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MBB Preview: South Florida (Mar. 5)

3/4/2023 10:50:00 AM

SOUTH FLORIDA (14-16, 7-10) at WICHITA STATE (15-14, 8-9)
Sunday, Mar. 5, 2023 | 1:01 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
Tickets: goshockers.com/tickets or 316-978-3267 (FANS)
TV: ESPNU w/ Joel Godett & Mike O'Donnell
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM (goshockers.com/listen) w/ Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
Live Stats: shockerstats.com
Series: WSU leads 8-1 (4-0 in Wichita); Last: Jan. 8, 2023 in Tampa (WSU, 70-66)
 
 
PROMOTION:  
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • The Wichita State Shockers play host to the South Florida Bulls Sunday in the 2022-23 regular season finale.
  • Both sides are playing for both seeding and momentum heading into next week's AAC tournament.
  • A win gives WSU the No. 6 seed and sets up a first round date with No. 11 Tulsa (Thursday, 6 p.m. CT, ESPNU).
  • A loss would still be good enough for No. 6, if ECU defeats UCF on Sunday. WSU holds a potential tiebreaker with the Bulls, based on its win at Temple.
  • Otherwise (with a loss and a UCF win) WSU drops all the way to the No. 8 line for a first round clash with the No. 9 seed (likely ECU but potentially SMU) on Thursday morning (11:30 a.m., ESPNU). In that scenario, the Shockers are on the short end of a three-way tiebreaker with USF and UCF.
  • USF could end up anywhere from sixth to eighth.
  • WSU is 8-1 all-time against USF with seven straight victories and has swept all four matchups in Wichita.
  • The Shockers needed some second-half heroics from walk-on Melvion Flanagan to win the Jan. 8 meeting in Tampa, 70-66. He scored 13 of his career-high 16 points after halftime to help WSU rally from 14-down.
  • Leading scorer Jaykwon Walton (14.0 ppg) missed Thursday's 83-66 loss to Houston due to illness, but the Shockers still nearly set a school record for shooting percentage (.649) against a Cougar team that came in leading the nation in field goal percentage defense.
  • WSU has been better on the road (7-4, 6-3 AAC) than at home (7-8, 2-6). Shocker teams were a combined 32-11 in AAC home games over the five previous years.
  • Porter is the only player in the nation ranked in the top-100 in both blocks (64th, 1.46) and assists (85th, 4.5).
  • Porter Jr.'s 76 career blocks are tied with Ron Baker for the most all-time by a Shocker guard.
  • In AAC games Rojas ranks among KenPom's league leaders in defensive rebound % (2nd, 23.9), free throw rate (2nd, 82.8), fouls drawn-per-40 (3rd, 5.9), steal % (5th, 3.3) and true shooting % (9th, 60.3).
 
 
ON THIS DATE: MAR. 5
  • 1960 – Playing in his final game, senior Al Tate became the first Shocker to score 40 points, helping WU best Tulsa, 90-73. Tate's total briefly stood as the school record, eclipsing Cleo Littleton's mark of 38, set in 1955. He exited to a standing ovation that lasted for more than a minute.
  • 1983 – In his last game as a Shocker, Antoine Carr broke Dave Stallworth's 20-year old school record with 47 points in a 109-83 win over Southern Illinois at Levitt Arena.
  • 2017 -- WSU defeated Illinois State, 71-51, to win its fourth (and final) Missouri Valley Conference tournament title.
 
 
HOUSTON LEFTOVERS           :
  • James Rojas finished with eight points despite not officially attempting a shot. He drew seven Houston fouls and knocked down 8-of-10 free throws. That's the most points scored by a shotless Shocker in at least the last 25 seasons. Michael Phillips scored six points on 6-of-6 free throws in a Nov. 21, 2000 win against Kansas State and Craig Steven had a similar line in WSU's Feb. 9, 2002 victory over Missouri State.
  • Playing without its leading scorer, WSU flirted with a school record for shooting percentage against a UH team that came in leading the nation in field goal percentage defense. Go figure. WSU was on track to tie the mark of .667 (set 35 years ago against Austin Peay) heading into the final possession. Craig Porter Jr. missed a layup that would have nudged the Shocker percentage to .676. Instead it dropped to .649 -- tied for fourth best.
  • Porter rebounded his own miss on that last possession, preventing the Shockers from tying another less-prestigious school record: fewest offensive boards in a game (2). WSU's three offensive rebounds against UH (due largely to a lack of opportunities) were the lowest Shocker total since the 2015-16 season.
 
 
TRENDING:
  • WSU (7-8 at the Roundhouse this year) needs a win on Sunday to avoid finishing with a losing home record for the first time since the 1995-96 season.
  • 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%.
  • For the season, WSU is shooting just 29.6% from three in home games compared to 34.3% on the road.
  • WSU's starters have played almost three-quarters of the minutes (74.9%) during league play, compared to 64% during the non-conference season.
  • WSU is 11-4 this year when scoring 70+ points in regulation and 32-7 in parts of three seasons under Brown.
  • The Houston game (Mar. 2) marked only the third time this season that WSU has lost a game when out-shooting its opponent. The Shockers are 13-3 this season when posting the higher field goal percentage (32-7 under Brown), compared to 1-10 when out-shot. The lone victory came Jan. 14 against Tulsa.
  • In the Feb. 26 win at Tulane, James Rojas became the sixth different Shocker to reach the 20-point plateau.
  • Rojas has scored in double-figures in 12 of his last 14 games after doing so just twice in his first 14 contests.
  • Jaykwon Walton has made at least half of his shots in each of his last 12 games. He's shooting a league-best 72.9% from inside the arc during conference play.
 
 
THE SERIES WITH SOUTH FLORIDA:
  • WSU 8-1 vs. USF with seven-straight series wins.
  • The Shockers are 3-1 at the Yuengling Center with three straight victories and have won all four encounters in Wichita. They also defeated the Bulls in the quarterfinals of the 2021 AAC tournament in Fort Worth.
  • WSU is 5-0 against the Bulls under third-year head coach Isaac Brown.
  • Brian Gregory has been on the USF bench for all 10 series installments.
  • This is only the third time in six seasons that WSU and USF have played the full home-and-home. Due to the league's unbalanced schedule the Shockers did not travel to Tampa in 2017-18 or 2021-22. USF did not play in Wichita in 2018-19.
 
 
LAST MEETING WITH USF:
Jan. 8, 2023 in Tampa | WSU, 70-66
  • Melvion Flanagan scored 13 of his career-high 16 points after halftime to help WSU pull off one of the biggest road comebacks in school history.
  • Kenny Pohto added a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and personal-best five assists.
  • Russell Tchewa (19 pts, 10 reb and Sam Hines Jr. (11 pts, 10 reb) secured double-doubles for USF, which used bridged halftime with a 13-0 run to go up 42-28 with 17:41 remaining.
  • The Shockers gradually chipped away. It was a 60-53 game at the 4:4t4-mark when Flanagan hit back-to-back threes to set off a 14-2 Shocker run. He finished 4-of-6 from deep.
  • Craig Porter Jr.'s floater knotted the game at 61 with 2:33 left. James Rojas' three-point play with 2:20 on the clock put WSU in front and Jaron Pierre Jr. padded the margin with a driving layup.
  • WSU missed 4-of-8 free throws in the final 48 seconds but delivered enough defensive stops to stay in front.
  • The Shockers shot 40% percent on 7-of-18 three-point shooting (.389). They were 4-of-7 after halftime.
  • USF finished at 37.3% (4-of-23 from deep). The Bulls were 5-of-19 from the field over the last 10 minutes.
  • WSU box scores go back to the mid-1970s. A 14-point deficit tied for WSU's ninth-largest second-half comeback in that span. It was the third-largest on the road.
  • The Shockers defeated the Bulls for a seventh straight time and upped their series lead to 8-1.
 
 
SCOUTING USF:
  • South Florida (14-16) has nearly doubled its victory total from a year ago when it finished 8-23. The Bulls have won three straight and four of their last five coming in.
  • After posting the nation's worst field goal (.376) and three-point percentages (.253) last season, the Bulls have improved to .453 and .339. They're averaging 73.2 points (up from 57.5).
  • Sixth-year head coach Brian Gregory has a handful of program veterans back, including 7-footer Russell Tchewa (11.4 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 61.2% FG), but three of his top-4 scorers are transfers.
  • 5-foot-9 guard Tyler Harris (Memphis) leads the way at 16.8 points-per-game and is averaging a league-best 2.96 threes on 38.9% accuracy along with 3.5 assists.
  • 6-4 sophomore Selton Miguel (Kansas State) averages 10.5 points and 3.3 assists.
  • 6-foot-6 South Carolina grad transfer Keyshawn Bryant (South Carolina) is good for 10.1 points and 4.7 rebounds-per-night. He scored a career-high 30 points in USF's last outing at Tulsa.
  • Tchewa ranks among the nation's top-10 in free throw rate, per KenPom (9th, 77.7).
  • The Bulls have the league's second-best rebounding margin (+4.0) behind Houston.
 

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
  • Lock up the No. 6 seed in next week's American Athletic Conference tournament.
  • Improve their record to 16-14 (9-9 AAC).
  • Be their fourth in the last six games.
  • Give them a regular season sweep of USF.
  • Be their eighth consecutive win over the Bulls and up their all-time series lead to 9-1 (5-0 in Wichita).
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                    
  • Drop them  to 15-15 (8-10 AAC).
  • (with a UCF loss to ECU) make them the No. 6 seed in next week's AAC tournament and set up a first round date with No. 11 Tulsa (6 p.m. CT, ESPNU).
  • (with a UCF win over UCF) make them the No. 8 seed and pit them against the No. 9 seed (likely ECU but potentially SMU) in Thursday's first round (11:30 a.m. CT, ESPNU).
  • Make them 2-7 in AAC home games this year (compared to 6-3 on the road).
  • Be USF's first-ever win in Wichita (4-1).
  • Snap a seven-game series winning streak against USF and narrow their overall lead to 8-2.
 
 
UP NEXT:  AAC TOURNAMENT
Thursday-Sunday, Mar. 9-12
Fort Worth, Texas | Dickies Arena
  • WSU heads to Fort Worth next weekend for the American Athletic Conference Championship.
  • First round action begins Thursday. The top-five seeds earn a bye into Friday's quarterfinal round.
  • For tickets, schedules, bracket, program, rosters, stats and more, visit TheAmerican.org/MBB.
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