WSU takeaways: Landry Shamet once again delivers a WSU victory

No. 11 Wichita State concluded its non-conference with a 75-65 victory over Florida Gulf Coast at Koch Arena on Friday. The Shockers will head to their American Athletic Conference debut with a 10-2 record.

On a night where Markis McDuffie made his first appearance of the season, Landry Shamet delivered another top-notch performance, and Darral Willis produced his fourth double-double, here are three takeaways from WSU’s victory.

Shamet makes the right basketball play

Both teams shot under 40 percent for the game, which made Shamet’s 8-of-12 performance from the field even more valuable. It was the fourth time Shamet has scored at least 20 points this season.

Take away Shamet’s 67-percent shooting and the rest of the Shockers finished shooting 32 percent.

“I couldn’t take him out of the game,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said of Shamet, who played every second of the second half. “I needed his experience. I needed his ability to make plays.”

But on the play that put the game away, Shamet displayed his ability to make the right basketball play by finding Conner Frankamp in the corner for a three-pointer to extend WSU’s lead to 70-62 with 1:10 remaining.

Shamet had every right to force a mid-range jumper — a shot he has canned all season — once he took a ball screen from Shaquille Morris and split the defenders. But instead, he passed up a good shot for a better shot for Frankamp, who has 0 for 2 from beyond the arc and 1 of 6 shooting at that point.

“He could have kept shooting,” WSU’s Darral Willis said of Shamet. “He could have done that, but he’s always doing something to get his teammates involved. That’s how you know he’s a great player.”

So why did he pass up the shot?

“It’s Conner Frankamp,” Shamet said. “That’s all you got to say. You throw it to him and it goes in the hole.”

But probe a little further and Shamet reveals how his mind is always working to identify what will be the best play for WSU, not himself. Shamet finished with five assists and is averaging 5.7 assists in his last nine games.

“I think whenever somebody dribbles at the top of the key for 20 seconds, a lot of attention is going to be on him,” Shamet said. “People are going to think he’s going to try to score and I knew that. I was just tryring to draw a couple of defenders and go make a play.”

On a night sparse of standout offense, that play by stood out to Marshall.

“We finally made a great offensive play,” Marshall said.

The return of McDuffie

The biggest ovation of the night belonged to McDuffie when he checked into the game with 13:19 remaining in the first half. It was the junior’s season debut after missing the first 11 games recovering from a stress fracture in his left foot.

“I felt overwhelmed,” McDuffie said. “A lot of people before the game texted me and said they were going to go crazy for me when I came in. When I got up, I knew the whole crowd was going to go crazy. It was great to be back on the court with my guys. I’ve been missing this so much. It’s a great feeling.”

McDuffie played nine minutes, scoring three points on 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line. He missed both of his shots from the floor, grabbed five rebounds and had two assists and one block.

“It was just great to see him smile,” Marshall said. “He was supposed to play 8 to 10 minutes, so I followed the rules. Other than that one crazy shot he took, I really thought he played OK.”

McDuffie, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder last season, said he is looking forward to the week ahead before WSU opens AAC play at Connecticut on Dec. 30.

“There’s a lot of rust in me right now,” McDuffie said. “But I’ve got a whole week to get my groove back. I’m going to be in the gym and a lot of it is just getting my conditioning up. By the time it’s the end of the month, I should be back where I left off.”

Marshall played 12 players in the first half before tightening up the rotation in the second half. CJ Keyser and Asbjorn Midtgaard didn’t play in the second half, while Austin Reaves (five), McDuffie (four), and Rauno Nurger (two) all saw their minutes limited.

“I do want to get these guys more minutes to see if they can help us now and into the future,” Marshall said. “But I probably went a little too deep there in the first half and that’s on me.”

Willis registers fourth double-double

At the end of WSU’s non-conference slate, Willis has been WSU’s most consistent presence in the post.

The 6-foot-9 forward scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds on Friday for his fourth double-double of the season, which leads WSU. Willis has scored in double-figures in the last seven games.

“He’s really starting to play well now,” Marshall said. “He’s doing a great job scoring with jump shots, scoring in the post, running the court. Actually playing good defense. I think he took another charge tonight. So he gets 30 minutes.”

When informed of how many minutes he played after the game, Willis was stunned.

“That’s probably the first time ever,” Willis said, laughing. “It’s all right, though. I could have played more.”

Willis actually played more minutes once, for 32 minutes last season against Illinois State. The increase in minutes is a reward for his improved play, which has featured better defense and better passing.

“The biggest difference from last year to this year is he’s a more willing and better passer,” Shamet said. “He’s looking to the perimeter and I’ve noticed this year our little connection is a lot better than it was last year. He’s looking to make plays for others after he scores it a few times.

“And the crazy thing is he has more in him. So he just has to continue to get better. He’s helping us a lot right now.”

Asked why he’s playing perhaps the best in his career, Willis deflected the credit.

“I just got good teammates,” Willis said. “They put me in position to do what I’m doing. We’ve got great guards and they’re helping me a lot.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 10:20 PM with the headline "WSU takeaways: Landry Shamet once again delivers a WSU victory."