Wichita State basketball looking to shore up rebounding in South Florida road game

In a winless start to American Athletic Conference play, the lack of defensive rebounding has plagued the Wichita State men’s basketball team.

The Shockers have allowed their opponents to grab 38.5% of available offensive rebounds, a small sample size, but if expanded for the entire season would rank as the fifth-worst mark in the country.

After ranking among the nation’s elite defensive rebounding teams for decades, Wichita State has experienced a sharp drop-off under head coach Isaac Brown. Granted, Brown has found other ways to maintain a stingy defense, but the poor defensive rebounding has always perplexed the coach.

“It’s real simple, when the ball goes up in the air, find someone to check out and go get a rebound,” Brown said after WSU’s 70-61 loss to Cincinnati on Thursday where the Shockers gave up 10 offensive rebounds and 15 second-chance points. “We didn’t do that and they took advantage of it.”

For something that sounds so simple, Wichita State has struggled to bring the same energy, effort and attention to detail of past Shocker squads when it comes to securing defensive rebounds.

While not every team has punished WSU with second-chance points, Cincinnati certainly did. If the Bearcats couldn’t simply lay the ball back in from an offensive rebound, they often kicked out to a wide-open shooter on the perimeter who buried a three-pointer.

“I feel like (the defensive problems) all started with giving up offensive rebounds,” WSU senior Craig Porter said. “When we were leaking out or doing whatever, they were crashing and they could find their shooters. We knew what we were facing, it was just a lack of rebounding.”

Wichita State isn’t exactly the tallest team, regularly playing 6-foot-6 senior James Rojas at power forward, but it isn’t the smallest either. Size shouldn’t be an excuse with 6-11 sophomore Kenny Pohto, 6-9 senior Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler and 7-foot sophomore Quincy Ballard rotating at center.

But at WSU, gang rebounding is emphasized, which relies on the power forward and center constantly boxing out to allow the guards and wings to swoop in and collect the defensive rebound. It’s a proven system that works… when everyone is executing their job, something that Pohto feels like isn’t happening right now on WSU.

“I feel like I was boxing my guy out, but we have to get everybody to box their guy out,” Pohto said. “I can’t get the rebound over five guys. Everybody has to box out together.”

While Pohto isn’t flawless himself, he is far from the problem for WSU when it comes to defensive rebounding. He almost always boxes out and is in a good position for rebounds.

What is ailing the Shockers is the lack of consistency with the guards and wings boxing out their marks. When shots go up on the perimeter, many of WSU’s perimeter players have the tendency to watch the ball’s flight path through the air, instead of turning around and making contact with the player they are assigned to box out.

The end result is usually opposing players finding a clear runway from the perimeter to freely chase after and win the battle for loose balls in the air over WSU’s post players, who are more ground-bound because they are busy holding off a defender on their back.

Porter admitted the guards must do a better job to help WSU become a better defensive rebounding team. The Shockers (7-8, 0-3 AAC) have their next chance on Sunday when they face South Florida (7-8, 0-2 AAC) in a noon Central time battle, streaming on ESPN+, between winless conference teams in Tampa.

“The guards have got to start helping rebound down,” Porter said. “There might be times where Kenny will help one of us, then we’ve got to check down and box his man out. Sometimes we forget the little things that we have to do that it’s going to take to win. It’s just a matter of focusing and wanting to get better. It’s really simple, but we’ve just got to mentally get it and prepare for it.”

Wichita State at South Florida basketball preview

Records: WSU 7-8, 0-3 AAC; USF 7-8, 0-2 AAC

When: Noon Central time Sunday

Where: Yuengling Center, Tampa, Fla. (10,411)

Streaming:

ESPN+

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM

Series: 7-1 WSU (2-1 in Tampa)

Projected starting lineups

Wichita State Shockers

Coach: Isaac Brown, third season, 38-27

South Florida Bulls

Coach: Brian Gregory, sixth season, 72-97

Taylor Eldridge

The Wichita Eagle

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Wichita State athletics beat reporter. Bringing you closer to the Shockers you love and inside the sports you love to watch.