Taking charge: A look at why WSU is so good at drawing offensive fouls

If you listen to Rashard Kelly tell it, taking a charge is all about toughness.

It’s not a skill or a talent. It’s about mind over matter.

“The hardest part is finding that will to stand in there and take it,” Kelly said. “Once it happens, it doesn’t really hurt. And if it does, then it only hurts for like 20 seconds. Once you start moving around, it’s over with.

“You just have to find the will and the mental toughness to actually take it.”

Heading into Saturday’s showdown against Oklahoma (7-1) at Intrust Bank Arena, No. 3 Wichita State (8-1) hasn’t had a problem finding the will and mental toughness this season. Through nine games, WSU has drawn 15 charges already with Landry Shamet (six), Kelly (four), and Austin Reaves (three) leading the way.

That’s a slight increase over the 53 charges WSU took last season in 36 games. For a defense that ranks 301st in the country in forcing turnovers, per KenPom, charges are even more vital.

“Plus it’s such a momentum swing,” Shamet said. “It’s a turnover for them and a foul for them and you get the ball. I don’t know why (people) go so crazy, but they always seem like a big deal.

“I know when I’ve been called for a charge, you think, ‘Dang, man, that was stupid. I knew I shouldn’t have done that.’ Everyone else kind of feels that way too, like you could’ve avoided it.”

It’s interesting how the four players who draw the most offensive fouls on defense — Shamet, Kelly, Reaves, and Zach Brown — all do it in different ways. Let’s examine each player’s “dirty work,” as Brown calls it, and how it helps give WSU the ball back.

Landry Shamet

WSU coach Gregg Marshall has challenged Shamet the most on the defensive end.

“I didn’t think he was locked in defensively,” Marshall said on his radio show Monday. “He could be, should be just like Zach Brown, a lockdown defender with his size, his athleticism, his attention to detail.”

Shamet played perhaps his most complete game as a Shocker in WSU’s 78-66 victory over Oklahoma State last Saturday. Not only did Shamet score 30 points on 11 shots, but he played arguably his best defensive game. Check out the below video to see just how pesky Shamet was as an on-ball defender and how good he was denying his man the ball away from the ball.

But Shamet’s commitment to the defensive end can best be seen in his charges taken. After only taking one last season, Shamet has already drawn six (five in the last two games against South Dakota State and OSU).

I asked Shamet why the sudden spike and he said it comes down to preparation and giving more effort. He works in practice more on shuffling his feet, then he’s spending more time this season studying WSU’s scouting reports on opponent’s tendencies and watching more film.

The above video shows the three charges Shamet took in Stillwater. They’re all similar: Shamet anticipates the direction of the drive (a credit to WSU’s scouting), shuffles his feet to beat the driver to the spot they’re headed, then waits for them to dip their shoulder or extend their arm into his chest to sell the contact to the officials.

“If you feel a shoulder or an elbow or a forehead or anything in the middle of your chest and you know you’re square and showing your hands,” Shamet said, “that’s the best time to take a charge.”

It’s an art form, one Shamet has mastered in a short amount of time — exactly what Marshall was trying to extract from his star.

“I got into him a couple of times and he’s responded beautifully and he’s become what we wanted him to be and what he can be,” Marshall said. “He’s really amped it up on the defensive end, which is now going to continue to raise his stock in everyone’s eyes.”

Rashard Kelly

While Shamet has mastered the art of drawing the charge shuffling his feet, no one is better on WSU than Kelly at identifying an out-of-control driver and sliding over to take a charge.

Of the 16 charges Kelly has taken over the last two years, only two of them have come when Kelly was the on-ball defender.

There is risk involved in Kelly’s specialty. He is, after all, completely coming off of his man to leave them for the dump-off dunk or wide-open corner shot.

But more times than not, Kelly draws the charge. So how does he do it?

“You just have to look at their eyes,” Kelly said. “If I see them coming downhill and his head is down, I know that I got him.”

That’s why Kelly not only pours over details on the forwards he’ll be guarding, but also the other team’s guards. He studies their tendencies. The great guards are the ones that probe the defense and jump off two feet to avoid players like Kelly sliding over for the charge.

But if he sees guards who consistently jump off one foot in the lane and/or don’t jump stop? Game over. Kelly is there to take the charge.

“It’s kind of a mind game,” Kelly said. “It’s a gamble, but you just have to know the type of player you’re dealing with.”

Austin Reaves

No one is more versatile at taking charges than Reaves.

While Shamet is a shuffling specialist and Kelly is a slide-over specialist, Reaves is a player who can do both.

Reaves drew a team-high 13 charges last season and already has three this year. Of those 16, nine have come from Reaves shuffling his feet and seven have come from a set position.

Perhaps his best charge came last Saturday at Oklahoma State. It was a 2-on-1 fast break after a live-ball turnover and Reaves played perfect defense to turn a sure two points into a turnover for OSU.

The play starts off with Reaves backpedaling to get in position, then taking a jab step to force a pass. He immediately swivels his hips, takes a step to the side and plants just outside the arc in the lane. OSU’s 6-foot-7, 220-pound Cameron McGriff tries to jump through him — literally — and McGriff’s flying knee connects squarely with Reaves’ chest.

It’s funny watching Reaves stick his head up after the whistle to see if the pain he just absorbed was worth it — it was — then collapsing back to the ground.

Remember what Kelly said? It’s all about toughness.

“It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, it starts with toughness,” Kelly said. “That’s what we have.”

Zach Brown

Brown is included not because he takes charges (he only has two in the last two seasons), but because he generates offensive fouls at a high rate in another way: fighting through screens.

Charges taken is not a statistic tracked yet, but at least it’s celebrated occasionally. Fighting through screens? Rarely does that even get mentioned outside of the film room for college basketball teams.

“It’s the dirtiest work,” Brown said. “They always got me doing the dirty work, but that’s my job. Somebody’s got to do it.”

Being on the other end of an illegal screen is slightly different than taking a charge, but the result is the same: a foul on the opponent and a turnover. It’s just as valuable and no one is better at doing it on WSU than Brown.

Over the past two seasons, opponents have been whistled for 28 illegal screens. Brown, who typically draws the toughest defensive assignment, has been the one fighting through those screens on 12 occasions. That’s six more than any other Shocker.

So how does Brown do it? It starts with him never dying on screens. He simply never gives up and continues to work to get around the big-man screener. That applies pressure to the big man to set a good screen and if he misses, then Brown is applying the pressure.

That’s what leads to a lot of the illegal screens: Brown’s insatiable desire to get around the pick and the screener unable to legally hold him off.

“You just have to come off of him as tight as you can and follow the offensive guy and try to stay in front of it,” Brown said. “If the big dude happens to stick their leg out, then so be it. That’s the price you pay for a foul.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Taking charge: A look at why WSU is so good at drawing offensive fouls."