Find out why WSU’s season-opening opponent will be ‘all we can handle’

The night before the start of the college basketball season certainly feels different for Gregg Marshall and Wichita State.

Make no mistake, there is still a great anticipation building up to Tuesday’s season opener against Louisiana Tech at Koch Arena, where the Shockers haven’t lost since the building’s renovations were completed in 2003. The game be televised on YurView Kansas (Cox HD 2022) and streamed on ESPN3 and YurView.com/Kansas.

Marshall has guided WSU to at least 25 wins for nine straight seasons, but there’s a different type of anticipation for this one. No one is dreaming of championships or top seeds, at least not yet. Most are just curious what the Shockers will look like with the majority of their roster (nine of 13 players) playing at the Division I level for the first time.

“We’ve got to ratchet our mindset back a little bit,” Marshall said Monday. “At this point, we’re not playing for seeding, we’re just trying to win games and trying to get better every day. I’m going to have to, as a head coach, try to maintain a positive attitude because we’re going to lose more games than we have around here in quite awhile. I’m going to have to see how we improve each time out and try to harp on the things we’re doing better.

“It’s going to be a process and it’s probably going to be a season-long process, if not longer.”

Louisiana Tech is a demanding opening challenge for such a young team.

While the Bulldogs only have one senior (standout guard DaQuan Bracey), they bring back seven members of their rotation from last season’s 17-16 team. Louisiana Tech was picked by conference coaches to finish sixth in the 14-team Conference USA, while KenPom, Sagarin and Bart Torvik all have the Bulldogs rated between No. 136 and No. 149 in the country.

“When I watch their film, I don’t know why they were 16-17,” Marshall said. “It’s hard to fathom they would have that type of record because they look really good. They’ll certainly be all we can handle (Tuesday).

“It will be interesting to see how (WSU’s newcomers) react now that they’ve been out there with 10,000 people. Louisiana Tech won’t have those same jitters, except for playing on the road. They probably see this as an opportunity with such a young team to come in and get a big win.”

After being pushed down the stretch by a Division II opponent (Catawba) in their recent exhibition game, Marshall said the Shockers will again have trouble if they continue to commit back-breaking mistakes he calls “atomic bombs.”

“I call them atomic bombs because no one lives,” Marshall said. “We had a number of those. Usually, when you have those, you’re going to lose. JR Simon, who is a second-year grad assistant and played for me for four years, stopped me the other day and said, ‘Coach, it’s been a while since we’ve seen those types of plays.’ I said, ‘Yes, it has.’

“But we see them now on a regular basis. Those plays are tough to overcome and we’ve got to learn not to do them.”

Marshall did say the team was coming off a “refreshingly good” practice on Sunday but did not offer any hints about who would be the opening-night starters.

But this season more than others, it won’t be as important who starts games for WSU as much as who finishes them.

“It’s kind of like on-the-job training and it’s coming (Tuesday) and it’s coming (Friday against Providence),” Marshall said. “If we don’t get better, we’re going to have some less-than-desirable results. We’ve got to keep working at it. Every game will be like another practice. We’ll be trying to win, but also trying to improve individually and as a team.”

Playing in control: Senior point guard Samajae Haynes-Jones was brilliant at times in WSU’s 75-64 exhibition win over Catawba with a game-high 19 points. It wasn’t a surprise to WSU’s coaches, who have said Haynes-Jones has been scoring consistently in practices.

But there were a few occasions where the Wichita native was a little too eager to chase his own shots.

Marshall trusts Haynes-Jones to create his own shot but prefers that only happens with the shot clock in single-digits.

“He went 1-on-1 quite a bit, which he has a tendency to do because he can,” Marshall said. “And we’re going to need him to do that, so it’s a fine line. But we’d also like for him to run the offense and see if we can a real high-percentage shot before he has to do that at the end of the shot clock.”

‘Yo, you gotta slow down, bro’: Those were the words, relayed by Marshall, that West Virginia transfer Teddy Allen told Markis McDuffie following the Catawba game. McDuffie scored 14 points, but several of his 13 shots were forced, leading to four turnovers.

Following the exhibition, McDuffie called Allen for his opinion. The film study only backed up what everyone has told McDuffie since Tuesday: slow down.

“I didn’t really have to say much to Markis,” Marshall said. “It was pretty evident watching that film. I said, ‘Hey, this is not going to do it, bud. You have to slow down.’ I don’t know why, but at this stage, he’s pressing. He had played so well in practice prior to that. He wants to achieve and he wants to play at the highest level, but he’s going to have to be more efficient for sure.”

Speaking of Teddy Allen… One day before WSU’s season opener and a final verdict hasn’t been delivered to the West Virginia transfer regarding his waiver to play this season.

Even if Allen is unable to play, Marshall said he provides tremendous value to a young team.

“He’s been through it and he knows what to expect,” Marshall said. “He doesn’t mind speaking his mind. He’s been a good sounding board for the guys. He’s not afraid to call them out. We’ve got to make sure that’s done the right way and keep Teddy in check too because he doesn’t always do the right things either.

“Like (Sunday), he was hard to guard, man. He was scoring baskets left and right on scout team, but then he would blow a check or blow an assignment or throw the ball 10 rows into the stands. I would then stop coaching my guys and start coaching him on the scout team. ‘If you get this waiver and you start playing, we love the buckets you’re able to get, but this is going to hurt you and it’s going to hurt us.’”

This story was originally published November 5, 2018 at 4:23 PM.