‘We’ll feel this one’: Wichita State basketball plagued by mental mistakes in ECU loss
Wichita State came to Minges Coliseum in search of its first American Athletic Conference road win, but left with one of its lowest points of the season.
The play that defined the Shockers’ 68-55 loss to East Carolina on Thursday was a defensive breakdown at the end of the first half.
With coach Paul Mills screaming at his players just feet away to use WSU’s last foul before the bonus as the final seconds of the half ticked away, Harlond Beverly and Ronnie DeGray III instead chased a steal and allowed ECU’s Jaden Walker to split their double team and score a layup.
“Can’t believe we didn’t get that,” Mills said. “I can go out there and make that foul. You’ve got to be able to make that play.”
For a team that has spoken at length in the media this season about its focus on executing details and dominating the simple in order to win games, WSU continues to be plagued in losses by careless mistakes.
Despite its winless record on the road, WSU had been competitive down to the final stretch of every conference road game this season. On Thursday, mental mistakes piled up more frequently than they have in a long time and the Shockers trailed by double-digits the entire second half.
“I don’t know what it was, maybe just bad energy,” WSU center Kenny Pohto offered up. “Just overall, we had bad energy.”
“There were moments there where it was dull team energy as a whole,” WSU leading scoring Colby Rogers added. “Against a team having a good night like that, you can’t have that. We’ve got to find a way to dig deep and find a way to get a spark. We have to do something to build that energy.”
Several times throughout Thursday evening, Mills was left shaking his head or covering his face in frustration.
A short list causing his ailments:
- Lack of communication leading to a missed defensive rotation and giving ECU an uncontested dunk.
- A point guard driving into traffic, blindly throwing a pass straight to the opponent and jump-starting an ECU fast break.
- A set play working to give a post player a wide-open look at the rim that missed.
Mills had more off the top of his head following the game.
“Some of it was switches,” Mills said. “We had guys not understanding when we would get the switch that we would want, they would go back and screen again and give (the defense) the matchup they originally wanted. So we’ve got to do a better job of explaining that.
“And then some of those turnovers were when we just couldn’t catch the ball. We had some literally go right through our hands.”
WSU played well early to build a 17-11 lead, but proceeded to play one of its worst 22-minute stretches of the season: scoring 0.59 points per possession (20 total points) on 29% shooting and a 23.5% turnover rate (eight total). The Shockers lost that 22-minute stretch by 25 points, 45-20.
“It was just one of those nights where things didn’t go our way,” Rogers said. “You have to learn from this and move on to the next one. We can’t dwell on it too long. We’ve got a game against Charlotte on Sunday and we don’t want to carry anything from this night into that game.”
While the players may want to flush that game from their memory, Mills said the coaching staff feels the opposite. Friday’s film session will be a tough one, as WSU will be confronted by its litany of mistakes on tape.
“We’ll feel this one,” Mills assured.
By all measures, WSU’s performance on Thursday was a step back from the competitiveness it had previously shown on the road.
But to the players, who have to wear the losses, they can’t afford to carry that mindset.
“It’s just next game,” Pohto said. “We can’t get stuck on this.”
“The worst thing you can do is think as this as a step back,” Rogers said. “These type of things happen. There’s going to be nights where you just don’t have it as a whole and those nights you’ve got to figure out what you can do better.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 5:03 AM.
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