NIT Preview: Wichita State vs. Charleston Basketball Predictions

Written by Jake Thompson
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:16

It’s time for a preview and college basketball predictions in tonight’s NIT game between Wichita State and Charleston.

The 7:00 PM ET game between the Wichita State Shockers (26-8) and the Charleston Cougars (26-10) is the focus of our NIT college basketball preview, and our predictions on the final score should be fairly close to what you should expect tonight on ESPN2.  The college basketball game between Charleston and Wichita State is set to be played in the Charles Koch Arena and that makes the Shockers the home team in this NIT clash.

Many teams struggle away from home but the Cougars have actually put together a decent 13-9 mark when they have to travel.  Wichita State is 13-4 at home this season and has claimed victories over Nebraska (76-49) and Virginia Tech (79-66) to advance this far in the NIT.  Charleston took out Dayton (94-84) to open up their NIT play before pulling the upset over Cleveland State (64-56) last time out.

Cougars forward Jeremy Simmons (13.3 PPG, 6.2 RPG) remains out as he deals with a blood clot in his arm.  Simmons hasn’t played since early February and 6’8” frame will definitely be missed on the inside tonight since Wichita State is a team that rebounds the ball with the best of them.  If Charleston wants to pull another NIT upset, they’ll have to find a way to work around their rebounding deficiencies because I don’t see them competing on the boards.

The Cougars keep a pretty fast pace to their offense and it will be interesting to see if they can generate their high shooting percentage (47.7% from the field this season) against a terrific Wichita State defense that allows opponents to shoot just 41.0% on the year.  Charleston has won 7 of their last 10 games and the lowest amount of points they’ve scored in the losses was 62 in a road game at Western Carolina.

Wichita State is fairly healthy and it appears that guard Demetric Williams (4.3 PPG, 1.5 APG) will be able to suit up after suffering a right knee injury in the win over Virginia Tech.  The Shockers should get high-percentage shots in the paint tonight and I think that will eventually open up some looks from 3-point range.  The Shockers have shot 36.9% behind the arc at home this year and should be able to do some damage on kick outs after offensive rebounds.  Charleston has been forcing opponents into tough shots lately and it will be key for the Shockers to stick to their slower pace and not give in to the Cougars’ wants to play a bit more up-tempo.

Charleston is going to have to be extremely sharp if they want to leave this NIT game with a win.  Wichita State is at home and that rebounding edge is going to take its toll as the game wears on.  Ultimately, I think the Cougars could get hot and take it but the Shockers are much more likely to dominate on the inside with easy baskets while forcing Charleston to make mistakes with ferocious defense.

Charleston 66

Wichita State 75