(St. Louis, MO) – For all of the hand wringing and questions about ‘what’s wrong with Wichita State?” people should know they still ‘play angry’ and they are STILL the Shockers.
Wednesday, Wichita State won their 23rd straight Missouri Valley Conference game and ran their record to 15-2. The nation’s 14th ranked team has America’s best record since 2010 (136-26 – .836).
Wichita’s back court is well known nationally and Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton are the ‘Three Amigos’ and are the collective faces of the program. The key question for WSU is whether or not the front court can hold its own.
Darius Carter – goshockers.com
Senior Darius Carter has been growing into his ‘one big post presence role.’ The Akron, Ohio native leads the Shockers in rebounds (6.3) and is their second leading scorer (12.5). His 25 points Wednesday is a career high. He gives them an interior scoring threat and hits the offensive window, grabbing more than two offensive caroms per night.
Just yesterday (January 13), “Bleacher Report” named Carter the ‘most underrated player’ on Wichita State’s squad, as they asked that question of each of the AP Top 25 teams. BTW, Wes Washpun was the entrant for Northern Iowa.
Recently the contribution of Shaquille Morris has been significant. Morris was benched for WSU’s final non-conference game and first MVC tilt. Head Coach Gregg Marshall didn’t feel Morris was competing in practice. Not only did he not play in the Shocker loss to George Washington, he didn’t even accompany the team to Drake.
Since Morris picked up his effort level in practice, his on-court performance has improved too. In four Valley games the 6’7” red-shirt freshman scored nine points against Illinois State, 10 against Bradley, had two key blocks at Loyola.
Marshall says those two have been growing into their roles. Carter because he’s staying out of foul trouble and Morris because he’s giving good effort and starting to figure out the college game.
While the Shockers’ record is outstanding, there have been rumblings they are not the same type of team we’ve seen the past two seasons. However, with the emergence of Carter and Morris those old Shocker night mares are resonating in Valley outposts once again.
Afterall, they are STILL the Shockers.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
