‘It was a real dark cloud’: WSU motivated after 15 first half points at USF last year
It was the Shockers’ fewest points in a men’s basketball game since 1997.
Last season, Wichita State went to Tampa, Florida, and left with 41 points and its sixth loss in seven games. The Shockers scored 15 points in the first half.
Now WSU returns to South Florida in similar offensive form, looking to end a two-game losing streak against the Bulls, who are at the bottom of the American Athletic Conference standings.
Monday, assistant coach Tyson Waterman reflected on last year’s trip to USF.
“Going into South Florida, it’s a dark atmosphere, it’s a real dark cloud,” Waterman said. “It seems like it was a hard-to-get-up game.”
WSU’s past two games, against Temple and Houston, were the Shockers’ worst two offensive performances of the season. The 107 combined points in the losses marks the fewest since last year’s USF game and the UConn loss that followed.
Saturday, only freshman Tyson Etienne hit double-digit scoring as he finished with 10 points.
Tuesday’s game at USF will be potentially the toughest test of WSU’s offensive improvements. USF enters with the No. 1 scoring defense in the AAC despite its 8-10 record (1-4, AAC).
Allowing only 62.3 points per game, the Bulls come in at No. 41 in the country in scoring defense. Even after the two woeful offensive performances, WSU still has the No. 4 scoring offense in the country.
Before the losing streak, the Shockers averaged 83.3 points a game, which would rank first in the conference by 6.5 points and No. 3 in the country behind only Gonzaga and Alabama.
The Shockers’ season scoring average dipped 8.4 points per game in four days.
That led to a lot of eye-grabbing quotes after the Houston loss in which the Shockers trailed by 22 at one point in the second half. Coach Gregg Marshall challenged his team to, “Get over your feelings.”
Waterman said he feels like the team has done that.
“Overally, I feel like the spirit of the guys is in a great place right now,” Waterman said. “We realize that coming out on Saturday, we didn’t come with the right fight. We realize that was the reigning (AAC) champs coming in our building.”
Waterman said WSU is still young and got a chance to see how far it still has to go to get prepared “for war, pretty much every game.”
Waterman said every game in the conference will be tough from Tuesday’s on because the Shockers have becoming the hunted after getting out to a 15-1 record. He said the biggest denominator in WSU’s success has been being selfless.
“We have to not be so sensitive when coaches coach and allow that to happen in order for us to do the things from here on out for us to be successful,” Waterman said.
WSU has played South Florida only twice in the past two seasons with the rotating AAC schedule. The first meeting ended with 95 points on the board for the Shockers and a 38-point win at home. The second was a near record low in offensive production.
On the tail of two straight losses, Waterman said he feels like Tuesday’s game won’t be hard to get up for like it was last year. But he expects a dog fight with USF coming off three straight losses, he said.
“The guys are definitely locked in, and I think mentally you’ll get a sense to see these young guys be ready to go from out the gate,” Waterman said.