Wichita State basketball game analysis: Five takeaways from 17-point win over Lipscomb

The Paul Mills era began to great success on Monday, as the Wichita State men’s basketball team scored a 76-59 win over Lipscomb at Koch Arena.

Here are five takeaways from the Shockers’ first victory of the 2023-24 season.

1. Paul Mills has big plans for future at Koch Arena

It wasn’t the experience of a sold-out Roundhouse, but Paul Mills still came away in awe of his first regular-season game on the home bench at Koch Arena.

After losing three times to the Shockers as a visitor while coaching at Oral Roberts, Mills said his debut victory at Koch Arena “easily ranks as the best” debut in his coaching career.

“I told our players afterward that it’s our job, not only for (the fans) to support us, but it’s our job to support the city,” Mills said. “Our responsibility is to play well. We need to make sure that we do it at a level that people appreciate.”

It’s hard to imagine the majority of the 6,286 fans in attendance for Monday’s season opener not coming away impressed by the new product on the court. But Mills realizes it will take more than double-digit wins over mid-major opponents to begin a new sellout streak in the Roundhouse.

“I kind of go by the words of Truett Cathy, the owner of Chick-fil-A, you’ve got to get better before you get bigger,” Mills said. “I know we’ll get bigger, but it’s our job to get better. And if we get better, then the stadium and the demand will get bigger. But we’re locked in on getting better right now.”

He may be new, but Mills also has a favorite WSU fan tradition picked out.

“I’m already thinking, ‘How long can we keep these fans standing before the other team scores?’” Mills said. “I’d like to get a round (in between media timeouts) in where they don’t score and we keep them standing the whole round.”

After going toe-to-toe with Mills on Monday, count veteran Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff as a believer in WSU’s new head coach.

“Paul Mills is a fantastic coach who is going to do a great job here,” Acuff said. “I told him after the game, ‘This is the first of many for you here.’ This will be a work in progress, but he’ll get it right. They’re going to get good players here. And he’s a really good coach and an even better person.”

2. Early-morning workouts translate to mid-range explosion for Colby Rogers

At 7 a.m. Monday, Colby Rogers could be found inside Koch Arena about to begin a workout with WSU staffer Xavier Holland and a pair of graduate assistants.

It’s been a staple to Rogers’ training regimen and he didn’t see the need to change anything, even if the start to the college basketball season was later that night.

Rogers launches hundreds of shots from all over the court, but there are certain sweet spots that he feels the most comfortable at in the mid-range area.

After his WSU debut on Monday, his first game in nearly 20 months following a redshirt transfer year, those sweet spots became evident in Rogers’ 20-point explosion that featured a bevy of mid-range jumpers in the first half. He was billed mostly as a 3-point specialist, and while he did connect on two triples on Monday, Rogers did the bulk of his damage on mid-range jumpers.

“It’s about finding my sweet spots. I know if I get to my sweet spot, just rise up,” Rogers said. “I feel the contest, but when you work on a shot so many times throughout the year, it’s kind of like second nature. Once I get to the spot, I shoot that shot a thousand times. I know I shot that shot at 7 this morning.”

Rogers poured in 18 points during a nine-minute stretch in the first half, beginning with a turnaround jumper, with the 6-foot-4 Rogers easily shooting over 6-foot Lipscomb defender Joe Anderson.

Anderson stuck on Rogers, who was happy to continue to exploit the mismatch. The next opportunity he had, Rogers isolated Anderson in the post, executed a quick step-back jumper and elevated over him for a raindrop from 10 feet out. The next time down, Rogers attacked Anderson again, sizing him up before once again shooting over his outstretched hand for a 15-foot jumper. Later in the half, Rogers finished off his mid-range masterpiece with another post-up on Anderson, dribbling straight to his favorite spot along the baseline and rising up one last time to drain a short jumper.

“I think we’ve just got to live with that,” Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff said. “You can’t take away everything. If he’s going to make 15-foot turnaround jumpers over a hand, I think you’ve just got to live with it.”

By the end of the onslaught, Rogers had 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

He never found his touch after halftime, finishing the second half without a made field goal, but a 20-point debut on 8-of-17 shooting was still something to take pride in after such a long layoff.

“It’s been a long time and now the wait is finally over,” said Rogers, who last averaged 14.1 points per game for Siena in the 2021-22 season. “The exhibition was the game to get the rust off and now I wanted to fully show what I can do. It felt good and I thought my teammates gave me the confidence to do it, my coaches gave me the confidence to do it. I was just happy to be out there finally and perform for Shocker nation and come out with a win.”

3. Isaac Abidde, Quincy Ballard deliver career-best games

A season after being on the outskirts of the team’s rotation, Isaac Abidde and Quincy Ballard appear to be headed for a much larger impact for this year’s Shockers.

Each player delivered a career-best performance on Monday, as Abidde came off the bench to score 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting with 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal, while Ballard notched his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds to go along with a pair of blocks.

“It meant a lot to me,” said Abidde, who averaged 2.4 points in 8.6 minutes per game last season. “I’ve had a lot of people in my ear to stay down, stay patient. And I feel like my time has come.”

Abidde has tantalizing athleticism, which was on full display midway through the first half when he crashed the glass, secured an offensive rebound below the net on the way down and still managed to bring the ball up and flush it through the rim for a put-back dunk.

Mills has been impressed by the mindset of the Albany, Georgia, native since working with him in the spring.

“I told him at the end of the spring, ‘Ike, you’re a heck of a player, the question is: How committed are you to this? How good do you want to be?’” Mills said. “He shows up, he does everything we ask and he fully embraces his role. We had meetings with the guys this past week and he said, ‘Just tell me what I can do to help.’ I guess if you go 6-of-7, that’s helping.”

Kenny Pohto, who has been at WSU all three years with Abidde, said it felt like a breakthrough moment in Monday’s game when Abidde drilled two separate turnaround fadeaway jumpers.

“I’m really proud of him,” Pohto said. “He’s been working on that little mid-range jump shot, the fadeaway since our freshman year.”

“My dad always talks about Kobe, so I just watched Kobe videos and try to do it,” Abidde said of the fadeaway. “I’ve been working on that shot since I came here. I was working on it before tonight’s game. I work on it whenever I work out. So it’s just a shot I have a lot of confidence in.”

Abidde and Ballard were part of the front line that held Lipscomb to just 50% shooting (12 of 24) in the paint and dominated the glass, grabbing 36% of WSU’s own misses and 79% of possible defensive rebounds — both elite marks.

“Even for this level, they’re big and they’re physical,” Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff said. “We had a hard time with them. They’re so much bigger than we were and we have pretty good size for our level. I was impressed. They really played hard and I think their physicality will be a problem for teams in the American.”

4. Shockers work through their zone issues

Perhaps the largest roadblock for WSU in its 17-point victory came after the first media timeout in the second half, when Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff switched to a 2-3 zone.

WSU’s offense had been humming, but the zone brought it to a halt. The Shockers looked unsure of themselves and settled for outside shots; they produced just three points on their first five trips down the floor. That allowed Lipscomb to trim its deficit to nine points with 12:21 left.

“Some of our formations just weren’t right,” Mills said. “There were some screening and set plays that we run, and in the moment guys just weren’t screening at that particular time.”

After some antsy possessions, WSU finally calmed down and took its time to find Dalen Ridgnal, the player floating in the middle of the zone at the free throw line, to collapse the defense.

The first time he touched it, Ridgnal found Abidde open in the right corner for one of WSU’s three 3-pointers in the game. On the next zone possession, Ridgnal caught it again in the middle of the defense and attacked the rim. His shot was blocked, but Ballard recovered the loose ball for an easy basket.

What finally drew Lipscomb out of the zone was a sideline special from Mills that ended with an alley-oop dunk by Abidde over the top of the defense. The high-flying sophomore had a free runway down the baseline as his launchpad because both of WSU’s centers, Ballard and Pohto, were setting back screens on Lipscomb’s bottom zone defenders.

“The screens have to be right, the screens have to be on time, the pass has to be right, the catch has to be made,” Mills rattled off. “There’s so many moving parts. To be honest, I was already thinking, ‘All right, do they remember what we’re trying to do defensively now?’”

After its initial issues with the zone, WSU solved its problems — without needing a timeout — to score on its final three trips. The Shockers finished with 10 points on eight zone possessions, while the team finished at 1.07 points per possession on offense and 0.82 points per possession on defense.

5. Playing time, rotations beginning to take shape for WSU

It’s a small sample size, but Mills’ preferred rotations are already beginning to take shape.

It’s evident starting guards Xavier Bell (30 minutes), Colby Rogers (32) and Harlond Beverly (27) are all in store for heavy usage this season. With no clear backup at guard, Mills staggered their minutes to make sure two were always on the court while the third rested.

WSU was at its best with Bell on the court, pummeling Lipscomb 68-38 with the offense spiking to 1.24 points per possession and the defense peaking at 0.69 points per possession.

“When I scripted this and we thought through as a staff how many minutes guys would play, I’m actually pretty happy with these amount of minutes,” Mills said. “Especially Colby only playing 32 because there’s a going to be a lot more expected from him moving forward.”

While the starting lineup features two centers in Pohto and Ballard, they often don’t play together after the initial run to begin halves. Mills has tinkered with playing Ridgnal at power forward with Pohto at center, while Abidde soaks up minutes at small forward that allows one of the guards to rest.

It remains to be seen if veteran center Jacob Germany (6 minutes) can earn more playing time, but for now, Mills has kept his rotation tight with seven players in Monday’s opener playing between 18 and 32 minutes.

“John Wooden, the great UCLA coach, said he believes in two things, being in shape and having fundamentals. And I’m kind of the same mindset,” Mills said. “There’s elementary things that we need to do and need to do well, but none of that can happen if we’re not in great shape.”