Shockers tormented by own mistakes that let ‘winnable’ game slip away in Memphis loss
Every loss is painful for one reason or another, but some feel like an even harder punch to the gut.
That’s the kind of agony the Wichita State men’s basketball team felt leaving FedExForum late Thursday evening.
Not because the Shockers were supposed to win — in fact, they were double-digit underdogs against No. 24-ranked Memphis — or because they lost on a last-second shot — like last year’s game in the same building.
WSU was tormented following a 61-52 loss, its seventh straight on the road at Memphis, because 20 turnovers by the Tigers had opened the door wide open for the Shockers to secure their first ranked road win since 2018 and the team squandered such a rare opportunity with a season-high 22 turnovers of their own.
“You just can’t win with that, man,” said WSU senior Harlond Beverly, who scored a team-high 18 points but also had a team-high six turnovers. “That was... a very winnable game.”
Instead of playing the team that looked every bit like a Sweet 16 contender when beating the likes of Connecticut, Michigan State, Clemson and Ole Miss earlier this season, the Shockers faced a Memphis squad that was clearly battling a mid-season malaise on Thursday.
WSU deserved credit for forcing Memphis into a cascade of contested jump shots, but the reality is that the majority of the Tigers’ 20 mistakes were of the self-inflicted variety.
Memphis finished with five more turnovers (14) than field goals (nine) in the first half, which head coach Penny Hardaway labeled as “very embarrassing” afterward. It was the kind of sleepwalking performance that needed to be punished by WSU burying the Tigers in a large deficit. Instead, the Shockers battled through their own turnover issues and could only muster a 27-23 lead at halftime.
Even then, WSU managed to build a 39-32 lead entering the final 14 minutes. If there was any question how the Shockers lost the game, look no further than 11 of their next 21 possessions ending in a turnover.
Yes, that means more than half (52%) of WSU’s crunch-time chances evaporated into thin air. For the game, a third of WSU’s total possessions dissipated thanks to turnovers.
“You come up with that many empty possessions,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said, “it’s not going to happen for you.”
A 10-2 run Memphis used to erase its deficit midway through the second half correlated with a batch of five straight turnovers by the Shockers, who began to relent to the Tigers’ full-court pressure.
But even in the half-court setting, WSU had plenty of mistakes. The game-within-the-game was trying to make Memphis pay for its switch-happy defense that was all too eager to leave WSU players around the perimeter.
The Shockers managed to make Memphis pay a handful of times throughout the game, but not nearly enough. A prime example came midway through the second half when Xavier Bell and Quincy Ballard ran a pick-and-roll play and Beverly’s defender left him completely to cover WSU’s big man rolling to the basket. The ball swung to Beverly, who attacked the close out with a drive but then had the ball poked out from behind by P.J. Haggerty and the transition play led to Bell picking up his fourth foul with 9:04 remaining.
What should have been an advantage for WSU turned into another missed opportunity.
“Shoot, you’re taught in fifth grade when you go by somebody, you’ve got to switch the ball to the other hand so they can’t back tip it,” Beverly said. “I wasn’t doing that. I’ve got to be more under control and understand and actually practice what you know you’re supposed to do in a game.”
Other lost late-game possessions were the result of WSU trying to make something out of nothing.
A reckless Corey Washington drive ended with the ball flying out of bounds. Justin Hill tried to duck his head down and reach the paint late in the shot clock, but was met by a wall of defenders who swarmed him and pried the ball loose. In the final 90 seconds with WSU trailing 54-51, Hill attempted to dribble around a double team, but lost his dribble for a turnover Memphis converted into easy points.
It was an “out-of-character” performance, as Mills called it, for a team that ranked top-30 nationally in limiting turnovers entering Thursday’s game. However, in a concerning trend, two of WSU’s last three losses have largely been the result of a high turnover count.
“Some of it was the pressure, but some of it was fundamentals too,” Mills said. “It’s not playing through contact. It’s looking at other people thinking you’re going to get a call to bail you out of a situation. That’s the wrong mentality if you’re going to play the game, especially at a high level.”
The game’s final turnover also illustrated where WSU is coming up short in the details down the stretch of close games.
The Shockers created an advantage after Ballard set a screen and rolled to the basket. This time, Memphis switched the screen and Ballard, a 6-foot-11, 251-pound center, had Tyrese Hunter, a 6-foot, 180-pound guard, on him. The WSU big man was open for a second, but WSU needed two passes to swing the ball to the corner and by the time Corey Washington sailed his entry pass, Hunter had enough time to recover and dart around Ballard for the steal.
What should have been a mismatch punished instead ended in a turnover.
“You have to be able to floor map and you have to recognize what’s occurring,” Mills said. “There was an advantage, but I didn’t think the ball moved quick enough to take advantage of what they were doing.”
Another detail that irked WSU’s coach: his team’s tendency to try to use one hand to make plays, whether it was passing, catching or rebounding.
One critical mistake that happened late came when Beverly skied for a rebound and tried to bring the ball down with just his left hand. The ball squirted out from his grasp and was picked up by P.J. Carter, who scored the put-back to extend Memphis’ lead to 54-51 with 3:28 remaining.
“It’s not anything that you can do against competitive people,” Mills said. “By the time you’re trying to transfer it from one hand to the other, hands are getting in there. You have to rebound the ball with two hands.”
The tiny details required to win have so far escaped the Shockers in their 1-5 start in American Athletic Conference play.
It was an all-too-familiar lesson on Thursday and one that cost WSU a golden opportunity.
“We know every possession matters,” Beverly said. “That’s why you can’t turn the ball over that much because the ball is not going to bounce your way every single time. The ball might not bounce your way one time the whole game, so when you do have the ball, you’ve got to take care of it.”
.jpg)