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No. 13 Wichita State host struggling Tulane (Feb 20, 2018)
Wichita State is coming off its biggest win of the season, a gritty 76-72 victory at No. 11 Cincinnati on Sunday.
The No. 13 Shockers will look build momentum off the win over the Bearcats, when struggling Tulane visits Charles Koch Arena on Wednesday. Wichita State (21-5, 11-3 American Athletic Conference) has won four in a row while the Green Wave have lost five straight.
"If we are hitting our stride, then I hope that we can sustain it," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said Tuesday. "Maybe we have another stride, I don't know. We played pretty well against Cincinnati, obviously, and you have to do that in order to win there. We now need to keep it up. We have four regular-season games left. We've got the conference tournament and then whatever after that."
Landry Shamet scored 19 points to lead the Shockers past Cincinnati, snapping the Bearcats' 39-game home winning streak. Wichita State moved to one game back of first-place Cincinnati in the AAC standings, tied with No. 23 Houston in second place.
"It's tremendous," said Marshall, who got a post-game celebratory Gatorade bath in the locker room. "Look at my shirt. College basketball has such tremendous parity. The games are decided by great players making great plays. Landry is a tremendous player."
Shamet, a sophomore guard who is considered an NBA prospect, leads the Shockers in scoring (14.7 points) and the AAC in assists (5.2). He created nightmare mismatches for a solid defensive team in Cincinnati, coming off picks outside of the 3-point line, forcing switches and then taking advantage of the bigger Bearcats who were forced to try to stay in front of him.
Tulane features a balanced offensive attack, with five players averaging in double figures. Junior guard Melvin Frazier and senior guard Cameron Reynolds are each averaging more than 15 points per game.
"Tremendous athlete," Marshall said of Frazier. "Obviously, he gets a lot of points around the basket. He shoots a very, very good percentage. I'm not familiar with their team last year, but he's kind of come out of nowhere. All the talk early in the preseason, and the guy that I met in the fall at the conference meeting, was Cameron Reynolds. He's another very good player. Melvin Frazier's kind of burst onto the scene ... an NBA prospect who really has developed under coach Mike Dunleavy."
The Green Wave (13-13, 4-10) suffered a 68-63 loss at home to Memphis on Saturday. Tulane allowed the Tigers to shoot 54 percent from the floor and was outscored 28-18 in the paint, something that's been an issue this season and could be trouble against Wichita State big man Shaquille Morris.
Morris was named AAC Player of the Week after averaging 18 points and eight rebounds last week in wins over Temple and Cincinnati. The senior center grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds and scored 23 points to key the Shockers' comeback win over Temple.
"Big fella is a real factor," Marshall said of Morris. "He can take us to another level."
This will be the first meeting between Wichita State and Tulane.
