‘We’re in vengeance mode’: Wichita State men’s basketball motivated for a better March
For many returning to the Wichita State men’s basketball team, the best moment of their careers occurred the last time they played a game at Koch Arena.
Against the odds, the Shockers overcame years of adversity in one season to capture their first American Athletic Conference championship in their regular-season finale at home. It was the highest of highs.
What came next was the lowest of lows.
When presented with the chance to make a special season an unforgettable one, WSU’s offense sputtered at the worst time in its final two performances of the season — an ugly 60-59 setback to Cincinnati in the semifinals of the AAC tournament, then an even uglier performance in a 53-52 loss to Drake in the NCAA Tournament.
“I can’t say that it’s a bitter taste anymore because so much time has passed now,” WSU center Morris Udeze said. “But right when we lost, man, that was a tough one to shake. We’re over it now. We’re in vengeance mode.”
For the six newcomers this season, they came to WSU to build on the bullet-point success of last season — the conference championship and return to March Madness.
But for the seven returners, who suffered, worked and beat the odds together, there’s a different level of motivation after they felt like last season didn’t have the right ending.
In fact, it’s a not-so-insignificant reason why the team’s star player, Tyson Etienne, the preseason AAC Player of the Year who scored just a single point in the NCAA loss, decided to turn down professional basketball to play one more season at WSU.
“We now understand the stakes get that much higher in March,” Etienne said. “I tried to keep myself as present as possible during that time, but obviously I didn’t have a very good last game. So we just have to stay focused and stay present, which as an overall team we may not have done the best job of that last year. But just like with all things in life, you have to experience them and learn from them.”
Learning from the tape has been a painful process for the Shockers.
Since both games were one-point losses, it’s hard for players not to obsess over the small details.
“It definitely still resonates with me because I know I missed two free throws in that (Drake) game and we only lost by one,” WSU forward Monzy Jackson said. “If I just make my free throws, then maybe we win that game.”
In their final two games, WSU was held under 60 points both times. Against Cincinnati, WSU shot poorly on two-pointers (39.4%) and committed 14 turnovers. Against Drake, WSU shot 3 of 18 from beyond the arc and missed 11 of 22 free-throw attempts. In both games combined, WSU scored 0.85 points per possession — nearly two-tenths below its season average.
Just a slightly below-average offensive output was all that was needed for WSU to be playing for a conference tournament championship and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Shockers had two of their worst offensive showings at the most inopportune times.
“We talked about that all summer how we defended at a high level and kept both of those teams under 65 points, but we didn’t win because we didn’t do a good job scoring,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “We’ve got to do a better job of making wide-open shots. We got good shots, we just didn’t step up and make them. Those are the things we’ve worked on all summer long, just being able to make wide-open shots. We’ve got to continue to take good shots, too.”
With the Shockers’ first public showing against outside competition coming up soon with an exhibition against Missouri Southern State scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, the returners are excited to return to Koch Arena with fans inside and start a new journey with what they believe will be an even better ending.
“I don’t want to put any cap on what I think this team can do,” said Etienne when asked about the team’s expectations this season. “I don’t want to say we’ll do this or we’ll do that. I just want this team to play games and go out there on the court and have fun and enjoy the moment. At the end of the day, we won’t get this back. I just want to let the games show what we’re capable of doing.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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