In the world of college basketball, rankings and lists and orderings of things often function as keys to unlocking the excitement and heightening the rivalry of any given game, or any given season for that matter. This season, Wichita State started its competitive play ranked No. 11 nationally.
Also notably, the Athlon Sports Newsletter compiled “The 10 Most Important Things to Watch in College Basketball for 2014-15.” The Shockers came in at No. 3 as “Wichita State, Obviously.”
Gregg Marshall’s Shockers became the team to watch last season as the Shockers took a perfect 35-0 record into their NCAA Tournament round of 32 game against Kentucky. As we well know, the Wildcats won 78-76 on that Sunday afternoon in St. Louis, in a battle of a game, a game named by Sports Illustrated this December as the 2014 Game of the Year. Mind you, that’s the No. 1 game of any game played in 2014. At any level. In any sport.
As SI senior writer Luke Winn notes, “The meeting between perennial power Kentucky and top-seeded Wichita State in the round of 32 was unfortunate — but the battle that resulted was unforgettable.” Wichita State finished 35-1 overall last season, and the Shockers returned veteran players Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton.
That means Wichita State has returned three starting players from its record-setting 35-win team. VanVleet, Baker and Cotton combined to average 35.0 points, 11.7 rebounds and 10.9 assists last season. Coach Marshall, too, returned for an eighth season at WSU, despite the fact that Tennessee, Missouri, Wake Forest, California and pretty much every other power-conference school with an opening tried, either directly or indirectly, to entice him away.
The Shockers opened the 2014-15 season with a decisive 71-54 win over the New Mexico State Aggies in a game played Nov. 14 in Charles Koch Arena. The Jeff Tuttle photos accompanying this story are from that contest. Cotton was high scorer with 17. Baker added 16 points, and VanVleet another six, while Darius Carter and Shaquille Morris each pumped in nine. Evan Wessel contributed two points, Rashard Kelly four, Corey Henderson two, Ria’n Holland two and Rauno Nurger four to the point total.
Wichita State then traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D., to take on Memphis at the Sanford Pentagon. The Shockers dispatched the Tigers 71-56 and returned to Wichita for a two-game home stand, demolishing the Newman University Jets 105-57 on Nov. 23 and showing their Mental Toughness eXtra Effort against old Missouri Valley Conference rival Tulsa at the Nov. 29 #MTXE Classic in the Roundhouse; the Shockers calmed the Golden Hurricane 75-55 and extended their regular season winning streak to 35.
Through this series of wins, the No. 11 Shockers broke into the Top 10 and went back on the road to face the No. 25 Utah Utes in Salt Lake City as the eighth-ranked team in the nation. In the Dec. 3 contest at the Huntsman Center, Baker scored 15 points, Cotton had 14 and VanVleet added 13, but Wichita State couldn’t play angry enough to overcome 38 percent shooting in its first regular season loss since a 90-81 defeat at the hands of Creighton on March 10, 2013.
Despite jumping out to a 10-0 lead and then a late comeback by WSU to force overtime play, the Shockers lost by a point, 69-68. Wessel, who failed to score in regulation, made the first six points for Wichita State in overtime, and Baker made a dynamic layup to put the Shockers up by a point at 68-67 with 28 seconds left. But Utah scored in the paint to give the Utes the final lead.
“It was just a gritty game with two teams going at it all night,” Marshall told reporters after the game.
Shaking off the unaccustomed loss, the Shockers rebounded with a resounding 81-52 win over Saint Louis in a Dec. 6 game played in front of some 15,000 hoops fans at Wichita’s downtown INTRUST Bank Arena. They then topped Seton Hall 77-68 back on their home court in Koch Arena on Dec. 9.
The No. 11 Shockers then hit the road to Motor City for a Dec. 13 game against Detroit. Wichita State had to rally from 10 points down in the second half to elude its second loss of the season, but thanks to some pressure defense, an outstanding second-half performance by Carter, and a key three from Cotton to give WSU a 63-60 lead, the Shockers tumbled the Titans for the 77-68 win.
Detroit coach Ray McCallum said, “Once they became the aggressor, we got back on our heels and that gave them the momentum to push through.”
Next up: Alabama Crimson Tide.
