Bob Lutz: Shockers use waves of players to overwhelm Hawaii Pacific

The Wichita State basketball team needs its own parking garage.

I know the Shockers’ likely starters for the 2015-16 season (subject to change) — guards Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker, forwards Evan Wessel and Anton Grady and center Shaq Morris — will undoubtedly be the best starting five in the Missouri Valley Conference.

But could Wichita State’s second five — maybe something like guards Landry Shamet and Conner Frankamp, forwards Zach Brown and Rashard Kelly and center Bush Wamukota — finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference?

Believe me, this is no knock on the Valley. Hopefully, the league will be fun to watch this season. It’s just that the Shockers are so loaded, I’m not so sure their third team wouldn’t finish in the Valley’s upper half.

Fourteen players saw action for the Shockers on Saturday in their 91-57 exhibition win over Hawaii Pacific on Saturday afternoon. That didn’t include VanVleet, who was on the bench in street clothes nursing an injury. Or Frankamp, who doesn’t become eligible until Dec. 12 after transferring from Kansas. Or Rauno Nurger, a 6-foot-10 sophomore who is likely to redshirt. Or Texas A&M transfer Peyton Allen, who will be available next season.

Hawaii Pacific coach Darren Vorderbreugge, who once coached at Northwest High, compared the Shockers to a herd of sharks. Which struck me, since his team is nicknamed the Sharks.

“They kind of smell blood in the water,” Vorderbreugge said of the Shockers. “And today, I was the water.”

The Shockers literally went after Hawaii Pacific in waves. Nobody was busier at Koch Arena on Saturday than the official scorer keeping track of the substitutions.

All 14 Shockers who got in the game played at least eight minutes and no one played more than 24. Freshmen Shamet, Ty Taylor, Eric Hamilton and Markis McDuffie combined for 33 points, 16 rebounds and six assists.

Presumably, Marshall won’t play 14 or 15 players once the games start counting more and get tougher. He could still tag another player with a redshirt.

Some of his past WSU teams have been deep, but there’s not sonar which reaches to the depth of this squad. The player likely at the end of the Shockers’ bench, 6-9 freshman walk-on Brett Barney from Maize South and Sunrise Christian, had a sequence in which he scored on a jump hook at the offensive end, then took a charge on defense.

It’s going to be interesting to watch Marshall parcel out playing time, particularly because he has some seniors who are intent on leading Wichita State to a national championship. Baker, VanVleet, Wessel and Grady are proven and experienced and the type of players who could play 30-plus minutes per game.

Whether they will on this team is questionable.

Undoubtedly, some of the Shockers are going to have to put their egos aside and understand that this has a chance to be a special team that accomplishes special things. And that it’s the last hurrah, especially, for Baker and VanVleet, who spurned the chance to be chosen in the NBA Draft last summer to return to WSU and attempt to get to another Final Four.

With aspirations like that and iconic seniors who are doing the aspiring, the Shockers are doing things the old-fashioned way in college basketball. Seniors are leading the way and freshmen are learning as they go. This is the advantage of not being a one-and-done stopping post and being able to watch the seasoning of players.

Which isn’t to say the Shockers’ talented group of freshmen and sophomores won’t be relied upon. They will and some will play important, even urgent, roles.

But Wichita State is being guided by a group of seniors who don’t come along often. VanVleet and Baker are the best guard duo in the country. Wessel is the Shockers’ handy man, capable of doing so many things. Grady scored more than 1,000 points during his career at Cleveland State before becoming a fifth-year senior for the Shockers.

Experience and talent like this are rare and Marshall, as he should, will squeeze every last drip from this group. And some really good basketball players probably will sit on the bench more than they would like.

That’s the way it has to be. It’s the way it was for Baker and VanVleet, who had to bide time behind really good players before becoming such integral Shockers.

Wichita State is bearing the fruits of a long run of success. Marshall and his staff are recruiting at a higher level, which shows in that there are so many guys who could be playing major minutes.

The rules, though, haven’t changed. Only five can play at a time and there are just 40 minutes in a game.

Marshall has to figure out how to divvy up that time.

Maybe two Shocker teams in the Valley? It’s probably not allowed, but perhaps he should ask.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Shockers use waves of players to overwhelm Hawaii Pacific."