Why Gregg Marshall decided to change WSU’s offense for the NIT and how it paid off

Gregg Marshall had a decision to make.

The Wichita State men’s basketball coach could play it safe and keep the Shockers chugging along as a primarily motion offense. Or Marshall could trust a hunch that his team was ready to execute his ball-screen offense.

As the start of the National Invitation Tournament approached, Marshall made the bold choice. WSU would still run its motion sets, but the ball-screen offense was replacing it as the primary offense despite disastrous results earlier in the season.

“We just threw the ball to the other team too much,” Marshall said. “We didn’t read the play. We just kind of predetermined what we were going to do and that’s not a good idea. You can’t do that in basketball. You have to let the game come to you and however the defense guards you, there’s always some way.

“They can’t guard you 360 degrees unless you’re a fifth grader and you’re playing against LeBron James. But there’s always got to be a way to cut, a way to move, to free yourself against one man.”

The way Marshall saw it, WSU had two sharpshooters in Markis McDuffie (2.3 threes per game on 35-percent accuracy) and Dexter Dennis (2.3 threes per game during WSU’s 14-3 close to the season on 43-percent accuracy) that it could station in the corners.

WSU also had a pair of battering rams in Jaime Echenique (6-foot-11, 258 pounds) and Asbjorn Midtgaard (7-0, 268), who could take turns burying opposing guards into screens.

But for the ball-screen offense to work, WSU needed improved decision-making at the point of attack from guards Samajae Haynes-Jones, Jamarius Burton, Ricky Torres and Erik Stevenson.

“That basically became the game in a nutshell for us,” Stevenson said. “We felt like on offense it would be pick your poison with us. Go under a ball screen, we’re taking the shot. If it’s a bad hedge, it’s going to be a layup. If they don’t tag, it’s a layup for the roller. If they do tag, it’s a shot from three.

Every aspect of the ball-screen offense came to life for Wichita State in its 73-63 victory over Indiana on Tuesday at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers were forced to choose their poison and they picked the perimeter. The Shockers responded with 11 three-pointers, the third-most shots from distance they’ve hit all season.

While WSU did most of its damage from beyond the arc, there were many moving parts that had to come together to put Indiana in a dilemma every single possession. The Hoosiers couldn’t adjust their defense because WSU was able to hurt them in every way out of its ball-screen offense.

Let’s start with the screen-and-roll part of the offense because a ball-screen offense can’t function without effective screens.

When Echenique or Midtgaard set a good screen to spring the ball handler to the middle of the floor, it opened up a game that Marshall likes to call “opportunity basketball.” The Shockers will have an advantage somewhere on the court, they just need to identify it quickly.

In the clips below, Indiana’s help defender is forced to make a split-second decision: leave a sharpshooter (McDuffie or Dennis) and cover Midtgaard briefly or stay attached to the shooter and allow Midtgaard to stroll down the lane. In both clips, Indiana’s defense opted for the latter and watched as Midtgaard scored two easy baskets.

There is no good choice for the defense in that situation.

“It’s important to set a good screen, but even more important to make a good roll because that sucks the whole defense in,” Midtgaard said. “Jaime and I are so big, we occupy the post and when the defense sucks in, then we have all these great shooters.”

Echenique (four points) and Midtgaard (five points) didn’t impact the game much with their scoring, but still played a vital role in McDuffie and Dennis combining to make 9 of 19 three-pointers.

More times than not, Indiana’s defense played conservatively and had its help defenders hang back in the lane to discourage the pass to the rolling big. The Hoosiers prioritized taking away easy baskets and gambled WSU couldn’t make the pass and the shot.

It makes sense looking at WSU’s 31.3-percent accuracy on three-point shooting as a team, a bottom-50 mark in the country. But in WSU’s ball-screen offense, the three-point shots are funneled to the team’s two best shooters, McDuffie and Dennis.

So when WSU’s center set a screen to spring the ball handler to the middle of the floor, Indiana’s defense again had to make that lose-lose choice.

This was the same game WSU was playing earlier in the season, but then the Shockers weren’t making the reads quick enough and were missing shots. But the Shockers operated about as well as Marshall could have hoped for in both of those aspects against Indiana.

“When the big guy rolls, somebody has to tag and honor that,” Dennis said. “So if you’re in your right place, you’re going to get an open shot.”

When the help defense on the strong side decided to slack off to prevent the pass to the roller, WSU would send its corner shooter rolling up to the wing to stretch out the defense and the ball handler would whip throw-back passes for open shots that way.

When the help defense on the strong side decided to tag the roller, the ball handlers whipped throw-back passes to the wing.

The ball handlers probed the defense, identified where the opening was and exploited it. In the end, Burton, Stevenson, Haynes-Jones and Torres combined for 11 assists.

Perhaps the most back-breaking play came when Indiana had scrapped to within one point late in the second half. Stevenson took a ball screen on Dennis’ side of the court, then went into attack mode and rose up for a shot. When he was in the air, Stevenson realized he wasn’t going to find a good look and made a last-second pass over his shoulder to the wing.

“I didn’t see him, to be honest with you,” Stevenson said. “But we work on that every single day in practice. I knew he was going to be there.”

Sure enough, Dennis had rolled up to the exact spot Stevenson threw the pass to. He caught the pass and delivered a crucial three-pointer to restore WSU’s two-possession lead. Indiana would never come closer than that.

It was a testament to how far the Shockers have come. From barely being able to execute the offense earlier in the season to being able to trust each other to the level of Stevenson and Dennis to make plays.

And now the ball-screen offense is a staple of the Shockers as they head to New York City for the NIT semifinals on Tuesday.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at it,” Stevenson said. “We’re pretty hard to stop now.”