‘Everything is on the table’: Coach promises shake-up after Wichita State loss
After Wichita State gave up the fifth-most points in program history in Sunday’s loss to Memphis, first-year head coach Paul Mills promised a “shake-up” is on the way.
The Shockers have lost five straight games following a 112-86 loss to No. 13-ranked Memphis, the program’s longest losing streak since 2009, and have won once since the calendar flipped to December.
Mills has tinkered with the starting lineup just once this season and has largely played the same rotation, but the coach said changes to both could happen for WSU’s road swing to Florida next week. The Shockers play at Florida Atlantic on Thursday and at South Florida next Sunday.
“Everything is on the table now, especially after a game like that,” Mills said.
WSU has always started a three-guard lineup with Xavier Bell, Colby Rogers and Harlond Beverly with center Quincy Ballard when everyone is healthy. Mills recently inserted Dalen Ridgnal into the starting five for Kenny Pohto, while Bijan Cortes, Ronnie DeGray III and Isaac Abidde have rounded out the bench unit. Senior center Jacob Germany and freshman wing Joy Ighovodja have largely gone unused this season.
Rogers said the mood from the players in the locker room is disappointment but not despair after the team’s 0-3 start in American Athletic Conference play.
“Nobody likes losing, but the worst thing for us is to get down on ourselves and get discouraged and lose hope,” Rogers said. “There’s a lot of basketball left.
“We’ve got to focus on what we have to do as a team and focus on getting better as individuals. This is our third game in conference. It’s not the end of the world. No time to panic. Just keep working and keep getting better and take it day by day.”
While WSU’s 86 points and 13 3-pointers on Sunday was a nice way to break out of a monthlong slump on offense, it was a concerning performance from the team’s defense — especially after coaches hammered home a return to the team’s identity after a weeklong break from action.
It was clear Memphis was on a collective heater to finish with a school-record 19 3-pointers, but take away eight of those triples and Memphis still scored more points than WSU. Even Memphis coach Penny Hardaway admitted he was surprised by his team’s outside shooting.
But Memphis punished WSU just the same inside the arc, as the Tigers made 65.8% of their 2-pointers (25 of 38). Simply put, WSU failed to put up much resistance anywhere on the court.
“I look at the switching, then I look at the closeouts,” Mills said when asked to pinpoint the problems on defense. “How you switch is important and you can’t switch level, you have to switch up. I would tell you the other thing, our closeouts, is on personnel. Just from my eye before I really dive into it, those were the two biggest issues.”
Memphis made a handful of tough shots, but WSU defensive miscues also allowed the Tigers to shoot freely on many of those 3-pointers. The Shockers also continued their post-halftime woes, giving up another knockout punch early in the second half.
Rogers mentioned just about every area of the team’s defense that needs to be improved.
“We knew they were trying to get paint touches and they had guys who could go 1-on-1 off the bounce,” Rogers said. “We were emphasizing being in the gaps, but there’s a fine line in being in the gap and over-helping. We got burned on that a couple of times on some backdoors. And then not being close enough to close out on guys on the 3-point line. And they had some offensive rebounds that hurt us, some kick-outs and then transition. It’s easier said than done.”
Mills said he isn’t concerned about the effort level from his players, which he insists is not the problem.
In the coach’s estimation, WSU’s issues remain based on execution.
“I don’t think anybody is doing this on purpose,” Mills said. “We’re not trying to be bottom 2% in transition. That’s not intentional. Nobody is trying to miss free throws. The reality is that we’ve got to get better. We can’t fall into that trap of thinking we’re a team that can turn around and make (a lot of) shots.
“We can’t get caught up in that. That’s not how this team needs to play in order to give ourselves a chance.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 7:19 PM.
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