Shox @ Bears 7 PM Jan 23

[valleychamp]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

[glm38]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

Absolutely no doubt Early is better now. But as to who ends up having the better D1 career? That's very much open to debate.

And its not correct at all that most of Garvin's points came when Early was out. I was right there. It was a great matchup when they were head to head. Which was a significant part of the time. Early was definitely manhandling Gavin on the boards. But Gavin made shooting and scoring right over Early look pretty easy too.

Another nice matchup is van fleet and Marcus. That should be a good one over the next 3 to 4 years.

[TheShock]

I can speak for all Shocker fans when I say that the one that REALLY got away that I wish the Shox would have taken was Travis Walk. That one still stings to this day...

Really? Who the frick is Travis Walk?

[rjl]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

The comparison is forced because, based on what iSASO posted (I don't have time to check right now), both individuals were possibly vying for the same scholarship spot.

[valleychamp]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

The comparison is forced because, based on what iSASO posted (I don't have time to check right now), both individuals were possibly vying for the same scholarship spot.

That's fine, but it's still really not a viable argument. One's a 4th year Jr, and one is a true frosh. Early is clearly better now, but you only get two years of him. Hard to say how good Thurman will be after 4 years.

[WhiskeySierraUniform]

I can speak for all Shocker fans when I say that the one that REALLY got away that I wish the Shox would have taken was Travis Walk. That one still stings to this day...

Really? Who the frick is Travis Walk?

Look it up...and turn on your sarcasm meter while you're at it.

[AndShock]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

The comparison is forced because, based on what iSASO posted (I don't have time to check right now), both individuals were possibly vying for the same scholarship spot.

That's fine, but it's still really not a viable argument. One's a 4th year Jr, and one is a true frosh. Early is clearly better now, but you only get two years of him. Hard to say how good Thurman will be after 4 years.

Marshall filled a need that needed to be filled. Would we rather have a redshirt or a guy who is instrumental in carrying us to a Top 20 ranking? I'm confident Marshall will be able to fill Early's void 2 years from now. You're right that you can't compare the two as who is/will be better but I'm confident Marshall made the right choice of Early over Thurman, if it really did come down to that.

[rlh04d]

Early is better now. But to compare him to Thurman right now is pretty silly.

Gavin Thurman is a true freshman that was playing high school basketball last year, while Early graduated high school back during the 08-09 season. He is in his 4th season of post-high school basketball.

Absolutely no doubt Early is better now. But as to who ends up having the better D1 career? That's very much open to debate.

And its not correct at all that most of Garvin's points came when Early was out. I was right there. It was a great matchup when they were head to head. Which was a significant part of the time. Early was definitely manhandling Gavin on the boards. But Gavin made shooting and scoring right over Early look pretty easy too.

Another nice matchup is van fleet and Marcus. That should be a good one over the next 3 to 4 years.

In all honesty, in most of his shots, I'm not sure there is a player on Wichita's team that could have covered him. Possibly EO, just on sheer height. He just had an amazing night, and when you're constantly draining shots while well covered and the hand of a 6'8" guy in your face, you just tip your hat and move on. I don't think it says anything negative about Early that Thurman simply couldn't miss for a long stretch, regardless of how well defended he was.

More than that, Thurman seems to have been doing better as the season goes on. You want to see growth from a freshman over the course of the season.

Regardless of what team he plays from, he's still FROM Wichita, so I don't see any reason why any fan of WSU wouldn't wish him the best for his career -- except for when he's actually playing WSU, of course.

At the same time, Early hardly had a bad night, leading the Shockers in points, rebounds, blocks, and assists.