Echenique may be the most unique junior-colllege player to come to WSU under Marshall
Gregg Marshall has enjoyed a lot of success in the junior-college market during his time at Wichita State, but senior center Jaime Echenique might be the most unique case of his career.
Echenique came to the U.S. from Barranquilla, Colombia. He bounced from his hometown to Medellin and eventually the Colombian capital of Bogota. His parents tried to steer him away from basketball, but he took risks. He told them of his next destinations just before he’d board the flights.
He finally landed in the U.S. at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport before heading to Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas. He said that when he got off the plane, he looked around and it felt as if he was in a video game. In some ways, his career at WSU has been like something out of a simulation, too.
Sunday against Tulsa will likely be his final home game.
“I can’t believe this is the last time that I’m gonna play in front of these amazing people that have been supporting me since day zero,” Echenique said. “Even when I was in juco, was still receiving messages from people about how they were for me to be coming to Wichita State. It will be kind of hard to leave this place.”
Marshall was hired at WSU in 2007. When he got to Wichita, he hit the junior college ranks hard. In his first recruiting class, he brought in two juco All-Americans in forwards Ramon Clemente and Mantas Griskenas. Clemente’s story took off much more smoothly, and it laid the foundation of more to come.
Clemente was a third-team All-American at Paris Junior College in Texas. When he became a Shocker, he was named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Newcomer Team.
Marshall has earned the commitment of 21 junior college players in his time as Shocker coach. Of that group, 14 have been forwards at 6-foot-5 or taller. And of those 14, seven have come in with juco All-American honors.
Cleanthony Early is WSU’s biggest juco success story.
Early came to Wichita in 2012 from Sullivan County Community College in New York, where he became a two-time first-team All-American. When he arrived, the accolades carried over: He garnered consensus All-American status and was selected in the NBA Draft. At 6-8, Early isn’t only one of the best forwards in Shockers history but also one of their best at any position.
Early was part of Marshall’s first six recruiting classes at WSU. In those first six classes, only one year went by when he didn’t pluck at least two players from the juco market, and seven of the 12 came in in All-American honors.
But not every juco player Marshall’s recruited has made it big with the Shockers. Griskenas played through two injury-plague seasons at WSU. Five juco signings played only one season in Wichita before transferring elsewhere. Three of them were guards.
But Marshall has had an outstanding success rate with junior-college forwards. Of the seven who came to WSU with All-America honors, six went on to earn all-conference recognition with the Shockers. Marshall has recruited five juco forwards without All-America status, and none earned all-conference honors at WSU.
That streak is likely to end in 2020.
Last year, Central Florida’s Tacko Fall, at 7-6, was named to the All-American Athletic Conference third team. His stats in conference games don’t come close to what Echenique has done for a team that is already two wins behind UCF’s 2018-19 total.
WSU had just lost its top two forwards — Willis and Shaq Morris — when Echenique arrived. Marshall said mining the juco ranks is about filling a need, finding a player who can step into the starting lineup right away.
But many of those players have traveled a tougher road to Division I basketball than most players who arrive straight out of high school. In Echenique’s case, he turned down professional offers overseas to earn an education. He had to move to a country where he didn’t speak the language and didn’t know anyone.
“I’m the kind of person when people tell me, ‘No,’ I want to prove them wrong,” Echenique said. “I’m gonna do it, and I’m gonna give the best of me. I’m gonna prove that I can be better each day.”
Marshall and WSU hasn’t recruited in the juco pool as much in recent years. The Shockers have averaged 1.3 juco signings in the past seven seasons compared with two per year in the previous six.
With success stories like Echenique and junior Trey Wade, who has stepped into Markis McDuffie’s role nicely, Marshall said he might head back to the juco ranks. The coach likes the fact that “there’s a little hunger to ‘em.”
Echenique wasn’t named an All-America at Trinity Valley. In fact, Marshall only discovered him at a junior-college basketball camp featuring 100 of the top players in the country.
At the time, WSU had Morris Udeze pledged, Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler was in prep school at Sunrise Christian and Asbjorn Midtgaard was still developing. Marshall said he didn’t think WSU could pass on Echenique if he could land him.
Echenique didn’t even start for his junior-college team, but Marshall took a chance on him. It’s sure paid off.
“I don’t know about a 6-11 diamond in the rough,” Marshall said. “That would be some pretty tall rough.”