One last shot: Shockers head to UNI hoping to flip script on close road losses
At this point in the season, the lessons have stacked up but the results have not for the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
The Shockers have played four quality opponents away from Koch Arena and were within striking distance in each game, but have come up winless. Saturday’s 7 p.m. game against Northern Iowa (7-1) at the McLeod Center is WSU’s final chance to change that narrative before conference play arrives.
“The chasm between playing people close and winning is monumental,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said. “I don’t think anybody takes any solace at all in the fact that we’re close.”
The first nine games of the season for WSU (5-4) have reflected both promise and frustration. All four losses came in two-possession games against top-130 KenPom teams. The Shockers have shown they can hang, but they have not yet proven they can finish.
WSU will look for its breakthrough in its return to the McLeod Center, where it last visited in 2017 before departing from the Missouri Valley Conference.
In order to do so, WSU will have to show much better discipline on defense against a UNI team (No. 90 nationally) ranked ahead of them on KenPom. The Panthers are disciplined, experienced and intricate on offense — not exactly the ideal opponent for a team in the midst of communication issues on defense.
The most glaring problem has been WSU’s perimeter switching. What began the season as a strength has deteriorated into a series of miscues: switches made too early, too late or in silence. Defenders pointing instead of talking, which leads to two Shockers ending up on the same player while cutters slip to the basket untouched.
Mills said that certain players, mostly guards, are not executing the style that WSU practices.
“We weren’t switching to touch. We were just switching to switch,” Mills said. “So it’s not a scheme issue, it’s a personnel issue.”
WSU’s defensive mantra is “talk, touch, take” — three words that have been repeated often this week in practice. Communication initiates the switch. Physical contact confirms it. Only then is the WSU player supposed to take the matchup. The Shockers haven’t done those three things consistently and the breakdowns have been costly.
Opponents have now scored better than one point per possession in four straight games. Even NAIA Division II Mount Marty lit up WSU for 1.12 PPP on Tuesday, the type of number that triggered alarm bells for the coaching staff.
“If they are in the vicinity, you’ve got to turn around and show them your length,” Mills said. “If you can’t touch them, then you don’t take it.”
Northern Iowa is uniquely suited to expose any lapse. The Panthers move the ball more than almost anyone WSU has faced — 63% of their baskets come off assists. They take almost half of their shots from 3 and knock them down at a 36% clip. They probe defenses with flares, handoffs, back cuts and late-clock actions, all of which require constant communication and switching with precision.
Mills wants to see a much better show of physicality from WSU’s guards on the perimeter.
“We’re getting clipped off of screens because the physicality just isn’t there,” Mills said. “There’s some guys who have got to get better.”
WSU point guard Dre Kindell said the team has tried to confront the issue head-on after returning from the Bahamas.
“Mainly just talking and more talking with our rotations and things like that,” Kindell said. “The Bahamas was a learning experience for us. We’re not hanging our heads on that. We’re moving forward.”
This week in practice has stressed the importance of little details in big games like the one on Saturday.
“Every possession matters when it’s a five-point game,” WSU senior guard Mike Gray Jr. said. “You just harp on the little things. You have to be sharp.”
While defense has dominated the focus this week, Mills also wants more offensive balance. He likes how WSU flows into secondary actions when the initial target doesn’t materialize, but he doesn’t want every possession defaulting into a high ball screen.
“Everything can’t necessarily lead to a ball screen,” Mills said. “It has to lead to (post) touches because our bigs around the rim are such a weapon.”
Freshman forward T.J. Williams has been playing well, but Mills is challenging 6-9 junior Jaret Valencia and 6-9 sophomore Dillon Battie to increase their productivity. Against UNI — a team that sacrifices offensive rebounding in order to get back in transition and rarely fouls — the post may be one of the few clean avenues for the Shockers to dictate terms.
WSU defeated UNI 79-73 in Wichita last season and the Shockers have won their last two games in Cedar Falls. But this matchup feels far less like an echo of conference days past and more like a measuring stick for a program trying to learn from hard truths.
“You’re disappointed, but you’re not discouraged,” Mills said of the losses in the Bahamas. “You hate to go 0-3, but I’m really thankful we had those opportunities and this isn’t happening in January and February.”
Saturday is WSU’s next chance to prove that it can be more than a team that just keeps games tight against good opponents.
If there is a monumental gap between being close and winning, then Saturday presents the Shockers one more chance to cross it before conference play.
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 4:04 PM.
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