If you lost your Star Player before conference...?

[sixth ace]

Contrary to popular belief that UE is nothing without Colt Ryan,If Ryan did get hurt, then the offense would change. UE has enough scorers to continue in his absence, Cox Nelson Jahr Moore Ballentine Sawvell etc. The offense is build for and @ Colt He is a great player but to discount the other 12 scholarship players is a disservice. UE would revamp the offense and be a viable team.

Personally I believe it is a ignorant question.

[Wufan]

Contrary to popular belief that UE is nothing without Colt Ryan,If Ryan did get hurt them the offense would changeis all UE has enough scorers to continue in his absence, Cox Nelson Jahr Moore Ballentine Sawvell etc. The offense is build for and @ Colt He is a great player but to discount the other 12 scholarship players is a disservice. UE would revamp the offense and be a viable team.

Personally I believe it is a ignorant question.

That opinion is definitely contrary to popular belief.

[Ace Happy]

Contrary to popular belief that UE is nothing without Colt Ryan,If Ryan did get hurt, then the offense would change. UE has enough scorers to continue in his absence, Cox Nelson Jahr Moore Ballentine Sawvell etc. The offense is build for and @ Colt He is a great player but to discount the other 12 scholarship players is a disservice. UE would revamp the offense and be a viable team.

Based on what I saw at our USI exhibition, I've got to disagree. I think we'd struggle to win a game without Colt's offense and the attention given to him being diffused with him not on the court. We are going to miss graduated seniors Holmes and Harris' contributions more than we realize.

[Tom Servo]

I've got to agree with Ace Happy, we would be dead in the water without Ryan the way things stand now. We just have to hope someone steps up to give us some scoring to go along with Ryan. He was involved in almost every basket for a stretch in the first half of the USI game, either he was scoring or setting up someone else for an easy bucket.

[CBB_Fan]

I think Wichita State would be better off than most teams, but that is purely because they don't have a traditional "star" player. Carl Hall is important, and may lead the team in rebounding and scoring, but he isn't completely important to the Shockers. He's just a senior starter that "gets it" and probably will turn in his best season.

Without him, Early may be the star. Without Early, maybe Armstead takes his place (as the scoring leader, not as a PF). Wichita State is more of a "by committee" team than other schools in the Valley.

[uniftw]

As a UNI fan...I'm more concerned about losing Tuttle, Mitchell, or Sonnen than James...

[UNIFanSince1983]

As a UNI fan...I'm more concerned about losing Tuttle, Mitchell, or Sonnen than James...

Tuttle would be the big loss for us.

[iSASO]

Losing an NBA Lottery pick in Orukpe would be devastating for WSU. Carl Hall can't shoot a lick beyond 2 feet and everyone else is unproven. They would be guaranteed to finish lower than their traditional 9-spot.

[Aargh]

Probably the worst injury for WSU would be Armstead. His backup, Fred VanVleet has missed most of practice to this point with an ankle sprain that he's reinjured twice.

If Armstead got hurt, WSU would have to put Williams and Cotton at PG - both of them got minutes at PG last year. In addition, Ron Baker (6'4" RS Fr with demonstrated shooting range to 25') has been practicing at PG and played there at Shocker Madness.

It's obvious Marshall wants Cotton and Wiliams as his SG combo, so he's working with the best shooter on the team to ply PG. If anybody remembers Clevin Hannah - Armstead and Hannah both went to Chipola JuCo at the same time. Armstead (Fr) was the starter when Hannah was a So.

Go ahead, keep criticizing WSU's reliance on JuCo's. Clevin Hannah, Joe Ragland, and now Malcolm Armstead - who played 2 years in the PAC-10 after 1 year at Chipola.

If you're going to rag on Gregg Marshall for signing JuCo's, then you need to rag on Bill Snyder for signing JuCo's, because Snyder put K-State FB together with huge reliance on JuCo's. K-State was the pre-season 5th place pick in the B12 because the team "lacked experience".

Dougie McD will look like an AA and possible national PoY when he plays against Valley competition - with the exception of WSU. Against WSU he will look like a decent mid-major player.

[DoubleJayAlum]

If you're going to rag on Gregg Marshall for signing JuCo's, then you need to rag on Bill Snyder for signing JuCo's, because Snyder put K-State FB together with huge reliance on JuCo's. K-State was the pre-season 5th place pick in the B12 because the team "lacked experience".

So now we're comparing Marshall to Bill Snyder?

Bill Snyder may well be the best college football coach of all time. He took over the worst program in all of college football and made them a perennial winner on a national level.

The primary goal in college basketball is to make the NCAA tournament. In his tenure at WSU, Gregg Marshall has one NCAA tourney appearance and zero NCAA tourney wins. (Greg Lansing at Indiana St has the same NCAA tourney record; Ben Jacobson and Gregg McDermott have better records at their current schools).

Gregg Marshall is no Bill Snyder.