A box score, stats and Paul Mills’ thoughts from Wichita State basketball win in Greece

Following the first exhibition game in Greece for the Wichita State men’s basketball team, a 76-60 win over the Thessaloniki All-Stars on Friday, coach Paul Mills shared his initial thoughts from seeing his team play outside competition for the first time.

Before Mills’ takeaways from WSU’s first exhibition game on its overseas tour, here is a box score tracked by the WSU coaching staff from Friday’s game.

1. Xavier Bell continues progress as lead guard

It’s looking more and more likely that Wichita native Xavier Bell will spend more time on the ball this season for the Shockers.

WSU’s roster is finalized for the upcoming season after Mills opted for the addition of forward Dalen Ridgnal instead of another point guard, a position that appeared to be a need with OU transfer Bijan Cortes as the team’s lone natural point guard.

Cortes traveled with the team to Greece, but cannot practice or play with the team as he continues his progress to become academically eligible for the season. In his absence, Bell has seen increased repetitions playing point guard in practice and is becoming more and more comfortable on the ball.

After playing indecisively for the majority of his first season with the Shockers, when he averaged four points and less than a rebound and assist per game, Bell’s confidence has been restored, and that has led to strong play this summer. That confidence translated to Greece, where Bell scored a team-high 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting in Friday’s game, including a highlight-reel dunk over a defender to close out the first half.

“Xavier has been very focused on being a lead guard and making the plays necessary to be a lead guard,” Mills said. “The good thing about him from a point-guard perspective is that he has a thicker body. He isn’t one of these smaller, slender guys who are trying to sliver their way to get to where they’re trying to go. He’s a guy who can change directions and be physical with his size. Overall, I thought Xavier made good decisions and did a good job.”

Minutes at point guard are wide open on the trip, as Cortes and walk-on point guard Trevor McBride (sprained ankle) are both sidelined.

Another player who has impressed given the chance for expanded time on the ball is Miami transfer Harlond Beverly, who delivered the same kind of steady play in Greece that he has shown in Wichita practices.

Mills has given the 6-foot-6 wing license to handle the ball more with the Shockers, and Beverly responded with a team-high four assists to go along with six points, three rebounds and a steal. WSU outscored its opponent by 22 points with Beverly on the floor, a team-high in plus-minus.

2. Quincy Ballard makes the most of new opportunity

The 7-foot junior center only saw 101 minutes of action before a back injury prematurely ended his debut season with the Shockers.

Ballard is fully healthy and has a chance to make an impression on the new coaching staff with minutes at the center spot up for grabs during the Greece exhibition tour with UTSA graduate transfer Jacob Germany absent from the trip following a last-minute family emergency.

He will no doubt face bigger and more athletic competition in the American Athletic Conference, but it was encouraging nonetheless to see Ballard, who scored 21 points all of last season, exert his dominance as a lob threat to the tune of 16 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

“Quincy did a great job of just being assertive down low,” Mills said. “He puts a lot of pressure on the rim with his rolls and I would say he was better than average in pick-and-roll situations.”

Mills continued his 2-big lineup experimentation, plugging Ballard, who mostly rolls to the basket and camps out in the dunker spot along the baseline, alongside 6-11 junior Kenny Pohto instead of Germany, who offers an outside shooting threat.

Pohto had an off-game shooting, finishing 2 for 7 from the field and 0 for 4 on free throws, but Mills was encouraged by the early results of the Pohto-Ballard pairing.

“Both of those guys can definitely play together with how well Kenny has shot it in practices leading up to this,” Mills said.

3. Wichita State wants to hunt a specific type of 3-pointer

Mills wasn’t pleased with his team’s shot selection early in the game when WSU fell behind 13-4.

There were a lot of dribble-dribble-shoot sequences that bugged the coach, who is teaching his team to seek out paint touches on every possession. Whether that’s through dribble penetration or a pass, when the ball finds the paint and is kicked out back to the perimeter where a shooter can catch and fire, those are the efficient types of 3-pointers Mills wants his team to take.

“It wasn’t so much we were missing shots, it was the kind of shots that we were taking,” Mills said. “There’s a difference when you shoot 3s that are non-paint 3s versus pain 3s because you’re going to knock down a good portion of those.”

WSU shot a meager 23% on 3-pointers in a 6-of-26 performance beyond the arc, but did finish 60% of its 2-point shots. Regardless of the mixed results, Mills was just pleased to have new video evidence to demonstrate to players what is and isn’t a good shot.

“We’ve talked to them about shot selection and what it should look like offensively and what we’re trying to give up defensively,” Mills said. “We do have to get better at shot selection at both ends, in terms of what we’re trying to give up and then what are we trying to get. As we continue to play more and get more live film, we can show them, and I think they’ll better understand those things. It’s great to have some live film to be able to sit down with the guys and actually go through.”

4. WSU dominates the glass with edge in size, athleticism

While shot selection was in question, WSU’s effort in track down misses was not.

The Shockers fully capitalized on their size and athleticism advantage with 17 offensive rebounds, for a superb 44.7% offensive rebounding rate, while dominating the glass with a 55-30 advantage.

Seven-footer Quincy Ballard and Dalen Ridgnal, WSU’s new 6-7 forward, led the way with three offensive rebounds apiece, while Kenny Pohto, Ronnie DeGray III, Isaac Abidde, Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell all grabbed two possession-extenders.

“We were extremely competitive on the glass, and we had guys who were trying to do their job at a high, energetic level,” Mills said.

5. Strong opening performance from Colby Rogers

After sitting out for more than a year following his transfer from Siena, Rogers made the most of his debut performance in a WSU uniform.

The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter scored 16 points on tidy 5-of-8 shooting, including three 3-pointers and three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc, to go along with a team-high nine rebounds and a steal.

Rogers, who averaged 14.1 points and made 42.4% of his 3-pointers on high volume at Siena, will likely be asked to do similar things for the Shockers this season. He’s off to a strong start this summer.

“Colby shot it well, and he was actually pretty good at handling the ball,” Mills said. “His ability off the ball to make shots and making 3s and then his on-ball decision-making was pretty good as well.”

6. WSU seeking process over results on offense

Perhaps Mills’ favorite possession of the game came during the third quarter when the Thessaloniki All-Stars switched to a 2-3 zone, a defense WSU has yet to prepare for this summer.

Without a set play to run, the players relied on the fundamental principles of Mills’ system to operate: proper spacing and good ball movement.

Bell found Pohto in the middle of the zone and the Swede took a dribble toward the basket, which collapsed the defense, and kicked to Beverly in the left corner. That started a passing chain that saw all five WSU players touch the ball in less than 5 seconds, as the ball was whipped around the perimeter and freshman Joy Ighovodja ultimately canning a 3-pointer in the opposite corner.

“You definitely love to see unselfish basketball like that,” Mills said. “We’ve spent zero seconds on a zone offense, so to see those guys do a good job of spacing to the corners and moving the basketball, not settling for a good shot, but finding a great shot, that was awesome to see.”

But the 3-point basket is not what made the possession stand out to Mills; it was all of the details WSU strung together.

“It was great to see Joy have his feet set, be loaded and shoot it with confidence,” Mills said. “And then if you pay attention on the weak side, you can see guys crashing the offensive glass.

“So I thought that was overall a great possession, regardless of whether or not he makes or misses that shot.”

7. Long travel, no practice lead to too many WSU turnovers

The team began its travel schedule to Greece early Tuesday morning and spent the next 25 hours traveling on three different planes before eventually landing in Thessaloniki when it was mid-day local time on Wednesday.

WSU played like a team that hadn’t practiced in a few days and was still trying to adjust to an 8-hour time difference, committing 20 turnovers — about a 26% turnover rate — against the Thessaloniki All-Stars.

“After 25 hours of flying clear across the world and guys playing together for the first time, it was what I expected it was going to be: super sloppy but at the same time full of good energy and enthusiasm,” Mills said. “Usually when you practice after a day off, it’s pretty sloppy and that was definitely the case (Friday).”

8. Missouri State transfer makes his Wichita State debut

In a whirlwind of events, Missouri State graduate transfer Dalen Ridgnal joined WSU the same day as the team left Wichita for Greece. His first introduction to some team members came on the bus ride to the airport.

Tireless work from WSU chief of staff Ryan Hillard and compliance director Korey Torgerson allowed Ridgnal to not only travel with the team, but play with the Shockers.

“We had a voluntary shootaround, but it was required for Dalen,” Mills said. “We walked him through about three or four plays and a baseline out-of-bounds play the day of the game.”

Ridgnal, who will be immediately eligible at WSU, showcased the shooting and rebounding abilities that have Mills intrigued by his potential. The 6-foot-7 forward knocked down a corner 3-pointer and displayed a knack for tracking the ball off the rim with seven rebounds, including three on the offensive end.

“He actually tried to do the right thing the entire time he was on the floor,” Mills said. “It was pretty impressive for someone who just learned a handful of plays about four hours earlier with zero time to practice.”