Wichita State men’s basketball seeking win at Houston for first time in AAC era
The road trip to Houston has never ended well for the Wichita State men’s basketball team since joining the American Athletic Conference.
It’s been four trips and four losses for the Shockers, including a 33-point rout in 2020 that still stings the veterans on this WSU team.
This year’s trip is shaping up to be just as formidable, even with Houston missing its best player, Marcus Sasser, for the rest of the season, as the Cougars enter Saturday’s 11 a.m. game against Wichita State (9-4, 0-1 AAC) at the Fertitta Center ranked No. 12 in the country with a 13-2 record. The game will be a national television broadcast on CBS.
“The one thing I’ve noticed about Houston the last couple of years, any time they lose guys, it seems like they get better and better,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “So we’re going in there against a great coach, a great basketball team, a winning tradition and we need our ‘A’ game in order to come out on top.”
The Shockers have produced that type of game against Houston before, but it’s always been at home, with the Shockers winning two of their three games at Koch Arena. Most notably, WSU stunned Houston 68-63 last February in a victory that propelled the Shockers to an AAC title, an NCAA Tournament berth and Brown to become head coach permanently.
To beat Houston, which enters as one of the most efficient teams in the country and currently ranked No. 3 in KenPom, the Shockers almost certainly will have to shoot the ball better than 40%, come close to hitting 10 three-pointers and limit turnovers.
WSU has not come close to clearing those bars in its four previous showings in Houston, where the Shockers are shooting a combined 33% from the field, 24.5% on three-pointers and committing 14 turnovers per game (with a 20.9% turnover rate).
“If we take good shots, we play the right way, we don’t turn it over, we’ll have a good chance to win these basketball games,” Brown said. “But if you turn it over at a high rate, you take quick shots and you’re not making them and you don’t rebound, it’ll be hard to win basketball games.”
Much like Memphis, the team that just overwhelmed WSU, Houston is long, athletic and aggressive and unlike Memphis, Houston rarely turns the ball over. The Cougars are once again one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, thanks to a pair of senior go-getters in the frontcourt in 6-foot-11 center Josh Carlton and 6-foot-8 forward Fabian White, as well as 6-foot-7 sophomore J’Wan Roberts off the bench.
Losing Sasser (17.7 points) and freshman super sub Tramon Mark (10.1 points) to injuries has taken away some of Houston’s offensive punch, but the Cougars still have plenty of weapons in Texas Tech transfer Kyler Edwards (12.6 points), Carlton (11.1), White (10.9) and point guard Jamal Shead (9.9 points, 5.6 assists).
Houston somewhat struggled in its first game without Sasser, a grind-it-out 66-61 win at Temple, but hit its stride again in Wednesday’s 83-66 win at South Florida.
“I watched their game vs. Temple and they still play hard, they still push the ball in transition,” Brown said. “They can really score it inside. We’ve got to do our work in the paint, not letting (the ball) come in. We’ve got to do a good job of rebounding and we’ve got to get back in transition. They’ve got some new faces, but those guys play the right way. They play hard. They can make wide-open shots. They’ve got a good point guard in Shead that really runs their team. They’re a good basketball team.”
The game should be another big challenge for WSU junior center Morris Udeze, who had his string of seven straight games of scoring in double-figures snapped by Memphis, which held him to just four points on four attempts. Memphis had the size advantage inside and was aggressive in preventing Udeze post touches.
Not only will Houston replicate that strategy, but it’s certain to bring its traditional “Monster” double teams in the post, meaning as soon as Udeze catches the ball in the post, a second defender will come charging at Udeze, a situation where the big man has struggled with at times this season. Houston’s aggressive defense in the post has successfully taken away Udeze in the past, as the Houston native has just four points in five career games against the Cougars.
WSU’s offense is better when Udeze is scoring, so the Shockers could have to get creative in finding ways to funnel the ball to him. And if Udeze can be decisive and WSU’s guards cut for him, then the Shockers could negate what has been one of Houston’s biggest advantages in recent matchups.
The opportunity should be there for WSU to take advantage of Houston’s aggression, just like it did early in the Memphis game. While Dexter Dennis was the one who was using the shot fakes last game to earn trips to the foul line, Brown would like to see his teammates, Udeze especially, use shot fakes to try to rack up fouls and earn freebies at the line.
“That’s the type of stuff that can get you going,” Brown said. “When you drive the basketball and they’ve got a seven-footer, shot fake, get him up in the air. Shot fake again, draw a foul and get to the free throw line. When you see the ball going through the basket making free throws and layups, you’ll start to make threes.”
Another area where Brown feels like the Shockers could jump-start their offense is by running more and attacking more in transition.
“We’re not pushing the ball hard enough in transition,” Brown said. “Guys are not sprinting in transition. We’re not putting pressure on the defense. When you’ve got to go against a set defense all night, it’s hard. That’s the number one thing we’re looking at. When the ball comes off on a rebound and we get it, we’re looking at guys who are running. If you’re jogging, we’ve got to take you out. We’ve got to try to get easy baskets. When you’re struggling to make shots from the three-point line, you’ve got to get fouled in transition and you’ve got to get easy baskets to get your offense going.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 1:56 PM.
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