Wichita State looks forward to rest before NCAA selection day

An extra day of rest is the consolation prize for Wichita State after losing in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

It isn’t what the eighth-ranked Shockers wanted. It may be what they need after Saturday’s 65-62 loss to Illinois State at Scottrade Center.

“The next eight to 12 days will be good for us,” WSU guard Ron Baker said. “We’ll get back to Wichita, get home, rest up, get healthy.”

WSU (28-4) won’t play again until either March 19 or 20. Selection day for the 68-team NCAA Tournament is next Sunday and the Shockers are sure to grab one of 36 at-large spots. When they do, they will make the NCAA field for a fourth straight season, double the program’s previous best streak. Three of those spots came as an at-large choice, a difficult status for most schools outside the NCAA’s top five conferences. While WSU would rather win the MVC Tournament and automatic bid, at-large spots do spotlight the program’s consistent success in non-conference play and the MVC.

For Baker, Tekele Cotton and Fred VanVleet, all of whom average more than 30 minutes a game, some time off the court may help. Each game, it seems, one of that trio takes a hard hit or tumble that requires recovery time. On Saturday, WSU coach Gregg Marshall said forward Evan Wessel was checked for a concussion. Baker and Tekele Cotton collided during the game and both got up slowly.

“(Wessel) took a big spill (Friday) and got a cut on his face and a couple of lesions,” Marshall said. “We’ve got to get healthy, healed and well. We’ve got to use this as motivation.”

No. 11 Northern Iowa, which won the MVC’s automatic bid with a 69-60 win over Illinois State on Sunday, will take a similar approach.

“We won't do a lot of our take a charge drills, rebounding drills, a lot of the hard ones this week,” coach Ben Jacobson told reporters after Sunday’s win. “This is a good week to let the guys get healed up just a little bit and mentally get freshened up just a little bit.”

The Shockers will return to practice later this week not knowing their next opponent. That gives them the luxury of working on individual skills and work on lessons learned in St. Louis. After 32 games, two games in Arch Madness provided few surprises.

WSU’s offense depends on three-point shooting and fast-break points, especially when center Darius Carter is in foul trouble or matched against bigger, physical centers. Carter played 14 minutes and scored nine points against the Redbirds. The Shockers missed 14 of 18 threes against Illinois State’s zone defense.

“We just didn’t have a lot of presence down low,” Baker said. “We weren’t able to get quick ball reversals against the zones and sit-ins inside to stretch them out.”

Normally a good outside shooting team, WSU struggled to score in half-court situations against an organized defense. The Redbirds limited what Baker and VanVleet could do by extending their zone past the three-point line. Redbirds center Reggie Lynch made it hard to score near the basket by blocking five shots.

“You don’t get anything inside from guards or bigs and then you’re just resorting to three-point shots,” VanVleet said. “We shot 4 for 18. That’s that.”

VanVleet and Baker both played 38 minutes and Cotton played 36. Four WSU reserves combined to score six points, four by center Shaq Morris. The Shockers will enter the NCAA Tournament unsure of their depth, despite season-long work to develop more of their eight scholarship newcomers into consistent contributors. While players such as Zach Brown and Bush Wamukota made important contributions in recent games, it is still hard to know when they can be counted on against top opponents.

For most of the season, WSU’s experienced and talented starting five didn’t need much help and Morris’ development in MVC play provided some relief. The Shockers don’t need to worry about how their pros and cons will play in NCAA matchups. That will come next week.

“We’re going to dwell on getting better and healing and getting our bumps and bruises to heal,” Marshall said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Wichita State looks forward to rest before NCAA selection day."