How a new lineup handled crunch-time like pros to lead Shockers to win vs. UNI
Hang around Paul Mills long enough and it won’t take long to memorize his catch phrases.
One of his favorites? Asking Wichita State men’s basketball players what the first three letters of production spell.
“We’ve got guys who want to be pros,” Mills said. “You know what pros do? They do their job.”
No better example of that mindset from the Shockers’ 3-0 start to the season unfolded in crunch time of their 79-73 win over Northern Iowa at Koch Arena on Thursday.
With 8 minutes, 34 seconds remaining and WSU protecting an eight-point lead, Mills turned to a lineup with forwards Corey Washington and Ronnie DeGray III sharing the floor with center Quincy Ballard for the first time all season.
The reasoning was sound, as Washington was in the midst of a season-high 19-point performance, DeGray has been a trusted crunch-time performer and Ballard provides invaluable rim protection.
But it was still a calculated risk trusting a lineup with no familiarity.
“It’s never been done in a game,” Mill said of the combination, which also included senior guards Justin Hill and Xavier Bell. “And it’s never been done in a practice.”
They’re not professionals yet, but WSU’s big lineup certainly handled adversity like some. Washington, DeGray and Ballard are the team’s three best offensive rebounders and Mills challenged the trio to dominate the glass to decide the game.
On their first possession together, Washington skied a crowd to pull down a missed shot. When his follow rimmed out, DeGray pursued the rebound and knocked it loose from the grip of a UNI player for Washington to chase down. When Washington attacked the rim for a second time, he left a dump-off pass to Ballard for a rim-rattling slam dunk and 62-52 lead.
One possession, two offensive rebounds and two second-chance points.
“I peeped it from the start that it was going to be a little physical,” Washington said. “I love those kind of games. In practice, they don’t really like me playing like that because they have to go up against it. But I love it.”
UNI failed to stop the new lineup once in their first six possessions together, as the Shockers rattled off 13 points to open up a 71-57 lead with 4:53 remaining following another offensive rebound by DeGray that turned into second-chance points for Washington on a nifty reverse pivot move.
Mills was also impressed by how the group handled a sideline out of bounds situation with 1.4 seconds left on the shot clock and WSU clinging to a 70-63 lead approaching the final three minutes. The coach dialed up a play-call WSU had never executed in a game before, but the group was assignment-sound.
Ballard set a screen for Washington, who curled off and exploded to the rim to catch a lob from Hill out of bounds.
UNI was forced to foul Washington in the air to turn what looked like a lost possession into free throws for the Shockers.
“Really it just comes down to doing your job and being able to do it at a really high level,” Mills said. “That’s something that we track: how well you do your job. You need to do it at close to an 80% rate and I bet (DeGray and Washington) were close to 90%.”
WSU did have issues slowing down UNI’s 6-foot-11 center Jacob Hutson, who scored or assisted on 11 straight points in the final three minutes to rally UNI to within 75-71. And the Washington-DeGray-Ballard lineup looked clunky with its spacing when UNI switched to a zone defense down the stretch — there’s a reason why Washington and DeGray typically split time at power forward.
But in the end, the new lineup pairing held its own playing seven straight minutes of crunch time to help deliver a victory.
“It tells me how mentally locked in that they are in those moments,” Mills said. “A lot of guys will freeze in those situations. Fortunately not this group.
“I’m happy we were able to manufacture a win out of that. We’ll get a ton out of this film. The effort, you can win by doing a lot of the things we did tonight. Rebounding the ball, taking care of the ball. But you really win through intangibles and character and I thought we demonstrated that, especially down the stretch.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 6:02 AM.
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