Men's Basketball | 3/9/2018 9:59:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
ORLANDO - Shocker forward Markis McDuffie is the perfect analyst to describe why Temple gives Wichita State such headaches.
 
"Coach (Gregg Marshall) actually said I could be on their team," McDuffie said, laughing. "I'm from there. I played all my life against guys who do that all day. Getting to the rim. Scoring the ball. One on one."
 
Second-seeded Wichita State made its American Athletic Conference Championship debut with an 89-81 win over the seventh-seeded Owls on Friday in the quarterfinals at Amway Center. The Shockers (25-6) came to Orlando knowing the bracket was set to make their life miserable.
 
First up, a Temple team that split with the Shockers in the regular season and shoots like Steph Curry against them. On Saturday, it's a date with Houston, which routed the Shockers in one of the two meetings during the regular season. Survive that and on Sunday, everybody expects Cincinnati to be there after Saturday's semifinal date with Memphis.
 
"A lot of teams in this conference, we get their best," Shocker senior Shaq Morris said. "We saw the bracket fill out that way and knew that we had a tougher route than (top seed) Cincinnati."
 
On Friday, the Owls (18-15) again gave the Shockers their best. They entered the game shooting 35 percent from three-point range and 32.6 percent in 18 American regular-season games. Temple made 11 of 24 threes (45.8 percent) on Friday and made 36 of 76 (47.3 percent) in the three meetings.
 
It's not just the outside shooting that fuels the Owls. Guards Shizz Alston Jr., Josh Brown and Quinton Rose are, as McDuffie describes, talented one-on-one players created in Eastern basketball. McDuffie, from New Jersey, often plays the same hyper-drive, get-to-the-basket style.
 
"They're hard to guard," Marshall said. "We certainly do bring out the best in them."
 
It's a chore for the Shockers to defend those three (not to mention freshman Nate Pierre-Louis) and big man Obi Enechionyia. Rose, a sophomore from Rochester, N.Y., scored 25 points on Friday and averaged 20 in the three meetings. Alston, a junior from Philadelphia made 8 of 14 threes in the final two matchups after going 0 for 6 in the first. Brown, a senior from New Jersey, made 3 of 4 threes Friday and 7 of 10 in the three games.
 
"It's not just their guards," Wichita State sophomore Austin Reaves said. "When you have stretch four like (Enechionyia) it spaces the floor so much for those guards."
 
These are the tests Wichita State wanted from the American. The Shockers keep passing most of them because they are more well-rounded, deeper and possess just the right blend of skill and tough to outscore their opponents.
 
On Friday, guard Landry Shamet carried the Shockers with 24 points and made 6 of 8 three-pointers. On a court filled with good guards, Shamet played great. Morris scored 10 points, all in the second half, and put the Owls into foul problems that helped create a 12-point edge for the Shockers. Forward Rashard Kelly made 6 of 8 shots and 4 of 5 fouls shots to score 16 points.
 
"Shamet got hot early and Shaq was a beast," Alston said. "We should have denied Shamet early so he couldn't get that hot start."
 
The depth of scoring talent has been the biggest adjustment for the Shockers in this new conference. In the Missouri Valley Conference, Wichita State could focus their top defenders on one, maybe two, dangerous scorers in most games.
 
In the American, the third and fourth scorers are capable of lighting up the scoreboard.
 
So are the Shockers. They will continue to look for defensive solutions Their scoring skills and efficiency are enough most nights. The way this bracket breaks, Wichita State will need both to cut down nets on Sunday.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.