Going into Tuesday’s game against the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), Wichita State men’s basketball head coach Paul Mills was pleased with the team’s practice on Monday. He stressed the importance of “urgency.”
Then, Wichita State lost by 10 points at home to a lower-ranked team that was paid $80,000 to travel to the Roundhouse.
After reviewing the film, Mills said Wichita State “played like an entitled basketball team” — the players lacked urgency and came into the game thinking they had already won.
“I honestly can’t think of a characteristic I dislike more,” Mills said during his weekly press conference on Thursday. “We just thought we were going to win, and we didn’t feel that we needed to do the energy … and to make sure that we were following through on the things that we had covered.”
Mills said the players didn’t communicate on the court and came out of the gate lacking energy, something he attributed to the team approaching “that game the wrong way.” That’s something he blames on himself.
“I mean, I get it if we got beat,” Mills said. “And I’m not trying to take away anything from UMKC … But it’s one thing to lose because the other team’s better. It’s a different thing to lose because you have approached it the wrong way.”
Mills said he tells his players to be thankful for every opportunity and not to play like playing time or success is a given. What he saw on Tuesday differed from anything he’d seen this season.
“We had to charge those guys up at halftime, tell them that it was inexcusable, but we had already dug ourselves a hole,” Mills said. “And it’s one of those things where you have to address it. You’d better be able to handle it a lot better than what we did.”
Going forward, Mills said the loss could be a learning opportunity for the players.
“Pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall,” he said. “So, you know, it’s a matter of time that people who are entitled, that’s going to set in, and it’s eventually going to reveal itself. So it is good to have a level of humility and to dial that back, but it’s also a great opportunity to understand that, man, this is a game that honors toughness, and it’s not limited to certain programs.”
