Why coach Paul Mills won’t ‘overreact’ to Wichita State basketball’s December losses

At the end of each practice, Wichita State men’s basketball players have a piece of paper lying on their seat in the locker room.

Nothing on this sheet of paper can be found in a box score. Instead of statistics, a player’s “care factor” in practice has been tracked, analyzed and graded by the coaching staff.

In building the culture in his first year in the program, Paul Mills has placed a premium on positive body language and attention to detail.

Do they hustle back on defense after committing a turnover? Do they make the cut at the correct time with the proper speed? Do they show a commitment to boxing out? Do they pursue loose balls and stand in to take charges? Fail to make the grade and a demanding conditioning drill is administered at the end of practice.

Wichita State’s “care factor” was put to the test in December, when the competition level elevated and the team lost four of five games. As the calendar has flipped over and the Shockers prepare for their American Athletic Conference opener at 8 p.m. Thursday against North Texas at Koch Arena, Mills says he has been encouraged by his team’s care factor.

“I say this a lot, uncoachable players eventually turn into unemployed adults,” Mills said. (WSU players) aren’t that way. I don’t have that group. They can acknowledge mistakes that we need to tighten up. You can see it on their faces. The worry on their face demonstrates that their care factor is pretty high. We’ve got a group in that locker room that will respond the right way.”

The stats behind Wichita State’s recent losses

It’s difficult to discern whether WSU’s progress has stalled in the last month or if the drop in efficiency is just a result of playing better teams.

In WSU’s 7-1 start to the season, which featured two games against top-100-caliber teams, its offense was scoring 1.12 points per possession and its defense was allowing 0.96 points per possession. In the last five games, which featured four games against top-100-caliber teams, WSU’s offense has dipped to 0.96 points per possession and its defense has ballooned to 1.10 points per possession.

Losing to quality teams like Liberty, Missouri, Kansas State and Kansas isn’t necessarily a disappointment for WSU, but not playing particularly well in any of those games and losing all by at least nine points have fans wondering if the team’s growth has stalled during the second month of the season.

From Mills’ perspective, WSU can potentially improve more in a loss to a good team like KU than by beating up on an overmatched opponent.

“You have to acknowledge who you’ve played and we’ve played good teams,” Mills said. “It isn’t as if we’re playing NET 300 teams and this isn’t going well. When you play good teams, you learn from them. So we’ll learn from (the KU game), but we’re not going to overreact. We’re going to go back and watch the film and get better.”

How the care factor system helps the Shockers

WSU players say the care factor system helps build good habits in practice.

“In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking, ‘I’ve got to box out, I’ve got to make sure I get back on defense, I’ve got to make sure my feet are aligned a certain way on defense, I’ve got to make sure I contest shots with a certain hand up,’” WSU leading scorer Colby Rogers said. “You can look at those kinds of details negatively and say, ‘He’s doing too much’ or you can look at it and see that those things matter and they’re going to help make me better and help make us better as a team.”

“It helps give you something to focus on that you’ve never had to focus on before,” WSU guard Harlond Beverly said. “I love to learn and (Mills) being willing to pass down his knowledge of the game has been really helpful and it’s helped expand my game and become a little more process-oriented.”

To drive home his point, Mills has shown film of teams who have won games because players demonstrated a high care factor late in games and also clips of teams who have lost games because players don’t show a high care factor.

“He does a really good job of not budging. If you don’t meet the standard, you don’t meet the standard,” Rogers said. “It’s a form of holding us accountable and we know that it translates to winning because he’s showed us the film. His track record has proven he’s a winner, so you can’t argue with it.”

“He tracks how fast you make a cut from the corner to the other corner,” WSU junior Xavier Bell said. “And then in film, he’ll show you guys making the cut at the right speed and how it helped the play happen. It’s been an eye-opening experience. I didn’t really know things like that were tracked. To see how tiny details like that translate to winning, it’s been beneficial.”

The standard is the standard for WSU basketball

WSU associate head coach Kenton Paulino, who spent the previous two years with Mills at Oral Roberts, has been around a lot of head coaches in his coaching career. None are as detail-oriented as Mills.

“There’s nothing that a player does on the floor in practice that will go unnoticed with him,” Paulino said. “It’s completely transparent. The players know about the points system. You want guys to worry about more than what’s on the stat sheet. Everybody loves stats. So we essentially created a stat system for things that are not normally statted.”

In the care factor system, Mills asks his players to maintain at least an 80% success rate in the various categories the coaching staff tracks.

Fixing a schematic problem can be done. Fixing an effort problem is much harder. In his seven years as a head coach, Mills said every player he has coached has “eventually” met the standard.

“If a plumber shows up to somebody’s house and only does his job 80% of the time, that plumber is not going to be able to keep his job very long,” Mills said. “We’re not going to lower the standard simply because you’re not measuring up. The standard is the standard and we all need to measure up to it.

“In my mind, winning is a byproduct. That standard of doing certain things is what we’re asking you to do and we’ll win on account of doing those certain things. It’s a work in progress every day.”

North Texas vs. Wichita State basketball preview

Records: UNT 7-5, WSU 8-5

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita

How to watch: ESPN2 (Mark Neely with Tim Welsh)

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Mike Kennedy with Dave Dahl)

KenPom says: UNT 66, WSU 65

Series history: WSU leads 26-12 (16-4 in Wichita)

Projected starting lineups

North Texas Mean Green (7-5)

Coach: Russ Hodge, first season, 7-5

Wichita State Shockers (8-5)

Coach: Paul Mills, first season, 8-5

Taylor Eldridge

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6270

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