In midst of losing season, Wichita State basketball tries to find joy playing the game
In the midst of a difficult season, the Wichita State men’s basketball team is focused on finding joy.
That may seem onerous for a team that has won three times since December, but head coach Paul Mills and certain players on the team say their spirit isn’t broken.
Once the premier road program in college basketball, the Shockers swallowed their eighth straight loss on the road on Sunday in a 72-61 defeat to Charlotte at Halton Arena. With five games remaining in the regular season, WSU (10-16, 2-11 AAC) finds itself in a three-way tie for last place in the American Athletic Conference and almost certainly on its way to its first losing season in 16 years.
As the losses pile up, the players say it’s more important than ever to ignore the outward negativity and focus inward on playing for each other and playing for their love of the game.
“It can be frustrating if you look at it like that, but coach (Mills) helps us a lot with that,” WSU point guard Bijan Cortes said. “He’s been talking to us a lot lately about playing with joy and just going out there and playing free and being ourselves.”
“The people in the locker room (is our motivation),” WSU junior Xavier Bell said. “The coaching staff sets the tone and gives us the right attitude every day in practice and says the right things to us. We’ve just got to try to find ways to get better and try to stack days. We’ve got to look toward the future, instead of the past.”
Despite the winless mark on the road in conference play, it hasn’t all been bad for the Shockers. Even in the 11-point loss on Sunday, WSU’s third straight double-digit defeat, the team produced stretches of encouraging play.
Like when WSU finally had the proper spacing and timing on a pick-and-roll play where Cortes was able to find Quincy Ballard on an alley-oop dunk.
Or when the defensive rotations were on point with five players moving like they were connected by a string to choke off driving lanes and force Charlotte into settling for long 2-point jump shots.
Or when Bell was shoulder-to-shoulder with his defender in transition, then dug deep for a spurt to create separation and scored an easy one simply from the extra effort.
The problem is those good stretches are negated by longer, bad stretches. It’s common for WSU to play eight good minutes where it proves it can hang with anyone in the conference, 20 minutes of playing opponents even and then 12 minutes of basketball so bad that it tanks the team’s chances of winning.
On Sunday, that destructive sequence came in the first eight minutes of the game when WSU fell in a 17-4 hole. The team did everything from foul jump shooters, which Mills labeled “moronic,” to commit live-ball turnovers that translated to easy Charlotte baskets to fail to match up on defense in transition.
Mills was particularly perturbed by his centers taking the bait twice on a shot fake by Charlotte center Dean Reiber, a 21% 3-point shooter, to give up paint penetration, which resulted in open 3-pointers for much better shooters.
“Some of it is just discipline issues,” Mills said. “(Reiber) was not on the scouting report as the kind of guy that you needed to have a sense of urgency about and run him off the line. Some of it is you just have to stay disciplined because those possessions really, really matter.”
WSU operates with a smaller margin for error than most teams because of its lack of outside shooting threats, which shrinks the floor and makes it harder for a drive-heavy team to force its way to the rim. Given its restrictions, WSU must limit turnovers and capitalize on free throws to survive.
The Shockers managed to cut 10 points off a 16-point deficit, but ultimately their comeback bid was stymied by their sloppy start (six turnovers in their first 13 possessions) and a season-worst 43.8% (7 of 16) performance from the foul line.
“You’re proud of the fight in your guys,” Mills said. “But at the end of the day, in order to win a road game, you have got to be able to convert more than 43% of your free-throw opportunities.”
Losing so much and for so long is bound to take its toll on the players, particularly since WSU came so close in many of those games. It’s possible the continued heartbreak dulled the attention to detail for players, leading to more lapses, instead of fewer, as the season progressed.
Cortes noted WSU could have been more “dialed in” at the beginning of the game, while Bell said the team needed to “trust the offense” to execute better. Mills, however, declined to make a lack of energy or determination the culprit for Sunday’s loss, noting Charlotte is undefeated at home in conference play.
“It’s just reality that winning is hard when you’re playing good teams,” Mills said. “The energy and the effort and the enthusiasm, I thought we had all of that (Sunday).”
At this point, WSU is scrambling to avoid a bottom-four finish in the standings, which would secure a Wednesday date in the conference tournament and require five wins in five days. The team’s odds of four wins in four days are minuscule, but playing one fewer game at least makes the path more plausible.
Rather than concern themselves with the standings, which is outside of its control, the team continues to plow forward. Mills said he has a group of players who have all embraced the program’s season-long mantra of winning the day.
This season hasn’t turned out the way anyone planned, but they still find meaning in the journey.
“You just try to go 1-0 every day,” Mills said. “When you have people who just love playing the game of basketball, you’re not really worried about (players losing motivation). We’ve got a group that really enjoys playing basketball and they enjoy competing and we’ll continue to do that.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2024 at 5:03 AM.
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