‘Do the little things’: Revived Weber State men’s basketball focusing on humble approach
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- Weber State’s Dillon Jones dribbles against BYU’s Jaxson Robinson on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Provo.
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- Weber State center Alex Tew (20) shoots over Northern Colorado’s Brock Wisne (14) on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Zahir Porter (0) puts his arm around Dillon Jones (2) as Steven Verplancken Jr. (11) and KJ Cunningham (3) walk up the court in the final seconds of a loss against BYU on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Provo.
OGDEN — The sample size for Weber State men’s basketball’s renaissance is small but grows a little more each game.
Thursday night, the Wildcats opened conference play with an 81-72 win over Northern Colorado in a contest WSU led by as many as 22 points against a Bears team voted to finish second by Big Sky coaches and media.
Weber State has now won four of its last five games, a stretch that included hammering Cal Poly by 29 on the road, upsetting Utah State (NCAA NET ranking as of Friday: No. 21) and battling BYU (109 NET) from start to finish in a six-point loss.
With conference play underway, it appears Weber State may be a factor in the Big Sky after all.
“I think we’re learning that there’s a certain way we have to play the game and if we can play like that, we can be very effective,” first-year head coach Eric Duft said Thursday. “We’ve just got to continue to be who we are and play to our identity.”
That identity includes better defensive effort overall, but also a more sound, patient approach to offense that gets players good shots and doesn’t put the defense in a bind.
While 3-point shooting helped WSU break out — in consecutive games against St. Martin’s, Cal Poly and Utah State, the Wildcats hit 10 or more 3s at a 50% clip — it’s the other end of the court where the Wildcats have surged. Duft replaced 6-foot-3 Junior Ballard in the starting lineup with 6-foot-6 Dyson Koehler, and junior guard KJ Cunningham’s increased minutes have improved the defense as well.
“It just took time for us to figure it out. I know people gave us a hard time early on about the record or whatever. We knew in the locker room, we didn’t lose confidence,” third-year forward Dillon Jones said Thursday. “We knew the team we were and what we could be, it just took a little time. And credit to everybody for staying the course and staying positive with it just not bending over and folding.”
The Wildcats had one of the worst defenses in the country through nine games. Opponents shot 3-pointers at a blistering rate, got to the rim and shot a high two-point percentage, and everything in between. But Weber State has held down each of its last five opponents: Saint Martin’s (an 11-2 Division II team) scored 25 points under its season average, Cal Poly was 18 points short, Utah State 13, BYU 13 and Northern Colorado scored right at its usual average.
So Weber State still looked much improved even when it shot 6 of 24 from the 3-point at BYU and lost by six, and 5 of 15 against Northern Colorado and led for 38 minutes of the contest.
Sophomore center Alex Tew says the change has been about things players can control.
“We know we have to play with energy because if we don’t, we’re going to come out and lose the game … we have no option, really,” Tew said Thursday. “Sometimes it’s not going to be your night, shots aren’t going to fall, it’s not going to go your way with the officials. But you can control your enthusiasm and your energy every single night.”
The Wildcats have improved in technique defensively but have also clicked when it comes to executing a game plan based on opponent scouting. Jones says that attention to detail is imperative.
“If we want to have a chance, those are just things we have to do. Recently, we’ve been doing that. We do it because we have to, and that’s what we’ve been talking about as a team,” Jones said.
Weber State has gone from a defensive rating of about 350th (of 363 Division I teams), according to Ken Pomeroy’s metrics, to a middle-of-the-pack 181st nationally over the last three weeks. Overall, the Wildcats are up 74 total spots on Pomeroy’s national rating and their expected conference record has improved by three games.
With a 6-8 overall record at the dawn of conference play (Game 2 is at 2 p.m. Saturday hosting Northern Arizona), time will tell if this recent swing is an ebb or flow for a mediocre Big Sky team, or if the proverbial switch has been flipped.
“Now that we’re seeing it happening, we’re not like overly hyped and excited about it because we just have a sense of humbleness to just say thank you to everybody just for staying the course and staying with the process, because that’s all it was. We knew the type of team we were, it just took time,” Jones said.
“We’re not this like overly talented All-Star team. We’ve got to do the little things and be humble enough to know that maybe we’re not the most talented — we’ve got good players, but we’ve got to be humble in our approach and give everybody our best and play hard.”