Excerpt from a Wichita Eagle article on the many WSU transfers:
Marshall said he made a mistake in his roster construction, a problem that originated in the 2018 offseason when WSU graduated six seniors, Landry Shamet declared early for the NBA Draft, Reaves was a surprise transfer and C.J. Keyser was ruled academically ineligible. That forced Marshall and his staff to fill nine scholarships in one off-season.
After hitting on three guards in the 2018 recruiting class, Marshall followed that up by signing three more highly touted freshmen (guards) in the 2019 recruiting class. It was the most talented depth Marshall had ever assembled in a backcourt, which he thought would be a team strength. Instead, it became the biggest issue for the team. In trying to satisfy all of three of his point guards, Marshall in turn fully satisfied none, which led to Burton, Sherfield and Fernandes pursuing opportunities to be full-time point guards elsewhere.
“There was some inherent competition there,” Marshall said. “Maybe the sophomores thought they had done something when they made the run last year in the NIT and then all of a sudden these highly touted freshmen come in. It was very difficult to keep everyone happy. I didn’t do a very good job of managing the personalities. We basically had 13 starters. We had a lot of really, really good players. But you can’t play that many, so no one was happy.”
