Wichita State’s offense keeps running smoothly, even after stars depart

The Rock training basketball that Wichita State players use weighs 2 1/2 pounds, almost twice as heavy as a regulation basketball. It’s a wrist-weary chore to bounce, and shooting it feels like heaving a big, orange shot put.

So, of course assistant coach Greg Heiar made the Shockers play full-court one-on-one games last spring with the weight ball. It helps the ball-handlers learn to control an unwilling object. It’s impossible to shoot past about six feet from the hoop, so it forces offensive players to score around the rim and teaches defenders to stop them.

The Shockers, in groups of four, played those games, first player to score three baskets, against rotating defenders — make it, take it.

“We had some crazy tough workouts,” WSU guard Landry Shamet said. “Stuff like you might turn your head at like ‘What?’ ”

Those spring workouts are where WSU started reconstructing an offense that struggled at times and then lost its top three scorers, two of them now in the NBA. Heiar started the sesssions with encouragement.

“He was talking about ‘We don’t have any scorers, we don’t have scorers,’ trying to motivate us,” Shamet said. “Our workouts in the spring were really, really intense and focused on scoring.”

WSU (8-2) is 10 games in to its revamped offense when it plays Oklahoma (6-2) on Saturday at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The loss of Fred VanVleet’s pick-and-roll wizardy, Ron Baker’s multi-faceted scoring, Evan Wessel’s hustle and unselfishness and Anton Grady soft touch hasn’t derailed the Shockers.

WSU averages 82.3 points, up almost 11 points from last season, and is shooting 46.5 percent overall and 32.4 percent from three-point range. The 2015-16 Shockers shot 42.9 percent and 32.4.

The improvement is most noticeable behind the arc, where the Shockers tied a school record with 15 threes against Maryland Eastern Shore and made 13 against Colorado State. WSU has three games in which it’s made 10 or more threes. Last season’s team did that four times.

“I’ve learned we have a lot of offensive weapons,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “I knew we could shoot the ball. I knew we had a lot of guys that could put it in the basket, a lot of guys that score inside and out.”

The current Shockers score close to the basket a bit more than last season — 40 percent of its shots come at the rim, according to hoop-math.com, compared to 34 percent last season. As a consequence, it shoots more foul shots (24.9 a game, compared to 21.9 last season). Last season’s Shockers compiled a 1.10 points-per-possession rating because of its elite ability to avoid turnovers and control pace. This team plays more quickly and turns the ball over slightly more, leading to a 1.09 point-per-possession number, according to kenpom.com.

“I knew this was a good offensive team,” forward Zach Brown said. “There's a lot of guys that could score one-on-one buckets at any given time.”

Much of the improvement has come on the wings. Sophomore Markis McDuffie’s shooting numbers are up from 42.6 percent last season to 48.1 percent. Almost 50 percent of his shots, according to hoop-math.com, come at the rim, an increase of 11 percent. Brown is shooting the ball better and has cut down on his turnovers. Freshman Austin Reaves is 12 of 22 from three-point range.

There is a not player whom defenders can sag off of, as they often did when guarding Wessel last season.

Junior newcomer Darral Willis is an upgrade offensively over Grady, shooting the ball better, getting to the line more often and making free throws at a better rate. Guard Daishon Smith, also a newcomer, is taking more minutes at point guard as his ability to move the ball upcourt quickly grows.

“You have thoughts in the back of your head in the offseason — losing two NBA guys — about the offense,” Shamet said. “That’s somewhat of a setback, maybe. But I know what we had coming back and our recruiting class.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s offense keeps running smoothly, even after stars depart."