Shockers bracing to face havoc in first true road test of the season at VCU

There is a drill the Wichita State men’s basketball team has practiced since the summer called “4-on-3, 3-on-4.”

The drill starts with three offensive players going the length of the court against four defenders who are looking to double-team every chance they get. After a made shot, rebound or turnover, those four defenders go the other way and try to attack three players.

Its purpose is to give continuous repetitions to players in practice of handling trapping pressure, then making the split-second decisions after breaking that pressure to capitalize on a numbers advantage. That’s exactly the test WSU (7-4) will face in its non-conference finale on Saturday against VCU (7-4) at the Siegel Center in a 3 p.m. game broadcast on ESPN2.

“We did that specifically for games like this,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “Now once we started playing games and worried about individual opponents, we haven’t done that drill as much. But essentially we’ve been preparing for (VCU’s press) since Day One.”

VCU rose to national prominence with its Havoc defense, a high-intensity, chaos-producing full-court press that was popularized by former coach Shaka Smart. While Smart has since departed for Texas, VCU has returned to its havoc ways in the second season under coach Mike Rhoades.

The Rams’ defense is forcing opponents into 17.3 turnovers per game and limiting them to shooting percentages of 37.1 from the field and 25.2 from the three-point line. VCU is forcing a turnover on 24.1 percent of opponent possessions, the 16th-best rate in the country.

In the halfcourt, WSU has rarely turned the ball over (12.8 turnovers per game with a turnover percentage that ranks in the top-third of the country). But in the 48 times a press defense has ended a possession this season, WSU has scored 25 points (0.52 points per possession) and turned the ball over 27 percent of the time, per Synergy.

Making quick, accurate passes will be crucial for WSU guards like Ricky Torres, Samajae Haynes-Jones, Jamarius Burton and Erik Stevenson. As of Friday afternoon, it was unclear the availability of Dexter Dennis, who suffered a concussion last Saturday and missed Wednesday’s game.

“They’re going to press for 40 minutes,” Marshall said. “They’re going to run and jump in a full-court press. They’re going to throw the whole kitchen table and bring all of the different kind of presses they can possibly throw at you and you have to be able to deal with that.

“Hopefully Dex can be able to play because we could definitely use another guard. They’ll probably be tired at the end of the game and stressed. Hopefully it’s a happy stress because we handled it well, but there’s a chance we don’t.”

That kind of stress should sound familiar to WSU fans, as these two teams produced three memorable games that came down to the final possession in a 21-month span in 2011 and 2012.

In an ESPN BracketBusters game at Koch Arena on Feb. 18, 2011, VCU’s eventual Final Four team escaped with a 68-67 win after Joey Rodriguez made two free throws with 0.8 seconds remaining. The next season, 12th-seeded VCU knocked off fifth-seeded WSU in a 62-59 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers finally got their revenge the next season, as Malcolm Armstead nailed the game-winning jumper with 3.6 seconds left in WSU’s 53-51 victory at the Siegel Center on Nov. 13, 2012.

WSU senior Markis McDuffie said the team understands the significance of the game, as the Shockers will try for their first road win of the season to close out the non-conference slate with an 8-4 record and four-game winning streak heading into the new year and AAC play.

“I feel like the trajectory is going up for us right now,” McDuffie said after WSU’s 84-63 win over Oral Roberts. “That’s just with the practices we’ve been having and the coaches watching a lot of video to help us learn from our mistakes. That’s making us better and we have a better sense of urgency now. This road game is a big one. It can’t get any better than playing at VCU, where it’s havoc.”

WSU traveling to Richmond makes for a compelling matchup and good television for a national broadcast, but Marshall knows how difficult the task of taking one of the nation’s most inexperienced teams on the road for its first true road game of the season at the Siegel Center, where VCU has 123 consecutive sellouts.

Marshall pointed out WSU hasn’t handled “firsts” very well, referencing WSU’s first game of the season, a loss to Louisiana Tech, its first game away from Koch Arena, a loss to Davidson in Charleston, and its first semi-road game, a loss to Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.

“Expect the best, but it will be a very tough assignment going on the road for the first true road game,” Marshall said. “They have a great following, a great program, a great coach and a great tradition. It will be unique.”

Wichita State (7-4) at VCU (7-4)

When: 3 p.m. CT on Saturday

Where: Siegel Center (7,637), Richmond, Va.

TV: ESPN2 (Rich Hollenberg and Mark Adams)

Online: Streaming on WatchESPN

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM or GoShockers.com/Listen

About VCU: Much like WSU’s Koch Arena, VCU has cultivated a raucous atmosphere in the Siegel Center. VCU has 123 consecutive sellouts and has won 83 percent (102-21) of those games... VCU has had a week off since its last game, a 83-79 loss at home to College of Charleston... Marcus Santos-Silva, a 6-7 sophomore, is averaging 11.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks in his past four games. The first-year starter is averaging 13.2 rebounds per 40 minutes... Junior forward Issac Vann was hampered by injuries last season, but has returned to full strength this season to score a career-high 30 points in a Nov. 20 loss to St. John’s... In his second season at VCU, coach Mike Rhoades has committed to returning VCU to its Havoc ways. The Rams are forcing 17 turnovers per game and holding opponents to a 37-percent field goal percentage. VCU has held nine of its 11 opponents under one point per possession. After seeing a decline in turnovers forced last season, VCU has returned to a top-20 rate in the country this season... Opponents are shooting just 25.2 percent on three-pointers, the fourth-best mark for any defense in the country. No team has made more than six threes in a game this season against VCU... Marcus Evans, a 6-2 junior guard, followed Rhoades from Rice, where he scored more than 1,3000 points in two seasons and was a first-team all-conference player both seasons... Rhoades and WSU coach Gregg Marshall share a connection through their ties at Division III Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va. That is where Marshall played in college, then later studied under legendary coach Hal Nunnally as an assistant coach from 1985-87. Rhoades took over the head coaching job at Randolph-Macon after Nunnally retired in 1999. Rhoades led Randolph-Macon to a 197-76 record in 10 seasons with four NCAA appearances.

About WSU: This is the start of a two-year home-and-home series between the two programs. VCU makes the return trip to Wichita at Koch Arena on Dec. 21, 2019... The all-time series is tied 2-2 against VCU, while the Shockers have won the only matchup in Richmond. The two programs made for three memorable matchups in a 21-month stretch in 2011 and 2012 with all three games being decided on the final possession. VCU won on a pair of last-second free throws for a 68-67 win at Koch Arena on Feb. 18, 2011, then won a rematch in the NCAA Tournament one year later in a 62-59 victory. The Shockers won the return trip at VCU in a 53-51 win on Nov. 13, 2012. WSU is on a season-best three-game winning streak and has won five of its last six games... Senior forward Markis McDuffie currently is the top scorer in the American Athletic Conference with a 19.0-point scoring average... Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Shockers own the most road wins (49-9) and the highest winning percentage (.845) in Division I.