Wichita State looks to make its mark against 'the ultimate eraser' Wednesday. Shocker head coach Gregg Marshall discussed the challenge presented by UCF's 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall, a brutal stretch of games to start the American Athletic Conference season and how it's helped sharpen his young team for the days ahead. Read on for a transcript from Tuesday afternoon's weekly press conference.
 

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HEAD COACH GREGG MARSHALL ON...

.... Aubrey Dawkins' impact on UCF (after losing all of last year to injury):
"He's a very talented player. I had a chance to see his dad (UCF coach Johnny Dawkins) play in my era, and he was a tremendous player --obviously played at Duke and in the NBA for a long time. They're different (players) -- Aubrey's bigger. He's 6'6 it looks like and a big, strong kid. Johnny was always wiry and fast with a beautiful jump shot. He handed that down. This kid can shoot it, he can drive it, he plays the three and the four, plays the right way. Having not had him last year, you can see the impact that had."

...preparing for 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall:
"It's hard to simulate that in practice. He's not only big, but he's well-proportioned. He doesn't look odd because of his height. It's unusual height, because he is so put-together, just looks like a 6'7 athlete because he can move his feet. He obviously towers over everyone, but he's a complete player. He's got to work on his free throws, obviously, but short of that, I don't see how he doesn't make the NBA and have a long career there, as long as he can stay healthy. He affects the game tremendously."

...ways to score with Tacko protecting the paint:
"When he's in, you've got to be very wise when you penetrate. Sometimes you have to penetrate, maybe to kick, because he can be away from the basket to a degree and still reach around and block just about any little guard's attempt. In the UConn game, I saw the kid (Altirique) Gilbert make an unbelievable crafty and shifty and quick, fast, athletic move and kind of got by him and finished on the other side with his off-hand. That was a dynamic move, a big time move. Their shooting percentages are so good defensively because of the rim protection that he provides. The other two -- (Chad) Brown, (Collin) Smith -- those guys are good players. The guards, they can be a little more aggressive. They can kind of funnel things to the big fella. He erases a lot of mistakes. We've talked about how Jaime Echenique erases mistakes. This kid is the ultimate eraser."

...a brutal stretch of games to begin conference play:
"We knew going in. I kind of voiced my displeasure with Darron Boatright when I saw the initial (draft). 'Here's your schedule, do you have any thoughts.' My thought was, 'What are you doing to us?' But, they didn't change it, and it is the schedule that we are playing. The good news is we will be done with Houston and Central Florida as of tomorrow night about 11:00."

....surviving tough American competition with a young team (compared to last year when a veteran group embraced resume-building opportunities).
"Doesn't matter what league we are in right now, we are going to have some struggles with our youth an inexperience. This league is shaping up to be a three, four, five-bid league. There are a lot of good teams. It'll be interesting to see how it works out. Our goal is just to continue to get better so we can be a potential team to try to steal a bid come tournament time. That's kind of where we are. It's unusual for us this time of year to be saying that but I think that is pretty much a foregone conclusion. We just have to continue to work hard. We are getting better.

....takeaways from the Houston game:
We really competed against Houston. Guard play was better, which has been a problem. We made some shots against a very good team. A team that was a little upset after losing to Temple. They had a tough video session and reading Coach (Kelvin) Sampson's comments in the Houston Chronicle, they addressed some things. Obviously their first loss. We caught them at a bad time -- finally their shooters got loose in the second half. Guys like (Armoni) Brooks and Corey (Davis). We did a great job on them in the first half. Second half we didn't do as good a job. Once you get them going -- as good as shooters as they are -- it doesn't matter how you guard them at that point. They have the confidence and the rhythm and the flow and the home crowd behind them. Our team hasn't seen that. We haven't seen a shooting exhibition like that."

....mood in the locker room after losing four-straight:
"I don't think anyone is real happy about it. I think we would like a different result. We've gotten close. Maybe the Temple game we gave away. Temple's a good team. They made some good plays. We got some guys that are trying to get better. That's all we can do. I mean, we don't control the schedule. All we can do is control our effort. And we can control our passion for the game and our passion for improvement. Ultimately, that's what is going to be what gets us out of the slide that we are in. Not being upset and angry and wanting to down your teammates or get too down on everyone. I, myself, am down, but at the same time I'm trying to stay positive and trying to build up these young players. That's my role as the leader. I can't show them this everyday, the frustration -- everyday has got to be an opportunity to get better. "

....whether he's ever had a player shoulder the type of workload Markis McDuffie has this year:
"I saw P.J. Couisnard in Houston, and it was great to catch up with him.  He came by shoot-around. He's just a wonderful guy -- great player. I was able to coach him in his fifth year -- so his last final year at Wichita State. We've remained close, and I've always really liked him. His remark to me, he goes 'Coach, its kind of like my year with you, kind of starting over.' It was Markis McDuffie similar to PJ Couisnard. Samajae Haynes-Jones, a little lefty point guard like Matt Braeuer. That's about all we had from an experience standpoint. It was all-new players and it was a bunch of guys that we threw together in the last minute. We had a little bit of that in the spring with all the turnover... You got nine guys. We recruited seven that first year. I think we kept a couple open, and we have a scholarship open now."

...the decision to let the players play it out on the court vs. calling timeouts:
"We've probably called double as many timeouts as we did last year, and I probably need to call more. We ended the game the other night with one timeout, so we didn't have too many to spare. You've just got to try to let these guys know during the media timeouts that this is what we are going to do and adjust accordingly. It's difficult. It doesn't matter if I call a timeout or not. I've called timeouts and things have gotten worse. When you are playing a team like that (Houston), you don't have enough timeouts. You can call timeout every time they score a basket -- that stops the run, I guess. From the timeout lover's perspective."

....his "Junk Yard Dog" award -- a tradition that dates back to his Winthrop days:
"We've handed it out a couple of times (this year). We've had a couple of different players get it. You give it as an incentive for guys that have done the things that help you win -- that aren't necessarily box score. Taking charges, getting on the floor for loose balls, setting great screens, being a wonderful passer, maybe being the defensive stopper that game. Blocked shots and deflections. All of those things. We talk as a staff and give it out to honor those people that did those things over-and-beyond just the scoring of the points. I've got a backup too. This one has been with me since maybe 2000. Its made the trip back here to Wichita from South Carolina and still hanging in there. The plastic is very durable.Generally hand it out after a win, so its been awhile. If we can win tomorrow night, we'll certainly try to find someone deserving. If we win tomorrow night, there will be several guys deserving. That's the thing, we've got to get more guys playing well. We've got one or two, two or three guys playing well and that is not going to be enough. You have got to have six or seven guys play well, five six or seven guys play much better than their norm for us to win games."