Bruce's Blog: Shocker post-mortem

March 07, 2011|By Bruce Haertl | KWCH 12 Eyewitness Sports

(ST. LOUIS) — Am I really on my way back from St. Louis on a Sunday morning?

Did you know that St. Louis celebrates the second largest Mardi gras in the country behind New Orleans? I have never seen so many drunken youngsters before noon in my life…then the Shockers played.

I should have known that things were going to go badly when WUShock sprained his…er, it’s ankle-just as Indiana State started an 8-0 run in the first half. I’m not making this up. We hear that WU suffered a little root damage, but will survive to inspire a bumper crop in June.

It’s amazing how similar the Shockers have been in most of their eight losses. Indiana State provided a new twist Saturday going on a frustrating 18-1 run to take charge early in the second half. During that run WSU had no offensive flow, and no one to provide any. Of course, they made their inevitable late charge, but it came too late and now they’re NIT bound. Being in that locker room yesterday, I don’t see any way this team could be ready to play again. But youngsters are resilient and I’m sure that, with a little time, they’ll want to continue to play a little while longer.

I’m not as smart or as experienced as head coach Gregg Marshall, or anyone on his staff—so I could be wrong, but---I sure wish that Shocker big men would catch the ball a little deeper on the block. JT Durley is better than anyone in the Valley with his back to the basket, but he loves to play facing it. He’s a nice shooter, but the further he catches the ball from the basket—the worse he gets. As for Garrett Stutz—I think he has the mind of a guard in a seven-foot frame. He really wants to be a floater in the Shocker offense (and he’s got a good shooting touch), but It would be really nice to see him command the block. If he catches it deep, there’s not much you can do against him, especially when he uses both hands so well.

The Shockers strength next year appears to be on the perimeter, so this next concern will probably be revisited. Are the Shockers too dependent on the three ball? Gregg Marshall’s philosophy on shooters makes sense. He doesn’t want a guy to pass up a shot during the game that he would be asked to make at the end of the game. I get that, but against Indiana State it took them away from where their advantage was. The Sycamores actually outscored WSU 22-20 in the paint.

After the game yesterday, many Shocker fans asked me about why I thought Gregg stuck with Toure Murry as long as he did. People tend to look at things through offensive glasses and they see Murry scoring just two points in two games in St. Louis. But when Toure is out of the game, Wichita St. is not as good defensively. The same can be said of Aaron Ellis. The problem against ISU was that, outside of Durley, Shocker starters shot 2-19 from the floor.

By the way, Durley currently sits 20^th on the Shocker all-time scoring list five points behind Gus Santos. Beyond that, he’s with 49 points of the next five players on the list. Reaching the top 15 would likely mean three decent games in the NIT. Murry, who’s coming off the worst scoring year of his career, is number 33 all-time. If you project his career averages through his senior year he’d end up just outside the top ten.

State high school tournaments and the Big 12 next week. Then the road to the final four the week after, you’ve got to love March.

----------------Wichita State 70 Bradley 56

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