How Wichita State basketball plans to use lineup data to find right spot for Ronnie DeGray
Adding Ronnie DeGray III to the rotation makes Wichita State a better team, but the challenge for head coach Paul Mills is now figuring out the best way to utilize the versatile forward.
DeGray wasn’t expected to be part of the mix this season until plans changed last week when a court ruling opened the possibility of multi-time transfers to play immediately. The Missouri transfer made a rousing debut, blocking a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer to preserve a win over Southern Illinois.
The first month of the college basketball season gave Mills 10 games, 400 minutes and 719 possessions to collect data and examine which players worked well with others. Now there’s a new part of the equation he must factor ahead of Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. showdown against Kansas State at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
“We have so much data on lineups and we understand what is beneficial offensively, defensively and we understand what groups that work together,” Mills said. “You’re also able to practice those lineups in those 30 days to see how these two or three guys work together. Throwing Ronnie in, we don’t have that data. We aren’t sure what Ronnie, (Isaac Abidde) and Kenny (Pohto) are going to look like. All of that is just new.”
Mills said he was targeting around 12 minutes for DeGray, who hadn’t played in a college basketball game in 11 months, against Southern Illinois. Due to various in-game events, DeGray ended up playing 19 minutes and closing the game for the Shockers down the stretch.
Other than a two-minute stint near the end of the first half when he played next to Pohto and Quincy Ballard, DeGray primarily slotted in at power forward for the Shockers in his debut. His impact was felt immediately with four offensive rebounds that produced six second-chance points.
But Mills said he believes DeGray has much more versatility than that.
“If teams want to go smaller and you want to put a team out there that can switch 1 through 5, Ronnie can guard a 5,” Mills said. “If you want to move him to the 4 and be able to switch 1 through 4 and maintain the matchup on a non-shooting big, he can do that too. We can play some different combinations that allow you as a unit to have defensive versatility because of his individual ability. His defensive versatility is where he adds a ton of value to us.”
A unique situation has left Mills starting the only three guards in his rotation and the only two centers, while bringing three forwards off the bench.
According to tracking down by The Eagle, Abidde (49% at small forward) and Ridgnal (54% at power forward) have played the highest percentage of WSU’s possessions this season at the two forward positions. They have also been quite effective in their minutes, as both players frequent WSU’s most potent two-man and three-man lineup combinations so far this season.
DeGray figures to be a mainstay in WSU’s rotation moving forward, which means approximately 20 minutes per game will have to come from somewhere. Because they play the same position, it might seem likely that DeGray’s minutes come out of the time Abidde and Ridgnal have spent on the court.
While that may end up being the case, it’s also possible DeGray’s arrival will allow Mills to rest his trio of starting guards — Xavier Bell, Colby Rogers and Harlond Beverly are all averaging more than 30 minutes per game — and play more two-forward lineups.
Regardless of where the minutes come from, Mills will have to thread the needle to make sure he finds time for DeGray while also making sure he doesn’t take away too much from the effective lineups that have been working so well this season when Abidde and Ridgnal come off the bench. Mills says DeGray’s versatility makes the solution much easier to find.
“Right now there isn’t enough of a data set where you feel comfortable,” Mills said. “So you just have to gauge some of it at practice, but the reality is we haven’t been keeping track (of DeGray’s practice numbers). Once the season started, we made the decision and that’s kind of what we rolled with. So this is new.
“I don’t think it really matters who Ronnie plays with because we can move him around in so many spots. He isn’t one of those players where you just have to pinpoint a spot and it means so-and-so isn’t going to play. We can move him around, but it’s going to take a little while before we really understand what’s valuable and what isn’t.”
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