Bob Lutz: Shockers’ nightmare of a tournament shows a lack of scoring options (+video)

Chances are good that in a few weeks, the Wichita State basketball team will look back on November with no more than mild confusion as to how the month unfolded.

Fred VanVleet will return from his hamstring injury. Conner Frankamp will become eligible after sitting out two semesters following his transfer from Kansas. Freshman Landry Shamet will be back in a couple of months, too.

Everything will be hunky-dory, the story goes.

In the moment, though, things are whatever is the opposite of hunky-dory.

The Shockers dropped a 64-60 game to Alabama on Friday in the AdvoCare Invitational. Even at less than full strength, WSU should be good enough to beat Alabama.

Starting center Anton Grady had to be carried off the court on a stretcher after injuring his head and neck area with 3:07 to play, after colliding with Alabama’s Dazon Ingram. The severity of Grady’s injury is not known, although WSU coach Gregg Marshall said that despite being awake and alert and able to feel his extremities, Grady could not move them Friday afternoon.

Grady and sophomores Rashard Kelly and Zach Brown, the starting frontcourt, were a combined 2 of 16 from the floor as the Shockers shot 31.1 percent. That comes on the heels of 35-percent shooting in a first-round, 72-69 loss to Southern California on Thursday.

Wichita State is shooting 38.3 percent for the season. The last time WSU shot below 40 percent for a season was in 1997-98, the bad old days.

The Shockers have taken 135 shots in the first two games of this tournament to 97 for their opponents. Yet they’ve lost twice.

This is not cause for a red alert. Help is on the way. But it’s worse than anyone imagined.

“We have too many guys who can’t make a play or make a basket on the floor right now,” Marshall said. “And the ones who can, other than Ron (Baker), make mistakes. Too many mistakes. Too many non-playmakers and too many mistakes.”

Friday’s game was close throughout. Back-to-back three-pointers by Baker and freshman Markis McDuffie, who had another good performance with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, gave the Shockers a 55-52 lead with 8:07 left.

We’ve become accustomed to seeing WSU teams coached by Marshall lock up games like this. But this group of Shockers, so far at least, is missing a key.

Alabama came right back with consecutive three-pointers by Riley Norris and Shannon Hale. The Tide would not trail again.

“We didn’t finish,” Marshall said. “It’s been the same story in all three of our losses.”

There are myriad issues offensively.

Kelly and Brown, who figured to take off as sophomores, have remained grounded and could soon be in the hangar if they don’t start producing soon.

The 6-foot-7 Kelly had three points and two rebounds in 16 minutes against Alabama. The 6-6 Brown had two points and five rebounds in 16 minutes and couldn’t finish at the rim.

Fellow sophomore Shaq Morris, a 6-8, 260-pound muscle man, did 40 minutes of flexing on the bench.

All three of these guys had solid moments as freshmen and Marshall has made a rather good living in making his players better from year to year.

The formula doesn’t seem to be working for Kelly, Brown and Morris, however. Without production from them, production sources dry up quickly.

Senior Evan Wessel finally broke through with three three-pointers in the second half Friday after not making a peep in the first half or in 29 minutes against USC.

Time after time, the Shockers are turning to Baker, who played 39 minutes against USC and 39 more Friday against Alabama.

As they might say down south, Baker is plum tuckered out.

He couldn’t go anywhere on the floor Friday without a Tide player or two bumping him, grinding him and reminding him that Alabama wasn’t going to allow Baker to win the game.

So when he had a chance to do just that, the Shockers instead had to rely on Bush Wamukota for a three-pointer that if it had gone — and Vegas odds were something like 40 million to 1 that it would — would have given the Shockers a one-point lead in the waning seconds.

Wamukota is a fine 6-11 fellow who had seven rebounds Friday. But the only time he should take a three-pointer is in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

Such is the current state of the Shockers’ offense, however. Alabama covered up Baker and made a 7-footer heave up an impossible shot as time on the shot clock was running low.

These things wouldn’t happen with VanVleet running the offense. Or Frankamp. Or Shamet.

For now, though, the Shockers’ offense is in a state of emergency and when Wamukota is the guy taking a late three-pointer in a tight game — the only shot he took, by the way, in 23 minutes — everyone should seek shelter.

It will get better. That’s the saving grace that accompanies this streak of poor basketball.

In the meantime, though, WSU is 2-3 for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The Shockers’ wins are over Charleston Southern and Emporia State.

This isn’t good.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Shockers’ nightmare of a tournament shows a lack of scoring options (+video)."