Streaking Shockers ready to start a revenge tour beginning Saturday against Memphis
The next week at Koch Arena could serve as a revenge tour of sorts for the Wichita State men’s basketball.
A 1-6 start in American Athletic Conference play included double-digit losses on the road to Memphis and Connecticut, the next two opponents for the Shockers.
If that was WSU’s low point of the season, Memphis and Connecticut are catching the Shockers near their high point this time around. Winners of five of its last six games, WSU (13-12, 6-7 AAC) is eager to continue to climb the conference standings and that starts with a 7 p.m. Saturday game against Memphis (16-11, 8-6) at Koch Arena and broadcast on ESPN2.
“There’s so much motivation there,” WSU senior Markis McDuffie said. “We lost early on in the year and we were 1-6, so now these games are revenge games. This is revenge week, pretty much. Those teams that gave us a hard time, we’re going to try to get them back on our home floor.”
Thinking about the postseason seemed foolish in January, but the Shockers’ recent surge now has them jockeying for position for seeding at the conference tournament. WSU (6-7) is one game behind Memphis (8-6) and South Florida (7-6) in the loss column and one ahead of Tulsa (6-8) and SMU (5-8).
If WSU protects home court with victories over Memphis and Connecticut, there’s a realistic scenario that the Shockers will be in sole possession of fifth place in the AAC with an 8-7 record next week. Memphis and USF both face top-four teams in the coming week, as the Tigers will turn around and host Temple on Wednesday and USF travels to Houston on Saturday and hosts UCF on Wednesday.
Not bad for a team that went six weeks with just one victory during December and January.
“We’ve worked really hard at it and they’ve listened and been very coachable,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “It hasn’t been easy. But they’re getting better and they’re showing signs of improvement. Now we have to go home and protect home court for two games and maybe get over .500 in the conference and finish much better than one time it looked.”
WSU is historically excellent at Koch Arena and Memphis has struggled this season on the road, posting a 2-6 record with its two wins over cellar-dwellers in Tulane and East Carolina.
But the Tigers are potent. Senior guard Jeremiah Martin became the first Memphis player to score 40 points twice and he is averaging 29.7 points in February. In the game at Memphis, the Shockers allowed the Tigers to score in 14 straight possessions and pull away in the first half.
Memphis plays at the fifth-fastest pace in the country and forces turnovers at a top-30 rate in the country. That hasn’t changed from the first matchup, something McDuffie said WSU has learned from.
“It’s a lot of aggression, a lot of 1-on-1 basketball,” McDuffie said. “A lot of pressure and getting up and down.
“We’ve learned from our mistakes the first time. We obviously play much tougher and much more aggressive now. (WSU’s first-year players) have gotten a lot better since the beginning of the conference and I’m sure it’s going to be a different result if we come to play on Saturday.”
WSU may have turned in its most complete performance of the season in an 81-60 victory at Tulsa on Wednesday. The Shockers tied a program-record with 15 three-pointers, made 47.6 of their shots and assisted on a season-high 24 baskets.
Dexter Dennis is averaging 16 points and 10.5 rebounds, including a total of 10 three-pointers, in his last two games. Jamarius Burton became the first WSU true freshman to log 10 assists in a game in 46 years. Samajae Haynes-Jones shot the ball well, drilling five threes and scoring 17 points. Jaime Echenique swatted three shots and continues to be a defensive anchor for WSU. And Ricky Torres came off the bench to deliver seven assists without a turnover.
There’s a lot of positive momentum for WSU heading into Saturday night. Now the Shockers just have to keep it rolling.
“We just have to stay confident,” McDuffie said. “I’ll do whatever I can to encourage these guys to continue the way they’re playing and seeing their growth and the way they’ve matured over this season. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and keep growing and getting better and then I think we can make some huge noise at the end of the year.”
Memphis at Wichita State
Records: Memphis 16-11, 8-6 AAC; WSU 13-12, 6-7
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM
About Memphis: The teams have split the all-time series after 22 meetings. WSU is 7-3 in Wichita and this will be Memphis’ first trip to Wichita in 43 years... Senior guard Jeremiah Martin is coming off a 43-point performance in a 102-76 win over Tulane. Martin and WSU’s Markis McDuffie are two of the four players in the AAC averaging more than 18 points per game... Memphis freshman Alex Lomax (5.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists) originally signed with WSU in the fall of 2017. WSU coach Gregg Marshall allowed Lomax out of his letter of intent to stay in Memphis following Penny Hardaway’s hiring.... Memphis starter Kareem Brewton Jr., then at Eastern Florida State, played WSU starter Samajae Haynes-Jones, then at Hutchinson, in the 2017 NJCAA national championship game. Current Shocker Rod Brown also has experience with Memphis freshman Tyler Haris, as they were teammates for three seasons at Cordova in Memphis.
About Wichita State: WSU’s 21-point road victory over Tulsa on Wednesday boosted WSU’s ranking in the NCAA’s NET rating by 21 spots up to No. 95... The Shockers are 12-3 at home this season and 80-6 at Koch Arena in the last six seasons. WSU has topped the 10,000 mark at Koch Arena for 223 straight games, dating back nearly 15 years... Senior Markis McDuffie moved into the top-20 of WSU’s all-time scoring list ahead of Warren Armstrong Jabali and PJ Couisnard after Wednesday’s game... Jaime Echenique leads the American with 27 blocked shots in conference play. The junior-college transfer has now blocked a shot in 10 straight games, two shy of the best streak under Marshall set by Shaquille Morris last season.... Jamarius Burton is on track to be the first Shocker true freshman in 32 years to lead the team in assists... Marshall is 2-2 all-time against Memphis and 2-1 against the Tigers as a head coach at WSU... The last rookie head coach to win at Koch Arena was Nevada’s David Carter in the 2010 NIT.
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