The valuable lesson Wichita State Shockers learned in South Alabama basketball win
When the NCAA Tournament selection committee examines the Wichita State men’s basketball team sheet come March, Saturday’s 64-58 win over South Alabama at Koch Arena is unlikely to register.
It’s a solid win against a mid-major team with high-major talent that very well could win the Sun Belt Conference this season, but the victory likely tops out as a common Quadrant 3 one at best. The risk far out-weighed the reward on Saturday for the Shockers.
“Every time there is an upset, (the media) puts something out there and talks about the small team’s budget and the Power Five team’s budget,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “I’m just glad we’re not making that article.”
So why play these high-risk, low-reward games if you’re WSU? If beating quality mid-major teams like Jacksonville State and South Alabama doesn’t move the needle for the Shockers come March, why not schedule lesser teams to come to Koch Arena that WSU could beat far easier?
It’s because Brown sees value in the struggle this early in the season. He believes the Shockers will be better prepared for the rigors of the American Athletic Conference by playing against quality competition now and operating down the stretch of close games by executing crunch-time possessions.
And Saturday’s game produced an unexpected lesson for WSU: learning how to win without good shooting performances from its three veterans — Tyson Etienne, Dexter Dennis and Morris Udeze — who finished just 5 of 26 from the field. For a team that leaned heavily on Etienne, the preseason AAC Player of the Year, for last season’s success, the win over South Alabama, where Etienne scored just four points, marked progress in Brown’s eyes.
“There are going to be games this season where teams are going to try to box-and-one (Etienne),” Brown said. “They’re going to deny him the ball. They’re going to trap him in ball screens. So other guys will have to step up. I thought we had some guys step up and I think that helps our team grow. You don’t want a team where it’s just one guy doing all the scoring. That team is easy to scout. When you have multiple guys who can score, it really helps your team out.”
In WSU’s time of need, trailing by as many as six points, three players rose to the challenge to provide key contributions:
- Ricky Council, who in his second career start scored a game-high 19 points, hit big shot after big shot and grabbed eight rebounds.
- Qua Grant, who bounced back from a rocky debut to score 13 points and provide a much-needed scoring punch off the bench.
- Monzy Jackson, whose impact far exceeded what his final stat line — five points, three rebounds — might suggest.
“Even when we were down, those guys never put their heads down and they came together as a team,” Brown said. “I thought that showed we got a lot of high-character guys and they all wanted nothing but to win. It wasn’t about who was scoring, it was all about winning the basketball game for Wichita State.”
The most promising development for WSU was Council, who once again flashed his tantalizing ability to carry the offense. He scored 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting, many of which were high-degree-of-difficulty shots that looked familiar to his teammates.
“That’s what we see every day in practice,” Grant said. “He hits crazy, tough shots. That’s what Ricky does. When he does it against other teams, it’s like, ‘Yeah, ya’ll feel it now.’”
Scoring a team-high 19 points on great efficiency would normally be described as a confidence-booster for such a young player. Council might be the rare exception.
“The confidence is never going to change whatever level I go to,” Council said. “I was just playing my game. Coach was calling plays for me and I was making reads and scoring on some of them. It was just natural, for real.”
“Ricky is one of those guys who right now thinks he’s the best player in any conference,” Brown said. “He has so much confidence in himself and he shows that in practice. He can make tough shots. A lot of guys can’t make tough shots, but he’s one of those guys who always makes tough shots.”
Another familiar sight was Jackson supplying momentum-swinging plays with his energy and hustle. He grabbed two offensive rebounds in the second half, both of which led to WSU baskets.
After playing just eight minutes in his season debut, Jackson said he was eager to make more of an impact his second game.
“Whenever my name gets called, I have to be ready,” Jackson said. “Last game I didn’t get to play as much, but I know whenever my name gets called, I got to perform. Whether I play two minutes, 10 minutes, 25 minutes, I got to be ready.”
There’s just something different when Jackson secures a rebound. The energy and passion he plays with transfers over to every rebound, every point, every assist Jackson is involved with. In turn, that energizes the team — and the crowd.
“That’s just who Monzy is,” Dennis said. “That’s what he does every day. He just has that natural energy that we gravitate to.”
“We feed off his energy,” Grant added.
“I think everybody else gets energized when they see the type of energy he’s playing with,” Brown said.
WSU turned 11 offensive rebounds into a 15-9 advantage in second-chance points, a six-point margin that equaled the final score. Jackson had two notable offensive rebounds that resonated with the opposition after the game.
“In my mind, the deciding factor of the game was their energy,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “The offensive rebounds killed us because they made us pay. To me, Council and Jackson were the difference in the game. Jackson brought the energy on the glass and then Council made some huge shots.
“We felt like we did a good job on Etienne and Udeze, their two headline guys. But Council and Jackson were just tremendous.”
Another player who bounced back after a shaky debut was Grant, the two-time Division II All-American making the transition to Division I play. After scoring two points and having two of his shots blocked at the rim in the opener, Grant made the necessary adjustments and finished Saturday with 13 points off the bench and a pair of nice drives that he finished this time.
“I just learned from my mistakes and watched a lot of film with the coaches,” said Grant, who came off the bench after starting the first game. “I just knew I had to pick my spots better and change my pace. If you get downhill too fast, then they know you’re going straight to the rim. When you’re on the bench, you see what’s going on and you get a different perspective for how the game is going.”
In a game where WSU desperately needed points, Grant provided a lift with back-to-back three-pointers late in the first half and explosive drives in the second half.
“You can’t stay in front of him because when he drives he gets so low,” Jackson said.
“He’s a dynamite player,” Dennis said of Grant. “We love him and we’re glad we have him. He definitely gave us a spark in the first half that we definitely needed.”
Instead of dwelling on what didn’t go right, the Shockers were more focused on what they were able to gain on Saturday.
“Of course we want to come out and perform well, but it’s not really about us,” Dennis said of WSU’s perceived big three that includes himself, Etienne and Udeze. “That’s why we’ve got other teammates. That’s why we’ve got other players who can step up when we’re not playing well. We definitely needed them tonight and we’re going to need them the whole season. We’re going to have to start making shots, start making plays. We’ve got some work to do, but we are thankful for the teammates that did play well when their number was called.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 12:36 PM.
.jpg)