Another Shocker in the portal: WSU up to a nation-high seven scholarship players gone
Wichita State now leads in the country in something that you don’t want to lead the country in.
Asbjorn Midtgaard, a 7-foot center who could have challenged for the starting center spot in his senior season, entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal on Friday, sources confirmed to the Eagle. He became the seventh scholarship player and the eighth player in total to leave the program since the end of the season two weeks ago.
According to a Division I transfer list maintained by Verbal Commits, which just surpassed 500 names on Friday, WSU leads the country with eighth total transfers this offseason. Six other programs, all small-majors, have had six transfers, while while six more, highlighted by the SEC’s Mississippi State and the Big 12’s Iowa State, have had five transfers out of the program.
None of those programs came close to the 23-8 record WSU posted this past season and yet none of those programs came close to losing the amount of production WSU has lost this offseason.
The Shockers lost a combined 66 starts, 3,171 minutes and 1,099 points — about half of the team’s production last season — with the decisions of Erik Stevenson (Washington), Jamarius Burton, Grant Sherfield (Nevada), Morris Udeze, Noah Fernandes (Massachusetts), DeAntoni Gordon and walk-on Tate Busse to leave the program.
“Of course you don’t want to see that many guys leave at once, but you also don’t want to see that many guys stay that are unhappy with their role,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall told the Eagle earlier this offseason. “You’re saying those guys played 24 minutes a game, but what I’m telling you is that’s not enough.
“They weren’t pleased with that. My job is to try to win and their job is to try to play as much as they can.”
Of the 12 other programs with at least five transfers, only California Baptist (21-10) and Mississippi State (20-11) finished with at least 20 wins. While their total transfers out may look similar to WSU’s, the undergraduate production leaving does not: the transfers only accounted for a small chunk of the total minutes played for California Baptist (7%) and Mississippi State (6%) this past season compared to just over half (51%) for Wichita State.
Midtgaard didn’t have much of a role in 2019-20 — he appeared in 24 of 31 games and averaged 1.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in 8.0 minutes per game — but he was the only three-year player in Marshall’s system and figured to see an increased role in his senior year. WSU had also scheduled a foreign trip this summer with an extended stop in Denmark, in part to return the senior close to home in Helsingor, Denmark.
The reduced role for Midtgaard was a slight surprise after the 7-footer had gone from the end of the bench his freshman season to winning the team’s Most Improved Player award in the 2018-19 season.
As a sophomore, Midtgaard averaged 3.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 11.3 minutes per game and made 63.2% of his field goals. He reached double-digit scoring three times and made perhaps his biggest impact in WSU’s 75-67 win over UCF at Koch Arena when he came off the bench to provide the spark in defending 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall and also scoring six points, all on jump shots.
It looked as if Midtgaard was carrying over that momentum early this season, as he had solidified his spot as Marshall’s first choice off the bench behind senior Jaime Echenique. Midtgaard played 12.6 minutes per game in WSU’s first nine games of the season, but was essentially out of the rotation for the entire conference play season. He scored just five points in 61 combined minutes in 12 conference games.
The NCAA is meeting in April to discuss its first-time transfer rules, but currently Midtgaard would have to sit out the 2020-21 season at another Division I program unless he is granted a waiver.
WSU is now up to seven available scholarships to hand out in a spring where official visits and in-person recruiting has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Shockers have yet to pick up a commitment this spring to join three-star wing JaDun Michael, a signing from the fall, in their 2020 recruiting class.
There are now gaping holes on the roster at two positions, as all three of WSU’s point guards from last season transferred this offseason and three of the four centers either transferred or graduated. The five returning scholarship players are senior forward Trey Wade, junior wing Dexter Dennis, junior center Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler, sophomore Tyson Etienne and redshirt freshman Josaphat Bilau.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Another Shocker in the portal: WSU up to a nation-high seven scholarship players gone."
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