Florida is riding high with a 7-0 start to the season and they’ll have an interesting test Friday when they take on the 6-0 Wichita State Shockers in the championship game of the ESPN Events Invitational.
The pathway for how these two teams got there is pretty different. Florida was able to clamp down on defense and comfortably dispatch Wake Forest 75-58, but things weren’t so comfortable on the other side of the bracket. Wichita State went into overtime against Minnesota and while they were up for much of the game, they nearly let it slip and the end while coming away with a 68-66 win.
The story of this game was their defense to keep the game so low scoring and their offensive execution down the stretch and in overtime to win some key possessions. Leading the way for the Shockers was guard Harlond Beverly with 16 points, and some huge buckets in crunch time.
Wichita State is in year two of the Paul Mills era after a period of irrelevance that followed having to move on from Gregg Marshall for reasons of misconduct. A program that was once a basketball powerhouse has fallen out of the spotlight over the last four seasons, but Mills is the coach that Wichita State feels can bring them back to where they want to be. There is excellent investment with the program that should lead them back to national relevance, and while this might not be the year they go back on a huge tournament run it could be the initial building blocks of that plan.
The Shockers have a very interesting roster, and if you think you don’t know anything about it–think again. You are actually going to see a lot of names that sound familiar and that have ties to playing against Florida.
Let’s start with head coach Paul Mills. Mills was at Oral Roberts when they upset the Gators in the NCAA Tournament where he put on a coaching clinic in the second half to erase Florida’s lead and ultimately come away with the win.
In terms of the roster, Harlond Beverly was once recruited by the Gators and ultimately went to Miami where he played for four seasons.
Point guard Justin Hill played the last two years at Georgia, where he had some of his best games against the Gators.
Bijan Cortes played at Oklahoma and played against the Gators twice.
Quincy Ballard played at Florida State, also playing against the Gators twice.
Ronnie DeGray played at Missouri, playing against Florida–you guessed it, twice.
Seeing this you can clearly tell what Wichita State’s roster building philosophy is–they want guys who have proven they can play in the best leagues in the sport, even if these are guys that largley came off the bench. They also have excellent mid-major transfers in Corey Washington from Saint Peter’s, as well as Drexel’s Xavier Brown.
These are a lot of names to keep up with, but Wichita State has good NIL and a desire to be competitive right away so they definitely made it a priority to bring in veteran players and the Gators will see a team with a lot of experience.
Speaking of experience, Wichita State also brought in one of the more…shall we say, controversial transfers of the college basketball offseason. Center Matej Bosnjak came to the Shockers this year (his first, and possibly only in college basketball) as a 22 year old who had been playing professional basketball for nearly 5 years. Many people didn’t think this is the kind of player that should be ruled eligible, but ultimately he was before the opening night of the season and Wichita State now has a veteran 6’9”, 245 pound center who plays smart, savvy basketball and he’s going to be a key player to watch against the Gators.
Leading the way in scoring for Wichita State is point guard Justin Hill who is averaging 17.4 points and 4.8 assists per game, and Florida will know first hand just how he’s doing it. Hill is a slippery talent on the perimeter who can get into the paint at will. Listed at 5’11” he’s got a small frame that can fit into tight spaces and watching him work you can see that his small stature is not actually a detriment, but actually a positive for how he’s able to leverage it. Shooting the three isn’t a strength of his game at just 29%, but he’s hard to play off of defensively as if you give him a big cushion he will gain speed and drive downhill right down the heart of the defense so he becomes a difficult cover.
Right now the Shockers are undefeated, though the overtime nail biter with Minnesota was their first game against a high-major opponent. They do have wins over strong mid-major competition in Western Kentucky, Montana State, Northern Iowa, and St. Louis, but the Gators will certainly be the most talented team they have faced to this point of the season.
Paul Mills has always been a coach that gives his players a lot of freedom on the offensive side of the ball but expects a high level of buy-in on the defensive end and so far that is where they have been at their best. With so many veteran players it stands to reason they should be savvy and communicative on the defensive end, and so far it has had positive results.
Florida and Wichita State will tip off Friday, November 29th at 3:30 ET PM, and it will be televised on ESPN or ESPN 2 (it has not yet been set at this time).