Gregg Marshall: Shockers’ mental struggles are the ‘most I’ve ever dealt with’
Wichita State is the 25th-youngest team of 351 in Division I basketball.
The Shockers have been going through a bit of a mental skid over the past few weeks. It culminated Monday at their first practice since losing to Houston by 33 points, the largest loss in the Gregg Marshall era at WSU.
Players opened up to one another about their struggles, which ranged from who scores the points to who is heading to the NBA. Marshall said it was a productive practice, and on his weekly radio show he said he hopes the team took more than one step in the right direction.
Marshall has had to play team psychologist this season.
“More than ever,” Marshall said. “This is the most. I don’t know why other than they’re pretty young. Most I’ve ever dealt with things like this.
“You deal with this more than you deal with X’s and O’s. You deal with egos, kids wanting more of the limelight.”
WSU has one senior, center Jaime Echenique, on its 2019-20 roster. Marshall said Echenique was the first to open up to his teammates at Monday’s practice.
After WSU’s draining 80-79 home loss to Cincinnati Thursday, Echenique said he didn’t care about the stats or the number of shots he took.
“I’m not pleased with anything,” Echenique said after the game. “I didn’t go up there expecting to put up those numbers. I went expecting to win. I don’t even know what averages I have. If I see it, it’s maybe because I’m reading something.”
Marshall said that mindset is what made the great players to come through WSU so successful. Not every player on this year’s roster has had that recently. Marshall said it’s human nature.
“If you put this much time into anything, you want to be good at it,” the coach said. “You want to be rewarded for it. You want to be a starter. You want to score the most points. You want to be a star from time to time. You want to win. Sometimes all those things don’t come together.”
The Shockers have lost five of their past seven games, including three straight. Their only wins during that stretch came against South Florida and Central Florida, two teams with losing records in the American Conference.
Echenique has been the brightest star for WSU over the past seven games, and Marshall predicted he is the only one on the roster who will play professional basketball next season, possibly even in the NBA. Marshall said having one eye on the NBA isn’t unique to this year’s team.
“When guys signed up to play in our program on scholarship, generally that means two things,” Marshall said. “They’re going to get a degree if they stay long enough, and they’re going to play some level of professional basketball.”
WSU has sent more than 30 players to some level of pro hoops in the past 12 years. Six have gone to the NBA. Marshall drew on Toronto Raptors standout Fred VanVleet and former New York Knick Ron Baker as examples of how to do it at WSU.
VanVleet earns more than $9 million a year with the Raptors and is set to make more when his contract expires after this season.
“That’s a carrot,” Marshall said.
Marshall said it’s “more than likely” that some of his current underclassmen will reach some level of pro basketball — but not in 2020.
“So concentrate on being a good college player,” Marshall said. “Concentrate on trying to win on the college level ... because it will only get harder.”
When VanVleet averaged 10.2 points throughout his WSU career. His best scoring season came in 2014-15 as a junior when he put up 13.6 points per game.
Twelve players in the AAC average more than 13.6 points this season.
Marshall said VanVleet has gotten this far because he knows how to influence a game and help his team win. Baker was the same way. Marshall said current players “get tired of hearing about those guys,” but the great ones don’t complain about the number of points they score.
“But we’ve got a little of that going on,” Marshall said. “They’ll have to figure out what’s more important.
“These millennials, you tell them something, they need to know why. Their first question is why. Back in the day, when Coach said, ‘Run through the wall,’ you’d run through the wall. You didn’t ask why. You didn’t ask when. You just went and did it.”