Wichita State taking a hands-off approach in preparing for Cincinnati, round two
The first chapter of this season’s rivalry between Wichita State and Cincinnati will be remembered by most Shocker fans for the two technical fouls called on WSU late in the second half.
That pivotal swing, along with some late-game fouling, led to Cincinnati shooting 28 more free throws than WSU at Koch Arena. While those sequences tacked on eight more free throws to the total, the rest of the game still featured way too many fouls committed by the Shockers.
WSU was whistled for 26 fouls in the first meeting and few of them could be considered stemming from hustle plays, challenging a shot or chasing a loose ball. The majority of them came away from the action, as WSU’s off-ball defenders were whistled throughout the game for using their hands too much.
That’s priority No. 1 for the Shockers (12-11, 5-6 American) when they put their four-game winning streak on the line Sunday at noon in an ESPN telecast against Cincinnati (20-4, 9-2) at FifthThird Arena, where the Bearcats have won 13 straight times.
“Hopefully we’ll be a little smarter and less apt to be called for fouls,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “We got called for quite a few that game and a lot of them we brought on ourselves by just putting our hands on people when we shouldn’t.”
The source of almost all of WSU’s problems the first game stemmed from Cincinnati’s AAC Player of the Year candidate Jarron Cumberland, who leads the conference in scoring at 19 points per game. WSU committed seven off-ball fouls alone trying to chase Cumberland through the array of screens Cincinnati sends him through on offense.
WSU’s defenders, many of them freshmen, tended to grab him when he was going through a screen to try to keep up. After seeing film and hearing about it all week during practice, WSU coaches are hoping the players follow the scouting report this time as this will be the first team WSU has played twice this season.
In terms of points derived by field goals, WSU outscored Cincinnati 50-41 in the first meeting.
“I think these guys have learned from it,” said WSU assistant Isaac Brown, who handled the scouting report for Sunday’s game. “We’ve got to do a better job of showing our hands when (Cumberland) is coming off the ball screens with the runner action. We have to make sure we send him off the screen, but don’t touch him and be there on the catch with your hands off him.”
Of course, Cumberland is skilled enough to inflict damage without racking up fouls and shooting free throws. But that’s a good portion of his offense and WSU can improve its chances of winning by not allowing Cincinnati to shoot a significant amount of free throws again.
Outside of Cumberland, Cincinnati’s offense has been up and down. Keith Williams (10.8 ppg) is the only other scorer who averages in double figures. To pull off the upset at Cincinnati, WSU knows it will also have to bring a much better effort to the rebounding battle.
The confidence gained the last two weeks during the four-game winning streak carried over into this week’s practices. Both Marshall and Brown said they feel better about how the team is playing going into this game.
“The last couple of days we’ve been coming into the gym and getting up a ton of shots,” Brown said on Friday. “We know we have to become a better three-point shooting basketball team and the guys are getting in a lot of work. I think that win streak has helped build confidence they needed.”
Cincinnati will likely come out in its match-up 2-3 zone again, which will put the onus on the Shockers to attack. They’ve struggled with that at times this season, but also had stretches where they’ve played teams out of zone defenses before. WSU shot just 42 percent on two-pointers against Cincinnati the first matchup, a number that will have to improve on Sunday.
“It’s real simple for us: We’ve got to step up and make wide-open shots,” Brown said. “We’ve got to penetrate the match-up zone and create help situations and then guys have to be ready to step up and make the shots when we need them to. We have to try to get easy baskets in transition and try to not go against a set defense all the time.”
Wichita State at Cincinnati
Records: WSU 12-11, 5-6 AAC; UC 20-4, 9-2
When: Noon, Central Time, Sunday
Where: FifthThird Arena (12,012), Cincinnati, Ohio
TV: ESPN
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM
About Wichita State: WSU leads the nation in both wins (40-3) and winning percentage (.930) over the last six Februarys. The Shockers have won nine straight February games. ... The Shockers are riding a season-best four-game winning streak. WSU ended No. 5 Cincinnati’s nation-best 39-game home winning streak almost a year ago to the date (Feb. 18, 2018). ... In the AAC’s first five seasons, no team has finished .500 or better following a 1-6 start and none have earned higher than a No. 8 seed in the conference tournament. ... Senior Markis McDuffie has topped 20 points in 10 games this season, tied with 2014 All-American Cleanthony Early for the most in the Gregg Marshall era. McDuffie needs just four more rebounds to become the eighth player in WSU history with 100 steals and 500 career rebounds. ... WSU is 5-1 in conference games when it has more assists than turnovers and 0-5 when turnovers outnumber assists. During its four-game win streak, WSU has 58 assists to 35 turnovers. ... Jamarius Burton (2.8 assists per game) is poised to become WSU’s first true freshman assist leader in 32 years. ... Jaime Echenique has blocked a shot in eight straight games and ranks fourth in the AAC with 34 blocks. He ranks 26th nationally in block percentage, per KenPom.
About Cincinnati: Cincinnati leads the all-time series 20-12 and has won 11 of 15 home games. Sunday marks the first time WSU has played on Cincinnati’s campus since 1970 in Cincinnati’s final season in the Missouri Valley. ... After an $87 million renovation, FifthThird Arena is back to hosting the Bearcats. Cincinnati dropped its home opener to Ohio State, but has since won 13 straight at home. Cincinnati is 30-1 in AAC home games since 2016 with the lone loss coming against WSU last season. ... Cincinnati junior Jarron Cumberland (18.96 ppg) barely edges WSU senior Markis McDuffie (18.91 average) for the conference scoring lead. ... Cincinnati won the season’s first matchup 66-55 at Koch Arena on Jan. 19. The Bearcats outscored WSU 35-7 at the foul line, including a 15-1 edge over the final seven minutes. ... Cincinnati has lost back-to-back games only once in the last three years with the Shockers handing them that back-to-back defeat last season. This game has a similar setup with Cincinnati coming off a loss to Houston and facing WSU again.
This story was originally published February 16, 2019 at 4:19 PM.
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