The RoundHouse | 3/25/2019 3:57:00 PM

 
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.
 
Jaime Echenique knew Dexter Dennis was ready for Clemson because of the look on his face, the no-smile zone that suggests seriousness and calm amid the noise and commotion of a basketball game.
 
"I've spent one year with him and I know when he's hungry," Echenique said. "He never smiles at that point."
 
Which, Echenique acknowledges, doesn't seem a lot different than Dennis at other times. This is the Shocker who beat Tulane with a three-pointer and declined to celebrate. Dennis' usual mode is serious, and, for a game like Clemson, more serious. 
 
"He smiles sometimes, but on the court, you can see it – I don't know how to describe it," Echenique said.
 
Here's how many describe Dennis: So much like former Shocker Tekele Cotton it makes them smile and nod at the memory. Strong defenders. Quiet and composed. Sneaky sense of humor. Dennis, like Cotton, is often described as a typical, goofy, college kid out of the spotlight. When asked for an example of goofy, it's a struggle.
 
"Off the court, he's one of the goofiest dudes I've been around," guard Ricky Torres said. "We're just always laughing. Just goofy. On the court, it's all business."
 
That personality and his athletic gifts leads to the comparisons with Cotton. Graduate manager J.R. Simon, who played with Cotton, told people this summer soon after Dennis arrived for his freshman season. Gretchen Torline, director of athletic academic services, saw it immediately, as well.
 
Like Cotton, Dennis is the kind of wit who sits in the back of the room and provokes others into laughing while escaping blame during a meeting.
 
"He's a jokester, but on the down low," Torline said. "He's Tekele. Never the class clown, but always there underneath."
 
Always there underneath is how Clemson guard Marcquise Reed described Dennis' defense in Sunday's 63-55 loss to the Shockers in the second round of the NIT. Dennis gave the Shockers 38 minutes of vintage Cotton-style defense in holding Reed to 18 points on 20 shots. Teammates helped, of course, but Dennis took the lead role in contesting shots, denying passes and making Green uncomfortable in a way his 19.5-point-a-game scoring average suggests few others did.
 
"He blocked several shots at the rim – you're talking about a 6-foot-5 freshman who's got a bright future," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said.
 
The sixth-seeded Shockers (21-14) play at top-seeded Indiana (19-15) on Tuesday (6 p.m., ESPN) and Dennis, a 6-foot-5 guard from Baker, La., will get another chance to defend the best.
 
"I try to be as locked in as I can every game," Dennis said after beating Clemson. "This game, it means a lot more, trying to get to Indiana and it's one step closer, of course, to get to New York. It just really meant a lot to win this game, I can't lie."
 
Cotton used to do that exact thing for the Shockers during a career that included many memorable shutdowns and Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2014 and 2015. Both are tremendous dunkers. Dennis is at least three inches taller and a better outside shooter. Dennis averages 8.0 points and 5.4 rebounds while making 37.7 percent of his threes. He is showing more driving ability in recent games and set up a three-pointer late in the game with a nifty pass-fake that gave him room to shoot.
 
His gifts give him the potential to play more of a leading role on both ends than Cotton.
 
"I always knew from the jump that Dexter was going to be a great defender, with his length and size and huge hands," senior Markis McDuffie said. "Dex is very mature for his age. He knows what to do and how to get it done."
 
Dennis' leap from potential to production came when he cut down on his fouls by keeping his hands in the proper position. "Show your hands" is one of the most common defensive instructions given by Shocker coaches, a prompt to get defenders to let the officials see their hands and avoid the reaching and touching that leads to whistles.
 
In mid-January, he asked out of the starting lineup after fouls limited him to nine minutes against Cincinnati and 14 against South Florida. By mid-February, he returned to the starting lineup and played 22 or more minutes in all 11 games since. He made the conference's All-Freshman Team with a seven-game push in which he averaged 11.1 points and 7.8 rebounds and made 46.6 percent of his three-pointers.
 
"He just didn't know how to play defense and show his hands," Marshall said. "Instead of now reaching out like he's a fork-lift, or Edward Scissorhands, he is putting his hands up and using that length to contest shots and alter passes."
 
Dennis, like most of the Shockers, is new to college basketball and enjoying the NIT. Each game is seen as a reward for the improvement that turned the season over the past two months.
 
"It's March," he said. "We have a lot of life left in us. We just want to keep playing together, really. It will be weird to not see these dudes every day."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.