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Flanagan vs. Texas Southern

MBB Preview: at UCF (Dec. 28)

12/27/2022 2:16:00 PM

WICHITA STATE (7-5, 0-0) at UCF (9-3, 0-0)
Wednesday, Dec. 28 | 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET)
Orlando, Fla. | Addition Financial Arena
 
TV: ESPN+
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM (goshockers.com/Listen)
Live Stats: shockerstats.com
Series: WSU leads 8-1 (3-1 in Orlando)
 
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • Wichita State opens American Athletic Conference play on the road Wednesday evening against the UCF Knights at Addition Financial Arena.
  • This will be the Shockers' final AAC era trip to UCF, which departs this summer for the Big 12.
  • WSU lost its last visit (Feb. 8, 2022) but still leads the all-time series 8-1 (3-1 in Orlando).
  • UCF was picked sixth and WSU eighth in the AAC preseason poll, but they finished out the non-conference portion of their schedules with the league's third and fourth-highest NET rankings (UCF, 66; WSU, 109).
  • The Shockers (7-5) posted a winning non-con record for the 25th consecutive year but were 1-3 in games decided by five points in either direction with close setbacks against NET No. 33 K-State (away), No. 40 Missouri (home) and No. 88 San Francisco (Neutral).
  • Senior point guard Craig Porter Jr. is one of just two returners from last year's active roster, along with sophomore forward Kenny Pohto.
  • Porter is one of the nation's most-versatile players, averaging 12.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists (AAC #5, 1.8 blocks (AAC #2, NCAA #46) and 1.7 steals (AAC #7).
  • Junior guard Jaykwon Walton has been an impact addition, averaging 12.5 points and a team-best 6.6 rebounds. He has three double-doubles and a pair of 20-point performances.
  • 11 newcomers (nine of them transfers) have seen action this year for WSU which is still building chemistry on the offensive end but has been excellent defensively (37th nationally in effiency, per KenPom), holding opponents to 60.3 points (21st) on 36.4% shooting (9th).
  • WSU has held all five of its December opponents to less than 40% from the field and 10 of 12 overall.
  • UCF has followed a similar path after losing all but three lettermen from last season. Nine newcomers (six transfers) have logged time for the Knights, who are No. 35 on KenPom's defensive efficiency chart and have limited foes to 60.8 points (t-26th) and 39.0% (34th).
  • The Shockers are averaging a conference-best 25.25 bench points. Reserves combined for 42 of the 65 tallies in WSU's Dec. 22 win over Texas Southern, led by Jaron Pierre Jr. (18) and James Rojas (14).
 
 
ON THIS DATE: DEC. 28
1963 – The Shockers won the All-College Tournament title in Oklahoma City. All-American Dave Stallworth was named MVP after piling up 92 points in wins over Montana State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma City.
1965 – Down 15 points (79-64) with 5:48 to go, WSU finished the game on an 18-2 run to stun Xavier in the first round of the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City. Jamie Thompson supplied eight points during the rally and Lillard Harris hit a jumper at the buzzer for an 82-81 victory.
2016 -- WSU opened its final season in the Missouri Valley Conference with an 80-72 win at Indiana State. Darral Willis Jr. finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds.
 
 
LAST TIME ON SHOCKER BASKETBALL:
Dec. 22, 2022 (Wichita) | WSU 65, Texas Southern 56
  • Jaron Pierre Jr. scored eight of his game-high 18 points in the final 3:17 to help WSU put away TSU.
  • Attendance was listed at 6,468 but less than a third of that showed on a day where temperatures plunged below zero and wind chills dipped to -30.
  • James Rojas added 14 points and Jaykwon Walton claimed his third double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for WSU (7-5), which lost starting point guard Craig Porter Jr. to an ankle injury near the 18:00-mark of the second half but found just enough offense to stay afloat.
  • Davon Barnes (16 points, nine rebounds) and Joirdon Karl Nicholas (12 points, 12 rebounds) did the bulk of the damage for preseason SWAC favorite TSU.
  • WSU made just 2-of-14 threes on the night but outshot the visitors 44.6% to 32.4%.
  • TSU missed 16 of its first 18 attempts to start the game as WSU raced to leads of 14-7 and 22-11. Porter hit a jumper ahead of the horn for a 32-22 halftime edge.
  • WSU led by 16 near the 12:00-mark of the second half but missed 12 of its next 13 shots, along with the front-end of three different one-and-one opportunities.
  • TSU capitalized with a 15-2 run to cut it to 52-49 with 3:27 to go, but WSU scored on its next five possessions to restore order. Pierre threw down a contested dunk and hit a step-back jumper to set off a 10-2 run.
  • WSU reserves accounted for 42 points.
 
 
TRENDING:
  • WSU has held its last five opponents under 40% from the field. That's happened just eight other times in the NCAA's shot clock era (1985-86 to present). It's the longest Shocker streak since a nine-gamer that began against Clemson, Indiana and Lipscomb in the 2019 NIT and continued through the first six games of the 2019-20 season.
  • WSU's 26 threes against Longwood (13/31) and Mississippi Valley State (13/36) were the most in a two-game stretch in Shocker history.
  • WSU's 3 triples in the two subsequent games against Oklahoma State (1/21) and Texas Southern (2/14) were the fewest since February, 2000 when the Shockers followed up an 0-for-12 performance against Centenary by hitting 3-of-16 against Southern Illinois.
  • WSU's .086 three-point percentage over these last two contests is the lowest combined figure since Dec. 21 and Dec. 28, 1991 when the Shockers shot .071 against Utah (1/12) and Southern Illinois (0/2).
  • Melvion Flanagan made his debut in the starting lineup in the Dec. 22 win over Texas Southern. He's the first WSU walk-on to start a game since Wichita Southeast grad Lance Harris during the 2007-08 season. Harris appeared in 20 games with five starts that year and averaged 2.0 points in 11.8 minutes.
  • WSU is 9-8 in true road games under Isaac Brown. Over the last 10 seasons, the Shockers' .714 road winning percentage  (70-28) is second only to Gonzaga.
  • WSU is the AAC's western-most outfit. Average distance to the other 10 conference venues is 733 miles, as the crow flies. Four foes are over 1,000 miles away. At 1,121 miles, Orlando is WSU's second-farthest roadie -- about 80 miles closer than Philadelphia (Temple)
  • WSU is 52-30 in league play in five seasons since joining the league and won its first regular season title in 2021. WSU's winning percentage is the league's third-highest in that span behind Houston and Cincinnati.
 
 
THE SERIES WITH UCF:
  • The Shockers are 8-1 all-time against the Knights, but five of the nine meetings have been decided by five points in either direction.
  • The teams split last year's home-and-home. The Shockers won 84-79 in Wichita (Jan. 26) behind Ricky Council IV's 31-point performance but fell 13 days later in Orlando (Feb. 8). Brandon Mahan supplied 19 points, including a crucial three-point play with 26 seconds left to give the Knights their first series win, 71-66.
  • WSU is 3-1 at Addition Financial Arena and has won all five meetings in Wichita. The teams had never met prior to 2017-18 when the Shockers joined the AAC.
  • This will be WSU's final AAC trip to Orlando with UCF set to depart this summer for the Big 12. The Knights' final trip to Wichita comes on Feb. 8.
  • The Shockers survived a pair of nailbiters in 2020-21 on their way to the AAC regular season title. On Jan. 30 in Wichita, they overcame an eight-point deficit with less than 4:00 to play to win in overtime (93-88). Less than two weeks later in Orlando, WSU survived, 61-60, after Darius Perry's potential game-winning jumper missed the  mark.
  • Two WSU-UCF games have gone to overtime -- both Shocker wins. In addition to the 2021 thriller at Charles Koch Arena, the Mar. 1, 2018 clash in Orlando saw bonus basketball when UCF's A.J. Davis banked in a three-pointer at the buzzer to end regulation. The 11th-ranked Shockers regrouped for a 75-71 victory.
 
 
SCOUTING UCF:
  • UCF lost four starters and all but three lettermen from last year's sixth-place team (18-12, 9-9) but is out to a 9-3 start with wins over Oklahoma State, Ole Miss and Florida State with help from a talented group of 12 newcomers that includes six transfers.
  • UCF is one of the nation's most-methodical teams, averaging just 63.3 possessions (352nd out of 363 teams, per KenPom).
  • The Knights are limiting foes to 60.8 points (26th) on 39% shooting (34th) and are elite on the offensive glass, grabbing 36.7% of their own misses (18th).
  • 6-9 true freshman Taylor Hendricks – a consensus four-star, top-100 recruit -- leads the team in points (15.3), rebounds (7.0) and blocks (20) and has connected on 23-of-50 from three (.460). He's the first player in AAC history to win four consecutive Rookie of the Week honors (Nov. 21, 28, Dec. 5, 12).
  • 6-1 sophomore point guard Darius Johnson has built on last year's AAC All-Freshman campaign, averaging 11.3 points, 2.4 steals and 4.9 assists with a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Per KenPom, Johnson's 5.1% steal rate and 34.4% assist rate rank 19th and 28th respectively on the national leaderboards.
  • A pair of 6-5 senior transfers have given the Knights some additional firepower out on the perimeter. Ithiel Horton (Pittsburgh) averages 11.1 points and 2.2 threes on 37% accuracy. C.J. Kelly (UMass) is putting up 10.9 points and 1.8 threes on 35.5%.
 
 
MATCHUP MASHUP:
  • Per KenPom, newcomers have accounted for 81.2% of Shocker minutes this season -- second-most among AAC schools behind UCF's 84.6% (No. 21 nationally). Quite the contrast from a year ago when returners accounted for a conference-best 66.7% of UCF's minutes. and 61.9% of WSU's (third-most).
  • Only five players who saw time in last year's WSU-UCF series are back, but four others have some prior history.
  • Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler faced UCF three times in his first go-around as a Shocker (2018-21).
  • WSU's Quincy Ballard faced UCF as a true freshman at Florida State (Dec. 19, 2020). He made his only field goal attempt in two minutes off the bench.
  • Before transferring to UCF last summer, Brandon Suggs played three seasons at ECU, though he'll face WSU for only the second time due to a combination of injury and COVID-19 cancelations. He scored nine points in 30 minutes in a Jan. 1, 2020 matchup in Wichita.
  • Michael Durr is in line for his seventh career start against WSU but his first with UCF. In three seasons at South Florida (2018-21), Durr faced the Shockers six times and averaged 9.4 points and 8.8 rebounds.
  • The Shockers are 3-1 vs. UCF under Isaac Brown.
  • WSU is 8-2 all-time vs. Johnny Dawkins (8-1 during his tenure at UCF).
 
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD….
... Make them 8-5 with wins in four of the last five.
... Make them 1-0 in league play for the fourth time in six AAC season.
... Give them a 9-1 lead in the all-time series with UCF (4-1 in Orlando).
 
 
UP NEXT:
  • WSU is back home Saturday for a New Year's Eve date with East Carolina (3 p.m. CT, ESPN+). Tickets are available online at goshockers.com/Tickets.
  • WSU is 6-0 against the Pirates (3-0 in Wichita).
  • The Shockers won the lone meeting last season at CKA (70-62). Craig Porter Jr. did Craig Porter Jr. things, finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in 34 turnover-free minutes, to go with two blocks and a steal.
  • ECU (9-4 in its first season under head coach Michael Schwartz) knocked off South Carolina earlier this month, 64-56, on a neutral court.
  • Picked last out of 11 teams in the AAC preseason poll, the Pirates open league play Wednesday at home against Temple.
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