Wichita State freshmen take delight in ‘proving it’ to opposing teams during NIT run

Life as a freshman for Dexter Dennis, Jamarius Burton and Erik Stevenson playing major minutes for the Wichita State men’s basketball team this season has been full of unique challenges.

All three have all played more minutes as true freshmen than any player besides Toure’ Murry in Gregg Marshall’s 12 seasons at WSU. For reference, Dennis (882 minutes), Burton (860) and Stevenson (786) have all played at least four complete games more than Fred VanVleet (630) did as a freshman in 2013.

Not only did they have to worry about their own responsibilities for the team, but they also had to withstand constant challenges from the opposition, especially if they were guarding a senior.

Take for example the first time Dennis, a 6-foot-5, 208-pound freshman, matched up with Indiana’s all-Big Ten forward Juwan Morgan, a 6-8, 232-pound senior, on Wednesday. Indiana didn’t bother running a set. The Hoosiers viewed this as such a mismatch that it cleared the court, funneled the ball to Morgan and let the senior go to work on the freshman 1-on-1.

The end result? Dennis smothered Morgan’s shot attempt.

“I’ve been feeling that all year, to be honest,” Dennis said, smiling. “Teams think that we’re just freshmen and that a senior or junior or whatever can just bully us because we’re freshmen. But we’ve played a lot of minutes this year. I don’t feel like we’re typical freshmen anymore.”

On a scale of how overt opponents view the freshmen as mismatches, that rates pretty low on Stevenson’s scale.

Most famously, Stevenson was involved in a dust-up with Cincinnati’s Jarron Cumberland during the rivalry game at Koch Arena. The American Athletic Conference Player of the Year was fouled, then said something that provoked Stevenson, who was called for a technical foul.

Then there are the conversations on the court that the television cameras don’t capture. They involve trash talk that Stevenson says is just par for the course by now.

“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on during games that let’s say implies people think that because we’re freshmen that we’re going to fold under the big moment,” Stevenson said. “I don’t know about everybody else, but I love proving it.”

That’s something Dennis, Burton and Stevenson can all agree upon: there’s no better feeling than being challenged and proving you can do something the other team didn’t think you could do.

Teams thought they could pick on Burton as the team’s main ball handler. He’s responded by averaging 4.6 assists during WSU’s 14-3 close to the season with a 2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Indiana’s crowd thought it could intimidate Stevenson by booing him every time he touched the ball after what they perceived to be a flop early in the game. He finished with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and just one turnover in 26 minutes off the bench.

“The boos and all of that, keep that coming,” Stevenson said. “That’s always been my thing.”

But no one has responded to the challenges better than Dennis, who has delivered so many outstanding two-way performances in the last two weeks it’s hard to remember he’s a true freshman.

He saved maybe his most complete performance against Indiana in WSU’s 73-63 win. On offense, he was pivotal in WSU’s success in the ball-screen offense by knocking down five three-pointers and scoring 17 points. On defense, he locked up Indiana’s hot-shooting guard Devonte Green (12 points on 14 shots) and also went toe-to-toe with Morgan a handful of times over his 39 minutes.

“It’s unbelievable what he does for us,” sophomore center Asbjorn Midtgaard said. “He’s one of the best defenders in the country, that’s what I think. You can put him on anyone. He’s incredible.”

“He’s 6-5, but he plays like he’s 6-10,” senior Markis McDuffie said. “That shows you how good he is and how athletic he is. He’s special, man.”

During WSU’s 14-3 close to the season, Dennis has made at least one three-pointer in 16 straight games and is averaging 2.3 three-pointers made on 43 percent accuracy.

Still, there are some teams who come off of him for help defense, making him prove he can make them pay. Dennis says he doesn’t take it personal.

“Not at all, tell them to keep doing it,” Dennis said with a wry smile. “I don’t have a problem with it.”

The lumps they took when they started 8-11 this season were worth the confidence built during the last two months. Marshall knows establishing that kind of confidence so early in their careers can be invaluable.

“They’ve had ample time to grow as far as their future,” Marshall said. “This experience, this year in total has to help them going forward. They will certainly be veterans at this point next year or even at the beginning of next year. Any time you can get experience like this, it will help. It just adds to your overall experience as a player.”

At the start of the season, WSU would have been lost without the play of its two seniors, McDuffie and Samajae Haynes-Jones.

But now, as the Shockers eye a National Invitational Tournament championship next week in New York City, it’s the freshmen who are help propelling this team forward.

“It came to a point where they just matured naturally by playing so many college basketball games,” McDuffie said. “They played so many minutes that they just came along. They started buying into the system and started taking that extra mile and started understanding what it takes to win at this level. Now the promise of this team just keeps going higher and higher.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2019 at 1:41 PM.