On Sunday night, the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the schedule opened, with the *ahem* Wichita State Shockers in town. I always believed Mark Turgeon was a good coach, and was sad/surprised when he bolted for Texas A&M before last season. Turgeon's replacement, Gregg Marshall, has rubbed me the wrong way in his year-plus in Wichita. His dealings with the Omaha media have been rude and condescending (see: Matt Perrault's interview last year). His behavior during games has been hot headed and ridiculous (see: getting ejected from the MVC Tourney last March). His comments after games have been inflammatory (see: accusing Creighton of showboating with the game in-hand).
Ah yes, that last one. Since I wasn't listening, I found out about it when a reader emailed to tell me all about it.
"Max, I share your low opinion of Gregg Marshall based on first impressions last year. I hope I'm able to change my mind about him as time goes by, but right now his personality is as abrasive as 70-grit sandpaper on glass. Tonite. the esteemed Double G accused Creighton of running up the score after the game on his radio show. I was driving back to Nebraska by way of Kansas, and couldn't get the 590 signal so I was listening to the Wichita broadcast on AM 1330. After the game, they were interviewing Double G and he said something to the effect of 'They ran an alley-oop out of a timeout with 50 seconds left, when they were winning by 16.' The best part? 'That will come back to haunt them.' Really? A play that I don't remember happening will come back to haunt them? Since you were at the game, please tell your readers about this alley-oop with 50 seconds left that Marshall believes was drawn up by Coach Altman. I'm dying to find out about it. Take care, enjoy the site...Yahoo in Wahoo."
Well, Yahoo in Wahoo (not his real name, I'm hoping), I'm not really sure what he/you are talking about, so I'm going to have to consult the game tape and the play-by-play in the box score to figure out what Marshall is so upset about. What I found, after the jump...
There was indeed a timeout with 51 seconds left, but there was no such alley-oop run coming out of that timeout. Cavel Witter, running the point to kill the clock, instead took a three-pointer that he missed badly with 41 seconds remaining. P'Allen Stinnett did cut to the basket looking for the ball, but there was no pass and no lob, meaning you've really got to be reaching for something that isn't there to make a big deal out of this. I could get into all sorts of equally ridiculous allegories and analogies here to show just how stupid it is, but I'll spare you.
If you're interested. WSU's Garrett Stutz rebounded Witter's missed three and cleared it out, making a jumper at the other end to make it 68-54.
If there was an alley-oop run, it was not only never executed, there was never even a pass thrown in the vicinity of the basket. I'm not sure what Marshall is upset about with that particular play; if anything, its Altman who should be upset at Witter for chucking up a three-ball so quickly instead of killing clock. There's lots for Marshall to be upset about following this game, from his team's inability to make shots to his players being out-hustled in the second half. But there's no legitimate beef about running an alley-oop out of a timeout with under a minute to play. For my part, I'll chalk it up to a frustrated coach giving a partisan audience something juicy to satiate its thirst. Nothing more, nothing less. If I start hearing things about it in the days leading up to the rematch, we may have something here. My opinion, based on the year-plus that Marshall has spent in the Valley, is that his temper leads him to say things he probably regrets later on. Lets hope this is one of them, because its just stupid and more than a little unfortunate.
*****
When taken in the context that Marshall has had to completely rebuild the Shocker program after Turgeon left it in disarray, the Shockers are an impressive team. Its obvious that Marshall has the style of players he desires now, and that once they get some experience and cut down on mistakes, they'll be dangerous. They were tenacious at times on defense, they rebound well and they hustle. What they don't do is make shots. I hate to base an opinion on one game, but man, there isn't one guy on that team who you would be afraid of from 15 feet out. They were 21-60 from the floor, and just 5-20 from long range. Their shots didn't look any better to the naked eye than the stats would lead you to believe, either. They had open looks a lot, and the flat arc of many of the resulting shots leads one to believe it wasn't simply an off-night.
After a first half with eight lead changes and seven ties, the game turned on three possessions late in the first half. With 1:41 to play, the score was tied at 28. WSU then turned it over on their final three possessions of the first half, with Booker Woodfox hitting a three and Josh Dotzler making a layup to run the lead out to 33-28 at the break. In between those shots was the "What the Hell was that?" moment of the game, when P'Allen Stinnett stole the ball and tried an alley-oop to Justin Carter. Unfortunately, Carter mistimed his jump and wound up too far from the basket at the peak of his jump, and forced up an off-balance layup that missed.
The Jays built the lead methodically from there, never leading by fewer than 5 the rest of the way and leading by as many as 16. Along the way, Booker Woodfox managed 16 points on a night when Wichita limited him to just 4 attempts from behind the arc. Unlike the previous two games when Booker had an "off" night, this time his teammates stepped up. Although as an aside, when you get 16 points and its an off night, you're in rarefied air, aren't you?
In particular, Justin Carter's 11 points and 7 boards were huge. In years past, we've seen Junior College transfers take 10-15 games to learn the system and feel comfortable playing D-1 ball at Creighton. We're 13 games in now, and Carter is finally showing the signs of the player Jays fans were so excited about over the summer. He's tough, aggressive, and plays bigger than his height. If he continues to do that, look out.
*****
Tonight's Polyfro Player of the Game is brought to you by Sweet Baby Ray's Barbeque Sauce, the only sauce you can get in your tasty chicken strips and fries basket at the arena. Its bland but hey, at least its not ketchup!
Justin Carter wins the prestigious award tonight, for all of the aforementioned reasons. I think this is the first of many times he is the Jays best player on a given night, and the thought of that is exciting. You bet.
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