(St. Louis, MO) – Who prevails when the difference between teams is offensive precision against basketball passion? Thursday, when Wichita State faces Notre Dame in a Sweet 16 battle, it pits the high scoring, sharp shooting Fighting Irish against the ‘play angry’ Shockers of Wichita State.
Five Notre Dame players average double figures in scoring, and the team shoots better than 50% from the field. ND can play offense and Head Coach Mike Brey learned his lessons well playing under and coaching under legendary high school coach Morgan Wootten, and then coaching under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Both those coaches preach and demand precision high intensity offense.
Notre Dame (31-5) is the second best shooting (.509) and 12th highest scoring team (78.8) in the country. They’ve won seven straight games, including their triumph in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. The Irish reached the Sweet 16 with an overtime win over Butler.
Wichita State (30-4) doesn’t impress in any offensive statistical category, except in the most important one… winning percentage. The Shockers have the best record in college basketball over the last five years. Key to their success is gritty, tenacious team defense. Gregg Marshall’s team is ninth nationally in points (56.7) allowed.
WSU is not big. They don’t shoot particularly well, but these veterans know how to help each other on defense and how to find each other on offense. The Shockers have trailed numerous games this season, only to gut out meaningful wins. WSU earned their way to this game with a dominating performance against Kansas.
Wichita State is giving up several inches at virtually every position, as leading scorers Jerian Grant (16.8), Zach Auguste (12.6), Pat Connaughton (12.5) are all 6’5” or better and so is fifth leading scorer Steve Vasturia (9.8). Only fourth leading scorer, Demetrius Jackson (12.4) is shorter at 6’1”. Only Darius Carter, in the Shocker starting lineup is as big as that ND quartet.
WSU counters with three players that average double figures too. Leading scorer Ron Baker (14.9), Fred VanVleet (13.2) and Carter (11.1) turn that trick and Tekele Cotton is just off that line at 9.9. Baker, VanVleet and Cotton have been to a Final Four, this is their second Sweet 16 appearance and they have won an awful lot of games together.
So who wins, precision and height or defense and grit?
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
