Wichita State's Toure Murry dunks against Missouri State.
- We’ve seen the Shockers play better. We’ve seen them play worse. All that really matters is they won and moved a step closer to wrapping up second in the MVC. This deep into conference play, there are no secrets. Teams are scouted and analyzed to the bone. Of the past 25 MVC games, 19 were decided by nine points or fewer. Northern Iowa, far and away the best team, won games by 1, 3, 3 and 9 before Saturday’s loss to Bradley. Nothing’s coming easy.
- Sunday’s game strikes me as odd, for many reasons. WSU didn’t do much defensively – until the game turned on WSU’s good defense in the last four minutes. WSU won the game with a 22-point edge at the line – and one of the nation’s best shooters missed two in a row.
- The best sign for WSU came on the boards, where the Shockers compiled an eight-rebound edge and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds. That’s a solid indicator of effort. Graham Hatch said that was one of the items talked about in a team meeting last week. The Shockers won’t always make shots. They need to bring it on defense and the boards every game.
- The next-best item comes from the bench, where Demetric Williams and Garrett Stutz again gave good minutes. The Shockers needed Williams to produce while Clevin Hannah, a little ruffled by Nafis Ricks’ defense gathered himself. He did. That’s two solid games in a row for him. Stutz is more regularly a factor in recent games. The Shockers were at their best when they were 8 or 9 deep.
- Hatch and Blair deserve a lot of credit for the defense in the final four minutes. MSU’s Kyle Weems didn’t score a point and barely touched the ball. That left the ball in the hands of Ricks and Adam Leonard, neither of whom could handle the ball in crunch time. The Shockers, mostly Toure Murry, have neutralized Leonard’s scoring in both meetings and turned him into a ball-handling liability.
- MSU should be one of the better teams in the MVC next season, assuming Ricks irons out his turnover problems. The Bears could use another good big man (as could everyone). Ricks should make big improvements with a year in Division I.
- Clevin Hannah dropped from second to 11th nationally in free-throw shooting after going 7 of 10. He is shooting 89.6 percent.
- WSU didn’t get many points in transition against Missouri State. According to Evansville’s stats, it got two on Tuesday against the Aces. Most teams are going to struggle in the halfcourt against set defenses if that’s all they get. The difference between scoring in the 70s and the 60s is those 10-15 fastbreak points that makes things a lot easier. When you’re not getting those points, issues such as Hatch’s shooting slump and WSU’s lack of post scoring become more pronounced.
Around the Valley
- There was more news off court than on Sunday. Northern Iowa suspended center Jordan Eglseder for three games. Sean Keeler of the Des Moines Register points out all Eglseder put at risk during his night on the town.
- Creighton’s P’Allen Stinnett is suspended for the season. I can’t think of any good basketball reasons for him to return to Creighton for his senior season.
- Six straight scoreless possessions doomed the Bears against WSU. From an MSU perspective, they were unforced errors. From WSU’s view, it was gritty defense at crunch time.
- Former Shocker coach Mark Turgeon is in the running for Big 12 Coach of the Year.