To win first AAC game, Wichita State basketball must overcome weaknesses vs. Tulane
It’s been six weeks since the last time the Wichita State men’s basketball team scored a significant win.
Remove the fluff — home victories over Norfolk State, Alcorn State and Prairie View A&M — and the Shockers have dropped their last four games against real competition, a disappointing follow-up to pushing Arizona to overtime, then beating UNLV, Missouri and Oklahoma State away from home.
Off to an 0-2 start in American Athletic Conference play, Wichita State (9-5) is desperate for a win of substance to end its slide. The Shockers can do just that in their return to Koch Arena this week, beginning with a 7 p.m. Wednesday game against Tulane, the early surprise of the conference with its 3-1 record and second-place standing.
“We’re definitely anxious for the first win (in conference play,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “It’s very important because these are some big basketball games. We’ve got to do a good job to take advantage of playing at home in front of our crowd. We’ve got two games back-to-back (Cincinnati on Saturday) and we need to win these games.”
Tulane has almost exclusively played in a match-up zone (87% of the time, per Synergy) this season, a challenge that will surely push the Shockers out of their comfort zone.
On Tuesday, Brown spoke about the ways to crack Tulane’s zone — keep the ball moving, decisive passing, space the floor properly, knocking down open jump shots, driving with the intention to kick. It was a laundry list of things the Shockers have struggled with this season.
Perhaps it’s fitting that WSU will likely have to work through its weaknesses on offense if it is to earn its first AAC win.
“We’ve been putting up a lot of shots in practice, working against that zone because we know we’re going to see it a lot,” Brown said. “We can’t just settle for threes. We’ve got to throw it inside some. And we got to try to get out in transition to get some easy baskets. That’s been our Achilles heel to not go against a set defense all the time.”
With a frontcourt featuring a 6-foot-5 power forward and a 6-foot-8 center, Tulane is a rare team that WSU can exploit its size advantage over. And because the Green Wave consistently play defense in a match-up zone, it’s harder for them to clean up missed shots — they rank No. 313 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage allowed.
And with the way WSU has shot the ball this season — the team is dead last in effective field goal percentage early in conference play — opportunities will be there for Morris Udeze, Kenny Pohto, Joe Pleasant and Monzy Jackson. In fact, WSU’s success may depend on how many second-chance points it can generate.
“We’ve got to get some guys on the glass and get some offensive rebounds against the zone,” Brown said. “The thing about a zone is you don’t have an assigned man to check out, so we got to do a good job getting on the glass and trying to get other opportunities to get baskets inside and get wide-open threes on kick-outs.”
The arrival of 6-foot freshman guard Jalen Cook, a transfer from LSU, has transformed Tulane in coach Ron Hunter’s third season. Cook is averaging 19.4 points, second-most in the AAC, on great efficiency, shooting 47% from the field and 45% accuracy on five three-pointers per game. Tulane’s “Big 3” is completed by Jaylen Forbes, an Alabama transfer averaging 15.1 points, and Kevin Cross, a 6-8 center averaging 14.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
Despite a lackluster 3-6 start in nonconference play, Tulane has been the surprise of the AAC with a 3-1 start that includes a home win over a depleted Memphis squad and a dominant road win at Cincinnati.
This isn’t the same Tulane team that the Shockers have easily dispatched at Koch Arena the last three seasons. Brown knows WSU will have to play well on Wednesday to win, possibly changing the starting lineup to create the spark.
“Pretty soon there’s got to be some changes if we keep ending up in the ‘L’ column,” Brown said. “I’ve got to make some changes. But it’s not really who’s starting that’s causing the losses. It’s more our team turnovers. We just have silly turnovers. We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball.”
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