Should Quincy Ballard have played more for Wichita State in Temple loss? Film breakdown

Some Wichita State men’s basketball fans were puzzled over the lack of playing time for starting center Quincy Ballard in a recent loss to Temple.

Ballard played just 18 minutes, about four fewer than his season average, for the Shockers in their 72-66 overtime loss to last-place Temple at Koch Arena this past Sunday.

Ballard was productive in his limited playing time (10 points, five rebounds, an assist and a block) and WSU outscored the Owls by 11 points when he was on the floor. Throw in the fact that Temple pounded the glass for 22 offensive rebounds and it was reasonable to wonder why WSU head coach Paul Mills didn’t turn to the 6-foot-11 big man more often.

Here’s a breakdown of the dilemma Mills faced against Temple, why he made his decision and how it played out.

Where WSU found success with Ballard and how Temple adjusted

WSU scored a sizzling 1.31 points per possession on the 13 possessions Ballard played in the first half, consistently picking apart Temple in the pick and roll.

The Owls played the first half in a conservative ball-screen coverage with their big men, asking them to “show” at the level of the screen when Ballard screened. But WSU did a good job of emptying the back-side help, which left Temple’s big men in no-mans-land to watch helplessly as Ballard scored three times on lobs.

At halftime, Ballard had eight points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting.

“There were some real opportunities to take advantage of their ball-screen coverage and Quincy’s ability around the rim,” Mills said. “You can throw it up and he can fetch it at a level that most people can’t.”

So why didn’t WSU continue to exploit Ballard in the pick-and-roll game in the second half? That’s where Temple coach Adam Fisher deserves credit.

Fisher scrapped Temple’s passive ball-screen coverage at halftime and opted for a more aggressive scheme in the second half. Instead of allowing WSU ball handlers to freely dribble off Ballard’s screens, Temple began using its big men to chase WSU ball handlers away from the screen and make them dribble backward. At the same time, Fisher instructed whoever was defending WSU guard Harlond Beverly, a 19% 3-point shooter, to completely ignore him on the perimeter and plant themselves in the paint to take away the roll for Ballard.

“We switched up our ball-screen coverage at halftime and I thought that really helped us,” Fisher said. “Our guys were more aggressive in it.”

WSU’s guards never figured out how to make Temple pay for its aggression in the pick-and-roll defense, which took away what Ballard does best — roll hard to the rim. In turn, WSU mustered just 12 points in 14 possessions with Ballard after halftime, which played a role in why Mills opted for the more versatile Kenny Pohto at center.

How Temple posed defensive issues for Ballard

Temple has a unique frontcourt that features a center who is 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds and a power forward who is 6-foot-10 and 180 pounds. Both have the ability to step out and knock down 3-pointers.

The lineup made for an uncomfortable match-up for Ballard, one of the nation’s best shot-blockers who was drawn out from his preferred perch underneath the basket and forced to guard closer to the 3-point line.

It didn’t take long for WSU’s concern to materialize, as Temple’s Steve Settle, a wiry, 6-10 junior, blew past Ballard on the perimeter and caused a foul on Ballard in the first five minutes of the game.

“Those are tough match-ups for (Ballard) because there was nobody (on Temple) who was going to be around the rim,” Mills said. “So you can’t put (Ballard) at the rim in order to plug because they’re just going to 3-ball you to death.”

Temple does attempt the 24th-most 3s in the country, but converts less than 30% of them for the 338th-best accuracy. It felt like a case where the bark was worse than the bite, as Temple managed to shoot just 4-of-17 on triples against WSU — and three of those came when Pohto, the more versatile defender, was on the floor, not Ballard.

But Ballard’s inexperience guarding the perimeter showed up in overtime when he bit on a pump fake by Settle, which led to a foul and two free throws. Mills immediately subbed Ballard out because he had given him specific instructions on what to do in that scenario.

“We said a number of times to Quincy, ‘You’ve got to be the second jump,’” Mills said. “(Settle) is a 29% 3-point shooter. That’s a shot we’re OK giving up. What we can’t do is fall for the shot fake and foul.

“It’s like, ‘Man, we are putting the guy in a really uncomfortable position to defend on the perimeter because they didn’t have anybody you can sag off.’”

Mills opted to play Pohto at center to close out the final six minutes of regulation. While he’s more comfortable defending the perimeter and gave WSU’s defense some switch-ability down the stretch, Temple still found ways to put him in uncomfortable situations. The breaking point came in overtime when Pohto switched on Temple point guard Hysier Miller, who blew past him for an easy layup and forced Mills to resort to small-ball for the final two minutes of overtime.

For the game, Pohto excelled in generating quality looks in WSU’s offense but failed to capitalize on them. He scored 11 points, but it came on 3-of-11 shooting from the field on mostly point-blank looks and 5-of-10 shooting on free throws. The Shockers checked in at 0.84 PPP on offense with Pohto on the floor and 1.10 PPP with him on defense.

While Ballard certainly wasn’t perfect on defense, his rim protection covered up a lot of flaws. Sunday was a game of trade-offs and Ballard’s clear impact on defense — Temple scored just 0.67 PPP on the 27 possessions he was on the floor — suggests Mills probably should have been more willing to live with the occasional slip-up in exchange for Ballard’s presence on the floor.

The dramatic rebounding issue the Shockers faced

Given Ballard’s height, length and athleticism, it would be easy to assume that WSU is a better rebounding team when he’s on the floor.

But that’s not what the numbers have said in American Athletic Conference play, where WSU actually ranks as a below-average defensive rebounding team with Ballard on the floor, per CBBAnalytics. The Shockers actually rank as an elite defensive rebounding team with Pohto on the floor.

That’s not how Sunday’s game played out, however.

Simply put: WSU was consistently beat on the boards with Ballard on the bench. In fact, Temple registered more offensive rebounds (14) than WSU did defensive rebounders (13) with Pohto on the floor, where WSU grabbed 70% of available defensive rebounds with Ballard.

Another factor was the absence of starting forward Dalen Ridgnal, the team’s best defensive rebounder who saw just 10 minutes of action. He was limited in the first half due to foul trouble, then didn’t see the floor for the final 20 minutes of the game after being involved in a scuffle early in the second half. Ridgnal grabbed six defensive rebounds in his 10 minutes.

Without Ballard’s rebounding radius and Ridgnal’s doggedness, the onus was on WSU’s guards to secure more rebounds. They were not up for the challenge, at least on Sunday, as WSU’s guards constantly were beat while ball-watching or just being out-worked.

“Temple has some very physical guards and they started getting their hands on a lot of basketballs,” Mills said. “We just weren’t able to secure them. We had opportunities and we just weren’t able to retrieve them. We didn’t hit at the level that you need to, specifically from our backcourt.

Despite the high number of offensive rebounds allowed, Temple actually failed to fully capitalize on its advantage with just nine second-chance points in regulation. But the Shockers’ inability to secure defensive rebounds eventually caught up to them in overtime, as Temple score five crucial points following offensive rebounds.

A particularly excruciating sequence came when Ballard bit on the pump-fake by Settle, leading to a foul and Mills pulled him in favor of Pohto. Settle missed both free throws, but without Ballard’s length and jumping ability, WSU was unable to secure the defensive rebound when Pohto couldn’t corral the miss. On the ensuing in-bounds, Temple posted up Settle on a smaller WSU guard and Pohto was late coming over to protect the rim — a play perhaps Ballard would have made. Instead, Settle converted a 3-point play that broke a 63-all tie and gave Temple the lead for good.

“There’s some things that are unacceptable in the game of basketball and that’s one of them,” Mills said about giving up an offensive rebound on a miss at the foul line.

Should Ballard have played more against Temple? There’s a strong case to be made for more minutes.

But it should have been a moot point, given WSU held a 10-point lead on its home court against the last-place team in the conference. The Shockers have their point-blank misses (41% on 40 shots within six feet of the basket) and costly turnovers that led to easy fast-break points for Temple to blame, rather than who played more minutes at the center position.

In the end, WSU was dealt another gut-punch loss down the stretch of a close game.

“A lot of these games are one-possession games and we have to understand these possessions matter,” Mills said. “Something that happens at the 16-minute mark that might be careless can come back and get you later.”