Wichita State basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Houston after first AAC loss

Wichita State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Houston after first AAC loss

SAN DIEGO, CA - MARCH 16: The Wichita State Shockers mascot gestures in the second half against the Marshall Thundering Herd during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

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WICHITA, KS – NOVEMBER 13: Guard Demetrius Pollard #20 of the Charleston Southern Buccaneers shoot the ball against the Wichita State Shockers(Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /

Defend Without Fouling

There are a couple of obvious issues that can be taken away from Wichita State’s last two games. They clearly need to do a better job taking care of the ball after barely being able to get the ball over half court for the last minute of regulation against UCONN and committing 15 turnovers against Temple. However, the issue that is more likely to come into play against Houston is their inability to keep their opponents off the free throw line.

Against UCONN, they allowed a staggering 42 free throws and let the Huskies get back in the game with their free throw shooting down the stretch. In fact, over the last 3 minutes of the game, eight of UCONN’s last 11 points came from the free throw line, negating the fact that their offense struggled to create in the half-court for long stretches of the game, and giving them plenty of time to come back from down nine with just over a minute left. The Shockers also found themselves in a situation in the second half where many of their key players were in foul trouble, including Erik Stevenson and Jaime Echenique who both fouled out.

The problem wasn’t as bad against Temple, but they did still allow 27 free throws in the game and Erik Stevenson once again found himself in foul trouble for most of the second half. Against Houston, the Shockers will absolutely need to do a better job of keeping their opponent off the free throw line.

Houston isn’t particularly impressive shooting the ball from anywhere this season, but they’ve found ways to negate their scoring issues. One is that they are an incredible rebounding team (something I’ll get to later) and the other is that they consistently get to the free throw line. They are shooting 21.2 free throws per game this season and the 15.1 they make per game account for about 20% of their total scoring. They also manage to draw a foul on 23.2% of their offensive plays, which is the 99th highest rate in the country.

Wichita State can’t afford to play right into Houston’s strengths and allow them to get to the line as frequently as Temple and UCONN. Wichita State has the defense to shut Houston down in this game, but that won’t matter at all if they let Houston get to the line 25+ times.