Tyson Etienne is living up to his billing as a sharpshooter for Wichita State
Coach Gregg Marshall has an indelible memory of watching Tyson Etienne last summer while he recruited him to Wichita State.
“I’m telling you, when I watched him in the AAU circuit he barely hit rim ... ever,” Marshall said. “It was all net every time. Bottom of the net, bottom of the net, bottom of the net. He’s a pure shooter for sure.”
Etienne, a 6-foot-1 guard from New York City has lived up to his sharpshooter billing through the first four games of his Wichita State career. Etienne, a four-star recruit and the second-highest-rated recruit of the Marshall era, leads WSU with 10 three-pointers made on excellent 41.7 percent shooting accuracy so far this season.
Etienne and the Shockers (4-0) host Oral Roberts (2-3) in a 2 p.m. game on Saturday (broadcast on Cox 22 and streaming on Yurview.com/Kansas). It is the last game before WSU leaves for Cancun on Sunday to compete in the Cancun Challenge starting Tuesday against South Carolina.
“I just keep playing. I’m a freshman and I’m still learning,” Etienne said. “At the end of the day, though, I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I’m going to go out there and do whatever I can offensively and defensively to help us win the game.”
Etienne told the Eagle before the season started that he didn’t want to be labeled as just a spot-up shooter.
While that may be accurate for his role in the offense this season — 21 of Etienne’s 24 three-point shot attempts this season have been of the catch-and-shoot variety — Etienne is proving his chops on the defensive end.
He has his momentary lapses, as do most freshman, but there’s no denying Etienne’s anticipation on defense. He’s registered a steal in all four games and leads WSU with seven total, the most by a WSU freshman in his first four games since Aubrey Sherrod 38 years ago. Since he’s only playing 16.5 minutes per game, Etienne’s steal rate of 6.1 percent (how many times a possession ends with an Etienne steal when he’s on the court) ranks No. 27 in the country.
“I think defensively on that side of the ball I’ve always had the heart and the passion and the want to guard people,” Etienne said. “I think the place where I’ve developed the most so far is the technicalities. Really learning the angles and learning how to defend people in position. That’s where I’ve matured the most.”
As a highly-rated recruit, Etienne could have come in and been confident that the way he was playing in high school was good enough. Instead, he came to WSU for the exact opposite reason: He wants to learn, and he wants to be coached by what he thought was one of the best in Marshall.
The coach and player had a sit-down conversation early in the season, and Marshall has been impressed with how Etienne has taken the coaching and applied it to his game.
“He asked me after practice one day, ‘What do you need me to do to help this team win? I’m going to do whatever you want,’” Marshall recalled recently on his radio show. “I said, ‘Well, you need to play as hard as you possibly can play. I want you to defend like your hair is on fire. On offense, I want you to play no faster than you can think. I don’t want you rushing shots, taking bad shots, driving into areas where you can’t really drive.’”
Not playing as hard as he possibly could on offense was a change for Etienne. But after listening to Marshall, the coach made sense to him.
“I told him on the offensive end, you have to gear it down,” Marshall said. “You don’t have to be in overdrive anymore. Maybe go to fourth gear or third gear depending on how many gears your car has. Go from fast to slow, but don’t play breakneck on offense unless you’re cutting to score.”
Etienne has rushed a few shots this season, which has drew the ire of Marshall. But the coach can appreciate how willing Etienne is to learn and Etienne’s work ethic that is unrivaled on the team.
For a team that shot 31 percent on three-pointers, one of the worst marks in the country, last season, Etienne’s outside shooting has helped the Shockers raise their three-point shooting to 36.5 percent early in the season to go along with his defensive intensity that makes him a perfect fit for WSU.
“Seeing the ball go through the net (so far), we’re gaining that confidence that we can put the ball in the basket and that we are good shooters,” Etienne said. “We play off each other, so it’s great to see.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 6:45 PM.
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