Memphis has been a place of horrors for Shockers. How WSU basketball can reverse trend
Memphis has not been a kind place for the Shockers since Penny Hardaway arrived in town.
In fact, no American Athletic Conference team has owned the Wichita State men’s basketball team quite like Hardaway’s Tigers the last four seasons.
Hardaway is 6-1 against the Shockers and his aggressive style has proven to be a matchup nightmare for WSU, which has lost by an average of 15.8 points in its last four trips to the FedExForum, the site of Thursday’s 6 p.m. game between the two teams with the TV broadcast on ESPNU.
WSU head coach Isaac Brown still remembers the disappointment in both games against Memphis last season when the Tigers won by a combined 42 points.
“Their pressure has really bothered us,” Brown admitted. “It’s just the way they defend. They press, they switch one through five and they don’t allow you to run plays. You’ve got to go make basketball plays. It’s unscripted. You’ve got to go in there and make things happen and you’ve got to make good decisions. When they run and jump and it’s a 4-on-3 situation or a 3-on-2 situation, we’ve got to take advantage of that.”
Wichita State (9-8, 2-3 AAC) carries momentum after winning its last two games in thrilling fashion, erasing double-digit second-half deficits both times to top bottom-dwelling South Florida and Tulsa.
The Shockers know they can’t afford to fall behind by double-digits against a quality opponent like Memphis (13-5, 3-2 AAC), a team that will be desperately trying to maintain a resume worthy of another at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
In front of a rabid home crowd, Memphis isn’t likely to be as forgiving as WSU’s last two opponents.
“The last two games we played, both of those teams got easy looks to begin with,” Brown said. “Our defense needs to be on point because on the road it’s hard to win when you get down big, especially against a team like Memphis.”
Memphis once again ranks among the best defenses in the nation in forcing turnovers (No. 35 in turnover percentage) and limiting quality shots (No. 26 in effective field goal percentage).
In Tuesday’s press conference, Brown said WSU’s transition offense would be “the key to the game.” But in order to consistently spring fast breaks, WSU needs to secure defensive rebounds and force live-ball turnovers — two things it has struggled with this season. In fact, WSU ranks dead-last in conference play in defensive rebounding, allowing opponents to grab 37% of their own misses.
The good news is that this is the first year Memphis doesn’t feature a first-round NBA Draft pick in its frontcourt. The bad news is that the Tigers are still loaded with talent and feature an all-senior lineup that features Kendric Davis, the reigning AAC Player of the Year, and star forward DeAndre Williams.
“We’ve just got to do a good job of every time the ball is shot finding somebody to hit and go and get a rebound,” Brown said. “Any time we get a defensive rebound, we’ve got to be able to push. We’ve got to be able to take advantage of them pressing and trapping. And when we get an opportunity to go make an easy play, we’ve got to make it happen.”
Trying to predict how the Shockers are going to take care of the basketball has been a dizzying effort this season. They’ve been nearly flawless against Mississippi Valley State (three turnovers in 72 possessions) and Cincinnati (two turnovers in 67 possessions), and they’ve been extremely careless in losses to Missouri, Kansas State and UCF when the Shockers turned the ball over on more than 25% of their possessions.
One player who can potentially help alleviate pressure with his size, athleticism and ball-handling skills is 6-foot-7 junior Jaykwon Walton, who returned from injury to finish with a team-high 19 points in the 73-69 win over Tulsa last weekend.
“He gives us an extra ball handler, another guy who can finish at the rim, another guy that creates shots for others on the floor,” Brown said. “He can make good basketball decisions. Anytime he can get going to the rim, it helps us a lot. He’s another guy that can rebound as well. Any time we’ve got him playing well, that helps our basketball team a lot.”
Wichita State at Memphis basketball preview
Records: WSU 9-8, 2-3 AAC; Memphis 13-5, 3-2 AAC
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: FedExForum, Memphis, Tenn. (18,119)
TV provider: ESPNU
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM
Series: 16-12 Memphis (11-3 in Memphis)
Projected starting lineups
Wichita State Shockers
Pos. | No. | Player | Ht. | Year | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
G | 3 | Craig Porter | 6-2 | Sr. | 12.3 | 5.9 | 3.7 |
G | 5 | Jaron Pierre Jr. | 6-5 | So. | 9.2 | 2.8 | 0.8 |
G | 10 | Jaykwon Walton | 6-7 | Jr. | 12.2 | 6.1 | 1.5 |
F | 33 | James Rojas | 6-6 | Sr. | 7.2 | 5.4 | 0.9 |
C | 11 | Kenny Pohto | 6-11 | So. | 7.1 | 5.3 | 1.6 |
Coach: Isaac Brown, third season, 40-27
Memphis Tigers
Pos. | No. | Player | Ht. | Year | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
G | 3 | Kendric Davis | 5-11 | Sr. | 21.2 | 3.7 | 5.8 |
G | 1 | Keonte Kennedy | 6-5 | Sr. | 7.8 | 2.7 | 0.6 |
G | 0 | Elijah McCadden | 6-4 | Sr. | 6.3 | 3.3 | 0.9 |
F | 12 | DeAndre Williams | 6-9 | Sr. | 15.7 | 7.2 | 2.4 |
F | 5 | Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu | 6-9 | Sr. | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.2 |
Coach: Penny Hardaway, fifth season, 98-48
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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