The waiting is the hardest part of Wichita State’s week in Birmingham.
The Shockers know when they play. They know where they play. They even know the range of possibilities for who they play. But with a triple bye into the American Conference tournament semifinals, Wichita State is spending this week in a different kind of preparation mode, sharpening itself before the real pressure begins.
As the No. 2 seed, WSU won’t take the floor until 4 p.m. Saturday at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala., where the Shockers will play on ESPN2. They won’t know their opponent until Friday night, when No. 3 seed Tulsa faces the winner of Thursday’s game between North Texas and Florida Atlantic.
Wichita State is traveling to Birmingham on Thursday, practicing there on Friday, then playing Saturday.
That unusual rhythm has forced the Shockers to strike a balance between staying fresh, staying sharp and resisting the temptation to over-focus on an opponent they won’t know until roughly 24 hours before tipoff.
“It’s a lot of sharpening and synchronicity and making sure everybody is on the same page,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “Offensively, it’s about us. And then defensively, this is how we attack this specific action once we see it. So there’s actually a lot that can get done even though you’re not going to know your opponent until Friday evening.”
For Mills, that starts less with the whiteboard and more with the mirror.
Wichita State enters the postseason playing its best basketball of the season, having won 11 of its last 13 games to improve to 21-10 overall and 13-5 in the American. The Shockers secured their first 20-win season in six years and now sit two wins away from their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021. They’re also trying to capture the program’s first conference tournament championship since 2017.
And the path, at least on paper, is manageable. WSU has beaten every possible semifinal opponent in the field in Birmingham. The Shockers split with Tulsa and Florida Atlantic, but won the rematch against both. They also beat North Texas in Wichita in their only meeting.
Still, Mills’ focus this week has centered more on the tiny details that tend to decide March games than any one set play an opponent may run.
“What I’m always wondering is when the ball is in the air and when the ball is on the floor, who are we?” Mills said. “We’re pretty good when the ball is in the air. But when the ball is on the floor, there’s a level of tenacity that we need to get better at there.”
That first part of Wichita State’s identity is already established.
The Shockers have turned themselves into one of the best rebounding teams in the country and have become a constant problem on missed shots, ranking No. 4 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage. They have built an edge by extending possessions, punishing teams on the glass and consistently winning the physicality battle.
Mills believes the next step is winning even more of the 50-50 plays, the loose balls, the chaotic moments when possessions hang in the balance for an extra second. In March, those seconds can swing seasons.
That is the area where Mills wants his team to improve most during this week-long gap between games. He wants WSU to become even tougher on the margins, because tournament basketball often comes down to who handles the in-between moments better.
That has shaped the structure of practice this week.
When asked how Wichita State is handling a full week off at this point in the season, Mills said the Shockers have shifted to shorter, high-intensity practices. The team tracks the intensity and workload of its players during each session and compares them to the previous 30 practices. According to Mills, every practice this week has graded out as the team’s new No. 1 in workload.
In other words, the Shockers are doing less in terms of time and more in terms of force.
The floor work has been condensed, but the edge has been sharpened. More time has gone to film study and walk-throughs. More attention has gone to the fine print of WSU’s own offense and defense. More urgency has gone into the little habits that can create one extra stop, one extra rebound or one extra easy basket.
That doesn’t mean the coaching staff is standing still on scouting.
Wichita State has assistant coaches assigned to each possible opponent, and staff meetings this week have been filled with deep dives into Tulsa, North Texas and Florida Atlantic. But Mills knows the Shockers won’t have the luxury of a normal game-week build-up once the matchup is finalized Friday night. So the challenge for the staff is to simplify.
“Our staff meetings this week have been pretty extensive, so we need to be able to trim that down,” Mills said. “These are the two things that this particular team does that we need to be prepared for.”
Instead of a sprawling scouting report, WSU plans to whittle everything down to the two or three biggest areas that matter most against whoever emerges Friday night. That task is made easier by familiarity. The Shockers have seen Tulsa and Florida Atlantic recently and would not be facing many surprises if one of those teams advances.
At the same time, Mills said WSU has also used this week to clean up its own bread-and-butter actions. Even now, he believes the Shockers can find small tweaks in spacing, timing or execution that might free someone for a cleaner look at the rim.
That may sound minor, but Mills sees those details as potential game-deciders. A sharper baseline-out-of-bounds set, a new wrinkle against zone or a crisper read in man-to-man may only show up once. But in a one-possession game, once can be enough.
That is the paradox of Wichita State’s week. The Shockers have time, but not much certainty. They have space to improve, but not a definite opponent.
So Mills wants emotional steadiness without emotional dullness.
“You have to have an edge,” Mills said. “You can’t treat tournament games, even though the stakes are higher, you can’t let the emotion of the moment get to you. So your ability to turn the page this time of year and have emotional stability is pretty high. But you do have to play with an edge.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 10:58 AM.
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Taylor Eldridge
The Wichita Eagle
Wichita State athletics beat reporter. Bringing you closer to the Shockers you love and inside the sports you love to watch.
