How No. 7 WSU can avoid an upset against No. 10 Drake in the NCAA Tournament

OMAHA, Neb. – Whenever Kyle Smith talks about Drake, the midmajor club his seventh-seeded Cougars take on in Thursday’s NCAA Tournament opener, he tends to come back to one player.

It’s all about Tucker DeVries, Smith said. The junior, the 10th-seeded Bulldogs’ best player, does a lot for them – scores, rebounds, passes, defends. The son of coach Darian DeVries, Tucker might be at the top of the scouting report for the Cougs, who may send an array of defenders his way.

“Even though he doesn’t bring the ball up the floor all the time, it’s almost like they’re put together a little like the Dallas Mavericks with Luka (Doncic),” Smith said. “He averages 3.6 assists, and he’s a really good scorer. And then they have really good guys that fit with him as far as guys that can bang 3s and guard their position and they share the ball. So they’re a pretty complete team. They’re used to being here.”

So much of Washington State’s preparation for this game, set for 7:05 p.m. on truTV, involves preparing for DeVries. He’s played 84% of the Bulldogs’ minutes this season, and at 6-foot-7, he’s used his size to blossom into the multifaceted scorer he is today. He shoots 36% from 3 and 51% inside the arc, which is the kind of efficiency that has helped the Bulldogs reach their third NCAA Tournament in four years.

How will WSU defend DeVries? It may not be so simple – the Cougs often run a matchup zone, which will have several players guard him – but the easy answers are wings Jaylen Wells and Andrej Jakimovski. They match up well in terms of size, but the quicker Wells might be the better option.

But part of what makes DeVries such a tough cover is that the Bulldogs use him just as well off-ball as they do on-ball. In his best games, like Drake’s Missouri Valley Conference title game win over Indiana State, DeVries has come off pin-down and flare screens for open 3s – which means WSU can’t fall asleep just because he doesn’t have the ball in his hands.

That’s where the Cougs’ matchup zone defense might come in handy. Rarely do they follow one player around the court. Usually, they switch when one player moves around, ensuring they’re being watched at all times.

It’s the kind of zone defense that works well against off-ball actions like Drake’s.

“I think we have to stop their best scorer, best player (DeVries),” Jakimovski said. “So we gotta play as a team, play good defense, and make him score hard on us and that’s it.”

“Very talented team. Offensive juggernauts,” WSU forward Isaac Jones added. “They’re pretty good. They have great players. They play as a team, and they get good shots. We just have to limit their shots, limit 3s, no second-chance points, and outcompete them.”

Another matchup that might dictate Thursday’s winner: Who gets to the glass best, especially on offense? Drake is tops in the country in preventing offensive rebounds, giving them up just 22% of the time. WSU snares offensive rebounds on 33% of its offensive trips, using its size – second highest in the country – to stick back misses.

Several Bulldogs have spearheaded that effort. The 6-11 Darnell Brodie, Drake’s starting center playing his sixth year of college ball, pulls down 7.9 rebounds a game.

The Cougs will have to keep an eye on him on the offensive glass, which is harder to do out of a zone, one of the pitfalls of that matchup zone look.

“I’m big,” Brodie told reporters Wednesday, answering a question on dealing with WSU’s size.

What about his other teammates?

“We got that dog in us,” Brodie said. “We in the weight room.”

Smith drew a comparison from Brodie to Eddie Lampkin, the Colorado center who changed last week’s game against WSU on the interior. At 6-11 and 265 pounds, the Cougs had trouble corralling him underneath, no matter which defenders they tried.

Then Lampkin picked up back-to-back fouls for his third whistle, prompting him to take a seat on the bench, opening up the door for WSU to make a run and get back in the game. The Cougars did so, but even when Lampkin re-entered, he wasn’t able to play like himself because of foul trouble.

Is it a blueprint for WSU – get Brodie in foul trouble? Maybe. The Cougs might also try Jones on Brodie on offense, try to leverage Jones’ athleticism and mobility against Brodie, who is a little slower-footed on the interior.

Brodie is also averaging a career-high 1.9 assists per game, which may not be a lot, but it does indicate that he’s doing a better job of finding teammates on the perimeter. It’s part of how Drake’s shooters like Atin Wright and Conor Enright have found rhythms.

“There’s not a lot of holes, and this time of year that’s what you expect. There’s going to be good teams,” Smith said. “We have a size advantage, but they’re the No. 1 defensive rebounding team in the country as far as the percentage they give up. That tells me they’re really, really good habits, really well-coached.”

Also worth monitoring on WSU’s side is the status of Jakimovski, who continues to play through a shoulder injury on his right arm, his shooting side. On Wednesday, he said, “I’m gonna have pain, but I’m trying to not focus on that and play the game the right way.”

“The back-to-back (games at the Pac-12 Tournament) might have been a little much,” Smith said, “but a lot of things happen in those back-to-backs where you turn around quickly, and he missed a layup early in the game. I don’t think it had anything to do with his shoulder, but it could have. He wouldn’t say really if it did. That’s the kind of guy he is.”