Top 10 Players to Ever Play For Gregg Marshall

[Aargh]

These are always "fun" because no one will ever agree on the list.

Cotton still can't get any love

https://bustingbrackets.com/2018/05/23/wichita-state-basketball-top-10-players-to-play-for-head-coach-gregg-marshall/

[WuShock16]

We all obviously slant towards the Wichita State guys. It would be interesting to ask someone like Earl Grant, Dana Ford, or even Kellen, who could speak better on the Winthrop guys.

[Shoxthemonkey]

I can't speak about any of the Winthrop guys but I would absolutely swap Cotton for McDuffie.

[60Shock]

Absolutely

[AZ Shocker]

I liked reading the comment(s) under that story. Especially when it's from a college basketball fan outside of the midwest and seems to follow college basketball universally.

COMMENT
Good list! Gregg Marshall is a great coach and has had some really good players over the years. I particularly liked Tekele Cotton who was a great defender and ESPN highlight real dunker. I've read he brought in a massive amount of new recruits replacing a huge senior class from last season. Wonder if in that new group of Freshmen a few of those guys will make a Top-10 list eventually. Fun program to follow from where I live in Pac-10 country. He's a funny guy in interviews and it's cool to see a coach develope a lot of those "under the radar" guys into NBA players he seems to find. How many players has he turned into 5 star caliber players under his tutelage. Good story.

[Horn28Clem30]

Man Baker behind Early, I can't buy it.

[kcshocker11]

No Cotton, Hall or Armstead? No so sure of this list

[ShockTalk]

Man Baker behind Early, I can't buy it.

Probably go no further than the "Big Stage" to understand why Early might be consider over Baker.

First, I looked at the bigger named games. In 2012-13 and 2013-14 I looked at the Gonzaga, Ohio St, Louisville, and Kentucky games. Now, while Baker was only a freshman/sophomore and Early a junior/senior, Early was also drawing the main attention of the others teams' defense.

Baker performed very well in these games as an underclassman. 15-31/.484 FG%, 11-19/.579 3pt%, 15-15/1.000 FT% and 56 points for a 14.0 average.

However, the upperclassman Early was not affected by the extra attention he was receiving. As the Shocks leading scorer for those 2 years, he actually over-performed on the big stage. 31-51/.608 FG%, 12-21/.571 3pt%, 9-11/.818 FT%, and 83 points or 20.8 per game. He also had just under 8 rebounds per game. He was the leading scorer in 3 of these 4 games (tying once with Baker).

How did Baker perform on this stage as a junior/senior and as the team's leading scorer? I used 6 games: Indiana, Kansas, Notre Dame, Vandy, Arizona, and Miami. The stats: 23-69/.333 FG%, 9-34/.265 3pt%, 19-22/.867 FT%, and scored 74 or 12.3 ppg (less than he did as a freshman/sophomore). Baker tied FVV as the lead scorer in 1 game and, stat-wise, underperformed to his season stats.

So out of 10 games, Baker tied as leading scorer twice. Early out of 4 games lead twice, tied once. As a note, FVV tied or lead the team in scoring 6 of those 10 games while also receiving a lot of attention from the opposing teams.

I know there is a lot more to all this than just scoring, but on the national stage, that gets a lot of attention. Early was clearly dominate. FVV was clearly dominate. Ron, not so much. I'm not knocking Ron, but maybe you can see why others would put Early over Baker.

[Topshock]

I have always felt that, how good Early was, particularly in big games has been underrated by many Shocker fans.

[WichitaStateGuy]

Lord have mercy.... Cotton should be at least number 6 on this list, and there's a legit argument to put him ahead of Landry, IMO.

[SHOXAAC]

He lost me at McDuffie.

[Good News]

He lost me with the grammar, and then hit me in the temple with the rubber McDuffie mallet. Whoever said those other names, thank you. I will repeat - Cotton, Armstead, Hall. And I'll raise you a Ragland. And unless I see some major improvement this year, I'm saying Cousinard > McDuffie.

[WichitaStateGuy]

Did PJ play for Marshall?

[Good News]

PJ's last year was Marshall's first year.

[Ricardo del Rio]

These are always "fun" because no one will ever agree on the list.

Cotton still can't get any love

https://bustingbrackets.com/2018/05/...regg-marshall/

I love Cotten.

[Ricardo del Rio]

No Cotton, Hall or Armstead? No so sure of this list

Armstead?

[kcshocker11]

Key figure in our final 4 run

[ShockingButTrue]

Armstrong

[Shockm]

Cotton deserves a place in front of Markis at this point. However, McDuffie may deserve it again after next year. How we forget that MM was one of our best two players a year ago (16-17) and our best player will be in The League next year while MM was hurt this year.

As for the Winthrop guys, I don’t know which names but a couple of them earned a cup of coffee in “The League” just as Toure did. But there was no Final 4 or Undefeated season (and #1 Seed) for them. McDuffie has the talent to be really special and I’ll wait to see if he puts it together this year.

[1979Shocker]

Cotton was not a scorer. He was mainly a defender and a highlight reel.

[Shockadaisical]

Cotton IMO did whatever was needed in any given game. There were games when he stepped up and scored more. He was the swiss army knife for the team. He had a lot of tools, yet deferred most of the time on scoring. Consummate team player. I definitely put him ahead of Mcduffie at this point.

[ShoxRoxMySox]

Cotton makes my personal top 5 most missed players that played for 3G. Way more prestigious list!

[60Shock]

Probably go no further than the "Big Stage" to understand why Early might be consider over Baker.

First, I looked at the bigger named games. In 2012-13 and 2013-14 I looked at the Gonzaga, Ohio St, Louisville, and Kentucky games. Now, while Baker was only a freshman/sophomore and Early a junior/senior, Early was also drawing the main attention of the others teams' defense.

Baker performed very well in these games as an underclassman. 15-31/.484 FG%, 11-19/.579 3pt%, 15-15/1.000 FT% and 56 points for a 14.0 average.

However, the upperclassman Early was not affected by the extra attention he was receiving. As the Shocks leading scorer for those 2 years, he actually over-performed on the big stage. 31-51/.608 FG%, 12-21/.571 3pt%, 9-11/.818 FT%, and 83 points or 20.8 per game. He also had just under 8 rebounds per game. He was the leading scorer in 3 of these 4 games (tying once with Baker).

How did Baker perform on this stage as a junior/senior and as the team's leading scorer? I used 6 games: Indiana, Kansas, Notre Dame, Vandy, Arizona, and Miami. The stats: 23-69/.333 FG%, 9-34/.265 3pt%, 19-22/.867 FT%, and scored 74 or 12.3 ppg (less than he did as a freshman/sophomore). Baker tied FVV as the lead scorer in 1 game and, stat-wise, underperformed to his season stats.

So out of 10 games, Baker tied as leading scorer twice. Early out of 4 games lead twice, tied once. As a note, FVV tied or lead the team in scoring 6 of those 10 games while also receiving a lot of attention from the opposing teams.

I know there is a lot more to all this than just scoring, but on the national stage, that gets a lot of attention. Early was clearly dominate. FVV was clearly dominate. Ron, not so much. I'm not knocking Ron, but maybe you can see why others would put Early over Baker.

In addition, Shock Talk, Early's superb performances against both Blue Bloods, Louisville in the Final Four, and Kentucky the following year, have to rank right up there among the best ever against two schools that were at the top of their game when we played them..