Styles make fights: Can Wichita State’s stingy defense slow Missouri’s high-octane offense?
In boxing, there’s a popular saying of “styles make fights” and that comes to mind when assessing an intriguing clash of styles for Tuesday’s game at Koch Arena.
In one corner, Missouri is flashy and dynamic, playing at one of the fastest paces in the country under first-year coach Dennis Gates and filling up the basket to the tune of 93.3 points per game. The Tigers are off to a sleek 7-0 start, but are relatively unproven considering they have yet to play away from home against one of the weakest non-conference slates nationally.
In the other corner, Wichita State prefers to muck up the game and play at a grind-it-out speed, leaning on a defense allowing just 59.2 points per game. The Shockers (4-2) would like nothing more than for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. tussle streaming on ESPN+ to turn into a rock fight.
“Our defense has to win that battle,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said.
“Those guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now. We’ve got to defend at a high level and get back in transition and defend the three-point line. On offense, we’ve got to execute and we can’t take quick shots against a high-scoring team like that. You’ve got to make them defend in the half court.”
Against the likes of Lindenwood, Mississippi Valley State and Houston Christian, Missouri’s run-and-gun offense has looked unstoppable.
Missouri has proven plenty capable of scoring against set defenses, particularly ones who try to incorporate a zone — the Tigers are making 10.4 threes per game on 37% accuracy — but its super power is its transition offense.
More than a fourth of the team’s possessions end in transition and Missouri averages nearly 28 fast-break points per game, both third nationally per Synergy. Senior guard D’Moi Hodge is particularly devastating in transition, as he’s averaging 8.1 points alone on fast breaks.
Missouri is forcing 22 turnovers per game on the fourth-highest turnover rate in the country, which helps spring the Tigers on the break.
Five different players average in double-digits, led by Hodge (16.6 points) and senior big man Kobe Brown (14 points, 5.7 rebounds), a preseason all-SEC pick.
“We’ve got to value the basketball,” Brown said. “We’ve got to sprint back in transition. Defense is the number one key coming into the game. We’ve got to defend at a high level and make sure we’re contesting shots. They do a good job pushing the ball in transition, so we’ve got to defend. It’s going to come down to our defense because they can really score the basketball.”
It’s a bit of a departure in style from the way Gates coached at Cleveland State, where his teams didn’t play at a fast pace or shoot very many threes.
But one weakness that has carried over to Missouri is defensive rebounding, as the Tigers are allowing opponents to grab more than 14 offensive rebounds per game and collect more than 37% of their own misses — one of the worst rates in the country.
WSU is averaging 11.8 offensive rebounds per game with a top-60 rate, which mean players like Kenny Pohto and Gus Okafor could do a lot of damage on the offensive glass. But the Shockers are likely to be cautious sending too many players to the crash the boards when Missouri is so potent in transition.
Brown is hopeful WSU, which ranks No. 279 in effective field goal percentage, will start to see more shots fall as the season progresses.
“Our (shooting numbers) need to go up and they can go up if you get stops, get out in transition, get easy baskets, play inside-out and step up and make wide-open shots,” Brown said.
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