With the Wichita State men’s and women’s basketball teams nearing the end of their regular seasons, the teams’ rotations have largely solidified and top-performing players have become more clear.
Here’s what some advanced, lesser-known metrics reveal about some WSU players.
Ballard’s brilliance
Senior center Quincy Ballard is an analytics darling, standing out not just among Wichita State players, but the entire country.
Ballard is an efficient scorer, leading the American Athletic Conference (AAC) by making 77% of his field goal attempts. His true shooting percentage (a figure that incorporates free throw shooting and weights for 3-point shots) is 75%, 10 points higher than any other eligible AAC player.
He also rarely gives the ball away. This year, he sliced his turnover percentage (percentage of his possessions that end with a turnover) in half. His 6.5% mark is fifth-best in the AAC.
Ballard’s offensive efficiency, lack of turnovers and ability to pull down offensive boards make him a unique weapon.
Ballard’s offensive rating, an estimate of the number of points produced by a player per 100 possessions, is 151.5. That’s more than 41 points better than any other WSU player.
According to College Basketball Reference, the best single-season offensive rating going back to 2009 is 146. Qualification for the list requires an average of 10 points produced (a measure of a player’s offensive contributions) per game — and Ballard is at 9.9.
If he maintains his pace and increases the total output slightly, Ballard will have put up the most efficient single offensive season by this metric in recent memory.
However, despite his efficiency, Ballard struggles for volume in the Wichita State offense. His usage rate (a measure of the percentage of possessions where a player takes a shot or turns the ball over) is 10th on the team.
Ballard is also a standout on the defensive end. His 99.7 defensive rating (the inverse of the offensive rating that measures points allowed per 100 possessions) is sixth-best in the AAC.
Additionally, he ranks second in total rebound percentage (percentage of available rebounds gathered) and first in block percentage (percentage of available shots blocked) in the conference.
Overall, Ballard easily leads the Shockers with 3.7 win shares (a catch-all metric that attempts to quantify the total number of wins added by a player). Despite playing 10 fewer games, Ballard has already surpassed his win shares total from last year.
Odds and ends
Wichita State’s offense runs through junior forward Corey Washington and senior guard Xavier Bell, who are tied for the highest usage rate of anyone on the team.
Washington has the second-best statistical profile on the team, placing second in win shares with 2.4. At his previous school, Saint Peter’s University, Washington was adept at pulling down rebounds and getting to the free throw line, skills that have translated to WSU.
Washington ranks sixth in the AAC with an 11.9% offensive rebound percentage (percentage of available offensive rebounds grabbed by a player) and his free throw attempt rate (free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts) is third on the team.
Bell has been used more as a shooting guard this year than the team’s primary distributor, which shows in his stats. His assist percentage (percent of team field goals a player assisted) has dipped from 15.1% last year to 9.2% this year, while his usage rate has increased from 22.5% to 27%.
Bell has nearly doubled his free throw attempt rate from .25 last year to .40 this year. His true shooting percentage has steadily climbed each of his three years at WSU, and it’s culminated with his most efficient offensive season by offensive rating.
On the other end, senior guard Bijan Cortes has never stood out on the stat sheet. His 84.3 offensive rating is last on the team by a wide margin, as are his win shares per minute. This is largely due to his poor shooting output (46% true shooting percentage) and 29.3% turnover rate, which is last on the team — but is still a slight improvement from last year.
Freshman guard Zion Pipkin has a similar statistical profile to Cortes, with a few differences. Pipkin’s 4.9% turnover rate is the lowest among WSU players who receive game time and his assist percentage and free throw rate lead the team.
However, Pipkin is an abysmal shooter, with a team-low 34% true shooting percentage.
On the other hand, senior guard AJ McGinnis was brought into Wichita to shoot 3-pointers, and he’s done exactly that.
As a team, WSU has attempted the 11th-fewest 3-point attempts per game among all NCAA schools. McGinnis has shot 80% of his field goal attempts from beyond the arc, leading the team by far. However, his efficiency has dipped a bit from last year to 33% from deep — which still ranks second on the team.
Women’s standouts
Junior forward Jayla Murray stands out statistically among the Wichita State women’s players. Murray ranks sixth in the conference in true shooting percentage (55%) and offensive rating (103.3) and 12th in win shares (2.9).
Across the board, Murray has taken a big step forward this year, which is shown in her player efficiency rating (a catch-all metric that displays a player’s per-minute productivity). Murray’s PER has jumped from 14.6 last season to 22.3 this year, seventh in the conference.
Murray ranks second on the team in usage rate, being beaten out by junior guard Princess Anderson. Anderson has been used as a bench scorer, which shows in her metrics. Her 40.3% usage rate is a massive outlier, nearly doubling any other WSU player. While Anderson hasn’t played enough minutes to qualify for leaderboards, her usage rate would lead the entire country.
She’s maintained efficiency with the massive volume, putting up the team’s sixth-best offensive rating and second-best PER among all Shockers. She’s also been disruptive on the defensive end — her 92.3 defensive rating ranks third on the team and her 3.9% steal percentage is first.
Graduate student guard Taylor Jameson has successfully transitioned from a slasher at George Mason University last year to a 3-point sniper at WSU this year. Her free throw attempt rate has dropped from .41 to .21 while her 3-point attempt rate has risen from .51 to .61.
She’s made the transition while maintaining efficiency — while it’s not the strongest offensive season of her career, her 52% true shooting percentage is third on the team.
Wichita State has played three primary centers this year: junior Maimouna Sissoko, senior Ella Anciaux and senior Aicha Ndour. All of WSU’s bigs have contributed to the team in a unique way.
Ndour has made her mark on the defensive end, leading the team in defensive rating and block percentage. Anciaux is better on the other end, leading the team in true shooting percentage and free throw attempt rate. Sissoko is the strongest rebounder, leading in rebound percentage.
However, all three of WSU’s bigs have a better than 11.4% offensive rebound percentage, which, while none have played enough to achieve eligibility for leaderboards, would rank third among qualified AAC players.
