Wichita State basketball prepares defense to face potential No. 1 NBA draft pick
The defense of Dexter Dennis will be put to perhaps its biggest test on Saturday when the No. 1 projected NBA Draft pick comes to Wichita.
While NBA teams fantasize about the future possibilities of Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, Dennis and Wichita State have to deal with the 6-foot-8, 220-pound freshman point guard in the present when the Shockers take on the Cowboys at 2 p.m. Saturday in Koch Arena. The game is only available by streaming on ESPN+.
Dennis, a 6-foot-5 wing, enters his third straight season as WSU’s defensive stopper, but he’s never faced a player who blends size and skill as well as Cunningham, who has averaged 20.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists in OSU’s 5-0 start to the season.
“It will be the biggest challenge of his college basketball career, but I think he’s up for it,” WSU interim coach Isaac Brown said. “(Cunningham) is a kid who is super talented. He’s got great size. He’s a top-three NBA prospect for a reason. Dexter has to do a good job of giving him different looks. When he goes to the post, he can’t let him get easy touches. When you guard him on the perimeter and he gives the ball up, we’ve got to deny him as much as possible. We want to try to take him out of the game by denying the ball once he gives it up and make it tough for him to get it back.”
That sounds good in theory, but of course is much more difficult to execute in practice.
The good news is that Dennis is coming off a superb defensive performance, one of the bright spots in WSU’s 72-62 loss to Missouri last Sunday. Dennis used his 3-inch height advantage to make the afternoon miserable for Missouri’s leading scorer Xavier Pinson, who entered averaging 19.5 points but finished with just three points against the Shockers on 1 of 13 shooting.
But Dennis will be the one giving up 3 inches on Saturday in the matchup with Cunningham, which is why WSU is likely to throw a myriad of looks at Cunningham.
“Sometimes we’ll (trap) the ball screen. Sometimes we’ll have Dexter on him and then we’ll put Trey (Wade) on him,” Brown said. “We’ll try to double team him anytime they throw it to him in the low post. We’ll want to try to get the able out of his hands as much as possible.”
Oklahoma State has a solid cast behind Cunningham, including junior guard Isaac Likekele, who was OSU’s best overall player from last season and did not play in WSU’s 80-61 win in Stillwater last December. OSU coach Mike Boynton signed a top-10 recruiting class, which also includes 6-7 forward Matthew-Alexande Moncrieffe (8.4 points) and 6-4 guard Rondel Walker (8.4 points).
But WSU’s fate on Saturday will likely be decided on how well it defends Cunningham. Last season Dennis ranked in the 87th percentile in all of college basketball in points allowed per shot, per Synergy, a mark made even more impressive considering he was often guarding the other team’s best player.
While Dennis has delivered his typical brand of superb defense this season, Brown admits he’s concerned that the energy Dennis has to expend on that end could be affecting his offense. In WSU’s first two games, Dennis averaged just 5.5 points on 23.5% shooting. While he’s made 3 of 7 three-pointers, Dennis has missed 9 of 10 shots inside the arc to start the season.
“It’s something we have to manage,” Brown said. “Anytime you’re the best defender and you’re chasing the other team’s best player, that takes a little bit away from you on the offensive side. It’s just hard to guard a guy and you’re expending all that energy chasing him around and then you got to go on offense and try to create.
“That’s where other guys are important like Alterique Gilbert and Trevin Wade, guys like that, they’ve got to get Dexter those wide open shots. He can’t just work for us on offense all the time and then have to work on defense. We’ve got to do a better job of trying to create open shots for him since he’s expending so much energy on defense.”
After playing undermanned the first two games of the season, WSU expects to have close to its full roster available for the first time on Saturday. Junior guard Craig Porter, redshirt freshman Josaphat Bilau, freshman guard Chaunce Jenkins and freshman forward Jaden Seymour have yet to make their season debut for the Shockers.
Saturday’s game will also be the first time this season WSU fans will be allowed inside Koch Arena. WSU estimates that 525 fans will be in attendance for Saturday’s 2 p.m. tip.
Oklahoma State at Wichita State
Records: OSU 5-0, WSU 1-1
When: 2 p.m.
Where: Koch Arena, Wichita (5% capacity)
Streaming: ESPN+
Series: OSU leads 30-10 (15-5 in Wichita)
Projected starters
| Oklahoma State | Pos. | Ht. | Yr | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| Cade Cunningham | G | 6-8 | Fr. | 20.6 | 5.6 | 4.0 |
| Ferron Flavors | G | 6-3 | Sr. | 7.6 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| Isaac Likekele | G | 6-4 | Jr. | 10.2 | 8.0 | 3.8 |
| Kalib Boone | F | 6-9 | So. | 7.8 | 4.8 | 1.2 |
| Keylan Boone | F | 6-8 | So. | 6.0 | 7.6 | 1.2 |
Coach: Mike Boynton, fourth season, 56-49
| Wichita State | Pos. | Ht. | Yr | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| Alterique Gilbert | G | 6-0 | Sr. | 15.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Tyson Etienne | G | 6-2 | So. | 20.0 | 3.0 | 2.5 |
| Dexter Dennis | G | 6-5 | Jr. | 5.5 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
| Trey Wade | F | 6-6 | Sr. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 |
| Morris Udeze | C | 6-8 | Jr. | 7.0 | 4.5 | 0.0 |
Coach: Isaac Brown, first season, 1-1
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 7:07 AM.
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