Following Cincinnati basketball game loss, Shockers’ defense faces an identity crisis
There’s a common phrase around the Wichita State men’s basketball program in discussing the level of its defense following a game.
Did the opposition feel them?
That translates to did the Shockers impose their will on the opponent on the defensive end? Did they wall off driving lanes, deny catches on the wing, play physical in the post? If an opponent feels the Shockers, then that typically means they have succeeded in forcing the opposition to operate out of their comfort zone.
This area is as good as any to explain Wichita State’s lackluster play in the American Athletic Conference this season, which continued on Thursday with an 85-76 loss to Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena. The Shockers (13-10, 4-7 AAC) are alone in eighth place and now staring down the possibility of a losing record in conference play for the first time since 2009.
A major reason for that is because WSU’s once-stringent defense has been turned to mush by AAC foes. Cincinnati didn’t look like it felt a thing in what doubled as its best offensive performance of the season and WSU’s worst defensive performance of the season, as the Bearcats scored a season-high in points at its highest efficiency (1.21 points per possession) on 55.2% shooting.
“The game was lost on the defensive end,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “They didn’t feel us. They just chopped us up and got whatever they wanted. We couldn’t guard them.”
That’s been an all-too-familiar feeling for the Shockers lately.
Wichita State is a proud defensive program, well on its way to posting its 12th finish inside the top-100 of Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency in the last 13 seasons. And in nonconference play, WSU was playing at an elite level — rising to top-30 in the country and not allowing any of its 12 opponents to score more than the gold standard of one point per possession.
But once conference play rolled around, WSU has allowed more than one point per possession in eight of 11 games. After allowing just 0.89 points per possession through the season’s first 12 games, WSU has given up 1.02 points per possession through 11 conference games — good for the eighth-best defense in league play.
“It can still be turned around. We still have a little time left,” WSU junior Dexter Dennis said. “It’s going to take everybody on the squad to look themselves in the mirror and ask what they could have done better and what can each person do better on this team individually.”
While Dennis was rarely involved in the series of gaffes committed by WSU on the defensive end against Cincinnati, it pained him as someone who takes great pride in his defense to be a part of a team defense that was so thoroughly dismantled.
“Our defensive intensity wasn’t there for 40 minutes and we paid for it,” Dennis admitted.
It goes back to the original question — did Cincinnati feel Wichita State? — and how the resounding answer was “No!” on Thursday.
There was certainly a bit of good shooting luck involved for Cincinnati to score 32 points on its first 16 possessions, but the Shockers gave up quality look after quality look by mental miscues on the defensive end. WSU was routinely a step late on the defensive end in the first 10 minutes of the game, a step late on a close-out, a step late on a hedge, a step late on a tag.
Cincinnati has shot just 31.5% on 615 three-point attempts in its other 24 games this season. In their season sweep over the Shockers, the Bearcats made a combined 21 triples on 46.7% accuracy — many on Thursday coming in transition with defensive lapses matching up by WSU. In fact, the Shockers were so discombulated in transition they allowed 33 points to Cincinnati when it pushed the ball and shot within the first eight seconds of the shot clock.
“We can’t keep saying other teams aren’t great three-point shooting teams and they’re just making them on us,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “It’s because we’re not defending. They didn’t feel us. They were comfortable and anytime you let a team get comfortable, that’s going to happen.”
Instead of forcing Cincinnati to adjust to its physcality, WSU allowed Cincinnati to play freely. The Bearcats could move where they wanted, dribble where they wanted, pass where they wanted and cut where they wanted without facing much resistance from WSU defenders. The lack of defensive intensity showed up in how often WSU’s defenders bit on pump fakes.
After averaging just 9.0 assists per game during the recent 2-4 slide that preceded Thursday’s game, Cincinnati’s offense burst back to life with 17 assists against the Shockers.
“That’s probably the most fluent we have looked in a long time,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said.
Wichita State’s team defense in ball-screen coverages was once again exposed, this time by the maestro work of David DeJulius, who tortured WSU’s guards for 17 points and dished out six assists that totaled 16 more points.
Too many times DeJulius picked apart WSU’s defense in ball screens. He routinely would snake around the screen and attack WSU’s center in space, sometimes pulling up for a jumper and other times driving to collapse WSU’s defense and pick out the open shooter on the perimeter. Even if WSU did mostly everything right on a play, DeJulius would identify the one thing it did wrong and exploit it.
“We just don’t understand the little stuff,” Brown said. “It’s mind-boggling to me, but we’ve got to figure it out. All we can do is take a day off, get back in the gym in practice and try to get ready for this tough stretch we’ve got coming up. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to continue to get better and learn from these mistakes we continue to make.”
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