Wichita State seeking something its offense hasn’t done in five years at K-State

For the first time in nearly five years, the Wichita State men’s basketball team has shot better than 50% from the field in two straight games.

The Shockers had made more than half of their shots in just one game under head coach Isaac Brown before last week. WSU has since ended its 47-game drought, dating back to Jan. 2, 2021, of shooting less than 50% in emphatic fashion.

WSU made 54% of its shots in an 83-71 win over Tarleton State on Nov. 26, then followed that performance up by shooting 54.1% from the field in an 88-84 overtime loss to Missouri on Tuesday. That’s no small feat for a program which has ranked among the worst shooting teams in the country for the last four seasons. WSU hasn’t shot better than 50% in three straight games since the 2017-18 season, when it routinely accomplished the feat behind one of the nation’s best offenses.

The Shockers (4-3) will look to keep their hot shooting streak going on the road in Saturday’s trip to Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan to take on Kansas State (6-1) in an 8 p.m. tip-off with the TV broadcast on ESPNU.

“We’ve got to go on the road and try to play for 40 minutes,” Brown said. “You can’t play for 30, 35. In order to win on the road, you can’t turn the basketball over, you’ve got to defend at a high level, and you’ve got to play for 40 minutes. So that’s what we need to do.”

In Brown’s third season at the helm, the first-time head coach is finally starting to open up his playbook. Instead of running an endless stream of high ball screens, WSU has shown more creativity this season with a variety of actions that put players in motion rather than standing in one place.

With defenses more occupied this season, WSU has been able to keep the paint clear for better driving lanes. The result has been WSU shooting a combined 66.2% (43 of 65) on two-pointers in its last two games with almost all of those shots coming in the paint.

Against Mizzou, the Shockers made a season-high 12 three-pointers with a season-best 63.9% effective field goal percentage. For a team that was off to one of the coldest shooting starts on open catch-and-shoot attempts, the performance against the Tigers was a confidence-builder in that regard.

“I’ve been trying to get guys to realize catch-and-shoot is the easiest thing you can do, especially knowing teams are going to key in on me coming off ball screens,” WSU star point guard Craig Porter said. “There’s going to be a lot of open looks around the board for everybody. Just knocking them down and being confident is what IB has been preaching.”

Porter has been superb filling up the stat sheet with his averages of 13.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.3 blocks. But he knows two key areas (his 46% accuracy from the foul line and his 3.4 turnovers per game) must be improved to lead the Shockers to victories.

He will be matched up with another star point guard on Saturday in K-State senior Markquis Nowell, the 5-foot-7 dynamo who is averaging 15 points and 7.9 assists in the Wildcats’ strong start under first-year coach Jerome Tang. Nowell scored 16 points, including a pivotal three-pointer down the stretch, in KSU’s 65-59 win over the Shockers at Intrust Bank Arena last December.

Florida transfer Keyontae Johnson, who WSU once hosted on a recruiting visit, is K-State’s leading scorer through seven games at 18 points per game.

“Those are two really good guards,” Brown said. “Craig Porter is an all-conference guard and Nowell is a really good point guard that can really pressure the basketball. We’ve just got to do a good job of taking care of it. Our guards have to have their hand over the ball, be sure they’re making the right passes and doing a good job of just running offense versus all that pressure that he can put on.”

Both teams will be playing in their first game following a loss, as K-State dropped its first game of the season, 76-64 at Butler, on Wednesday.

“We’re going to get in the film room, we’re going to capitalize on what we need to get better from this game,” Tang told The Topeka Capital-Journal. “We’ve got a quick turnaround and game against Wichita State, so we can’t dwell on this long. We’ve got to capitalize and do whatever we can to focus on Saturday.”

Much like WSU’s previous two opponents, Tarleton State and Missouri, K-State is an aggressive defensive team. The Wildcats force 18.3 turnovers per game at the 15th-highest turnover rate in the country, but they also foul excessively and struggle on the defensive glass.

WSU was demoralized by its 20 turnovers, many in sloppy fashion, costing it a chance to win against Mizzou. The Shockers will have to be much better in protecting the ball to come away with their second road win of the non-conference season.

“I know with the guys that we have, the coaches we have, we’re going to stay positive no matter what because it’s a long season and it’s really just started,” Porter said after the Mizzou loss. “We’ve got a lot more left in us. We showed not even everything we have, so we know what we’ve got and what we need to improve on.”

Wichita State at Kansas State basketball preview

Records: WSU 4-3, KSU 6-1

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Bramlage Coliseum, Manhattan (12,528)

Television: ESPNU

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM

Projected starting lineups

Wichita State Shockers

Coach: Isaac Brown, third season, 35-22

Kansas State Wildcats

Coach: Jerome Tang, first season, 6-1