Wichita State’s how-to story: Defense, threes upset the NCAA brackets

Get past the complaints about seeding and turn to the good stuff. Wichita State thrives in this life as a not-so-stealthy underdog in the NCAA Tournament.

The Shockers own six wins over equal or better seeds in the past four tournaments, more than any other school.

They can add to that list on Friday against seventh-seeded Dayton in the first round of the South Regional in Indianapolis. The 10th-seeded Shockers (30-4) are developing a pattern for wrecking the NCAA’s seeding guidelines.

Dayton, by the way, is also comfortable with playing up on the seed line. In 2014, the 11th-seeded Flyers defeated No. 6 Ohio State, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 10 Stanford. In 2015, again as a No. 11 seed, they defeated No. 6 Providence.

Survive against the Flyers (24-7) and a likely date with No. 2 Kentucky on Sunday gives Wichita State another marquee opponent and another chance to torment the NCAA selection committee.

It started in 2013, when the ninth-seeded Shockers cared little about their seed, with wins over No. 8 Pittsburgh, No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Ohio State. In 2015, seventh-seeded Wichita State defeated No. 2 Kansas.

Last season, the 11th-seeded Shockers defeated No. 11 Vanderbilt in the First Four and No. 6 Arizona.

How do they do it?

Start solid and close fast

The comeback against top-seeded Gonzaga — down seven with 5:31 to play; down one 68 seconds later — is a highlight of the 2013 season.

It’s not a scenario that works for consistent NCAA success. The Shockers don’t put themselves in that position often.

In the six wins, WSU’s largest deficit is eight points against Gonzaga and Kansas.

WSU coach Gregg Marshall doesn’t like to waste timeouts early in games and the Shockers don’t put him in position to feel that stress. Their largest deficit five minutes in is 8-4 against Vanderbilt. They trailed Kansas and Arizona by one point, tied Pittsburgh and led Gonzaga and Ohio State.

No jitters. No worries if they belong on the court.

“We had energy from the get-go,” Shocker guard Tekele Cotton said during the 2013 run to the Final Four. “We wanted to come out and make a statement that we weren’t going to bow down to nobody.”

The Shockers led five of those games at halftime and tied Vanderbilt 30-all before opening the second half on an 11-0 run.

WSU outscored four of their six opponents in the second half and only Ohio State (+9) made up significant ground from a halftime deficit.

▪  And in a loss: Third-seeded Miami (Fla.) jetted to an 27-6 lead in the first half in 2016 on its way to a 65-57 win over the Shockers.

Defense, defense, defense

Some of Wichita State’s usual edges aren’t as prominent in NCAA play.

In the six wins, three opponents out-rebounded the Shockers. The Shockers won the turnover stat in four of the games, but the differences were small until 2016 wins over Vanderbilt and Arizona. They shot fewer foul shots in three games.

Defense is a constant.

The Shockers finished last season with the nation’s top-ranked defensive efficiency score, according to kenpom.com’s ranking. They held opponents to .876 points per possession. A score of 1.03 is around average nationally for defenses. Top offenses score around 1.11 or better.

Playing NCAA-quality competition didn’t diminish that asset.

The Shockers held Vanderbilt (.729 points per possession) and Arizona (.852) to their worst offensive games of the season, according to kenpom.com.

In 2013, WSU held Gonzaga (42.4 percent) and Ohio State (35.2 percent) to their lowest effective field-goal percentages (adjusting for the value of a three-pointer) of the season.

“Man, they D’d us up,” Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said. “You can’t go 8 for 31 in the first half against a great team.”

WSU held those six opponents to 34.6-percent shooting with only Arizona (41.7) over 36 percent. Those six opponents are 29 of 123 from three-point range (23.5 percent).

▪  And in a loss: Louisville committed nine turnovers, two in the second half, in the 2013 Final Four win. The Cardinals made 9 of 25 threes (36 percent) and scored 1.16 points per possession, second-most allowed by the Shockers that season behind Creighton’s 1.37.

Shut down the star

Princeton’s Bill Bradley scored 58 points against the Shockers in the 1965 third-place game, then a Final Four record.

Nobody’s getting over on the Shockers like that these days. They made it a habit to make stars work hard for points.

It started with Tekele Cotton’s smothering effort on Pitt’s Tray Woodall in 2013. Woodall, Pitt’s leading scorer at 11.5 points, missed 11 of 12 shots and scored two. He also committed five turnovers.

Gonzaga guard Kevin Pangos scored 19 points, but missed 11 of his 17 shots. Center Kelly Olynyk scored 26 points on 8-of-22 shooting.

Ohio State guard Aaron Craft missed 10 of his 12 shots.

No Vanderbilt starter reached double figures in 2016 against WSU. Guard Wade Baldwin, who averaged 14.1 points, scored nine on 3-of-9 shooting. Center Damian Jones, who averaged 13.9, scored five on 2-of-6 shooting.

“We shot it poorly from two,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. “We shot it poorly from three and we shot it poorly from the foul line.”

Both Vandy players went in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft.

▪  And in a loss: Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison scored 19 points and made 4 of 7 threes in a 78-76 victory over top-seeded Wichita State in 2014.

Don’t forget to score

Wichita State’s offense is uniformly solid in those six NCAA games. Only once has it slipped below 1.00 point per possession, .988 against Ohio State.

Limiting turnovers and making three-pointers are the offensive constant in the six wins over equal or higher seeds.

The Shockers shot 36 percent or better from three-point range in four of those wins. When WSU shot poorly behind the arc — 2 of 20 against Pitt and 3 of 20 against Arizona — they compensated with a 17-point edge at the foul line against Pitt and a plus-13 edge in turnovers against Arizona.

The win over Gonzaga remains the gold standard for offense in the tournament.

The Shockers made 14 of 28 threes and 25 of 50 shots to produce 1.18 points per possession and a 64-percent effective field-goal mark, both highs for the six games.

The final eight minutes of that game saw WSU rally from a seven-point deficit by making 6 of 7 shots, 5 of 5 from three-point range. The Shockers, down 55-49 with 7:55 to play, outscored Gonzaga 27-15 by scoring on 11 of their final 13 possessions.

“I remember turning down a three early on in the game and (assistant coach Chris) Jans kind of got on me,” Shocker guard Ron Baker said. “I started shooting when I was open and taking better shots. After I made (a three for a 67-63 lead) I remember looking over looking over at Jans and he was freaking out, yelling, ‘Let’s go.’ ”

▪  And in a loss: The Shockers committed 15 turnovers and shot 33.9 percent from the field (20 of 59) against Miami.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s how-to story: Defense, threes upset the NCAA brackets."