Isaac Brown assesses the Wichita State basketball offseason: roles are ‘wide open’
The overall tone of summer practices will be an entirely different experience in the second full offseason for Wichita State men’s basketball coach Isaac Brown.
Last summer, many of the key players who helped the Shockers win the 2021 American Athletic Conference championship returned. For better or worse, the returners had expectations: for playing time, for roles, for shots.
This summer, with eight of the 10 rotation players gone from last season’s 15-13 debacle, more than 80% of the team’s minutes, shots and points need replenished.
That means opportunity abounds at Wichita State when an almost brand-new team will come together for the first time at Koch Arena on Monday, June 6 for the first day of summer work.
“I told those guys coming in that we’ve got a lot of positions that are wide open,” Brown said. “Number one, you’ve got to defend, you’ve got to rebound and you’ve got to play with toughness. If you’re going to get on the floor, it’s going to be because of your defense.
“We’ve got to get those guys to gel together in June and July and be ready to go when we start practice in August and September.”
This offseason has seen a total shakeup of Wichita State’s roster, as a total of nine scholarship players departed and seven new players have been signed as replacements.
Gone are four-year stalwarts Dexter Dennis (to be determined) and Morris Udeze (New Mexico). Gone is former AAC Co-Player of the Year Tyson Etienne, who turned pro. Gone is the reigning AAC Sixth Man of the Year Ricky Council IV, who has his pick of top-25 suitors. And gone are role players Monzy Jackson (Jacksonville State), Joe Pleasant (Abilene Christian) and Chaunce Jenkins (Old Dominion).
WSU has leaned heavily on junior-college talent for immediate help in recent seasons, but Brown bucked that trend this spring by procuring almost his entire recruiting class from the NCAA transfer portal.
He found natural scorers in junior guard Colby Rogers, who averaged 14.1 points at Siena, and senior forward Gus Okafor, who averaged 14.6 points at Southeastern Louisiana. He found a pair of sophomores who are young and promising scorers on the wing in Xavier Bell, who averaged 11.0 points at Drexel, and Jaron Pierre Jr., who averaged 9.9 points at Southern Miss. And the coach bulked up his center position with veteran James Rojas, a rugged, 6-foot-8 senior who played a role this past season at Alabama, and 7-foot shot-blocker Quincy Ballard, who signed with Florida State out of high school and was looking for a chance to show his abilities.
“The portal is an opportunity to get better,” Brown said. “The teams that were in our league that were really good hit the portal and we didn’t really go in the portal a lot. We went out and got a lot of guys that can make shots. We got more athletic. We got bigger inside and that’s what we needed.”
Brown said he likes the new blend he is creating for the Shockers, but admitted that’s an easy thing to say in May.
“Right now everybody in the country feels like they have a great team coming in,” Brown said. “We’ve got to get those guys here in front of us. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We signed a lot of guys who led their team in scoring and now that they’re here at Wichita State, everybody can’t lead the team in scoring. So they’ve got to figure out other things they can do to help us win.
“Hopefully those guys can continue to get better and we can start building a team that can be successful in the AAC.”
After WSU finished No. 306 nationally in effective field goal percentage (46.7%) and second-to-last in 3-point percentage (30.9%) in conference, Brown said he put a premium on players who can be shot-makers for WSU.
Rogers appears to be the biggest acquisition in that regard, as the 6-foot-4 guard made 2.6 threes per game at Siena at a 42.9% clip. Bell shot 49.2% from the field at Drexel and made 35.7% of his 3-pointers, while Pierre shot 34.2% from the field and 33.3% on 3-pointers at Southern Miss and Okafor made 42% of his shots at Southeastern Louisiana and shot 32.6% on 3-pointers.
Brown also mentioned better quality shots could come from better ball movement, which was lacking last season when the Shockers finished dead-last in assist rate (48.7%) in AAC play.
“Honestly, we want to take better shots,” Brown said. “We want to move the ball more, get everybody involved. I think when you’ve got one guy who can score, the defense can key in on that guy. So we want to try to share the basketball a little bit more. We think we have guys who can make shots and now those guys have got to prove it. Coming in, it looks like we have a great offensive team, but now they’ve got to go make shots when it counts.”
Brown also touched on what he’s seen from the four returners, which includes Porter and Pohto from last year’s rotation, but also a pair of freshmen who redshirted last season in Jalen Ricks, a 6-7 wing, and Isaac Abidde, a 6-9 forward.
Pohto has been working to improve his back-to-the-basket game so he can capitalize when defenses switch guards onto him in pick-and-roll situations. Brown also said he is confident the 6-11 Swede will almost certainly shoot better than the 30.2% clip he posted from beyond the arc in his debut season.
Ricks has impressed coaches with his shooting accuracy in practice, but is coming off a meniscus injury that sidelined him for almost all of last season. Abidde is considered more of a raw talent, extremely athletic with a developing outside shot. He focused mostly on bulking up through the weight room last year.
There’s no doubt the highest expectations ride with Porter, who averaged 7.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks last season. He averaged even better than that from February onward last season and Brown said the Shockers will lean heavily on the leadership and production from the 6-2 senior.
“He’s a guy we can look for to do more scoring,” Brown said. He can play multiple positions because he rebounds it so well. He’s a good defender; he may be the best defensive player on the team now. But we need him doing more scoring and I think he’s getting more and more confidence. We just need to keep him healthy and we’ll get him in different situations where he can post it, he can drive it or he can shoot it.”
There’s still work to do for Brown before the Shockers begin summer workouts, as he has two scholarships remaining to hand out in WSU’s 2022 recruiting class. WSU can add players up until fall semester begins in the mid-to-late August.
“We’ve just got to get the best two players available,” Brown said. “Obviously, we want a guy that’s athletic enough that can defend multiple positions. And we want to get another guy that can play the point guard spot. We’ve got some guys in mind, so we just got to get it done.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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