Shocker Madness, Wichita State’s annual basketball kickoff event, was held Saturday evening and gave fans a sneak peek at the men’s and women’s teams for the upcoming seasons.
The night featured team introductions, scrimmages and 3-point contests. It also featured performances from the Shocker Sound Machine and Spirit Squads, the announcement of Shocktoberfest Homecoming winners, and culminated with a performance by Grammy Award-winning artist Lupe Fiasco.
The men’s scrimmage was played with two six-minute halves, while the women’s scrimmage was one 10-minute period with a running clock.
The “White” team won the men’s scrimmage, beating the “Black” team, 15-14. Junior Jaret Valencia drained a buzzer beating three off the glass to help his team to victory. In the women’s scrimmage, the “Black” team won, 17-13.
Senior Kenyon Giles on the men’s team displayed the best range in the 3-point contest, advancing to the final round and beating the women’s team’s graduate student Jaila Harding, 12-11.
Though the scrimmages were just a glimpse of the teams, a few things stood out:
Jaila Harding has potential to provide much needed outside shooting
Wichita native Jaila Harding shot an even 50% (25-of-50) during the 3-point contest portion of the basketball events. While 3-point contests are essentially target practice with a little competition mixed in, it’s still a good sign.
Even during the scrimmage, Harding found space on a dribble move near the right elbow and drained one of her two attempts from deep. At the Division I level, she’s a career 35.7% 3-point shooter, which would’ve been second on last year’s roster.
For a team that shot just 27.5% from deep last season, anything helps, and the graduate student showed flashes of providing much needed shooting on the perimeter.
If she shoots anywhere near her mark from three at Shocker Madness during the season, this will open up a wide array of options for WSU’s offense.
Physicality will be key for men’s team
While players were cautious to avoid injuring each other a month before the first game, neither team was able to gain a clear edge. The “White” team trapped the “Black” team in the corner a few times and caused some disruption.
Men’s basketball head coach Paul Mills said this year’s team has come a long way from where they were at this point last season. The team started jamming in transition — a technique used to crowd a rebounder to create steals — which they haven’t done before under Mills.
Redshirt freshman TJ Williams took advantage of that for the “White” team. After his team missed, he jammed the rebounder for an easy bucket down low.
“Some of them (the players) are wired defensively,” Mills said after the scrimmage. “(Karon Boyd) is one of those guys, you saw Dre (Kindell) out there. I think his impact on the ball, some of its schematic.”
Tempo, tempo, tempo
Unofficial stats recorded by The Sunflower had both teams attempting a combined 31 shots in the men’s team’s scrimmage. They played 12 minutes of game time, which is over 2.5 attempts per minute.
While playing up tempo can keep opponents on their toes, it can be an Achilles’ heel at times. A few moments it looked like the teams were jittery, which is natural as this was the Shockers’ first chance to play in front of a crowd.
“I think I counted three air balls that, you know, usually don’t happen in the course of a practice,” Mills said. “It’s good to get out under lights, even though you don’t take too much away from that.”
WSU will need to find a balance of up-tempo and a slower pace of play before the season starts.
Wichita State men’s basketball team will compete in a charity scrimmage against Drake on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 1 p.m. Proceeds will go to the Wichita Children’s Home and UJUMP, which was founded by former Shocker Lynbert “Cheese” Johnson.
Women’s basketball plays a scrimmage against cross-town Newman University Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Koch Arena. Tipoff time is still to be determined.
