No Wichita State team has ever been this good at one critical thing
Wichita State has always prided itself on rebounding.
From the grind-it-out teams of the Mark Turgeon era to the play-angry teams with Gregg Marshall to the current group under Paul Mills, the Shockers’ identity has long included toughness on the glass.
This season, however, that reputation has reached an entirely different level.
Through the heart of January, WSU ranks sixth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, securing 40% of its own missed shots. That figure does more than place the Shockers among the nation’s elite, it puts them in historic territory the program has never reached before.
Even during WSU’s golden era, when rebounding was an annual strength, the Shockers never approached this kind of dominance. The program’s best finish in offensive rebounding percentage came in 2017-18, when WSU ranked 10th nationally with a 35.4% rate. The 2012-13 team actually grabbed a higher share of its own misses (38%), yet ranked only 18th in the country.
This year’s group of Shockers are doing something different. And doing it relentlessly.
When WSU can pin its ears back and chase the miss, it is overwhelming opponents. The Shockers have been excellent on the offensive glass all season, but that strength has only intensified in American Conference play. Against league foes, WSU is reclaiming 41.9% of its missed shots, pushing its season-long number firmly into the national top 10.
The irony is that this elite offensive rebounding has been born partly out of necessity.
WSU has struggled mightily to finish inside the arc, ranking No. 356 nationally in rim field goal percentage. While shots around the basket have been a season-long adventure, those misses have become opportunities.
According to CBB Analytics, WSU retrieves 45% of its missed shots at the rim and 46% of its misses in the paint. Even beyond the arc, the Shockers chase down 39% of their own 3-point misses, another elite mark.
The payoff has been enormous. WSU is averaging 15.6 second-chance points per game, which ranks 10th nationally, but even more striking is that 20.2% of WSU’s total scoring comes on second-chance opportunities — the highest share of any team in the country.
The volume is also staggering. WSU ranks fifth nationally in offensive rebounds per game at 15.1, a pace that would shatter the school record. The previous mark came in 1995-96 when the Shockers averaged 13.8 offensive boards per game.
At the center of it all stands Will Berg, the 7-foot-2 center who owns an 18.7% offensive rebounding rate, which is sixth-best among all players nationally. Many of those rebounds come after his own misses — Berg is shooting just 46.8% at the rim — but his ability to extend possessions has been invaluable. One miss often turns into another touch, another kick-out or another chance at the rim.
Berg is far from the only elite rebounder. His frontcourt partner, Emmanuel Okorafor, boasts an 11% offensive rebounding rate, ranking 188th nationally, while Karon Boyd checks in at 9%, good for 356th. Berg (first), Okorafor (eighth) and Boyd (12) give WSU three of the 12 best offensive rebounders in the American Conference among rotation players.
The last Shocker to reach Berg’s level as an individual was Rashard Kelly, who posted a 15.2% offensive rebounding rate in 2017-18 to rank eighth nationally. No other WSU player has finished in the national top 25 in offensive rebounding percentage in the past 25 years. Berg appears well on his way to joining that shortlist and possibly surpassing Kelly.
The dominance, however, comes with a caveat. While WSU has feasted on the offensive glass, the same intensity has not consistently translated to the defensive end. The Shockers are more middle of the pack when it comes to securing defensive rebounds. When the chaos favors WSU, the results are overwhelming. When it does not, the margin shrinks.
Still, the formula has helped fuel WSU’s best conference start since the 2020-21 season. At 3-3 in league play entering Wednesday, the Shockers have already authored two road comebacks from deficits of 13 points or more — games kept alive in large part by extra possessions when shots would not fall.
That rebounding edge will again be central Wednesday in a 6:30 p.m. game against East Carolina at Koch Arena.
On paper, ECU appears vulnerable. The Pirates are 5-12 overall, winless in conference play and own one of the least effective offenses in the country.
History, however, warns against complacency. ECU has gone 3-0 against Mills-coached teams and has won its last three trips to Koch Arena. Those results loom as a reminder that effort areas — like rebounding — often decide outcomes long before shooting percentages do.
For this WSU team, the path forward is clear.
Shots will come and go. Finishing may remain a work in progress. But as long as the Shockers keep turning misses into mayhem on the offensive glass, they will continue to give themselves a chance.
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