An inside look at Dexter Dennis’ game-winner at Tulane, from the court to the stands
An entire game may seem like an eternity to a player in the moment, but to their coach, it is just a 40-minute sample size in hundreds of hours of work through a season.
Dexter Dennis gave Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall no reason to trust him to make the final shot with the score tied and 0.5 seconds remaining at Tulane on Saturday night. In front of 80 hometown fans who made the 90-minute drive from Baker, La., Dennis had no points on 0-for-4 shooting with four fouls.
But Marshall trusted his instincts, which told him to trust Dennis.
“You can’t go with 0-for-4 at that point,” Marshall said. “I go with every day in practice the ball coming out of his hand and what I think when I see that ball coming out of his hand.”
Just as important, Marshall trusted Dennis’ poise. The freshman was frustrated that he had played a poor game to that point, but he was in the right frame of mind when he stepped on the floor with a half-second remaining.
“Next play,” Dennis said, repeating his mindset. “The fouls and not making shots was a bad combination, but in basketball the next play can overshadow your last play.”
WSU used its best passer, Ricky Torres, for the throw-in under its own basket. Markis McDuffie, the play’s first option, lined up on the left side of the free-throw line with Samajae Haynes-Jones opposite of him on the right side.
This is where Wichita State capitalized off McDuffie’s presence. Marshall set the play up to make it look like McDuffie would come off stagger screens for a shot in the corner, only for McDuffie to curl after the first screen by Haynes-Jones and try to cut to the basket.
It was crucial McDuffie made a hard cut because it forced the issue with Tulane’s defense and created the split-second distraction WSU needed to ultimately free up Dennis. When McDuffie slipped toward the basket, Tulane was so weary of him that Haynes-Jones’ defender came off and took two backwards steps to help. This detail is important because it pulled the defender out of position. He should have been on the perimeter ready to chase Dennis. Instead, he was now two steps late.
“Obviously they all thought I was going to get the shot,” McDuffie said. “They didn’t know what was coming, so I had to make sure I come off that screen as hard as I can.”
That opened the floor for Dennis to come off the staggered screens in the right corner. He rounded the perimeter and Torres put the pass on target so Dennis could shoot in a natural motion and not rush to beat the clock. Tulane sent two defenders flying at Dennis in the corner to make a contest. But it was too late.
In the stands, Dennis’ family said they had a feeling when the ball went to Dennis that it was good.
“Dexter is really hard on himself whenever he doesn’t play well, so I feel like that was his moment, what he gave to the team,” said his older sister, Jada Haynes. “He always wants to do his part and that was his part tonight.”
“I already knew, I already knew,” said his mother, Dawn McQuirter. “I saw that look on his face. He hadn’t played well all day, but I know how he is. It was going to eat him alive if he didn’t make that shot.”
On the court, Dennis’ shot looked pure from the moment it left his hand.
“When it came out of his hands, immediately I was like, ‘Oh, that looked fluent,’” Torres said. “I looked up at it in the air and I’m like, ‘That might go in.’”
“I was under the rim when he shot it and I was like, ‘Yo, this is good,’” McDuffie said.
Perhaps the only one in black and yellow who didn’t think the shot was going in was the shooter himself.
“Honestly, out of all of the shots I shot tonight that one didn’t feel like it was going in,” Dennis said.
The ball never considered touching the rim, splashing straight through the cylinder for an 82-79 victory for WSU. The Shockers (17-13) have won nine of 11 to end the regular-season, including three buzzer-beaters, and locked up the No. 6 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, where it will play No. 11 seed East Carolina (10-19) in the first round around 9 p.m. Thursday at the FedEx Center in Memphis with the game broadcast on ESPNU.
For it being his first collegiate game-winner in front of nearly all of his friends and family, on top of being a crucial shot for WSU’s postseason, Dennis played it as cool as possible. It wasn’t even possible to tell he had made the shot from his reaction.
It wasn’t until Torres rushed over and hoisted him up in the air until Dennis cracked a smile.
“You can see by the way he reacted, Dex is a real calm dude,” Torres said. “He doesn’t show much emotion. Clutch moments don’t really spook him. I had to pick him up and let his fam see him. I told him when I picked him up, ‘Welcome home, Dex.’”
Dennis’ entourage erupted when the shot went in. To them, it was a storybook ending.
“They’ll be talking about this at home, at work, at church for the next couple of months,” McQuirter said.
But Dennis, 15 minutes after his heroics, was still muttering to himself about how poor he played.
“I didn’t play my best tonight, but that’s one way I can make up for the whole game in 0.5 seconds,” Dennis said smiling.
This story was originally published March 10, 2019 at 11:04 AM.
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