How new point guard Justin Hill could transform Wichita State basketball offense
When Paul Mills was evaluating how to improve his second Wichita State men’s basketball team, the top priority was an obvious one.
Dragged down by more than 13 turnovers per game, the Shockers ranked next-to-last in offensive efficiency last season in American Athletic Conference play.
In other words, poor ball-handling was responsible for nearly one-fifth of the team’s possessions being wiped out completely without even attempting a shot.
Enter Justin Hill, the ball-handling extraordinaire who has four years of Division I experience running efficient offenses. After entering the transfer portal from Georgia, the 5-foot-11 point guard became a top priority for WSU.
“You saw how impressive his ball-security numbers were and realize how valuable that can be,” Mills said. “They were significantly better than some of the experiences we had a year ago.”
Hill boasted a 2.15 assist-to-turnover ratio and the third-best assist rate (27%) in conference play, while committing just 2.5 turnovers per 40 minutes — against top-notch competition in the SEC.
For comparison, WSU’s main three ball-handlers from last season (Bijan Cortes, Harlond Beverly and Xavier Bell) combined for a 1.16 assist-to-turnover ratio. Cortes flashed an impressive 26.6% assist rate, but negated a lot of the good with a sky-high 32.6% turnover rate.
The addition of a veteran floor general could bring dramatic improvement to WSU’s offense. Not only can Hill help cut back on turnovers, which will lead to more shot attempts, but he is also an adept playmaker, capable of picking apart defenses in the pick-and-roll game and also making the simple swing pass to keep the ball moving.
“I’m coming in to be a coach on the floor,” Hill said. “This is my fifth year, so I’m a vet now. I want to bring a vet attitude in here and bring winning back to Wichita. Whatever they need me to do, I’ll go out there and do it to the best of my ability.”
For Mills, that means embracing the defensive end.
WSU rated as an above-average defense last season, but mainly because 7-foot shot-blocker Quincy Ballard was patrolling the paint. The point-of-attack defense for WSU along the perimeter was average at best, an area where Mills believes Hill can be an upgrade.
“He really can be a defensive menace and he needs to be a pest on that end of the court,” Mills said. “He needs to know that he can empty the tank because we have quality people behind him and some depth at that position.”
It’s true WSU has more options to run point guard this season with Cortes and Bell both back and incoming freshman Zion Pipkin off to a promising start this summer. And it’s true Mills’ offense works best when his team has multiple ball-handlers on the floor at the same time.
But there’s little doubt Hill has been brought to Wichita to play heavy minutes to help turn around the offense.
Hill will likely fluctuate between his roles at Georgia, where he was more of a table-setter and averaged 9.5 points and 3.2 assists, and at Longwood, where he was asked to score and create almost every time down the floor and averaged 14.2 points and 4.1 assists to lead his team to the 2022 NCAA tournament. He is a career 32.8% 3-point shooter, although he did knock down 36.5% of his catch-and-shoot looks last season at Georgia, per Synergy.
“The numbers tell you that he can make shots and he does a good job at finishing,” Mills said. “He is pretty thick and can play through contact and has his own level of physicality when he’s on the ball. He needs to be able to hit shots off the bounce and that’s an area we’ve focused on quite a bit. But the last three weeks of summer workouts, he did a really good job and you saw him get better and better at that.”
For Hill, he is excited to work with Ballard in the pick-and-roll game.
He’s never had a vertical lob threat like Ballard and Hill is looking forward to exploiting that new partnership as much as he can this upcoming season.
“Whenever I’ve thrown it up, Q has been there to catch it and dunk it,” Hill said. “That’s going to be an exciting part of the game because he’s going to open up stuff for everybody. I feel like we’re going to have possibilities everywhere.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 5:02 AM.
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