Marshall’s message to WSU ahead of Rice: ‘We need to protect home court’
It’s been nearly three weeks since the Wichita State men’s basketball team lost its season opener to Louisiana Tech in an ice-cold shooting performance at Koch Arena.
The Shockers (2-3) have since made strides away from home, but their next steps will come at home. WSU will play five of its next six games in Wichita, beginning with Sunday’s 2 p.m. game against Rice (3-3) at Koch Arena. The game will be telecast on Cox HD 2022 and live-streamed on YurView.com.
After a disappointing debut, coach Gregg Marshall just wants to see his team play well in its second try in front of home fans.
“We need to protect our home court, regardless of whether it’s Rice or Duke,” Marshall said. “We need to play well. We didn’t play well the only time we’ve been here. Hopefully we’ve gotten that out of our system and can play well. The game will take care of itself.”
Since leaving Wichita, senior Markis McDuffie has taken off.
After scoring eight points on 11 shots against Louisiana Tech, McDuffie has averaged 25.0 points per game and shot 60 percent on three-pointers in his last four games.
“He’s played like he’s been playing all summer and all fall,” Marshall said. “He’s shot the ball well. What got him going was making hustle plays. Sprinting the floor and breaking up fast breaks, sprinting the floor and getting us easy baskets. I think he’s started there and then he’s just started making shots.”
WSU went 1-2 at the Charleston Classic last week, but showed promise in close losses to Davidson and Alabama. After the sixth-place finish, Marshall said he was eager to get back to the practice gym in Wichita.
It turns out his team’s up-and-down nature has continued in practice this week.
“Tuesday was bad,” Marshall said. “They acted like they did not want to practice, so we did not get much accomplished. Wednesday was very good. That’s kind of like our performance. You’ve got to want to practice. It can’t just be the coaches wanting to practice.
“They’re on the road to nowhere if you want to maintain in that mindset. There’s a lot of things we can do to get better. It’s obvious.”
Players like Dexter Dennis (career-high 19 points) and Ricky Torres (career-high five assists) took baby steps forward in the Alabama game, while Jaime Echenique also impressed Marshall in Charleston.
But WSU’s problem is that its newcomers play well on one side of the ball, but struggle on the other. If they are making shots, then they are making defensive mistakes. If they’re locking up on the defensive end, they can’t hit wide open shots on offense.
It’s made for an unpredictable group.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Marshall said to which team will show up on Sunday. “I’m going into this the same way you are. We’re preparing to play well, but we did that for the season opener as well and we didn’t play particularly well.”
Rice is an overmatched opponent who should be taken care of easily with just an average performance by WSU. The Owls have one of the worst defenses in Division I and allowed BYU to score 105 points earlier this week.
But Rice is somewhat dangerous because of the volume of three-pointers it takes. Nearly 42 percent of Rice’s shots are three-pointers and it is making 39.5 percent of them early in the season.
Marshall has had to tinker with WSU’s defense early in the season. The Shockers will be tested on Sunday to defend, something they have struggled with so far.
“You have to be willing to practice every day and get better at it,” Marshall said. “You have to be willing to stay in a stance and really compete physically, be tough mentally, to be in the right position and make the right plays and then secure the ball at end with a great rebound.
“We’re not nearly there yet. We’re not dictating to the other team yet. I’m not sure when that will happen or if that will happen.”