Wichita State’s defense collapses in FAU loss that exposes growing cracks
Halfway through January, Wichita State’s margin for error in the American Conference race is almost entirely gone.
The Shockers were overwhelmed for the first time this season in an 85-67 loss to Florida Atlantic on Thursday night at Baldwin Arena, a result that dropped WSU to 10-8 overall and 2-3 in league play. FAU, meanwhile, moved into sole possession of first place in the conference at 4-1 and improved to 12-6 overall.
What was billed as a physical test turned into a lopsided reminder of how one of WSU’s most reliable pillars this season — its defense — continues to erode. By the time the Owls stretched their lead to 29 late in the second half, they scorched WSU’s defense for 1.31 points per possession and 60% shooting.
WSU’s defense has quietly slipped from being a strength to a liability through the first five conference games, as the Shockers currently rank 10th in the 13-team conference in defensive efficiency in league play.
“They came out and punched us in the mouth early on and we never really recovered,” senior guard Mike Gray Jr. said. “We just were never able to get enough stops to really make a run.”
Wichita State’s offense stalled out without Kenyon Giles
WSU never found an offensive rhythm, in large part because its leading scorer was taken almost completely out of the game. Kenyon Giles, who had piled up 99 points in the first four league games, was held to a season-low two points on 1-of-5 shooting and attempted just one shot after halftime.
FAU top-locked him off the ball and blitzed him in ball screens with the clear intention of disrupting WSU’s star player.
With Giles bottled up, WSU tried to pivot its offense inside. The results were mixed at best. Will Berg provided a lift off the bench with 14 points and eight rebounds, but Emmanuel Okorafor struggled to finish, going 1-for-7 with all six misses coming at the rim.
“I thought we got good looks,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “We were trying to play through (the centers) since they were bottling up KG and he didn’t have much of a touch as he normally does. So trying to play in the interior, hoping that it would materialize more at the free throw line than what it did (in the first half).”
Instead, WSU ran headlong into one of the nation’s best rim-protecting teams. The Shockers shot just 43.8% on 2-point attempts and missed a season-high 27 shots inside the arc against a FAU defense that recorded nine blocks and consistently erased or altered shots around the basket.
But there were more than a handful of shots that WSU missed from point-blank range. And when playing on the road against a quality opponent, those are the types of shots a team has to finish.
“When you get those kinds of opportunities, you have to be able to finish the shots one and two feet around the rim,” Mills said.
The Shockers never found a defensive solution to the Owls
When the offense sputtered, WSU’s defense never stabilized.
The Shockers threw just about every pick-and-roll coverage they had at the Owls. None of them worked consistently.
WSU opened the game with hard hedges from Okorafor, only to give up an easy slip to the rim when his recovery was late. They shifted to a softer show coverage with Berg, which FAU patiently attacked by isolating guards downhill. Blitzes were answered by missed help rotations and uncontested dunks. Drop coverage briefly took away the rim, but FAU countered with pick-and-pop jumpers.
That means one of two things played out: WSU consistently blew its assignments or the players simply failed to execute. Either way, it ended in disaster for the Shockers.
When its key players were on the floor, FAU basically had its way with WSU and it showed in the statistics. Devin Williams posted the first double-double of his career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Isaiah Elohim scored a career-high 18 points. Niccolo Moretti handed out a career-best eight assists, while Xander Pintelon added a career-high four blocks.
Wichita State has to look itself in the mirror after loss
The loss puts WSU back in a familiar spot: chasing the rest of the league after a slow conference start. After Thursday’s loss, Mills’ WSU teams are now 3-17 in the month of January.
After WSU’s first seven losses came by a combined 28 points, the Shockers were thoroughly picked apart for the first time on Thursday.
“You don’t flush it,” Mills said. “You’ve got to learn from this thing. You’ve got to go through it. This is the first time we’ve caught a double-digit beating. We need to turn around and look at what happened, why it happened and address it.”
With another top-tier opponent awaiting Sunday at South Florida, the Shockers have little time to linger.
“We’ll need to look at the film and get a better gauge for just how this transpired,” Mills said.
Gray echoed the urgency.
“You kind of want to scratch it because you don’t want to go 0-2 on the road trip thinking about a loss that you had before,” he said. “But it’s something we definitely need to learn from.”
The locker-room message was simple.
“Keep your head up,” Gray said. “We’re still on a road trip, so we have to focus on going 1-0 in the next one.”
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