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MBB Preview: Tulane (Jan. 25)

1/24/2023 7:37:00 PM

TULANE (12-7, 5-3) at WICHITA STATE (10-9, 3-4)
Wednesday, Jan. 25 | 8:05 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
Tickets: goshockers.com/tickets
TV: ESPNU w/ Drew Carter & Mark Adams
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM (goshockers.com/listen) w/ Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
Live Stats: shockerstats.com
Series: WSU leads 6-2 (4-1 in Wichita)
 
 
COACHES vs. CANCER:
WSU coaches will wear suits and sneakers as part of the NABC's Coaches vs. Cancer Week. Cancer doesn't wait, and neither should you. Visit coaches.cancer.org to find a screening location near you!
 
TICKETS:
Seats are available online at goshockers.com/tickets, by phone at 316-978-3267 (FANS) or in person at the Shocker Ticket Office, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on game days beginning 90 minutes before tipoff in the southwest corner of Charles Koch Arena.
 
WATCH:
The game will air on ESPNU with Drew Carter (PxP) and Mark Adams (Analyst) on the call.
Fans with ESPNU in their cable/satelite/streaming package can also stream live and on demand via the ESPN App.
 
LISTEN:
Listen live on KEYN 103.7 FM and online at GoShockers.com/Listen as college basketball's longest-tenured tandem, Mike Kennedy (pbp) and Dave Dahl (analyst), describe the action. Pregame coverage begins one hour before tipoff.
 
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • The Wichita State Shockers look to slow Tulane's flow Wednesday night at Charles Koch Arena.
  • WSU leads the series with Tulane, 6-2, but was swept last year in a pair of one-point games.
  • The Green Wave escaped Wichita with a 68-67 victory when WSU's last-second layup was negated by a charging call. In New Orleans, Tulane trailed by nine with 3:38 to go but finished on a 10-0 run. Jalen Cook sank three free throws with six seconds left for a 67-66 win.
  • The Green Wave are the conference's highest scoring team (80.6 ppg) and rank among the top-10 nationally in tempo (9th, 72.9 possession-per-game), free throws (9th, 17.4) and free throw percentage (2nd, .815).
  • The Shockers have held opponents to 38.5% from the field this year (11th nationally). They've committed fewer fouls than any other AAC team and are limiting foes to a league-low 10.6 free throw makes.
  • After an 0-3 AAC start, the Shockers have won three of their last four games -- all in comeback fashion. They rallied from second-half deficits of 14 and 16 in wins over South Florida and Tulsa.
  • Sunday at SMU, the Shockers trailed by nine early in the second half. Jaykwon Walton scored nine of his team-high 18 points during a 15-0 run that helped turn the game in WSU's favor. Craig Porter Jr. hit a jumper and three go-ahead free throws in the final minute.
  • 11 of the 13 Shockers who have seen action are newcomers (nine transfer, two redshirt frosh).
  • Porter (12.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg) is one of just two holdovers from last year's active roster. The senior guard is the AAC's leading shot blocker (1.89) and also ranks among its leaders in assists (8th, 3.7) and steals (8th, 1.44).
  • Four of the top-5 WSU scorers are transfers, led by Walton, a former top-100 recruit at Georgia, who averages 12.7 points. He's made back-to-back appearances on the AAC weekly honor roll.
  • Senior forward James Rojas (8.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has double-doubles in two of the last three games.
 

 
LAST TIME ON SHOCKER BASKETBALL…
Jan. 22, 2023 in Dallas, Texas | WSU 71, SMU 69
  • Playing in Dallas for the first time since its historic 24-point comeback three seasons ago, WSU staged a fitting encore, trading twin 15-0 runs with SMU in the closing minutes before regrouping for a 71-69 victory.
  • Jaykwon Walton scored 18 points for WSU, including nine during a pivotal second-half run that put the Shockers ahead by 13 with just under 4:00 to play.
  • The Shockers turned the ball over in the back court five times in their next seven possessions, allowing SMU to reel off 15 straight points to retake the lead.
  • SMU's Zach Nutall (17 points) converted a four-point play and turned two steals into layups during the run, including the go-ahead basket with 1:41 to go.
  • WSU's Craig Porter Jr. sank three free throws for a 70-69 lead with 35 seconds left, and the the Shockers got back-to-back defensive stops. Zach Nutall missed a three with eight seconds remaining. After an Isaac Abidde free throw,  Zhuric Phelps' missed a would-be winner of his own as time expired.
  • James Rojas (12 points, 10 rebounds), Porter (11 points, four blocks) and Jaron Pierre Jr. (10 points) joined Walton in double-figures.
  • The Shockers outshot the Mustangs 45-38% and outscored them 24-16 at the foul line.
  • WSU won its sixth straight over SMU and improved to 4-0 at Moody Coliseum since joining the American.
 
 
ON THIS DATE: JAN. 25
  • 1964 – Dave Stallworth scored 29 points and the 10th-ranked Shockers made 10 free throws in the last three minutes to finish off No. 3 Loyola, 80-76. It was the defending national champion Ramblers' only home loss of the season at Chicago Stadium.
  • 2009 – Freshman Toure' Murry's three-pointer with nine seconds left gave WSU its first and only lead of the night in a 51-50 win over visiting Evansville.
  • 2015 – Fittingly, Tekele Cotton celebrated his new title as "All-Time Winningest Shocker" in a game that WSU dominated defensively. The 14th-ranked Shockers' 74-40 victory was Cotton's 108th, surpassing Demetric Williams (2009-13). Cotton went on to reach 120-
  • 2018 – 17th-ranked WSU got 50 points from its bench in an 81-62 home win over UCF in the first-ever meeting between the schools. Shaquille Morris accounted for 19 of those points and became just the seventh Shocker to participate in 100 career victories.
 

 NEW KID ON THE BLOCKS:
  • With his four blocks against SMU on Sunday, 6-2 point guard Craig Porter Jr. regained the conference lead in blocks-per-game (1.89). He ranks 38th nationally in that category. Each of the 37 players ahead of him stand 6-foot-7 or taller.
  • Porter has 34 blocks in 19 games this year and is on pace to finish among the top-4 on WSU's single-season list.
  • Porter's 69 career blocks are 18th on WSU's all-time list. He needs one more to catch former teammate Dexter Dennis (70 from 2018-22) for 17th and seven more to match Ron Baker (76 from 2012-16) for the most by a Shocker guard.
  • More impressive, still, is that Porter has amassed his total in just 62 career contests (1.11-per-game). Only seven Shockers have averaged more than a block-per-game in a career spanning three-or-more seasons. All of them were traditional big men: Antoine Carr (1.9), Robert Elmore (1.6), Gene Wiley (1.5), Ehimen Orukpe (1.1), Terry Benton (1.1) and Shaquille Morris (1.1).
  • Porter has been remarkably consistent. Over the last two seasons, he's blocked at least one shot in 36 of his 43 games (including 15 of 18 this year).
  • The website RealGM breaks down stats by position. Porter's 1.9 blocks are most among the nation's point guards. He's No. 4 in rebounding (5.8).
 

 JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH BASKET:
  • Isaac Brown calls James Rojas the toughest player he's coached in more than two decades at the DI level.
  • The sixth-year senior has provided veteran leadership for the Shockers all year, but he's taken his scoring up a notch in the past two weeks. He's reached in double-figures four straight times (after doing so twice in the first two months) and is averaging 13.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in that span with a pair of double-doubles.
  • Rojas keyed the Jan. 14 comeback against Tulsa 11 points with personal-bests for rebounds (10) and assists (5).
  • He followed it up with another assertive effort at Memphis, charting a career-high 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He drew nine fouls and converted 8-of-10 free throw attempts.
  • Rojas drew six more fouls at SMU on Sunday and finished with 12 points and 10 boards.
 

 TRENDING:
  • Isaac Brown wants to see his players attack the basket more instead of settling for three-point looks. The team is shooting less than 30% from beyond the arc this year. Over the past three games, WSU has averaged 27.3 free throw attempts (up from 15.3 in the first 16 games). Sunday at SMU the Shockers made 26 of their season-high 32 attempts.
  • Case and point: Junior wing Jaykwon Walton is just 2-of-18 from three since the start of conference play, but he's converted 18-of-25 (.720) from insde the arc. Over his last three games, Walton has been to the line 25 times (20/25, .800).
  • WSU is 3-4 in conference despite trailing at halftime in all seven games.
  • The Shockers are 3-17 in jump balls this year. They last controlled an opening tip on Dec. 17 against OSU.
 

 THE SERIES WITH TULANE:
  • WSU leads 6-2 (4-1 in Wichita and 2-1 in New Orleans).
  • The Shockers won each of the first six meetings prior to last season when Tulane swept a home-and-home with a pair of one-point victories.
  • The Green Wave rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to win in Wichita. In New Orleans, they trailed by nine points with 3:38 to play but finished on a 10-0 run.
  • The teams meet for the sixth consecutive season in Wichita. Last January, Tulane won for the first time ever at Charles Koch Arena when Ricky Council IV's would-be  buzzer-beater was waived off by a charging call.
  • WSU is 2-1 in New Orleans. Two of the three games have come down to last-second shots. A Dexter Dennis corner three at the horn snapped a 79-all tie in WSU's 2019 visit. Last season, Tulane's Jalen Cook hit three free throws for a 67-66 lead with six seconds left. WSU's Tyson Etienne had made seven threes up to that point but missed on the game's final possession.
 

 SCOUTING TULANE:
  • Tulane continues to make strides in its fourth season under Ron Hunter. The 29-year veteran needs just seven more victories to reach 500 for his career.
  • Last year's 10-8, fifth-place AAC finish marked the first time in 15 years that a Tulane team has finished over .500 in league play and the first time in 25 years that the school has posted double-digit conference wins.
  • Tulane (5-3 this year) ripped off five straight victories to begin the month of January but is coming off back-to-back losses to Houston (80-60) and Tulsa (81-79 ot).
  • The Wave returned all five starters, including a trio of all-conference performers who are averaging over 51 combined points sophomore guard Jalen Cook (first team), junior guard Jaylen Forbes (second team) and junior forward Kevin Cross (third team).
  • Tulane plays an up-tempo style (ninth nationally in possessions-per-game, according to KenPom) and relies on a matchup zone defensively.
  • The Wave are the league's highest-scoring team at 80.6 points-per-game and rank among the NCAA leaders in free throw makes (9th, 17.4) and percentage (2nd, .815).
  • Forbes leads the scoring at 18.8 points (21.5 in AAC play). He averages 2.7 threes on 37.7% accuracy and more than 5.0 free throws on 89.8% efficiency.
  • Cook (18.4 ppg) is shooting 89.9% from the free throw line (62-of-69).
  • The 6-foot-7 Cross averages 14.4 points and tops the team in rebounds (6.1) and assists (3.9).
  • Sion James (10.7 ppg) averages 3.8 assists and ranks among the national leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio (3rd, 3.27) and minutes-per-game (9th, 36:44).
  • The guard trio of James (2.1 spg), Forbes (2.0 spg) and Cook (1.4 spg) are excellent at taking care of the ball and taking it away from the other team, combining for 105 steals compared to just 82 turnovers. As a result, the Green Wave began the week ranked among the nation's top-20 in assist-to-turnover ratio (19th, 1.45) and turnover margin (17th, +4.3).
  • Rebounding has been one of the few weaknesses for Tulane, which ranks 338th out of 352 teams in margin (-5.3) and 343rd in offensive boards-per-game (6.6).
 

 MATCHUP MASHUP: 
  • Per KenPom, the 11 WSU newcomers have accounted for 81.2% of the minutes this season -- second-most among AAC schools and among the top-40 nationally.  By contrast, returners have accounted for a nation-best 81.9% of Tulane's minutes.
  • WSU's Jaron Pierre Jr. is a New Orleans native and St. Augustine High graduate. As a senior in 2020 he earned 5A first team all-state honors on a team that finished 31-2 and advanced to the Division I state title game (Louisiana's largest private school class).
  • Melvion Flanagan is from Alexandria, La. As a senior (2019-20) he led Peabody Magnet to a state title and was first team All-Class 4A.
  • WSU head coach Isaac Brown's hometown of Pascagoula, Miss. is less than two hours from New Orleans along the Gulf Coast. His finished his collegiate career in upstate Louisiana, helping ULM to the 1993 NCAA tournament as a senior.
  • Assistant coach Billy Kennedy was on staff at Tulane during the 1989-90 season and helped head coach Perry Clark restart the program after a four-year absence. Kennedy played and later served as head coach at Southeastern Louisiana.
  • Tulane assistant Kevin Johnson worked two years under Kennedy at Centenary (1997-99).
  • Tulane associate head coach Ray McCallum was head coach at Detroit from 2008-16 and twice faced the Shockers as part of ESPN's BracketBusters series.
  • WSU's James Rojas and Tulane's Jaylen Forbes were teammates at Alabama during the 2019-20 season.
  • Gus Okafor played the last two seasons at Southeastern Louisiana. The 6-6 grad transfer is two rebounds shy of 500 for his NCAA career and needs just 38 more points to reach 1,000.
 

 THE #FIGHT4LITERACY CONTINUES: 
  • For the sixth-consecutive year, the men's basketball team will partner with Coaching for Literacy to host a #Fight4Literacy game in support of literacy efforts in the local community.
  • Coach Brown and staff will wear green lapel pins during the Feb. 8 UCF game to raise awareness for the cause.
  • Fans are invited to make a donation in support of local programs. One hundred percent of funds generated at the game will stay in the community through a grant partnership with the United Way of the Plains. 
  • Join the #Fight4Literacy by visiting https://charity.pledgeit.org/f/PS4fKy4eaS
 
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
  • Make them 11-9 with wins in 4 of their last 5.
  • Get them back to .500 in AAC play (4-4) after an 0-3 start to the year.
  • Snap a two-game losing streak to Tulane and extend their all-time series lead to 7-2.
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...
  • Drop them to 10-10 (3-5 AAC).
  • Be their third straight loss to Tulane after six straight wins to start the series (6-3).
  • Dip their home record to 6-5 (1-3 in AAC games).
  • Be less good than a win.
 

 UP NEXT: @ EAST CAROLINA
Sunday, Jan. 29 | 11 a.m.  CT (Noon ET) | ESPNU
Greenville, N.C. | WIlliams Arena at Minges Coliseum
  • WSU will play a game in Greenville for the first time since Feb. 6, 2019. Knock on wood.
  • The Shockers did not play at ECU in 2020 due to the unbalanced scheduled. Road games in each of the next two seasons were called off due to health and safety protocol -- the latter just hours before tipoff.
  • ECU defeated the Shockers on New Year's Eve in Wichita (79-69).
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