‘Committed to the moment’: How Wichita State got back to the details — and to winning
Returning for a homestand on the heels of a 3-game losing streak was always going to reveal the character of the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
The Shockers showed on Tuesday they are still committed to themselves and each other in a 68-59 victory over Charlotte at Koch Arena.
Beating the last place team in the American Athletic Conference at home should be a given for a program with the standards of Wichita State, but after such a rough start, nothing could be taken for granted. The Shockers (11-6, 1-3 AAC) have an ideal opportunity to capitalize on a get-right week with a Saturday game against East Carolina (9-9, 1-4 AAC).
“When things don’t go your way, if you’re the least bit competitive, you’re going to try to make some changes,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said. “It has to be collective. It can’t be one or two guys. If your care factor is low, it’s not going to go well. I’m a big believer that you’ll be successful at whatever it is you do if you really, really care about it, and I felt like the care factor in the room raised.”
It was evident to Mills that his players still cared during their 40-minute team meeting inside the locker room in San Antonio following a blowout loss to UTSA to clinch an 0-3 start to AAC play.
Players around the room were given the chance to air out their feelings and the most vocal was senior Ronnie DeGray III, who was out with an injury at the time and had watched helplessly as his team had lost five of its last six games to Division I opponents. He challenged his peers to bring better energy after WSU had dug a 10-2 hole to UTSA, one game after allowing South Florida to dart out to a 16-7 lead by the first media timeout.
“Our problem the last couple of games was how we came out to start off games with just low energy,” DeGray said. “I just reiterated that we have enough to win. I’ve won at a high level (before) and we have enough that we can win with this team.”
But WSU was going nowhere with how undisciplined it was playing at both ends. Before any turnaround could commence, that had to change.
Maybe it was the locker room meeting in San Antonio, maybe it was the return of DeGray after a 7-week absence or maybe it was as simple as playing an outmatched opponent at home, but whatever it was, the Shockers took a drastic leap in the right direction on Tuesday. It was far from perfect, but after such a poor start to conference play, the above-average showing on Tuesday was a welcomed respite.
Not only did WSU avoid a disastrous start, but it led for more than 35 minutes and never allowed Charlotte to come within one possession for the final 15 minutes of the game.
“We came in with a healthy level of confidence,” WSU senior Harlond Beverly said. “We were more detail-oriented. I feel like you could see that in how we were moving today. We had some plays when I was on the bench and I was like, ‘That was really good pace.’ And I haven’t said that these past three games, so it was really good to see us all moving around and moving fast and trusting each other and sharing the ball.”
Scoring 68 points on average efficiency (1.03 points per possession) against one of the worst defenses in the country is hardly a masterpiece. But there were many signs of improvement from WSU’s offense.
After playing fast and out of control the first three games of conference play, WSU picked its spots much better against Charlotte and produced a season-best 1.63 points per possession (and 13 total points) in transition.
WSU also handled the ball with better care, as limiting its turnover count to nine not only improved the offense but also the defense. The Shockers only allowed two points in transition — a dramatic cut-down from coughing up 19.3 fast-break points on average the last three games.
The Shockers also leaned more into what they’re best at, as they scored on all six of their cuts and now rank No. 5 nationally in scoring efficiency (1.50 PPP) on cuts. WSU also upped its scoring efficiency around the rim from average to elite (1.36 PPP against Charlotte).
But the real improvement came on the defensive end, where the Shockers had been scorched for an average of 90 points, 1.24 points per possession and 63.3% effective field goal percentage in their 0-3 start. On Tuesday, much better discipline was shown to hold Charlotte to 59 points, 0.89 points per possession and a 37.7% effective field goal percentage for the team’s second-best defensive effort. WSU even grabbed 77% of available defensive rebounds, an elite mark.
“We came into this game more focused on personnel and what they’re trying to do,” WSU forward Corey Washington said. “We took that way more seriously than we have and that showed.”
Mills said one change he’s recently made is forcing the players to lead the scouting report on game day. Of course, the coaches provide all of the work and go through it themselves leading up to the game, but during shootaround on Tuesday, it was up to the players to come up with the right answers.
“We needed more ownership from those guys and accountability and to their credit, they’ve handled it well,” Mills said. “You can’t go out there and just play and think this stuff is happening. I know a lot of people think that players just show up and it’s add water and it just happens. Nothing actually works that way.”
The main challenge on Tuesday was limiting Charlotte’s chances at the foul line, as the 49ers ranked No. 7 nationally in free throw rate with the second-highest percentage (26%) of their points coming on free throws. That meant avoiding ticky-tack fouls on the perimeter, not being baited by pump fakes and walling off the paint to force Charlotte into guarded jumpers.
WSU’s defense struggled with giving open jumpers to the wrong shooters in its first three games, but reversed that trend on Tuesday by forcing a poor shooting team in Charlotte to attempt more jumpers (30) than shots at the rim (24). And after giving up 15 dunks in the last three games, WSU allowed just one to Charlotte.
The results proved favorably for WSU, as Charlotte clunked away on jumpers (7-for-30), struggled to finish at the rim (1.00 PPP) and posted its second-lowest free throw rate (26%) of the season.
It was the kind of urgency from start to finish that Mills has been trying to coax out of his team in conference play.
“We have to be committed to the moment because if you start thinking about results, you’re in trouble,” Mills said. “Our energy the last three games, we have not come out with the right mentality or the right approach. I think in some of those games we just thought we were going to win and we didn’t have to apply the work that’s required. So I really challenged those guys to stay in the moment and winning is a byproduct of being able to do that.
“You can’t be a high-level player and perform in high-level games if you’re not doing high-level practices. So we needed to approach a number of things different, but being committed in the moment is probably paramount to us having some level of success tonight.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 6:03 AM.
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