Five things to know from Wichita State’s win over East Carolina to start AAC play
The Wichita State men’s basketball team picked up a win in its American Athletic Conference opener, a tougher-than-expected 75-69 victory over East Carolina at Koch Arena on Wednesday.
Here are five things to know from the game:
1. Erik Stevenson thrives in front of family
Erik Stevenson’s grandfather and No. 1 fan, Ron Wilson, was supposed to be in attendance Wednesday for the East Carolina game. It was the one WSU home game he had picked to travel to from Washington. He died on Nov. 11.
Stevenson still had a small contingent of family decked out in hats with his No. 10 on them, but he was playing with a heavy heart. The sophomore came through with 17 points (a team high), nine rebounds (tied for a career high), five assists, five steals (tied for a career high) and a block.
“It’s nice to play in front of family, period,” Stevenson said. “But playing well in front of them is always a good thing and getting a win like that. I’m kind of glad we didn’t put it on them, so they saw a good back-and-forth battle.”
The majority of Stevenson’s points didn’t come until later in the game. Before that, Stevenson made an impact with his defense and rebounding.
“He’s a complete player,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “Erik does a lot of good stuff for us. He’s a tremendous athlete, a multiple-sport athlete. So he’s got good hands and good anticipation.”
Then that set the stage for Stevenson to deliver two of the game’s biggest three-pointers in the second half, both swinging the momentum back to WSU.
“That’s Shocker basketball and what Coach Marshall preaches,” Stevenson said. “It’s not always about scoring. His favorite stat is the plus-minus (Stevenson was a plus-5), so it’s about what are you doing other than scoring to help winning?”
With a performance like that, Stevenson was asked about where he was thinking about taking his family to eat after the win.
“There’s four of them, so I can’t pay,” Stevenson said, laughing. “I would if I had the money, but I’m a college kid, so I don’t have that kind of money. We’ll figure something out. I guarantee it will be something a little better than McDonald’s. Just don’t run the bill up.”
2. East Carolina proves the bottom of the AAC is tougher
Last season, the bottom two teams in the American — East Carolina and Tulane — only beat one team outside of each other during conference play. Games against either were almost automatic victories.
That looks to have changed this season.
ECU coach Joe Dooley completely retooled his roster (12 of 13 scholarship players are new), while first-year Tulane coach Ron Hunter appears to have the Green Wave headed in the right direction too.
There are no more gimmes in the American.
“There’s no easy games,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “East Carolina is going to beat some people if they play like that. That wasn’t our ‘A’ performance, maybe a ‘C’ or ‘C-plus.’ You can’t always have your best. I’m just glad we got it done and I’m glad we don’t have to go back to Greenville and that we’re 1-0.”
When WSU jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first two minutes, last year’s East Carolina team almost certainly would have self-destructed.
But this year, ECU punched back and even briefly took a 45-44 lead midway through the second half. Trailing 70-67 in the final two minutes, ECU had one possession where it could have tied the score.
“You’re playing a really good team on the road and I thought we did a lot of good things,” Dooley said. “We did. We’re getting better. We’ve got a lot of new guys, so to come in this environment and get down like we did and fight back, I thought they responded in a really good way. I’m proud of the way they responded.”
The biggest difference this season was the evolution of ECU post Jayden Gardner, who scored a season-high 29 points with 10 rebounds. In the three games against WSU last season, Gardner combined for 32 points.
WSU sophomore Jamarius Burton, who played on the same AAU team with Gardner in North Carolina, explained the differences in Gardner’s game this year.
“There were some things he couldn’t do last year that he thrived at (Wednesday),” Burton said. “That was a big difference. He caught the ball in positions where he could be successful and took what the defense gave him.”
Gardner even made a three-pointer against WSU, just the fourth of his two-year career at ECU.
“He’s improved his jump shot,” Marshall said. “He made that three, which last year you wanted him to shoot the three. And maybe this year you still want him to shoot the three because he’s so good at the other things. He can drive it. He’s very good in the mid-range, his 15-footer is almost automatic now.”
Because of the league’s unbalanced schedule, there is no return trip for WSU to ECU this season.
3. Shockers leave plenty of points at the line
Wichita State is averaging 77.3 points in its last three games, but that figure could be even more with the amount of free points the Shockers are leaving at the free throw line.
The Shockers struggled at the line against VCU (18 for 31, 58.1%) and Abilene Christian (20 for 29, 69%). Those struggles continued against East Carolina, as WSU shot just 55.2% and missed 13 shots at the foul line. With all of those missed opportunities, ECU was allowed to stick around in the game.
“The offense would have looked a little better if we made a few more free throws,” Marshall pointed out. “If we make our free throws like we normally do, we’re in the mid-80s.”
Jamarius Burton went 5 for 10 from the charity stripe and is now shooting 53.2% for the season, while Trey Wade, who was shooting 71.4% before the game, went 2 for 6 on free throws.
“It could be contagious,” Marshall added. “Once we started missing, everyone starts pressing a little bit maybe.”
In the last three games combined, WSU is 54 for 89 (60.7%) from the free throw line.
“We struggled a little bit,” Burton said. “In practice, you can’t really simulate what it’s like in games. It just comes down to us getting more reps and getting more confidence at the line.”
4. An unconventional win for WSU
The Shockers had been on a rebounding tear since Marshall publicly challenged his big men after being outrebounded by 17 in WSU’s lone loss of the season, to West Virginia.
WSU had outrebounded the next five opponents by an average of 9.8 rebounds, but that streak came to an end on Wednesday when ECU won the rebounding battle, 36-33, over the Shockers.
“In the West Virginia game, we just got squished like a bug,” Marshall said. “(East Carolina) probably just got a few more bounces. I don’t think we got manhandled like we did in Cancun. We’ve gotten a little tougher since then.”
It was a fair point by Marshall, as the rebounding battle was essentially a draw. ECU had more rebounds because WSU missed more shots. When looking at the offensive rebounds retrieved, ECU rebounded 29% of its misses and WSU rebounded 29% of its misses.
But WSU had its tightest rotation of the season, as Marshall essentially played a rotation of seven players with Morris Udeze and Grant Sherfield off the bench along with the starters. That left for a lot of four-guard lineups.
“I would like to see more guys going to the offensive glass,” Marshall said. “But we played some interesting lineups because (Dexter Dennis) has been out and (Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler) was limited. So we had some small lineups and they’re not used to going to the glass as much.”
5. A look ahead to Saturday’s showdown against Ole Miss
The Shockers wrap up their nonconference slate with their inaugural AAC-SEC Challenge game against Mississippi at 3 p.m. Saturday at Koch Arena. It will be broadcast on ESPNU.
WSU ranks No. 11 in the NCAA’s NET rankings with three Quadrant 1 or 2 victories. Ole Miss enters ranked No. 50 in the NET, which would give the Shockers a fourth quality victory from their nonconference slate if they can win their sixth straight game on Saturday.
Marshall said he is a fan of the new challenge between the two conferences and doesn’t mind the scheduling one game after the conference season starts.
“We were invited to do it and I said we would love to do it,” Marshall said. “We want to play the best teams that we can. So if we can have a home-and-home with another SEC school, we want to do it. The league worked out (the dates). They said, ‘If you do this, we will make it work for your schedule.’ Once I had that assurance, it was a no-brainer.”
Mississippi (9-3) at No. 24 Wichita State (12-1)
When: 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita
TV: ESPNU
Streaming: WatchESPN
Radio: KEYN, 103.7 FM
Series: Ole Miss leads 3-2 (Tied 1-1 in Wichita)
Projected starters
| No. | Ole Miss | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 2 | Devontae Shuler | G | 6-2 | 192 | Jr. | 10.8 | 4.2 | 4.3 |
| 4 | Breein Tyree | G | 6-2 | 195 | Sr. | 17.1 | 4.0 | 3.2 |
| 0 | Blake Hinson | G | 6-7 | 229 | So. | 12.4 | 4.9 | 1.5 |
| 5 | KJ Buffen | F | 6-7 | 220 | So. | 10.8 | 7.0 | 2.1 |
| 3 | Khadim Sy | F | 6-10 | 240 | Jr. | 9.1 | 5.0 | 1.1 |
Coach: Kermit Davis, second season, 29-16
| No. | Wichita State | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 2 | Jamarius Burton | G | 6-4 | 200 | So. | 10.1 | 3.8 | 3.9 |
| 1 | Tyson Etienne | G | 6-1 | 192 | Fr. | 11.2 | 1.9 | 1.6 |
| 10 | Erik Stevenson | G | 6-3 | 198 | So. | 12.9 | 5.5 | 2.9 |
| 5 | Trey Wade | F | 6-6 | 219 | Jr. | 8.9 | 6.8 | 1.6 |
| 21 | Jaime Echenique | C | 6-11 | 258 | Sr. | 9.9 | 5.0 | 0.4 |
Coach: Gregg Marshall, 13th season, 320-114
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