Inside Gregg Marshall’s favorite Shockers play yet, and why it helps this freshman
If there was ever a question if all of these newcomers to the Wichita State men’s basketball program understood what it means to play angry, a play in the first half of Wichita State’s 84-63 victory over Oral Roberts on Wednesday provided the answer.
Midway through the first half freshman Erik Stevenson missed a three-pointer and the rebound created a loose-ball scrum near midcourt. Stevenson went diving after his miss head-first to keep the ball alive. Freshman Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler was next on the ground and wrestled the ball away, then flipped the ball over the crowd to a waiting Jaime Echenique for a basket and foul.
The three-point play sent the Koch Arena crowd into hysterics as WSU’s players egged them on from the court. Coach Gregg Marshall dropped to his knees in jubilation, slapping Stevenson’s hand and pointing to Poor Bear-Chandler to recognize his efforts.
All three players involved were first-year players at WSU and now have produced the first Play Angry moment of the season.
“I can’t wait to go home and watch it again on video,” Marshall said in his post-game radio interview. “That’s Shocker basketball, that’s playing angry, that’s caring about winning more than maybe a scuff mark on your knee.”
Poor Bear-Chandler described the after-effects as if “time slowed down but you had 1,000 volts of energy hit you at the same time.”
Here’s a breakdown of the play Marshall called afterward “my favorite play of the season.”
1. The initial rebound
The play begins when Stevenson misses a three-pointer from the left wing and the rebound caroms off the front of the rim. Jamarius Burton was underneath the basket when it hit, but nearly backtracked to grab the offensive rebound.
Instead, Burton couldn’t corral it and the ball bounced away.
“Jamarius should have gotten the ball first and he heard about that,” Marshall said. “It was in his hands if he went for it. But then you look and he gets eight rebounds (in the game), so obviously he was going after it from that point forward.”
2. Stevenson’s fearless dive
When the ball rolled free near halfcourt, Stevenson sprinted over and dove head-first for it. Some players might have hesitated with an Oral Roberts player also diving from the other direction, but Stevenson did not hesitate to put his body on the line for the loose ball.
Stevenson’s effort helped knock the ball loose and allowed Poor Bear-Chandler to rip it away. Stevenson struggled to make an impact with his shooting (1 for 9, two points), but the freshman continues to win over Marshall with finding other ways (team-high eight rebounds, five assists) to impact winning.
“Before the game, coach was on us to make less dumb plays and more winning plays,” WSU senior Markis McDuffie said. “That’s the definition of a winning play right there.”
3. The Poor Bear pass
What made the play even more special to Marshall was that Poor Bear-Chandler was at the center of it. The freshman from Omaha had only played five minutes per game in his previous seven games and didn’t even get off the bench against Southern Mississippi, but he clearly won favor with Marshall after this play.
“The key with Poor Bear is energy and passion and toughness,” Marshall said. “Sometimes it’s like he’s waking up from a nap. He’s yawning and it’s bad body languange, not that he’s a disrespectful kid. He just has a hard time getting his motor revved.”
Poor Bear-Chandler’s engine was clearly revving on this play, as he instantly hit the ground in search of the loose ball. When Stevenson came crashing in and knocked the ball loose, Poor Bear-Chandler ripped it away from a pair of Oral Roberts’ players.
Some players would have frantically started signaling for a timeout. But Poor Bear-Chandler remained poised and had the awareness to realize Jaime Echenique was standing wide open at the free throw line. From his backside, Poor Bear-Chandler lobbed the ball just over the out-stretched hands of Oral Robert’s 6-foot-8 forward Emmanuel Nzekwesi to Echenique.
“That’s a hard pass to make,” McDuffie said. “That was special.”
“Coach had said before the game that we had to go attack the ball,” Poor Bear-Chandler said. “When I saw the loose ball, I thought about that and saw my opportunity to make a play. I saw (Echenique) open and I just gave it that extra touch.
“I actually think I could have made a better pass,” he added, laughing.
It was still the best play of the season by Poor Bear-Chandler and one that will likely increase his playing time. He played a season-high 17 minutes against Oral Roberts and delivered four points, two rebounds and two assists.
“When his motor is revving, he’s a totally different player,” Marshall said. “That’s what I have to deal with, when to go with him or not. It’s hard to tell. If I could have that type of Poor Bear, a guy who is energetic and ready to move around and deny the post and hedge ball screens and get back in there and fight for rebounds every single night, he’d get more minutes. I think he knows that and he’s trying.”
4. The Echenique finish
With one giant drop step, Echenique went from catching the ball at the free throw line to finishing at the rim. Nzekwesi recovered to challenge the lay-in, but was whistled for the foul to ignite the Koch Arena crowd even more and elicit these reactions from the WSU players on the court.
Echenique, who finished with a career-high 19 points and six rebounds, said he felt obligated to finish the play after seeing his teammates put their bodies on the line to win the loose ball.
“I was really surprised by Poor Bear,” Echenique said. “I was really proud of the way he played. That was a big-time play for us and it got everybody excited. The ball went really high up, I knew the guy behind me was going to try to block it, so I had to try to (lay it in) really fast.”
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