How pick-and-roll connection between Cortes, Ballard injected life into Shocker offense

Since the summer when they were paired up together in pick-up games, Bijan Cortes and Quincy Ballard knew they shared a connection.

Thursday’s performance in an 86-77 loss to No. 23-ranked Florida Atlantic offered a glimpse into what the duo can do.

Ballard, a 6-foot-11 center, scored a career-high 18 points with half of his baskets assisted by Cortes, a 6-foot-2 point guard who had all four assists spoon-fed to his pick-and-roll partner.

“We’ve been doing that ever since the summer,” Ballard said. “He’s really good at throwing lobs to me. It’s a really good feeling with him playing alongside me.”

The connection took longer than anticipated to translate to games because Cortes missed the first semester due to academic issues. But the Oklahoma transfer has rapidly improved since returning to the court, which earned him a promotion to the starting lineup for Thursday’s game.

A big reason why first-year WSU head coach Paul Mills likes Cortes is because he plays at a different and faster tempo than the other guards on the roster. Most importantly, his passing maximizes Ballard’s potential as a lob threat in the pick-and-roll game.

“I tell Quincy all the time, ‘You’re 7 feet and your God-gifted talent is amazing,’” Cortes said. “I just tell him to jump and I’m going to find you.”

The skill sets of Cortes and Ballard were perfect to capitalize in the pick-and-roll match-up against Florida Atlantic, which primarily plays drop coverage with 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin.

With Goldin playing behind the screen and dropping back in coverage, Cortes was able to turn the corner following a pick, probe the lane, manipulate the FAU big man into jumping and threading a lob pass over the top to Ballard for a dunk.

This exact same play happened three separate times in the first half alone, as Cortes connected with Ballard for three rim-rattling dunks.

“Playing against drop is kind of easy, especially when you have a 7-footer like Q who can go and grab stuff,” Cortes said. “I’m just trying to come off the screen and keep (my defender) on my hip, so he can’t get back into the play. And then that forces the big man to make a decision.”

It wasn’t just Cortes who participated in the first-half, lob-fest to Ballard, as Colby Rogers also got in on the fun. Because Rogers is a better shooter than Cortes, Goldin took a step toward Rogers and away from the basket when Rogers came off the screen — that way all WSU’s leading scorer needed to see before drifting a perfectly-weighted pass over the out-stretched fingertips of Goldin to a streaking Ballard down the middle of the lane for a slam dunk.

“They were (forcing us to our left hand) and trying to go over the top every time,” Rogers said. “If you can keep the advantage and Q rolls as hard as he does, then I don’t think anyone can jump and meet him at that high of a level. Once you see that, just throw it over the top. We knew they weren’t a team that tagged on the roll very hard, so we knew we could attack them that way.”

It’s true: FAU stuck with drop coverage for the majority of the game and WSU punished the Owls for the majority of the time. The Shockers scored a season-high 42 points on plays initiated by a pick-and-roll, according to Synergy, for a tidy 1.17 points per possession.

“Coach said they were going to go under most screens, so I had to hit them again, re-screen and then put some pressure on the rim,” Ballard said. “Either we were going to get a paint-touch alley-oop to me or we were going to get a wide-open corner shot. We had it rolling there for a little bit.”

A sixth straight loss certainly dampened the mood in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s game, but there was plenty to be encouraged by WSU’s development in the pick-and-roll game ahead of Sunday’s 1 p.m. Central showdown at South Florida.

The Bulls (10-5, 3-1 AAC) have won eight of their last nine games, including a 20-point, come-from-behind stunner in American Athletic Conference play on Thursday to knock off No. 10 Memphis.

Perhaps most importantly for WSU was the confidence gained by Ballard, who proved what he could do against one of the top big men in college basketball.

“I’m only going to get better by playing against those types of guys like (Goldin) and (KU’s) Hunter Dickinson,” Ballard said. “You know they’re some of the best in the country, so making offense happen and getting stops, it’s a great feeling.”

Confidence was also gained by Cortes, who not only showed what he could do passing out of the pick-and-roll but also what he could do scoring.

“The way you become a good passer is you become a good scorer,” Mills said. “If you’re not a good scorer, nobody is going to pay attention to you because they understand you’re trying to get rid of it. I appreciated the fact that Bijan was trying to go ahead and score instead of defer and pass.”

After Cortes and Ballard had connected on three dunks earlier in the first half, Cortes showed an important development in his game when he came off a Ballard screen, forced a switch by the FAU center and went to work. He dribbled back out to the perimeter to give himself more room to operate and when FAU’s Tre Carroll failed to step up, Cortes fired a 3-pointer that hit nothing but net.

Later in the first half, on WSU’s final possession, Cortes ran a pick-and-roll, this time with Kenny Pohto, and came off the screen aggressively. He attacked a back-pedaling Goldin to drive to the baseline and sent the trailing defender flying by with a simple pump fake, which allowed him space to knock down an open 12-foot jumper to complete a 14-0 run by the Shockers to close out the half.

Those are the kinds of shots Cortes will need to hit to realize his potential in the pick-and-roll game.

“I know I’ve got to be more aggressive,” Cortes said. “So far I’ve been looking more for my passes, but I know I can do that kind of play-making. It’s something I haven’t really ever been pushed forward to do (in college). Now that I have the chance to do it, I can be more aggressive and cause the defense more problems.”

Wichita State at South Florida basketball preview

Records: WSU 8-9, 0-4 AAC; USF 10-5, 3-1 AAC

When: 1 p.m. Central time Sunday

Where: Yuengling Center, Tampa, Fla.

How to watch: ESPN+

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Mike Kennedy with Bob Hull)

KenPom says: USF 76, WSU 72

Projected starting lineups

Wichita State Shockers (8-9)

Coach: Paul Mills, first season, 8-9

South Florida (10-5)

Coach: Amir Abdur-Rahim, first season, 10-5