How Paul Mills wants Wichita State basketball to learn from a ‘huge dose of humility’

As a competitor, Paul Mills hates that he will have to stew over a loss for an entire week for the second straight week.

As a coach, he hopes the Wichita State men’s basketball team can accept a “huge dose of humility” and learn from its 79-69 loss to South Dakota State this past weekend.

The Shockers have a weeklong break before returning to Koch Arena to face Southern Illinois at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“In my mind, it would have been a travesty had we won that game because then you think you can play with that level of energy and that level of effort and get away with it,” Mills said on his radio show on Monday night. “These are really good experiences in the long run if we approach them the right way.”

WSU guard Harlond Beverly, who Mills revealed Monday had played through an illness against South Dakota State, mentioned following the loss that he felt like the team’s energy was off for the game played at Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita.

On Monday, Mills delved into the topic about what could have possibly led to the low-energy effort. The coach cited a different practice schedule than normal, giving the players two days off in the five-day lead-up to the game, as players were studying for final exams.

“I can remember visiting with (K-State coach) Jerome Tang after they lost a game at Butler and he told me how they mismanaged time,” Mills said. “But they didn’t know they mismanaged time until the players shared with them all that they had to go through and why they didn’t have the energy to play.

“We are mutually coaching each other. I’m coaching you and we’re trying to point us in the right direction, but at the same time, you’re coaching us. We need clarity on things we’re not being clear on. Maybe there were things from a schedule standpoint we could have managed better in order to make sure you’re optimal when you need to be optimal.”

Mills emphasized how disappointed he was that it happened, but he also believes a stinging loss in front of home fans could teach a valuable lesson.

“It would have been a sad case had we won,” Mills said. “Then the players would think they can just turn it up at the end and the problems will go away. Fortunately, they understand that’s not the issue.”

WSU hopes it can chalk up its historic level of poor shooting around the rim — the 23.7% shooting (9-of-38) was the worst for the Shockers in 356 games and more than 10 years, per Synergy — as an aberration.

What Mills dug down on during his postgame film sessions were the 12 turnovers, which doesn’t seem like a high count. But when Mills broke it down and found that 10 of them were live-ball turnovers that led directly to 18 points for South Dakota State, it became an emphasis.

Mills typically separates the root causes of turnovers into three categories: ball-handling, toughness and control. But against South Dakota State, the coach felt like almost every turnover stemmed from a decision-making error.

“It was like the offensive rebounds that Kenny (Pohto) was able to retrieve and trying to dribble inside the paint,” Mills said. “Why would you dribble if you already have two feet in the paint? Go up with it. When we’re working on our 5-on-0 offense, if we get a rebound in the paint we’re telling players to go back up with it without a dribble. If they’re not in the paint, we ask them to kick it out for a 3.

“I think they now understand why. There’s a reason why we ask you not to dribble on these 5-on-0 rebound opportunities. If players can see the reason why we’re saying what we’re saying, I think it helps the players understand. They can start to see it’s not just a notion the staff has come up with, this is why it has to be this way in that situation. I do think it’s beneficial in the long run, as hard and as challenging as it is to go through right now.”

A challenging December schedule doesn’t ease up when Southern Illinois returns to Wichita for the first time since 2017. The Salukis are off to a 6-2 start, which includes a 70-68 win over Oklahoma State, and feature one of the top scorers in the country in 6-foot-1 guard Xavier Johnson, who is averaging 24.3 points this season.

But first, the Shockers must learn and grow from their last performance.

“We have to look in the mirror first,” Mills said. “And I can tell you man to man in that locker room, we all owned what happened on Saturday night. And I do believe we will be better moving forward.”