Bob Lutz: Illinois State’s second half exposes some Wichita State trouble spots

ST. LOUIS – Gregg Marshall wheezed and coughed as he tried to explain why his Wichita State basketball team was ineffective against Illinois State’s zone defense Saturday. And why the Rebirds overcame an eight-point halftime deficit by shooting 63.2 percent in the second half of a 65-62 upset of the eighth-ranked Shockers.

Marshall, who said he has been diagnosed with pneumonia, squinted his red eyes to study the box score.

“We normally knock down a few more jumpers,” he said. “We normally get a little bit more post presence. But we outscored them 42-16 in the paint. So I guess – somehow we got some post presence. We were 16-9 in second-chance points and 13-6 on points off turnovers and 10-0 on the fast break.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t add up,” Marshall said as he tried to keep from hacking.

A year after breaking a 23-year St. Louis jinx and winning the Valley tournament championship for the first time since the tourney moved here, the Shockers resorted to some bad St. Looie habits.

They didn’t play well in a quarterfinal win over Southern Illinois, then didn’t close out against an athletic and talented Illinois State team that looked on the cusp of caving in during the first half.

Wichita State couldn’t make enough earth move. And it was the Redbirds, surprisingly, who played under control in the second half, outscoring WSU 43-32, making 4 of 8 three-point shots, going 15 of 17 from the free-throw line and keeping the Shockers from getting on one of their patented rolls.

WSU goes home. Illinois State moves on. This wasn’t in the script.

But the Shockers aren’t as powerful as they were last season, when nothing got in the way of a 35-0 run until Kentucky stepped up in the NCAA Tournament to beat Wichita State by two points.

WSU is 28-4 despite not having a starter taller than 6-foot-7. The Shockers’ power forward, junior Evan Wessel, is 6-4. He has the heart of a giant, but he’s still 6-4.

Marshall’s bench development has been a work in progress from the first day of practice. Some days it looks like Zach Brown, Rashard Kelly and Shaq Morris are on the verge of a breakthrough; others they wilt back into being wide-eyed freshmen.

The Shockers are so reliant on veterans Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton, who combined Saturday to play 112 of a possible 120 minutes. Baker and Cotton took a horrible spill in the second half after trying to block a Reggie Lynch shot. VanVleet has put a few hundred thousand miles on his legs. They’ve been asked to do so much and sometimes “so much” turns into “not enough.”

Baker had 13 points in the first half, then went quiet. He didn’t score after intermission, missing five shots.

VanVleet did all he could with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists. But he was frustrated by the Shockers’ inability to crack ISU’s zone with more consistency.

Cotton had 12 points and four rebounds but none of the Shockers was able to contain Illinois State guard Daishon Knight, who had zilch against WSU when the two teams met Feb. 14 in Normal, Ill., missing all of his eight shots.

Knight missed five of his 15 shots Saturday and scored 25. He made a crushing three-pointer with 2:18 left after WSU switched to a zone briefly to try and throw off the Redbirds. That shot gave ISU a 59-58 lead.

Illinois State made 12 straight free throws in the final 6:25, four more than the Shockers attempted in 40 minutes.

“We’re pretty familiar with their zone, especially Fred and I, because they ran it a lot last year,” Baker said. “We just didn’t have a lot of presence down low today. We weren’t able to get quick ball reverals.”

Darius Carter, WSU’s biggest starter, again was in foul trouble and was limited to 14 minutes. And for all of Morris’ promise, he lacks the experience and passing ability to be effective against a zone.

Marshall’s options are limited. There is so much to love about the Shockers at the top, but the deeper you go the less there is.

It wasn’t like Wichita State could pluck a great shooter off the bench and tell him to go bust open that Illinois State zone. The Shockers depend on their veterans to figure things out and most of the time it works like a charm. Nobody has veterans like Wichita State.

Illinois State was in trouble early. The Shockers were shredding the Redbirds’ man-to-man defense and Baker looked like he might score 40.

They went to a zone and the zone worked. It kept working. It helped Illinois State pull off a huge tournament upset and sent the Shockers home earlier than anyone planned.

Marshall said he was looking forward to getting into a bed so that he could start to feel better. The Shockers need some time to regroup. The vets that carry this team are banged up. But they are determined for one final push in the NCAA Tournament.

This story was originally published March 7, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Illinois State’s second half exposes some Wichita State trouble spots."