WSU’s Big 12 opponent in Sunday’s closed scrimmage mirrors the Shockers’ youth
There isn’t a college basketball coach who can relate to the challenge facing Gregg Marshall to keep Wichita State a powerhouse through drastic turnover, but Oklahoma State’s Mike Boynton comes pretty close.
That’s because just like WSU, the Cowboys will be one of the most inexperienced teams in the country this season.
While OSU can’t claim as much turnover as WSU, which ranks No. 350 (out of 354) nationally with 11.2 percent of minutes returning, the Cowboys aren’t far behind — No. 330 to be exact — with 30.4 percent of minutes back. As a result, both teams have been discounted in their conference’s preseason polls (WSU was picked eighth in the 12-team AAC; OSU was picked 10th in the 10-team Big 12).
There’s a lot in common between the two teams and it’s fitting that they will meet for a third straight season, this time in a closed scrimmage at Koch Arena on Sunday that might feature more coaching than playing.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m speaking Japanese sometimes out there when I say things that I think are very elementary things,” Boynton said at OSU’s media day. “And that’s OK, it’s not anything bad, it’s just different. And sometimes for these guys, practice, they’re just trying to survive. They mean well but they just can’t wait until it’s over because it means they made it through another day, instead of trying to embrace the learning and development. And that is natural.”
Marshall has probably felt the same way at times trying to teach nine newcomers, including six freshmen, the program’s expectations.
In practices, Marshall is able to play 10 players full minutes with 5-on-5 scrimmages. That will change on Sunday. There will be 13 players looking to make an impression, but only five spots. Minutes will be slashed and Marshall is interested in how certain players respond.
“Once we cut it down to only playing five, there’s going to be some talented guys over there that aren’t going to be getting the burn they anticipated or wanted,” Marshall said. “But the bench is a great motivator. That will teach them that if you aren’t doing what we need them to do on the defensive end, then they’re not going to be in there quite as much as they want.”
Even though these two teams have played each other the last two years, there won’t be much familiarity between the players on the court on Sunday. Only Samajae Haynes-Jones (two minutes) saw action against the Cowboys in last year’s 78-66 WSU win in Stillwater.
But the Cowboys will have a new look as well with seven of 10 players in their rotation from last season’s 21-15 team are gone, including OSU’s top four players in Jeffrey Carroll, Mitchell Solomon, Kendall Smith and Tavarius Shine.
Boynton signed a top-50 recruiting class to inject the program with fresh talent and brought in three impact transfers in Mike Cunningham (USC-Upstate), Curtis Jones (Indiana) and Michael Weathers (Miami, Ohio) to surround a returning core of Lindy Waters, Cameron McGriff and Thomas Dziagwa.
“One thing that I enjoy is to prove people wrong,” McGriff said. “We know that if people could have picked us 11th in the conference, they would. That’s the mentality that we have to have every night.”
Oklahoma State should be an ideal barometer for a young WSU team that feels the same way. Marshall will be looking for who rises to the occasion this early in the season and what kind of competitive fire the scrimmage brings out of some of the new players who will get their first taste of Division I basketball.
Ultimately, WSU’s coaches view Sunday as an opportunity before the exhibition game on Oct. 30 to emphasize the importance of defense against Big 12-caliber athletes that aren’t so different from the kind WSU players will see this season in the American.
“Some of them have a beautiful jump shot or a great crossover dribble, but if they’re not playing on the defensive end and rebounding both ends,” Marshall said, “we’ll never get a chance to see it.”