‘I can’t have bad days’: How Dexter Dennis ignores slump to deliver for Wichita State
When Dexter Dennis arrived at Wichita State, former men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall used to have a saying that still resonates with the Baker, Louisiana native now in his fourth year in the program.
“Control the controllables,” Marshall harped to his players.
Mired in the worst shooting slump of his career, Dennis has adopted it as his personal mantra to try to snap out of the funk.
He’s spent extra time in empty gyms outside of practice to try to fine-tune his stroke, but the 6-foot-5 wing is shooting a career-worst 26.8% on three-pointers during WSU’s 11-8 start to the season. To add to the frustration, Dennis is cashing in on just 33.3% of his unguarded catch-and-shoot attempts, per Synergy.
Tuesday’s game against Tulsa, a 2-for-11 performance from the field featuring two point-blank misses at the rim and four misfires on wide-open triples, was enough to throw any player off their game. Not Dennis, who once again delivered his usual brand of elite on-ball, off-ball and team defense to help the Shockers grind their way to a 58-48 win over Tulsa.
“Effort, energy and enthusiasm,” Dennis said, “that’s something you can always control, whether you’re having a good day or not. I try to bring that every day.
“Sometimes (bad shooting) might affect me, but I can’t show it because I have a big role on defense on this team. I can’t have bad days where I want to lose hope and throw in the towel because it would be real detrimental to the team. It’s a big responsibility, but at the end of the day, it is what it is. I gotta do more, I still gotta do more.”
Dennis has become an expert at compartmentalizing during games, separating whatever happens on the offensive end from his determination on defense.
It’s not out of the ordinary for a college basketball player to mope on the defensive end when they’re struggling on offense. Maintaining the same level of vigilance and effort is a trait that every Division I coach is looking for in players.
“Dexter always defends,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “His offense never affects his defense. He’s a guy who understands scouting reports and is always in the right spot. He’s one of the best on-ball defenders in our conference.”
That work ethic is not only noticed by coaches, but by his peers.
“I can’t recall a game in the two years I’ve been here where he’s slacked off on defense,” WSU freshman Ricky Council IV said. “He’s usually guarding the best player and shutting them down every night.”
When watching film of Dennis’ defensive versatility on display against Tulsa, when he took turns shutting down 6-foot-3 scoring dynamo Sam Griffin and 6-foot-7 pick-and-pop specialist Jeriah Horne, there would be no way of knowing he had nothing falling at the other end. It’s a badge of honor for a player like Dennis, another example of controlling the controllables.
While the 10-second sequence in the second half when Dennis swatted an Anthony Pritchard shot out of bounds, then stole the in-bounds pass and flipped it to Qua Grant to start a fast break will deservedly go on his end-of-season highlight reel, those flashy plays make up just a fraction of what makes Dennis so valuable to the Shockers on defense.
Dennis is arguably having his best on-ball defensive season with his block percentage up to 4.1%, the highest of his career and a top-260 mark nationally. On top of his smothering details, he is superb in the details of team defense: diagnosing the floor, understanding when and where to rotate and even helping an undersized WSU team on the defensive glass with clever ways to win rebounds.
“Honestly, I don’t really keep up with it,” Dennis said of defensive credit. “I just try to control what I can control.”
While Dennis continues to string together another standout defensive season, he knows he needs to start shooting better to help his team out more on the other end. The good news is Dennis has historically taken off around this time of year.
In a rather remarkable split, Dennis has shot just 28% on three-pointers in his career in the months of November, December and January, while that number jumps to a 42.5% success rate on triples from February on.
The first game of February didn’t follow the trend, but Dennis hopes shots begin to fall when the Shockers are scheduled to host SMU for a 5 p.m. game Saturday at Koch Arena broadcast on ESPN2.
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