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Rojas vs Tulane

MBB Preview: at Tulane (Feb. 26)

2/25/2023 8:09:00 AM

WICHITA STATE (14-13, 7-8) at TULANE (17-8, 10-4)
Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 | 2 p.m. CT
New Orleans, La. | Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse
 
TV: ESPNU w/ Derek Jones & Tim Welsh
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM (goshockers.com/listen) w/ Mike Kennedy & Bob Hull
Live Stats: shockerstats.com
Series: WSU leads 6-3 (2-1 in New Orleans); Last: Jan. 25, 2023 in Wichita (TLN, 95-90 ot)
 
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • The Wichita State Shockers travel to New Orleans Sunday for an American Athletic Conference clash with the Tulane Green Wave.
  • The Shockers have been better on the road (6-3, 5-2 AAC) than at home (7-8, 2-6). They've won four straight in enemy territory – the last three by double-figures.
  • It's a homecoming game for Louisiana natives Jaron Pierre Jr. (New Orleans) and Melvion Flanagan (Alexandria). Ditto for head coach Isaac Brown, whose hometown of Pascagoula, Miss. is less than two hours down the Gulf Coast. Senior forward Gus Okafor played the last two years at Southeastern Louisiana.
  • Craig Porter Jr. celebrates his 23rd birthday on Sunday.
  • The Shockers fell to Memphis Thursday night, 83-78, in a game that featured 16 lead changes. James Rojas matched his career-high with 19 points. Porter had five of WSU's 12 steals to go with seven assists.
  • WSU is 6-3 against Tulane but has dropped the last three meetings. Two of those losses were by a single point and the other came in overtime.
  • On Jan. 25 in Wichita, Tulane rallied from an 18-point first-half deficit to win 95-90 in OT behind big nights from Jaylen Forbes (25 points) and Jalen Cook (20). The Wave trailed by eight with 2:41 to play in regulation but scored on 14 of their last 16 possessions. Jaykwon Walton had a career-high 24 points for WSU and Porter added 12 points, 11 boards and eight assists.
  • Indeed, no Shocker lead has been safe these past two seasons against Tulane. The Wave overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to win their 2022 trip to Wichita. In New Orleans, they trailed 66-57 at the 3:38-mark but finished the game on a 10-0 run.
  • Walton is the Shockers' leading scorer at 14.4 points. Since his Jan. 14 return from an ankle injury the junior has posted 11 straight double-figure scoring games. He's made at least half of his field goal attempts in every one of them (65/108, .602).
  • Porter (12.8 points) leads the team and ranks among the AAC leaders in blocks (3rd, 1.5), assists (5th, 4.4), steals (9th, 1.4) and rebounds (12th, 6.2).
  • Porter has handed out at least six assists in each of the last five games. That ties a school record held by Melvin McKey (1995-96), Joe Griffin (1987-88) and Randy Smithson (1980-81).
  • Porter (75 blocks in 70 career games) needs just one more to match Ron Baker for most by a Shocker guard.
  • WSU is 5-0 on Sundays and has won six straight afternoon contests.
 
 
ON THIS DATE: FEB. 26
  • 1968 – In his final home game, senior Warren Armstrong tallied the last of his four career "triple-doubles" to lead the Shockers to a 95-88 win over Loyola Chicago.
  • 1977 – Robert Elmore paired 17 points with 19 boards in a 74-66 win over West Texas State. It was the senior's 23rd-consecutive double-digit rebounding effort – a school record since exceeded only by Xavier McDaniel.
 
 
A (SORT OF) RECORD STREAK:
  • As a child playing basketball in the driveways of Terre Haute, Ind., Craig Porter Jr. dreamed of the day he would tie a school record for most consecutive games with at least six assists. Okay, probably not. But it's worth noting that Porter's active run of five straight has only been matched three other times in the last 50 years of Shocker basketball.
  • Porter's streak began with a seven assist effort at Tulsa on Feb. 5 and has continued against UCF (7), SMU (6), Temple (6) and Memphis (7). Over this stretch, the senior has a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio (33 A, 11 TO).
  • Melvin McKey logged half-a-dozen assists in each of his last five career games during the 1995-96 campaign. Joe Griffin averaged over 6.0 assists in 1987-88 but managed just one five-game streak that year. Randy Smithson was the first to do it during WSU's 1981 Elite Eight season.
  • Porter had eight assists in 43 turnover-free minutes in the first Tulane game back on Jan. 25.
 
 
TRENDING:
  • James Rojas's overall numbers don't jump off the page, but he's been one of the conference's best all-around players over the past two months. Per KenPom, in AAC games he ranks among the league leaders in free throw rate (2nd, 71.8), fouls drawn (4th, 5.4-per-40) and true shooting percentage (10th, 59.3). Defensively, he's second in defensive rebound percentage (24.3) and fifth in steal percentage (3.6).
  • Jaykwon Walton isn't a big, but he plays one on the stat sheet. In his 12 AAC games, the junior wing is shooting a league-best 72.5% from inside the arc (50/69).
  • WSU is 25-21 (.543) in AAC road games in six seasons since joining the league, including 10-9 under third-year head coach Isaac Brown.
  • The Shockers are an uncharacteristic 2-6 in AAC home games. The eight opponents have combined to shoot 39.6% from three (76/192) and none have made less than 30%. WSU is 5-2 in AAC road games, during which the seven foes have collectively made just 20.3% of their threes (24/118).
 
 
THE SERIES WITH TULANE:
  • WSU leads 6-3 (4-2 in Wichita and 2-1 in New Orleans).
  • The Shockers won each of the first six meetings but have since dropped three straight -- two of them by one-point margins and the other in overtime.
  • 30 days ago in Wichita, the Green Wave battled back for a 95-90 overtime win. They trailed by 18 points late in the first half, by 13 at the break and by eight with as little as 2:41 left.
  • In 2021-22, the 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.
  • 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.
  • Prior to 2019, WSU had played three others times in New Orleans but never against Tulane. A loss to the University of New Orleans in the 1982-83 season opener was one of just three suffered by the Shockers, who were led that year by Antoine Carr and Xavier McDaniel. WSU's lone victory in the Big Easy came in the 1981 Midwest Regional Semifinal, played inside the Louisiana Super Dome. Mike Jones' last-second jumper (known in Shocker lore as "the shot") gave WSU a 66-65 win over in-state rival Kansas in "The Battle of New Orleans." Two days later, WSU fell to top-seed LSU in the Elite Eight.
 
 
SCOUTING TULANE:
  • Tulane continues to make strides in its fourth season under Ron Hunter. The 29-year veteran needs just two more victories to reach 500 for his career.
  • Prior to his arrival, Tulane had won double-digit conference games just just two times in program history (most recently in 1996-97 in CUSA). Hunter has done it now in back-to-back years.
  • Tulane (10-4 this year) enters the weekend tied with Memphis for second place in the standings but owns the head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to a season sweep.
  • The Wave returned all five starters from last year's fifth-place finisher, including a trio of all-conference performers who are averaging over 54 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 (fourth 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 81.4 points-per-game and rank among the NCAA leaders in free throw makes (6th, 17.4) and percentage (4th, .793).
  • Cook (20.3 ppg) and Forbes (18.6 ppg) are the league's second and third-leading scorers. Both are averaging better than 20-a-game in league play.
  • Forbes has connected on 68 threes on 37.2% accuracy and averages nearly 5.0 free throw attempts.
  • The 6-foot-7 Cross averages 15.2 points and a team-best 6.3 rebounds along with 4.1 assists.
  • Sion James (10.7 ppg) has clocked a league-high 37.5 minutes-per-game.
  • The guard trio of James (2.2 spg, 3.4 apg), Cook (2.2 spg, 5.0 apg) and Forbes (1.9 spg, 3.4 apg) are excellent at taking care of the ball and taking it away from the other team, combining for 147 steals compared to 129 turnovers. As a result, the Green Wave began the week ranked among the nation's top-25 in assist-to-turnover ratio (25th, 1.40) and turnover margin (15th, +4.0).
  • Tulane is content to let its opponents fetch the rebounds. A -6.4 margin ranks among the bottom-10 nationally.
 
 
MATCHUP MASHUP:
  • 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.
  • Gus Okafor needs just 32 more points to reach 1,000. The 6-6 graduate transfer played his freshman season at Longwood and two more at Southeastern Louisiana.
  • 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.
  • A nation-best 81.2% of Tulane minutes have been clocked by returning players from last year's roster. By contrast, newcomers have logged 81.8% of the Shocker minutes.
  • WSU's James Rojas and Tulane's Jaylen Forbes were teammates at Alabama during the 2019-20 season.
  • Tulane assistant Kevin Johnson worked two years under Kennedy at Centenary (1997-99).
  • Mickey Loomis, general manager of the NBA's Pelicans and NFL's Saints, earned his master's degree in sport administration from Wichita State in 1982.
 
 
LAST MEETING WITH TULANE:
Jan. 25, 2023 in Wichita | TLN 95, WSU 90 ot
  • Jaykwon Walton scored a career-high 24 points, including a game-tying three at the end of regulation, but hot-shooting Tulane prevailed in overtime.
  • Jaron Pierre Jr. added 18 points and Craig Porter Jr. (12 pts, 11 reb, 8 ast) flirted with a triple-double for WSU, which led by as many as 18 late in the first half and by eight with 2:41 to play in regulation.
  • Led by Jaylen Forbes (25 pts) and Jalen Cook (20 pts, 9 reb, 6 ast) Tulane piled up the most points by a Shocker foe since 2007 and the most by a Roundhouse visitor since 1983. 31 of them in the last 3:00 of regulation plus overtime. The Green Wave came away with points on 14 of their last 16 possessions.
  • Sion James' steal and dunk (plus an and-one free throw), put Tulane up 74-71 with 22 seconds left in regulation, but WSU tied the game with nine seconds left when Porter found Walton for a corner three.
  • WSU opened overtime consecutive turnovers before scoring on seven straight possessions. It was too late.  Tulane made 6-of-7 shots in the extra period and all seven free throws to keep the Shockers at arm's length.
  • The Wave shot 50.7% for the game. They missed their first 10 threes before connecting on 9 of their last 15.
  • The Shockers shot 44.4%, made 14-of-38 threes and logged a season-high 21 assists. They outrebounded Tulane 46-33 but lost the turnover battle 14-8 and were outscored 25-16 at the foul line.
 
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
  • Make them 15-13 (8-8 AAC).
  • Get them to within a game of fifth-place Temple with two left to play (top-5 earn a bye in next month's conference tournament).
  • Snap a three-game losing streak to Tulane and up their series lead to 7-3 (3-1 in New Orleans).
  • Be their fifth straight road victory up their road mark to 7-3 (6-2 AAC).
  • Give them five straight AAC road wins for the first time ever.
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...
  • Drop them  to 14-14 (7-9 AAC)
  • Snap a four-game road winning streak.
  • Make them 6-4 in true road games (5-3 AAC).
  • Be their fourth straight against Tulane and narrow their series lead to 6-4 (2-2 in New Orleans).
  • Leave them two games back of fifth-place Temple with two to play.
  • Be less good than a win.
 
 
UP NEXT:  @ HOUSTON
Thursday, Mar. 2 | 6 p.m.  CT | ESPN2
Houston, Texas | Fertitta Center
  • WSU's recent win at Temple leaves Houston as the only AAC opponent that WSU has not defeated on the road since joining.
  • If the Cougars take care of business this week, WSU will face an AP No. 1 for the first time since defeating Gonzaga in the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament. The Shockers haven't encountered a No. 1 ranked team in the regular season since falling on the road at UCLA (120-86) on Dec. 8, 1967.
 
 
AND THEN:  SOUTH FLORIDA
Sunday, Mar. 5 | 1 p.m.  CT | ESPNU
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
  • WSU wraps up the regular season at home. Seniors Gus Okafor, Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler, Craig Porter Jr. and James Rojas will be honored afterward.
  • The Shockers won the first meeting on Jan. 8 in Tampa (70-66). Melvion Flanagan scored 13 of his career-high 16 points in the second half to help WSU pull off one of the biggest road comebacks in school history (down 42-28 with 17:41 left).
  • WSU has won seven straight against USF and leads the all-time series 8-1.
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