Bob Lutz: Shockers have weathered foul problems for their big men

CLEVELAND – Darius Carter picked up his first foul against Kansas on Sunday with 11:16 left in the first half. Fifteen seconds later, he was called for his second.

The Wichita State senior, one of the team’s few proven and effective frontline players, sauntered to the bench as he’s done so often this season, prepared to sit the rest of the first half.

That’d be OK if his Shocker teammate, Shaq Morris, wasn’t also so prone to foul. But he is.

The redshirt freshman, who has come off the bench to replace Carter numerous times this season, was called for his first foul with 10:31 left in the first half and his second less than four minutes later.

Off to the bench he went.

This has become all too familiar a scene for the Shockers, who take on Notre Dame on Thursday evening in the Midwest Regional semifinals at Quicken Loans Arena. Yet it hasn’t been as scary for Wichita State as you might think.

Somehow, Wichita State has made it work even though Carter (17 games) and Morris (14) have missed a bunch of minutes with two first-half fouls. And since Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall strongly believes a player with two fouls shouldn’t return to a game until the second half, they sit.

“For Darius, it’s a little shocking because he played so well last year in the past without getting those types of fouls,” Marshall said. “Shaq is just foul-prone and that comes from not playing as much. This is his first year of playing college basketball and he’s got to learn to move his feet, show his hands and get his body in position.”

Getting that big body into position has been a challenge for the 6-foot-7, 261-pound Morris.

Wichita State junior point guard Fred VanVleet has made Morris a personal project the past couple of years. He’s constantly berating Morris when he does something wrong and kind of praising him – kind of – when he does something right.

Morris’ issue with fouls, VanVleet said, is something only Morris can correct.

“He’s got to be more engaged because when he’s engaged, he’s really good,” VanVleet said. “And the other part of it is conditioning. When he gets tired, then he does dumb stuff out of position and ends up getting a foul.”

Morris said he sometimes feels like the officials are out to get him, but agrees that he needs to be more defensively sound to avoid the whistles.

“I try to stay straight up when I’m guarding someone,” he said. “It’s an awful feeling when I have to go to the bench in foul trouble because then I can’t help my team. Some of the calls that I get I’m like, ‘Whoa, I was straight up there.’ But I’ve got a huge body and when people run into me it just looks scary. So I guess they’ve got to blow the whistle.”

Marshall gave high praise to 6-11 junior Bush Wamukota after the Kansas game, in which he played a season-high 14 minutes. Many of those came with Carter and Morris salted away with foul trouble.

Wamukota drew three fouls himself, causing Morris, of all people, to plead with him not to get anymore. He had only one point, two rebounds and no blocked shots, but he fill lots of space and time.

And don’t discount what undersized Evan Wessel does, at 6-4, to fill the void inside.

“He’s a good player and he steps up in every position,” Carter said of Wessel. “He almost plays all the positions on the floor and he’s just a great guy to have on your team.”

Carter (21.2 minutes) and Morris (12.9) would likely be playing significantly more minutes if it wasn’t for all the fouls. Morris’ 89 in those limited minutes leads the team while Carter is second with 77.

“With Shaq, when he bumps hips with someone the other guy is usually the guy that moves,” Marshall said. “It’s just physics and he’s got to move his feet, be there earlier, hold his ground and not nudge people.”

Strangely, Morris hasn’t fouled out of a game and Carter has been disqualified from only two. That speaks to the way Marshall protects them so that their impact can be accentuated in the second halves of games.

“For me, it’s just a matter of being sound and not worrying about fouling,” Carter said. “When I worry about getting fouls early, that’s when I foul because I’m not as aggressive on defense. I need to just play and get that out of my mind and I think I’ll be fine.”

Notre Dame undoubtedly will attack Carter and Morris because it’s been a strategy that works.

But it hasn’t been a strategy to beat the Shockers, because they’ve lost only four times.

Fouls can be an issue for Wichita State’s two best big men. But, so far, they haven’t had a higher cost.

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Shockers have weathered foul problems for their big men."