What Paul Mills says Wichita State basketball must do to pick up first road AAC win
Valentine’s Day will have come and gone with the Wichita State men’s basketball team still in search of its first road win in nearly three months.
The Shockers are 1-6 in road games this season with their lone win coming on Nov. 16 against Coastal Carolina, a weekday afternoon game played in front of 1,417 fans against one of the worst teams in the country.
In all five road games so far in American Athletic Conference play, WSU has been involved in a one-possession game in the final four minutes of regulation. But the Shockers (10-14, 2-9 AAC) have come up short each time, some more painful than others, like the most recent road swing when the team failed to protect double-digit second-half leads in late collapses at Tulsa and Memphis.
WSU head coach Paul Mills has a specific message to his team ahead of its North Carolina road trip, beginning with a 6 p.m. Thursday game against East Carolina (12-12, 5-6 AAC) streaming on ESPN+ from Minges Coliseum and followed by an 11 a.m. Sunday trip to Charlotte (15-8, 9-2 AAC) in a game broadcast on ESPN2.
“We talk to our guys a lot about having a game for March, and the first thing on the graphic we show them all the time is shot selection,” Mills said. “You’ve got to be mindful of the shots that you’re giving up and the shot selection that you’re taking. You’ve got to be super mindful of the value of every possession.”
In reviewing the film of the two most recent road losses, Mills was disappointed in how many three-point plays his team allowed to spark comebacks.
During Memphis’ 25-9 rally to close the game, WSU gave up five separate three-point plays, including fouling a 3-point shooter, fouling on a layup and giving up a go-ahead 3-pointer on a catch-and-shoot release.
When Tulsa erased a late six-point deficit, WSU gave up three critical three-point plays, this time on two catch-and-shoot triples and fouling on an offensive rebound put-back.
“Threes allow teams to get back in it,” Mills said. “You have to think about possessions and be mindful of the shots that you’re giving up. You can’t give up catch-and-shoot 3s. That’s how teams get back in it. Instead of 2s, now they’re getting back in it quicker. You have to value possessions, so the shots that we give up are what matters because you’re going to be in a possession ball game.”
WSU is coming off yet another close conference loss, as it erased a nine-point deficit late against No. 20-ranked Florida Atlantic to force overtime, but collapsed in the extra period to lose 95-82.
All but two of WSU’s nine losses to AAC opponents have come in games where WSU has been within a single possession of the lead in the final four minutes of regulation. Learning how to win close games has been an ongoing process for a team of players mostly playing in their first year together under a new coach.
“I think you have to have players who have been around (winning) and they’ve been on the other side of it, so they understand it,” Mills said. “That’s why there’s tremendous value sometimes in retention, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. There’s addition by subtraction sometimes. But I think what has to happen is you have to have at least three, four, five guys out there who have experienced winning. If they haven’t played together much, it does take a little bit of time, depending on the caliber of the player.”
Not helping matters in close games this season has been the tendency for WSU to be on the wrong end of the whistle. Mills was still livid about a missed shot-clock violation late in regulation by FAU and what he felt like was a phantom foul call on Quincy Ballard in the final minute of regulation.
The coach knows things aren’t likely to improve on the road, which means WSU will need to show a new level of resiliency to do something it hasn’t done yet in conference play.
“I’m in long conversations with the head of officials after every game and we’ve never been on the plus side of any of these games,” Mills said. “Usually it’s a seven-point advantage to so and so and this was an 11-point advantage on calls that get missed over the course of a game. Some of it is you’ve got to stay engaged and control what you can control, but at the end of the day, we haven’t been on the plus side in any of our games. It makes you very upset. It is what it is and that’s the reality of the situation, but what I know is that we have to make our own breaks. We’re not relying on any of these people to come through and do their jobs, we need to do ours. We’re going to have to make our own breaks.”
Wichita State at East Carolina basketball preview
Records: WSU 10-14, 2-9 AAC; ECU 12-12, 5-6 AAC
When: 6 p.m. Central time Thursday
Where: Minges Coliseum (8,000), Greenville, N.C.
How to watch: ESPN+ (Patrick Johnson with Si Seymour)
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Shane Dennis with Bob Hull)
KenPom says: ECU 69, WSU 67
Series history: WSU leads 7-2 (3-0 in Greenville)
