‘I had more to give’: How Kenny Pohto turned around his season at Wichita State basketball
When Kenny Pohto watched the film of Wichita State’s first meeting with SMU, the 6-foot-11 sophomore center didn’t like what he saw.
He finished with two points and was pushed around by SMU’s fifth-year center Efe Odigie, who bullied his way to a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds in the head-to-head matchup.
“I felt like I had to make a bigger impact on the team,” Pohto said. “I had more to give.”
In the rematch three weeks later, Pohto responded with the best scoring game of his career with the Shockers, tallying 28 points on 13-of-15 shooting, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals in Wichita State’s 91-89 win over SMU in double overtime this past Sunday.
There have been few constants for WSU lately, from its sporadic ball-handling, rebounding and defense down to its rotation, but the team has achieved consistency when it runs its offense through Pohto. The Shockers (13-12, 6-7 AAC) look to continue that trend on the road Thursday against Temple (14-12, 8-5 AAC) in a venue they’ve never won at.
“When we can go through him inside, it makes us a better team,” WSU head coach Isaac Brown said. “The offense flows better.”
In his last 12 games, which spans six weeks, Pohto is averaging 12.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 blocks while shooting 53.5% from the field. He has essentially eliminated the 3-point shot from his game, morphing from a pick-and-pop big to the fulcrum of WSU’s offense.
Instead of setting a screen and spotting up around the arc, Pohto is setting a screen and rolling to open space closer to the basket. From there, Pohto has proven adept at reading the floor and taking what the defense gives him. If a double team comes, he knows where to look to find a cutting teammate or an open shooter on the weak side. If the defense leaves him alone on the block, Pohto goes to work.
“Anytime he can touch it on the block, it makes the game easier for the other guys because he’s a willing passer,” Brown said.
Pohto is still developing the necessary toughness to thrive in the paint against American Athletic Conference competition, but he is leaps and bounds further along in that category than he was for the first two months of the season.
Those inside the program felt like Pohto was starting behind his peers because when he returned to Wichita this summer from his home country of Sweden, he was dealing with nagging injuries. He wasn’t able to practice fully, his conditioning lagged behind and his play on the court suffered early in the season.
In the first 12 games of the season, Pohto averaged 5.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.3 blocks while shooting 39.3% from the field, which included a 2-for-18 performance from beyond the arc.
“I felt like I was in a deep hole that I’ve been trying to get out of for a long time,” Pohto said. “I just felt like it was time to get out of it. So that’s what I did.”
Pohto said his improved play on the court has correlated with his health. His knee is feeling better and his conditioning has improved, which allowed him to play a career-high 41 minutes against SMU and average 33.7 minutes per game in WSU’s last six contests.
In the rematch against Odigie on Sunday, Pohto proved it was going to be a different game right away. In the game’s first seven minutes, Pohto scored 10 points and assisted two other baskets to help give WSU an 18-15 lead. After halftime, Pohto scored 14 more points in 13 minutes before being subbed out.
Odigie was still able to muscle his way to 21 points in the matchup, but this time Pohto fought back.
SMU’s defense was content to leave Pohto alone in the mid-range, which seemed like a reasonable strategy considering he had only made two jumpers the entire season. But time and time again, Pohto made the Mustangs pay for giving him the extra cushion and drilled four mid-range jumpers.
His finest move, perhaps of his career, came in double overtime when Pohto actually turned down a 15-footer in favor of backing down his defender, faking a right hook shot, spinning back to his left with a ball fake, then twirling back over his left shoulder for a right-handed hook shot that gave WSU an 84-80 advantage.
“They didn’t double him very much and he made them pay,” Brown said.
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