Gameday: Creighton at Wichita State

I've made no secret about the fact that I was never a Mark Turgeon fan, and his quick departure for the "greener pastures" of Texas A&M really left Wichita in a tough spot. My grandpa once told me, "If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, you're not taking good enough care of your yard." He wasn't taking care of his own yard, so to speak, and left for a better situation at A&M. The cupboard is bare in Wichita, folks. Their recruiting classes the last couple of years have not panned out, and rather than take of care of his own mess, he bailed.

Gregg Marshall inherits that mess, and for Wichita (and the Valley, for that matter), that's a good thing. For all our squabbles over the years, and there have been many, Wichita does have good fan support and a strong Shocker program is good for the Valley. They've done well in hiring Marshall.

The former Winthrop coach is a good one, even if during his interview with Matt Perrault this week on the radio his frustration with the Shockers was obvious. Curt answers, one-word responses, an angry tone...you'd have thought Perrault had run over his dog or something. It was surreal to listen to, because he had the sound of a beaten man, of someone who had discovered the situation was much worse than he expected.

He was so frustrated, in fact, that he told the media after the Missouri State loss that if he had Winthrop's players at WSU, his record would be a lot better. Ouch.

The Voice Of The Valley, Mitch Holthus, commented later in the same show to Perrault that "Marshall didn't think it would be this hard." The Big South is a lot different than the MVC, buddy. Do you get that now?

The Shockers were struggling to compete as it was, but the loss of point guard Matt Brauer last week to a concussion is just about the death blow to their chances. Brauer is a helluva player who ran their offense well, and after suffering his fourth concussion, you have to wonder if his career is over. I hope it isn't for his sake, because I grudgingly respected his hustle and ability to make plays. They really don't have a backup for him, a fact that was painfully obvious on Tuesday night against the Bears.

The Jays will run a press 105% of the time tonight, force the Shockers to handle the ball in the backcourt, and hopefully get their inexperienced backcourt to play faster than they want to. The Jays will get the ball inside to Kenny Lawson and Kenton Walker -- the Shockers starting center, Philip Thomasson, is only 6'7" -- and try to dominate the paint. The Jays will try to get the tempo up and wear out the Shockers' short bench. That's three discrete ways in which the Jays can win. They may only need one of them to work to succeed against this version of the Shockers, and there's a chance all three could click. Folks, on paper, this really shouldn't be much of a game.

Of course, games aren't played on paper, they're played on television. So it will be closer than you think.

PREDICTION: Jays 72, Shockers 59