Shockers’ 3-point outburst is unsustainable, but there is a ‘significant’ takeaway
For a third time, Harlond Beverly was left wide open beyond the arc and punished the defense with a 3-pointer that sent the crowd at Koch Arena into hysterics this past Saturday.
Beverly’s right hand remained in the air when the ball went through the net, as he strutted down the sideline for an emphatic high-five from Wichita State men’s basketball coach Paul Mills.
The crowd noise swelled when the opponent called timeout, as Beverly’s barrage of triples had the Shockers well on their way to a blowout win over Rice.
“I’m a shooter, that’s really it. I mean, 3 for 3, you can’t ask for nothing better than that,” Beverly deadpanned at the podium afterward.
The 6-foot-5 transfer from Miami paused, as if to give the audience a moment to check his 3-point shooting statistics this season. Before this past weekend, Beverly had connected on exactly 10 of his 50 attempts from beyond the arc.
“I’m absolutely joking,” Beverly said, finally flashing a grin. “But it did feel really good.”
Wichita State’s 14-of-22 barrage from deep against Rice isn’t sustainable and Beverly isn’t likely to repeat a 3-for-3 showing — he had three 3s in total since Dec. 16 before the outburst.
But if the confidence gained from the performance leads to Beverly making defenses pay for leaving him unattended more consistently, Mills believes it would be a “significant” development for the Shockers (13-17, 5-12 AAC) entering Friday’s 8 p.m. season-finale at Tulane (13-16, 4-13 AAC) broadcast on ESPN2.
“I’m glad he’s shooting the ball with confidence,” Mills said. “You really don’t need to overthink that if teams are going to (play off him). The best way to attack a plug (help defense) is to make an open shot and he did it all three times.”
Beverly at his best is when he’s able to attack downhill and make plays in the paint, either scoring himself or picking out an open teammate with an assist pass. The Rice game often featured him at his best, as he scored a season-high 23 points with five rebounds, four assists, only one turnover, one block and one steal.
But because Beverly has struggled converting 3s this season, defenses have routinely sagged off of him or left him entirely when he is on the perimeter without the ball. He is far from the only WSU player who receives this treatment, as defenses commonly leave fellow guards Xavier Bell (31% 3-point shooter) and Bijan Cortes (23% 3-point shooter).
The Shockers have struggled offensively this season largely because they play with very little spacing on the court. Because teams aren’t afraid to give up kick-out 3s to WSU guards not named Colby Rogers, the help defense swarms to the ball, which makes paint shots difficult and leads to turnovers driving into well-manned gaps.
“That’s why Harlond’s 3s open up the offense so much,” Rogers said. “If they can’t sage off of him as much, that’s going to open things up for everyone. They won’t be able to tag the roller as hard or trap off of ball screens. It’s just good for our team to have someone else that’s hitting from the outside. We’ve always had that confidence in him, so it’s just a matter of him taking the right 3s.”
As the season has progressed, Beverly has found other ways than shooting 3s to capitalize on the space afforded to him by defenses who chose to leave him.
If he’s in the weak-side corner and his man leaves to stand underneath the basket, Beverly has had success timing a baseline cut to the basket. If he’s one pass away on the wing, Beverly has begun to implement a “Stampede” catch — a running start toward the basket before he catches it, which allows him to beat the recovering defender to the paint.
“I’ve played a lot of basketball games in my life and I’ve been guarded many different ways,” Beverly said. “I just look at every game as a different challenge, no matter how they’re guarding me.”
WSU has won three of its last four games, while Tulane has lost 10 of its last 11 — a forgettable follow-up from a team with several key players back from last year’s 20-win club.
The Shockers need a win on Friday to clinch the No. 9 or No. 10 seed (depending on other results) in the American Athletic Conference tournament in Fort Worth. It’s crucial to avoid a bottom-four finish in the standings, which would require two play-in wins just to reach the quarterfinals and all but eliminates a chance of a deep run.
“We’ve started playing on the front foot instead of the back foot,” Rogers said. “We’ve just stayed the course and stuck together and believed in each other and the coaching staff. Continued to work and continued to grind and those things have paid off.”
This season didn’t began with many expectations for WSU in its first year under Mills, but the team certainly didn’t expect to be fighting until the final weekend of the season to avoid the cellar of the conference.
WSU has its abysmal record in close games to point to, as the eight of the 12 AAC losses have come in two-possession games in the final five minutes of regulation.
It’s not how Mills envisioned things playing out, but he gave credit to his players for continuing to fight and stringing together the team’s first back-to-back wins since November.
“Talent determines your floor and character determines your ceiling,” Mills said. “There’s a certain level of talent you have to have to achieve something, but character determines your ceiling and for the most part we understood we were on par. But winning is in the details. Everybody is going to play basketball, but not everybody is going to play winning basketball. I think these guys have embraced and understood the things that need to get done in order to allow that to happen.”
Wichita State at Tulane basketball preview
Records: WSU 13-17, 5-13 AAC; Tulane 13-16, 4-13 AAC
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Fogelman Arena, New Orleans, La.
How to watch: ESPN2
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Mike Kennedy with Bob Hull)
KenPom says: Tulane 80, WSU 76
Series history: WSU leads 7-4 (3-1 in New Orleans)
