Tyrone Garland introduced the world to the ‘Southwest Philly Floater’ last weekend, sending La Salle into the Sweet 16 for the first time in over 50 years. He, Ramon Galloway, Tyreek Duren and company will next have to contend with a Wichita State Shockers club busting some brackets of their own. After handily defeating Pittsburgh in their opening round contest, the Shockers hit their last seven threes to upset #1 seed Gonzaga. The odds of a 33% three-point shooting team hitting seven in a row are over 2,000:1. Wichita State hung with the Bulldogs all game, though, so fans should not dismiss that victory as pure luck.
Like La Salle, Wichita State played a weak out-of-conference schedule during the regular season, with their best wins outside the Missouri Valley coming against VCU and Iowa. Also like the Explorers, Wichita State likes to play at a below average pace, so I wouldn’t expect this game to turn into a track meet. The similarities end there, however, as Wichita State excels at rebounding on both ends of the floor, a huge area of weakness for the Explorers. Wichita State’s offensive rebounding rate is the 11th-best in the country at 37.7%, while La Salle is just 245th at 27.7%. On the defensive glass, the Shockers are also 11th-best nationally at 75.9%, whereas La Salle ranks 255th at 67.9%. Jerrell Wright will be the most important player for the Explorers; he stepped up with a 21 point, 8 rebound effort against Kansas State, a team with a similar size advantage. If Wright doesn’t approach that level of performance, La Salle will not stand a chance.
The Shockers are predominantly a veteran bunch with mainly upperclassmen within the top of their rotation. Cleanthony Early comes off the bench to lead the team in scoring at 13.9 ppg in addition to his 5.2 rpg; the 6’8″ power forward is rated as the 61st-best junior in the country. Senior Carl Hall teams with Early down low, averaging 12.6 ppg and a team-leading 6.9 rpg. Finally, senior Malcolm Armstead, the transfer from Oregon, controls the action for the Shockers, leading the team with 4.0 apg, to go with his 10.6 ppg.
Wichita State has a dominating rebounding advantage and has already gone through two highly-regarded teams in Gonzaga and Pittsburgh. La Salle always has a puncher’s chance to get hot from behind the arc as they did in the first half against Kansas State, but Wichita State is among the top 100 teams at defending the three. With opponents shooting just 32.3% against the Shockers from behind the arc, it’s not a glaring weakness that La Salle should be able to exploit. I expect the round of sixteen to not be so sweet for the Explorers as Wichita State advances.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
