Wichita State basketball seeks better discipline to pull out a win in Tulane road game

When the offense runs inside-out with an emphasis of paint touches, the Wichita State men’s basketball team has proven capable of competing with any team in the American Athletic Conference.

Not that you could tell from the Shockers’ losing record (7-8) in conference play, an indictment of the team’s lack of discipline when it comes to shot selection.

The latest example came in an 83-78 loss to Memphis on Thursday when WSU made 65% of its 2-pointers, but failed to fully exploit its advantage because it hoisted 27 shots beyond at the arc, the fifth-most 3-pointers attempted in a game this season with little (22.2% accuracy) to show for it.

“Some of those were bad shots that led to transition chances for them,” WSU star Craig Porter said. “We haven’t been taking that many 3s the last few games and we’ve been feeding it inside. That’s what has been winning us games. Getting away from that slightly is what lost it for us.”

All eight of WSU’s losses in AAC play have come by 10 or fewer points with all but one of those games featuring WSU within one possession in the final eight minutes of the game.

It’s clear the Shockers (14-13) aren’t far away from being a quality team entering Sunday’s 2 p.m. road trip to second-place Tulane (17-8, 10-4 AAC) with the game broadcast on ESPNU. But it’s also clear WSU has struggled to progress closing out games this season with its almost entirely new cast of players in the third year of coach Isaac Brown’s tenure.

“Sometimes when you’re wide open, you got to take it,” Brown said of his team’s proclivity for shooting 3-pointers against Memphis. “We’ve just got to knock down those shots, kind of like how (Memphis) knocked them down. They got those same wide-open shots and knocked them down. It was simple. Obviously we wanted to go inside, but they doubled us in the post all night and forced our guards to make shots.”

For the fifth straight season, WSU has been unable to punish defenses for leaving its shooters open from beyond the arc. The Shockers are in the midst of one of their worst 3-point shooting seasons in program history, as their 29.4% accuracy from deep ranks No. 347 in the country this season.

Porter and Jaykwon Walton are superb at slithering their way to the rim and using their leaping ability and length to finish at the rim. James Rojas’ brand of bully ball has been working as of late and Kenny Pohto has shown improvement finishing in the paint.

When they stick to their strengths, the Shockers’ offense has been humming for six weeks straight now. But all of that good work is hindered when WSU starts settling for jumpers early in the shot clock, like it did against Memphis.

For as good as he has been this season, Porter was guilty of this multiple times against Memphis. Instead of driving to create when Memphis switched its big onto him along the perimeter, Porter settled for an array of step-back jumpers over strong contests. He has proven capable of hitting those tough shots, but they weren’t falling against the Tigers, as he finished the game 1 of 7 on 3-pointers.

“I’ve got to take most of the blame for that,” Porter said. “I’m supposed to be the leader of this team.”

While Porter was being a good leader by shouldering the blame, he is far from the problem this season for the Shockers’ struggles on their home court. The loss to Memphis all but sealed WSU’s first losing season at home in nearly three decades.

The players share a portion of the blame for WSU’s struggles to close out wins on its home court because they are the ones in the game making the split-second decisions on when to shoot.

But ultimately, it falls on Brown and his coaching staff to instill the players with the discipline necessary to make good decisions down the stretch of close games.

WSU will be a heavy underdog in its next two games on the road: at Tulane on Sunday and at No. 1-ranked Houston next Thursday. To keep its slim chances at the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament alive, WSU almost certainly needs a win over the Green Wave on Sunday.

The players remain optimistic that WSU holds much more punch than its mediocre record might indicate.

“All of these teams, we know that we can beat if we’re not beating ourselves,” Porter said. “It’s going to be on us from here on out. I think we’ll do real well. I feel like we’ll have that intensity (on the road).”

Wichita State at Tulane basketball preview

Records: WSU 14-13, 7-8 AAC; Tulane 17-8, 10-4 AAC

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Fogelman Arena, New Orleans

TV: ESPNU (Derek Jones and Tim Welsh)

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM

KenPom says: Tulane 78, WSU 71

Series: WSU leads 6-3 (2-1 in New Orleans)

Projected starting lineups

Wichita State Shockers

Coach: Isaac Brown, third season, 45-32

Tulane Green Wave

Coach: Ron Hunter, fourth season, 53-54

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.