some of them to slow down. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get them ready to go better.”

Marshall said the most disappointing aspect about WSU’s recent play was revealed during a film session of the Houston game.

The coach pointed out Houston guard Corey Davis Jr., who Marshall said “played like his life depended on it” against WSU. He made WSU’s players watch Davis out-hustle them to loose balls over and over, as the Shockers failed to match his intensity.

“We’ve got a ways to go in that regard and that’s the most disappointing thing to me is playing hard and playing harder than the other team,” Marshall said. “It’s almost taken for granted around here and we’re learning you can’t take it for granted.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 10:52 PM with the headline "What Gregg Marshall is doing to try to fix Wichita State’s slow starts."