Marshall wants WSU crisp and to ‘show a little more backbone’ after first loss
Coming off its first loss of season, the Wichita State men’s basketball team will look to bounce back this week starting with a Thursday matchup against Central Arkansas at Koch Arena.
A win isn’t the only thing WSU coach Gregg Marshall is looking for when the Shockers (6-1) take on another overmatched opponent — UCA (1-6) has lost all six games against Division I competition — at 7 p.m. Thursday, with the game broadcast and streamed online by Yurview Kansas.
After West Virginia battered WSU on the glass for a 17-rebound advantage in Cancun, Marshall hopes to see a little more nasty from his team Thursday. It’s even more important because WSU has a crucial road test (and only road game of the non-conference) coming up Sunday against an Oklahoma State team that’s off to a 7-0 start.
“I want to see us play really well, regardless of the opponent,” Marshall told reporters Tuesday when asked about his expectations for Thursday’s game. “I want to see us play the game well versus how well we can possibly play. We’re not going to play the perfect game, but how well can we play? Because that’s what it’s going to take on Sunday when we go down to Stillwater.”
Central Arkansas doesn’t have anyone in the same realm as West Virginia’s 6-foot-9, 260-pound freshman dynamo Oscar Tshiebwe, who pounded WSU’s bigs for six offensive rebounds (18 total) and 19 points in a 75-63 victory over the Shockers in the Cancun Challenge championship. In fact, Central Arkansas (320th out of 353 teams) is one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country.
But after the West Virginia performance, Marshall made it clear that he has challenged WSU’s bigs — Trey Wade, Jaime Echenique, Morris Udeze, Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler and Asbjorn Midtgaard — to be deliver a better rebounding performance this week.
“We’ll have to compete more and harder at a higher level,” Marshall said. “West Virginia kind of exposed that. Now that’s a pretty special brand of athlete, especially inside, but just getting beat on the glass with second effort and quickness and verticality and all of the things they were able to do to us. We’ll have to compete a little more and show a little more resolve, a little more backbone.”
Individually, Marshall also hopes to see sophomore guard Dexter Dennis, who averaged 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds on 40% three-point shooting last season, regain his confidence this week.
After scoring a combined 36 points in the first two games of the season, Dennis has averaged 4.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists with no steals and 3-for-24 shooting on three-pointers in WSU’s past five games.
“I don’t really think it’s offensive at all, it’s more overall with him,” Marshall said. “He’s not rebounding like he did, he’s not defending like he did. We just talked (Tuesday) when he came by the office and ducked his head in and we had a nice chat. Basically it was how can I help you? Young people, they’ve got a lot of things going on today. They’re all different.
“But we need him to play better and play well. He hasn’t played up to his ability for awhile now and he knows it. But nobody is panicking. We just want him to get back to being that guy. He had a wonderful summer and wonderful fall and he was setting himself up. Whenever it happened, he’s lost a little of bit of what I like to call verve, vigor and vitality and he needs to get it back.”
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