What could WSU have done against Shake Milton’s “more than perfect” game?

Depending on your level of optimism, SMU’s 83-78 victory over No. 7 Wichita State on Wednesday was either the hottest shooting performance by an opponent or the worst defensive effort by the Shockers at Koch Arena in more than a decade.

SMU scored 83 points in 60 possessions (1.38 points per possession) and made 63.8 percent of its shots in the most efficient offensive outing by an opponent at Koch Arena since Creighton scored at 1.42 points per possession in an 82-68 victory on Feb. 16, 2005 — that’s a span of 204 games at Koch Arena.

SMU coach Tim Jankovich said before the game his team would have to play a “near-perfect” game to become just the second team to beat the Shockers at Koch Arena in the last 69 games (“Nobody ever wins here and there’s a reason for that”). Then Shake Milton went out and scored a career-high 33 points, made 11 of 14 shots and all six of his free throws, and added five assists to lead SMU to its first road victory over a top-10 team since 1982.

“I didn’t know he was going to play like that,” Jankovich said. “That was more than perfect. I don’t know how you can play any better than he played tonight.”

This isn’t the Missouri Valley Conference anymore. Wednesday was Wichita State’s “welcome to the American” moment, a reminder that the new conference is a step-up in athletes, playmakers and coaches.

“In this new league,” WSU’s Landry Shamet said, “if you don’t bring it and play well you’re going to get exposed and you can get beat.”

Let’s take a look at just how much SMU’s scorching performance exposed WSU’s defensive flaws and how much can be chalked up to an all-time performance by Milton and the Mustangs.

Could anyone guard Shake?

There is a reason why SMU’s Shake Milton was tabbed as the preseason AAC Player of the Year. He’s a 6-foot-6 guard who can shoot from the perimeter and finish inside, as well as create for others — skills that will soon make him an NBA draft pick.

He’s a good player in the midst of a good season, but on Wednesday he was unreal.

Milton said he knew it was his night in the first half when he drew nothing but nylon from nearly 30 feet away inside the WuShock logo. He originally called it “the deep one,” but his coach interrupted him for clarification.

“Which deep one?” SMU coach Tim Jankovich asked, laughing.

“The one where I was going to come off the ball screen and just threw it up,” Milton said.

It was a regular occurrence: Milton hitting improbable shot after improbable shot.

One time he danced in front of Markis McDuffie with a couple of dribbles before launching a three over the 6-8 McDuffie. Swish. Another time he took a ball screen several feet beyond the arc, dribbled once and buried a deep trey over Shaquille Morris and Zach Brown. Swish. The final dagger came late in the game when he caught the ball six feet off the three-point line, immediately squared up, and splashed in a three over the out-stretched reach of Austin Reaves. Swish.

“He made some really tough shots and some daggers that hurt,” Shamet said.

WSU rotated Brown, McDuffie, Shamet, and Reaves on Milton throughout the game. Nothing worked. WSU didn’t necessarily play poor defense on Milton, rather it was a case of great offense trumping good defense.

The goal for a defense when up against a future pro like Milton is to force him into difficult shots and hope he misses. WSU did that, but Milton made them.

“Shake hit a couple of shots late in the shot clock that were like from 30 feet it seemed, bottom of the net,” WSU’s Conner Frankamp said. “Those kinds of shots we can’t do a lot about.”

WSU’s three-point problem

The two most important areas on the court to guard are near the rim and the three-point line and it’s easy to see why SMU had so much success against Wichita State by looking at its shot chart.

In WSU’s first 17 games, opponents were shooting 32 percent beyond the arc and just under 49 percent near the rim for a defense that was still rated among the 30 best in the country by efficiency ratings. On Wednesday, SMU torched WSU by making 11 of 22 three-pointers and 15 of 20 shots near the rim.

“We seem to bring out the best in teams in shooting the basketball,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “Some of it is us, but you’ve got to give them credit. Their game plan, their skill level, their ability to come here and make shots.”

While it may seem like more opponents than usual have caught fire against WSU’s defense, the statistics show that SMU was just the fifth opponent (joining California, South Dakota State, Arkansas State, and Tulsa) to out-perform their season shooting average by more than one percent.

What is the common thread between those five games? Outside shooting. All five teams made at least 10 three-pointers against WSU and shot a collective 47 percent (58 of 123) from beyond the arc.

WSU’s defense has been manipulated this season to take advantage of help defense that leaves open shooters on the perimeter. SMU found some success in that, but seven of its 11 three-pointers were well-contested by WSU — it was just a night where the Mustangs were making difficult shots over outstretched hands.

WSU’s pick-and-roll problem

Pick-and-roll coverage was at the heart of WSU’s defensive problems in the non-conference slate, but those problems haven’t been exposed again until Wednesday by WSU.

The basic premise is that since WSU instructs its center to hard hedge the ball screen, meaning they come off their man to help contain the ball handler, teams are having their playmakers stretch the play out as long as possible and making the recovery that much further for WSU’s big man.

This is manipulating WSU’s help defense (or sometimes lack thereof) and leaving players wide open for three-pointers at the top of the key or for layups rolling down the middle of the lane.

On Wednesday, SMU used its center, Ethan Chargois, in this role and he scored 11 points on six shots when he received a pass out of a pick-and-roll. He scored on four layups and then drilled a three-pointer on a pop-out to the three-point line after a screen.

When asked what letter grade he would give WSU’s defense on ball-screen coverage in the first half, Marshall responded with a “D.”

“We changed some ball-screen coverages at halftime,” Marshall said. “Sometimes you’ve got to figure out what’s going to work. That’s why you practice certain things, so you can go to them in games. The things we were doing in the first half wasn’t a very good game plan, so we had to change it.”

WSU found relative success in the second half by switching to a “frenzy” coverage that has the center aggressively trap the ball handler coming off the screen, instead of briefly slowing down the dribbler and then trying to recover.

But the Shockers are still struggling this season defending the ball handler on the pick-and-roll. Per Synergy Sports Technology, WSU ranks in the 38th percentile in college basketball in those situations.

“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” Shamet said. “But there were also some things we could have done better and that’s on all of us. We’ve just got to get better.”

In the American, opponents have a legitimate playmaker on the ball, a big setting the screen, and a dead-eye shooter rolling to the perimeter. That wasn’t always the case in the Missouri Valley, a step-up in challenge that has WSU’s defense ranked 56th on Ken Pomeroy’s defensive efficiency — the lowest it’s been since the 2009-10 season.

Teams are still shooting an absurdly-high percentage (44.3 percent) on isolation plays against WSU, but it’s giving WSU more regular-season tests than it’s ever had in the Marshall Era — something the team hopes will pay dividends come March.

“We can’t get complacent because we know every single night it’s going to be a tough challenge in this league,” Frankamp said. “We’ve just got to try to get better at the things we struggled with tonight.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 5:09 PM with the headline "What could WSU have done against Shake Milton’s “more than perfect” game?."