The Wichita State men’s basketball team has had a grueling week.
The Shockers played two games within a 24-hour span at the American Conference Tournament on Saturday and Sunday, only to learn Sunday evening they had another quick turnaround: a 6 p.m. National Invitation Tournament first-round game against Wyoming set for Tuesday.
Wichita State managed a 74-70 win, keeping its season alive, but the victory marked its third postseason game in four days — a punishing schedule even for professional athletes.
“I’m happy that we won, and just thought that was a game NBA coaches would be mad at,” Coach Paul Mills said. “Three games, four days. We didn’t get back until the wee hours of the morning the other day (Monday).”
The compressed schedule severely impacted the team’s preparation. While a single coach usually handles the scouting report and personnel adjustments, multiple coaches were required. They had little time for a full practice, managing only a pregame shoot-around. The game plan itself was fluid, with changes being made based on new film material right up to tip-off.
“You’re a little uncertain of a number of things just jumping into the film,” Mills said. “We actually had three different people on this scout.
“Had somebody doing personnel. Had somebody doing defense. Had somebody doing offense. What’s usually normal is one person handles all three.”
The fatigue was evident for both teams. Mills noted that, to his knowledge, the Cowboys didn’t arrive until 11:30 p.m. the day before the game, despite having a week off since their loss in the Mountain West Tournament. The frantic pace caught up to both squads, leading to a sluggish performance.
“I thought that first half looked like a bunch of tired legs,” Mills said. “We were missing so many. I think we airballed three shots from within 3 feet of the rim in the opening. Then so many of our layup attempts were underneath the goal.”
The Shockers shot a dismal 30.6% before the break to Wyoming’s 27.6%, with many shots missing short or airballing.
For context, Wichita State had shot 44.4% from the floor over its previous eight games combined.
The players, however, downplayed the exhaustion.
When asked about the draining schedule, senior guard Kenyon Giles laughed it off.
“My teammates already know. I’m not going to say it in the press conference,” he said with a grin.
Giles added, “We don’t make excuses. We’re going to recover to fix those legs, get ready for whoever we play on Saturday. But you’re not going to hear that from me.”
The numerous missed shots transformed the game into a different kind of battle: on the glass, which Wichita State dominated. The Shockers pulled down 55 rebounds, winning the margin by plus-21, and manufactured 18 second-chance points from 17 offensive rebounds.
Redshirt freshman forward TJ Williams was the prime beneficiary, recording a game-high 17 points and 14 rebounds (four offensive) for a double-double that spoke volumes.
His effort was instrumental late in the game, including two critical sequences: one where he grabbed his own miss for a put-back to give WSU a 53-52 lead with 5:45 to go, and another where he snatched a missed one-and-one free throw and converted the put-back to make it 61-56 with 3:09 left.
In a scrappy, gritty, and often sloppy game like Tuesday’s, winning the margins — especially on the boards — was the key to survival.
“In March, you got to make man plays, you got to got make winning rebounds and you got to make free throws,” Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks said. “I’ll tip my cap to them for playing an unbelievable winning-plays game and an unbelievable winning-effort game.”
The Shockers had to rely on fundamental effort, largely playing on autopilot, to extend their season. By surviving, Wichita State earned a much-needed break before facing Oklahoma State at Gallagher-Iba Arena Sunday at a time yet to be determined.
“It was such a quick turnaround,” Mills said. “There’s a little bit of uncertainty. Are you feeding the right information to your players? I just give our guys a ton of credit for how they handled it.”
