‘We still have to work to do’: Wichita State focused for its return game Sunday
With Abilene Christian headed to Koch Arena for a 2 p.m. Sunday game, Wichita State will need to sharpen its focus to ensure it doesn’t slip up in its first test since the holiday break.
Players flew back into Wichita Thursday after a four-day break with their families and practiced for the first time since Christmas Friday afternoon. Even with the break, WSU coach Gregg Marshall expects the Shockers (10-1) to play crisply against an Abilene Christian (7-5) team that played in the NCAA Tournament last season.
The game will be broadcast on Kansas Yurview (Cox 22) and streamed online at yurview.com/Kansas.
“Anyone in Division I basketball can beat anyone else on a given night,” Marshall said. “If all of the planets align and the stars are in the right place and you get a couple of calls and a couple of shots to fall and the other team goes ice cold.”
Although Abilene Christian played in the NCAA Tournament last season, the Wildcats are a shell of last year’s team. Five of the top six scorers from last season are gone, while seven of the nine rotation players either graduated, were kicked off the team last season or transferred away after the season.
The top returning player is senior guard Payten Ricks, a Wichita native and Maize South graduate who was a three-time all-state player in high school. Ricks leads ACU in scoring at 13.6 points, while another Kansas native, Joe Pleasant, a Blue Valley Northwest graduate, is second at 11.1 points with 4.5 rebounds.
After just missing out on being included in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, WSU needs to continue piling up wins to make its case to end a nearly two-year absence from the national rankings. The Shockers were ranked No. 25 in the coaches’ poll and they continue to fare well in the NET, as they are ranked No. 11 in the rankings used by the selection committee to help seed the NCAA Tournament come March.
“I mentioned it earlier, if we won against VCU, I thought we could crash the polls,” Marshall said. “I think I made it plural with an ‘s.’ So when they came back from break (Thursday), I said that we crashed a poll, take off the ‘s.’ We still have work to do on the other one.”
WSU is likely to once again be without the services of sophomore wing Dexter Dennis, who WSU announced last Saturday is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team.
Marshall said Friday that he hasn’t spoken directly to Dennis since he left last weekend but has spoken with his mother and that Dennis is “in the process of taking care of himself.”
Abilene Christian (7-5) at Wichita State (10-1)
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita
TV: Kansas Yurview (Ch. 22 on Cox)
Streaming: Yurview.com/Kansas
Radio: KEYN, 103.7 FM
Series: WSU leads 5-0 (4-0 in Wichita)
Projected starters
| No. | Abilene Christian | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 4 | Damien Daniels | G | 5-7 | 140 | So. | 4.2 | 2.6 | 3.5 |
| 20 | Coryon Mason | G | 6-0 | 190 | Jr. | 7.0 | 2.6 | 1.8 |
| 5 | Payten Ricks | G | 6-2 | 190 | Sr. | 13.6 | 3.2 | 1.6 |
| 32 | Joe Pleasant | F | 6-8 | 220 | So. | 11.1 | 4.5 | 0.8 |
| 34 | Kolton Kohl | C | 7-0 | 240 | Jr. | 10.9 | 4.5 | 0.9 |
Coach: Joe Golding, seventh season, 97-103
| No. | Wichita State | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 2 | Jamarius Burton | G | 6-4 | 200 | So. | 9.5 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| 1 | Tyson Etienne | G | 6-1 | 192 | Fr. | 11.0 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
| 10 | Erik Stevenson | G | 6-3 | 198 | So. | 13.2 | 5.3 | 2.7 |
| 5 | Trey Wade | F | 6-6 | 219 | Jr. | 9.0 | 7.4 | 1.6 |
| 21 | Jaime Echenique | C | 6-11 | 258 | Sr. | 10.0 | 5.3 | 0.4 |
Coach: Gregg Marshall, 13th season, 318-114
About Abilene Christian: The Wildcats won 24 games last year and represented the Southland Conference in the NCAA Tournament. It was the first appearance in the Big Dance for ACU since transitioning to Division I in the 2013-14 season... Seven of the nine rotation players from that NCAA Tournament team are no longer with Abilene Christian. The only two returners are Kansas natives: Payten Ricks (Wichita, Maize South) and Joe Pleasant (Overland Park, Blue Valley Northwest)... ACU leas the nation in turnover margin and ranks No. 11 in steals. The Wildcats rank No. 19 on KenPom in defensive turnover percentage... Abilene Christian has won five games in a row, although four of its seven wins come against Division II competition. ACU’s top win on KenPom is against No. 247 Nicholls State.
About Wichita State: The Shockers have won 85.1% of their games this decade (279-75), the most successful decade in program history. That stretch includes 18 postseason wins, including five NCAA Tournaments and three NIT’s, five conference championships and two conference tournament titles... WSU missed the AP Top-25 by 13 votes, but did appear in the Coaches Poll at No. 25, the first time it has been ranked in a national poll since April 2, 2018 when it finished No. 25 in the Coaches Poll... This is the sixth meeting all-time against Abilene Christian, but the first since 1986... WSU ranks among the top-25 nationally in field goal percentage defense (22nd, 38%), scoring margin (22nd, plus-14.8) and turnover margin (24th, plus-4.5)... The men’s basketball team combined to post a 3.29 grade-point average for the Fall 2019 semester... A win on Sunday would close out a 5-0 December, which would be WSU’s 11th undefeated month under Marshall and its first since February 2017. The Shockers are 55-10 (85.1%) in December games this decade, which ranks fourth nationally behind Duke, Kansas and Arizona.
This story was originally published December 28, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
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