Ex-Shocker P.J. Couisnard believes mass transfers like at WSU will become the norm
P.J. Couisnard has a unique perspective to offer when discussing the five Wichita State men’s basketball scholarship players who’ve decided to transfer since the end of the season.
For starters, Couisnard has experience playing for WSU coach Gregg Marshall. A former Shocker standout, Couisnard finished out his career at WSU following a coaching change and played his senior season for Marshall in 2007-08.
“And when I played for him, we were losing,” Couisnard said laughing, referencing WSU’s 11-20 record that season. “We went through two different six-game losing streaks, so I’ve probably seen him as bad as it’s going to get.”
But what makes Couisnard’s opinion relevant about the current state of the program is that he understands the rapidly changing landscape of college basketball as a coach and owner of a successful AAU program, Cooz Elite, that he operates out of his hometown of Houston.
And with the NCAA trending toward a decision to allow a free pass for first-time transfers beginning next season, Couisnard believes situations like the one this offseason at Wichita State, where even players who played significant minutes have decided to leave, will become the new norm in college basketball.
According to VerbalCommits, there were 59 Division I men’s teams last season (nearly 17% of all programs) that had at least five players transfer. That number would likely grow if first-time transfers are approved.
“I was just talking to my coaching staff last week and telling them that with the new transfer rules, college basketball is about to be like AAU,” Couisnard said. “There’s no more going through adversity anymore. You win by having tough kids that are going to fight through adversity and stick through some stuff, but that’s not going to happen anymore.
“In the AAU world, you tell a kid that he’s not starting because he missed practice and that kid will be on a different team by the end of the day. Parents will ask you if their kid will start before they ask you how good the team is. It’s almost like basketball is not even a team sport anymore. Everybody is there for their own individual gain.”
In Wichita State’s case, Couisnard believes Marshall and his coaching staff were a victim of their own recruiting success. WSU hit on all three of its guards in its 2018 recruiting class in Jamarius Burton, Erik Stevenson and Dexter Dennis, then brought in three more talented guards the following class in Grant Sherfield, Tyson Etienne and Noah Fernandes.
WSU had better depth at the guard position than ever before under Marshall, but the unintended consequence was that it left six freshmen and sophomores battling for playing time and time on the ball. Couisnard thinks in trying to satisfy so many of their wishes, WSU was instead left with several players discontent with their role.
And now that players have so many other options available to them with the increasing likelihood of being able to play immediately next season, Couisnard wasn’t surprised to see all three of WSU’s point guards — Burton, Sherfield and Fernandes — decide to transfer along with Stevenson.
“It was a problem you could almost foresee coming,” Couisnard said. “You figured that a couple of them were eventually going to leave just because they were all so young playing the same positions. I honestly think we were just too deep. We had 10 really, really good players and a lot of them played the same position and did a lot of the same things. Some people were going to start, some people were going to come off the bench. The way it is now, kids feel like if they want to have careers after this then they’ve got to be on the floor.”
Couisnard compared it to his situation when he arrived at WSU in 2004 when he had to come off the bench behind senior Rob Kampman.
“I might have felt like I was better than Rob, but I understand that he was going to start because he was a senior,” Couisnard said. “But when you get nine or 10 freshmen or sophomores together in the same rotation, then there’s not that same established presence. Guys start going, ‘Hey, why am I not starting? Why is this guy starting over me? I want to get my name out there.’ It’s hard for kids to realize at that age that it’s not about who starts, it’s about who finishes the last five minutes.”
The nine transfers out of the program the last two springs has been unprecedented under Marshall. For comparison, WSU had 20 scholarship players leave in Marshall’s first 11 seasons from 2008-18 with only one significant loss in Austin Reaves. In this offseason alone, WSU has seen three underclassmen who averaged at least 24 minutes this past season leave the program.
Couisnard has read the criticism from WSU fans and others outside of the program that Marshall’s old-school ways are failing to resonate with the recruits that he is bringing in since WSU’s move to the American Athletic Conference.
But Couisnard doesn’t believe Marshall has to change the caliber of players he recruits or his coaching style for WSU to win big again. Etienne, a former four-star prospect, was emphatic in his support for Marshall in a recent tweet confirming he would return to WSU, while incoming freshman JaDun Michael, a 2020 four-star recruit, remains fully committed to the Shockers as well.
After all, Marshall’s coaching style is the same one that guided WSU to a Final Four in 2013, a 35-1 season in 2014 and seven straight NCAA Tournaments from 2012-18.
“Whatever you are when you come to Wichita State, you’re going to be a better version of that because of Gregg Marshall,” Couisnard said. “He wants you to be the absolute best version of yourself and he can be very passionate about that. He’s going to be on you. You cannot be soft around him. You cannot have thin skin around him. You have to understand that he just wants you to be the best version of himself.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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