For the first time since Paul Mills became the head coach of Wichita State men’s basketball, the team has moved to two-a-day practices. The reasoning was pretty simple after an 0-2 start to American Athletic Conference (AAC) play.
“We’re bad,” Mills said during his weekly press conference on Thursday. “We’ve got to get good.”
The Shockers have allowed 91 points in each of their AAC losses thus far. Mills said the coaching staff will work to “simplify” their defensive scheme.
Another problem is effort.
“We’ve had some come-to-Jesus meetings,” Mills said. “And to be honest with you, I think the overall theme of what every single player (said), because I had them be very frank, is we want to get better, and that’s on us as coaches.”
Mills woke up at 4 a.m. one morning with a bleeding scratch on his face — a result of his frustrations with the team’s defensive struggles and lack of energy.
WSU has come out of the gate slowly in a few games this year before turning on the intensity when the result is out of reach.
In the loss against the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Shockers fell behind by 20 points in the second half before rallying to cut the deficit to nine with three minutes left. Against the University of South Florida, the Shockers trailed by 18 points at the break before kicking off the second half with a 7-0 run.
In both of those contests, it was too little, too late.
“The thing I tell players is that you have to have a PHD — you have to be passionate, hungry and driven,” Mills said. “And I didn’t think either of those three boxes got checked until things were said at halftime. And things that were said at halftime, I hope I never have to repeat again the rest of my life. But those are the kind of areas that you have to be internally driven in order to make that stuff happen.”
Mills has considered a few methods of external motivation, including pregame dance parties. But he called those boosts “temporary.”
“We cannot sit here and think, ‘Man, this is a Kansas State game we are excited to play,’ and then, ‘You know what? It’s snowing today. The mood isn’t great. We’ve got a lot of people who can’t show up on account of the weather, so I need to kind of feel this game out,’” Mills said.
Mills said the lack of energy ultimately boils down to recruiting the right people in the locker room — before immediately clarifying that he doesn’t believe WSU has poor recruiting.
“You can’t out-practice bad motives and bad intentions,” Mills said. “So the way that gets solved is you’ve got to be internally motivated. You have to have a PHD, and we need a locker room full of those guys. And to be honest with you, let’s see how this plays out before any judgments (are) cast.”
The Shockers will travel to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) on Saturday, Jan. 11. The Roadrunners, ranked 269th in the country by KenPom, also sit at 0-2 in the AAC. Despite their lack of prestige, Mills said WSU is treating UTSA like the number one team in the country.
“We need a win,” Mills said. “I don’t care if we were playing (the) Sisters of the Poor. It does not matter to us. We’re not taking anybody for granted as a coaching staff; our players aren’t taking anything for granted.”
