Bob Lutz: Conner Frankamp exits dog house, finds his stroke in Wichita State win

As Conner Frankamp slinked to the bench with just more than 10 minutes left in Wichita State’s First Four game with Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, there wasn’t one coach not waiting or wanting to get a piece of him.

The Vanderbilt player Frankamp was guarding, Riley LaChance, had just scored six quick points as a 10-point Shocker lead melted to four.

It was with urgency that WSU coach Gregg Marshall got Frankamp out of the game. And the odds were strong that the sophomore guard wouldn’t return.

Not in a game with these stakes.

But Marshall is a redeemer. It wasn’t four minutes later that Frankamp re-appeared, albeit with a freshly-chewed rear end.

Frankamp’s mistakes were so obvious that it appeared he would not find his confidence this season. His lack of confidence was one of the biggest surprises of this Shocker season.

But just then, Frankamp buried a three-pointer to give the retreating Shockers a 54-48 lead. A little more than two minutes later, he hit another three to put WSU up 60-48.

And that was it for Vanderbilt, which was outscored 20-2 in the final 8:36 of WSU’s 70-50 win.

This game wasn’t all about Frankamp, but it was starting to look like there might never be a Wichita State game that was.

This is the City League’s career scoring leader we’re talking about, a Top 100 recruit who picked Kansas, lasted a season and transferred to Wichita State.

He’s been under a microscope since his first game as a Shocker, which is at once unfair and understandable.

And he gets it.

“I can’t really explain that stretch I had in the second half,” Frankamp said. “I kind of got lazy on defense a little bit, which is completely my fault. But when I came to the bench, my teammates helped lift me up and so did my coaches.”

I thought his coaches were going to carry him right to the team charter and tell him to wait there.

But Marshall doesn’t have many choices when it comes to reserve guards, what with freshman Landry Shamet being out since November with a foot injury. And through Frankamp’s ups and downs, Marshall hasn’t lost the confidence it appears sometimes Frankamp has at least misplaced.

“Ron (Baker) and Fred (VanVleet) were playing so hard and they were exhausted,” Marshall said. “Conner fouled the three-point shooter twice, which is the biggest thing I was concerned about. But I’m going to rely on Conner Frankamp and when the ball leaves his hand, I really feel like it’s going to go in.”

Frankamp is one of the most amazing shooters I’ve seen. But it hasn’t translated consistently so far at either Kansas or WSU. He went into Tuesday night’s game shooting 38.5 percent overall and 34.1 percent from the three-point line.

Since he’s a City League legend, you can imagine how his game is analyzed, picked apart and scrutinized.

“I’ve been trying to keep my confidence level high,” Frankamp said. “Early in the season I was down on myself a little bit. I’ve been working hard on the mental game and if I’m able to play defense and make the open pass, that will help my offense.”

Frankamp is in a tough spot, backing up Baker and VanVleet. No Shocker fan likes seeing those guys exit a game and Frankamp admits that he has deferred to his senior teammates.

By the way, who wouldn’t?

“It’s because they’re so good and they’re able to make shots, create and do everything so well,” Frankamp said. “They’re great players, so I’m lucky to have them on my team.”

But Frankamp has felt like he’s capable of doing more, of being more.

“He talked to me before we left to come here and said he was going to make some shots, which he didn’t in St. Louis,” Marshall said of Frankamp. “I think I said something like, ‘Stop talking about it, I need you to do it.’ And he stepped up big.”

Zach Brown and Markis McDuffie also made big three-pointers that helped the Shockers finally bury Vanderbilt, but the Frankamp shots were the biggest back-breakers.

“I think expectations for Conner were crazy early,” said VanVleet, whose 14 points tied Baker for high honors. “But he’s been able to fight through that. I just want him to be the best he can be so we keep trying to instill confidence in him. I think he has it. It’s just about finding his spots.”

It can’t be easy to try to find a comfortable place on a team with such veteran guards. But it’s also fair to expect Frankamp to be more consistent. No more kid gloves – not that Marshall and his staff own a pair.

“(Marshall) pushes me hard every single day and it’s making me better on the defensive end, even though I had some slip-ups tonight,” Frankamp said. “But I feel like I’ve improved quite a bit on defense. This is the most demanding coaching staff I’ve played for, but it’s helped me. It’s good for players.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Conner Frankamp exits dog house, finds his stroke in Wichita State win."