Wichita State hired Gregg Marshall 5 years ago to help bring back the fear and excitement of a team that would play defense and yet have the threat of blowing out a team that was not prepared to stop his team. After winning the NIT in 2011, coach Marshall was pursued by offers, but he chose to stay at Wichita State and continue his “Marshall Plan” of winning the MVC Championship and taking the team back to the NCAA Tournament. Although many may state he should have been there last year with Virginia Commonwealth, it is my opinion that this team, and the City of Wichita, needed to know what it felt like to win a Championship. Wichita State now has the most wins in a season for its basketball program and finally has its first national Championship, albeit the NIT.
The 2011-2012 team is not getting the love that many believe it should. Gregg Marshall did lose four important starters from last year’s team, but he does bring an experienced team with the most exciting recruiting class in two decades. Now they have a senior class with experience and bench that would start for many other teams in Division I basketball. Once again we may see five guys come out of a game and five guys go in with no loss of defense or Wichita State may pull away with a double digit victory. It will only get better with the “6th man”, i.e., the home games selling out and the opponent’s coaches pulling their hair out trying to figure who to stop in order to win the game that night.
The basketball country needs to be aware of the Midwest where KU has ruled and Frank Martin has rebuilt Kansas State. A third team (Wichita State) is prepared to grab the headlines from these two BCS Powerhouses while continuing the story of the Non-BCS run to Championship Basketball. College basketball enthusiasts should keep an eye on the players that Marshall has taught and those he has recruited this year. The potential starters this year are #1 Joe Ragland – a proven floor leader, #23 Toure Murry (Pre-Season 1st team MVC – All Defense Team), #24 David Kyles (Pure Athlete), #41 Garrett Stutz (a 7 footer) who needs to play significant minutes this year and finally a potential newcomer of the year in the MVC #22 Carl Hall (All-American Player in JC). After this line-up the second team consists of the 6th man of the year #20 Ben Smith, along with a probable starter #5 Demetric Williams , yet another 7 footer #21 Ehimen Orupke, and 2 freshmen newcomers high on several recruiters lists #32 Tekele Cotton and #50 Jake White. It is my opinion that the biggest surprise could be the rest of the team. A 3rd team of talented players are #3 Evan Wessel (Teammate of Perry Ellis), #15 Randall Vautravers, #4 James Anacreon, #11 Joe Mitchell , #10 Osamuede Egharevba and finally #31 Ron Baker (Scott City, KS).
So far it is an exciting year in Kansas and it may well be another Championship year for the Wichita State Shockers as a result of the “Marshall Plan”. Predicted Finish: MVC 16-2, Overall 32-5