WSU’s visual learners excited for next film chance in Tuesday’s exhibition
Every basketball team learns differently and Wichita State may have discovered that this year’s group contains visual learners.
With eight players who haven’t been with a Division I program before this season, WSU’s long list of newcomers have found learning from breaking down film of last weekend’s scrimmage against Oklahoma State to be helpful.
The Shockers will have 40 more minutes of film to dissect after Tuesday’s 7 p.m. exhibition game against Catawba College at Koch Arena.
“It’s amazing to me that it takes being shown in a video for some of these guys,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “I had several of them say, ‘We want to do more video because we see it.’ You can tell us until we’re blue in the face, but seeing it is a whole different deal. It’s the same stuff we’ve been saying, but then you see it and see if you don’t do these things properly it can lead to negative results.”
Besides a 40-minute running-clock scrimmage, which WSU won by 14, the two teams also worked on controlled half-court sets, out-of-bounds plays, and late-game situations. Marshall didn’t give his players a scouting report. He wanted them to play freely and see how they fared against a Big 12 opponent.
The day after, the players didn’t want to practice. They all were hooked on learning from video, so WSU spent all two hours watching film.
The game against Catawba will give WSU’s new players even more film to obsess over, but also give them a chance to go through an official game day at Koch Arena with a shootaround, scouting report, pregame routine and a game in front of 10,000 fans.
“I know it sounds trite and kind of a small deal, but to be honest with you,” Marshall said, “I had a number of guys say they were so nervous playing in Shocker Madness because they’ve never played in front of that many people. So this will be that times three or four. It’s just baby steps in their evolution.”
Speaking on Monday afternoon, Marshall said the team was coming off a particularly poor practice in which he sent the players home 10 minutes early. One thing that ruffled Marshall was the behavior of a player he delegated to the scout team. Instead of using it as motivation, the player sulked. “He’ll figure out that pouting is not rewarded around here,” Marshall added.
Exhibition rules allow WSU to play all six of his true freshmen without sacrificing a potential redshirt year, so Marshall is expected to play everyone at his disposal in the exhibition. West Virginia transfer Teddy Allen is not eligible to participate until he receives word from the NCAA about his waiver request.
“Based on (Sunday’s) practice, it’s not going to look great on Tuesday night,” Marshall said. “We’re going to have to muddle our way through it and I’m going to have to live with the mistakes and the lack of execution. But that’s why you play exhibition games. It’s early in the season, so hopefully we can play well and be pleasantly surprised.”
Catawba at Wichita State (exhibition)
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506)
TV: YurView Kansas (Cox HD 2022)
Radio: KEYN, 103.7 FM
Streaming: ESPN3 and YurView.com
Tickets: Available at goshockers.com
This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 4:13 PM.