Following a surprise Final Four run, there’s little doubt that Gregg Marshall and Wichita State are pulling in better players than the school has seen since Xavier McDaniel and Antoine Carr toed the stripe on campus.
With big-time recruits come big-time headaches, it seems. Marshall had 6'7", 240-lb. juco transfer Earl Watson schedule to join the team next season, but Marshall told the Wichita Eagle on Thursday that the beefy forward would not, in fact, be making the trip.
Marshall texted beat writer Paul Suellentrop that Watson “did not get done all he needed to in order to be admitted at this time.”
Pressed for details, Marshall said “There’s an academic class he’s got to finish up to have the number of hours to be admissible to school.”
It’s not great news, nor is it the worst, as Suellentrop points out:
Watson would have been a nice fill-in for the toughness and experience lost when Hall graduated, but Early’s leadership and a good-sized front line ensure that the Shockers will be a MVC favorite yet again this season.