The Wichita State Shockers have a transfer problem now that the NCAA season has ended. Gregg Marshall has now seen five players decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal within a week of each other. The Shockers were just starting to recover from a mass program exodus and it is hard to determine how this will impact the team’s success.
Leaving Wichita State:
Jamarius Burton, 6-4, 200, G, Soph., (10.3 ppg, 3.4 apg)
Noah Fernandes, 5-11, 175, G, Fr., (1.4 ppg)
DeAntoni Gordon, 6-7, 210, F, Fr., (0.8 ppg)
Grant Sherfield, 6-2, 190, G, Fr., (8.1 ppg)
Erik Stevenson, 6-4, 200, G, Soph., (11.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg) https://t.co/AOtseurE9X
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 16, 2020
The loss of Jamarius Burton, Erik Stevenson, and Grant Sherfield are the biggest blows for Wichita State. Two of the three were double-digit scorers with Sherfield being close with 8.1 points per game. There doesn’t seem to be an underlying cause that’s immediately apparent for the departures. The program had just seemed to be recovering from the early departure of NBA guard Landry Shamet.
This is troubling news for a program that has seen some fairly recent success in the NCAA Tournament. Mid-major programs like the Shockers can ill afford this level of dysfunction and roster shakeup. The problem is the exodus from the Wichita State program may not be over just yet.
Told there might be more Wichita State defections, per source.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 16, 2020
Gregg Marshall’s name has come up a few times at higher-level programs, but he has stayed put so far. These types of problems could be what is holding the Shocker’s head coach back or he could just be waiting for a specific job. The overall fact is that this is a problem for the Shockers. There is no apparent fix to this issue and it could very well continue this year and in future years.
