Just as no climax of a great story is complete without the
build-up it takes to get there, no story of the present-day Wichita State
juggernaut is complete without telling the tale of the coach, the teams and the
players who took the program to a level where they could pass the torch to even
more talented players. But to tell the story completely, you’d have to go back
to before most people in Wichita had even heard of Gregg Marshall.
Head Coach Mark Turgeon’s team made that all-too-familiar
Sweet Sixteen run in 2005-06, giving every Shocker fan a glimpse of what they
have always known was possible here at 21st and Hillside. But just as quickly
as the 2006-07 team got off to a blistering start, beating Syracuse and LSU on
the road, they fell off the rails even quicker.
Shocker fans were riding so high following the NCAA
tournament run and a successful non-conference slate which, despite late losses
to New Mexico and Southern California, still had supporters feeling optimistic
about the present and future of Shocker Basketball. You probably know the rest.
The team reportedly dealt with a high amount of internal strife, and went 8-10
in the Valley that year, failing to return to the Big Dance. Turgeon departed
for Texas A&M after the season was over.
With some shoes to fill, then-Athletic Director Jim Schaus
made the most poignant move in program history, hiring a highly-successful
coach out of Winthrop named Gregg Marshall, who had been highly successful. But
he was dealt a tough hand. The 2007-08 version of the Shockers dealt with the
departure of seniors Kyle Wilson, Ryan Martin and Karon Bradley, as well as the
transfer of dynamic junior guard Sean Ogirri.
While the returns of seniors PJ Cousinard, Phillip Thomasson
and Matt Brauer gave some hope, that hope dissipated with Brauer’s concussion
problems and losses to, for lack of a better term, awful teams like Monmouth
and UMKC during non-conference play. The Shockers were a team in transition, but
as Marshall so eloquently describes situations like these in the 2013 Final
Four DVD, “the cavalry was arriving.”
It Had To Start
Somewhere
If you look at each one of Marshall’s teams, especially in
his first four or five years, you notice a consistent improvement on both sides of the ball, each season
better than the last. The 2007-08 team probably takes its place on the lowest
rung of Marshall’s teams in terms of wins and losses (That team won only four games
in conference play.). The 2008-09 team, while similar statistically,
managed to get to .500 thanks in large part to the recruiting class that would
later be known as the spark which helped turn the program around. The team
reached post-season play for the first time since 2006, playing in the
newly-contrived College Basketball Invitational. It was essentially like
kissing your sister, but hey, it was better than nothing and gave Shocker fans
two more home games, in which they defeated Buffalo and fell to Stanford in the
following game.
The first big jump came in 2009-10. As the plot below shows,
the team finished the season greatly improved on both sides of the ball. The
transformative 2008 recruiting class led by Toure Murry, David Kyles and
Garrett Stutz was showing great strides. Point guard Clevin Hannah had
blossomed into a sharpshooter, accumulating 42.5% and 90.4% clips from the
three point and free throw lines, respectively. Role players Graham Hatch, Gabe
Blair and Aaron Ellis took a step forward as well.
Marshall’s squad had finally managed to make it to Sunday at
the Valley tournament in St. Louis, which had previously been all too elusive
for WSU, to face the Northern Iowa Panthers. As the Shockers built a 39-33 lead
going into the under-16 TV timeout, the anticipation that the Shockers could
get back to the NCAA tournament was, as a prominent former member of the
Wichita media might put it, palpable. But a 23-3 second half UNI run (which
also saw WSU score all of one point for a ten minute stretch) put the nail in
the coffin for that Shocker team’s NCAA tournament hopes. Watching UNI take
down 1-seed Kansas, a team Shocker fans desperately wanted a shot at, poured a
little salt in the wound as WSU faltered in the first round of the NIT to
Nevada and future NBA player Luke Babbitt. But visible progress was being made.
It was evident Gregg Marshall had something special in the works.
The Heroes Wichita
Needed
Which brings us to the 2010-11 team.
They returned every major contributor from the previous
season except for Clevin Hannah. While the talent level certainly wasn’t as
high as it has been during the Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker era, there were
plenty of reasons to be excited. Toure Murry was a stalwart on defense, capable
of guarding talented wings and getting to the basket on the other side of the
floor. David Kyles, after shooting a combined 31.5% from long range in his
freshman and sophomore campaigns, switched bodies with Stephen Curry for the
first seven games of the 2010-11 campaign and shot an astounding 25 of 41 from
three-point range. Graham Hatch returned for his senior campaign. His mold was
that of a quintessential “3 and D” player. A solid defender who could guard
bigger players, he also shot nearly 45% from three-point range that season.
Garrett Stutz, for some of his athletic deficiencies, was seven feet
tall and incredibly skilled around the basket. JT Durley, whose name adorns the
annual Gregg Marshall Doghouse Award (and that of which Shaq Morris has been
the recipient three years running), was a skilled power forward who was an
absolute force when he wanted to be.
Gabe Blair was a high energy guy who could come off the
bench and provide the team with valuable minutes, grab rebounds and play good
defense. Then there’s Aaron Ellis, a homeless man’s Kevin Garnett, who today
would drive analytics people crazy because he seemingly only took mid-range
jumpers. But he still shot 50% from two-point range. Towards the end of the
Tulsa game that season, WSU needed a bucket in a bad way. During a scramble, the ball was
passed to Aaron Ellis just beyond the left block, about six or so feet out. He
responds by taking (and making) a jumper instead of a layup, and didn’t use the
backboard.
They added Joe Ragland and Ben Smith. Ragland readily
grabbed the proverbial point guard torch passed to him by Clevin Hannah. A good
ball handler who would really find his stroke from deep the following season,
Ragland was a great fit for the personnel Marshall had on his bench. Smith,
much like Graham Hatch, was a gifted three point shooter who could also be
called upon to defend an opposing team’s star player.
One of the things Wichita State fans love about Gregg
Marshall is the fact that they can see so much of themselves and the community
as a whole in his teams. That blue-collar mentality made them so fun to watch.
They moved the ball well. They were unselfish. They did the dirty work,
hustling for loose balls and offensive rebounds. They never gave up. Five of
their six losses were by single digits, with the lone exception coming in a 14
point loss at San Diego State, a team which finished the season ranked seventh
in KenPom.
The Season
Following a drubbing of Texas Southern on opening night, the
Shocks departed for Hawaii and the Maui Invitational where they faced eventual
the eventual national champions Connecticut, led by “Cardiac” Kemba Walker.
After a game that consisted mostly of back-and-forth competition, WSU led 60-51
at just past the halfway point in the second half. Unfortunately, the Shockers
couldn’t quite muster up enough offense against the Huskies, falling 83-79.
For as many successes as recent seasons have delivered, it’s
important to note that so many previous times, Wichita State had seemed on the
precipice of a breakthrough in a marquee game or in reaching the Big Dance.
That was no more evident than over the course of the 2011 regular season.
Despite the disappointment, Marshall’s squad entered Valley
play at a solid 9-2. They had defeated a strong Tulsa outfit in the inaugural
Intrust Bank Arena contest, an exciting closing act for the non-conference
portion of the schedule.
Their first conference loss came at home to a Missouri State
team featuring its strongest lineup in recent history. Losses at home to
less-than-stellar teams Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa would serve to
create a tight race for the Valley title. The Shockers were neck-and-neck with
Missouri State atop the league standings heading into the last two games of the
regular season, the last of which would pit both squads against each other for
the conference title.
But first, the Shockers had to get by Creighton in the
penultimate regular season matchup of the year. Creighton didn’t have a great
year, but players like Doug McDermott would be instrumental in driving the
Bluejays to three consecutive first-weekend exits at the NCAA Tournament,
beginning the following year. Both teams went at each other in a virtual
stalemate until the last minute, when the game was tied at 65 and Doug
McDermott missed the front end of a one-and-one with 33 seconds remaining. As
time ticked down, Joe Ragland managed to evade a trap on the baseline and get a
pass to Aaron Ellis, who scored on a mid-range bank shot with 1.5 seconds
remaining. The Shockers won, 67-65.
The Shockers got off to a slow start, trailing 32-21 at
halftime. It was one of those games where one team gets off to a sizable lead,
and while the opposing team keeps chipping away, they never can quite catch up.
But Gregg Marshall-coached teams are nothing if not resilient, and clawed their
way to within striking distance. David Kyles hit four of his five three
pointers in the final five minutes of play, and with 1:24 to play, Missouri
State held the slightest of advantages at 65-64. But an Adam Leonard
three-pointer with 52 seconds to play put the final nail in the coffin for
Wichita State. The Missouri State Bears were Missouri Valley champions and the
Shockers’ at-large hopes for the NCAA Tournament had taken a huge hit.
(This is also your annual reminder that WSU was two games
away – this Missouri State game and the Creighton game in 2013 – from six
straight Valley regular season titles. But hey, horseshoes, hand grenades and
nuclear bombs, right?)
From there, the Shockers traveled to St. Louis for the
Missouri Valley Conference Tournament the following weekend, and hoped to
exorcise demons from the Scotttrade Center, which has become a house of horrors
for teams from 21st and Hillside. After defeating Bradley handily in the first
round 70-54, the Shockers’ offense was stifled by Indiana State on Saturday,
falling 61-54. The loss guaranteed that Wichita State would not be making it to
the Big Dance that year. One week and one day later, it was announced that the
Shockers would be in the 32-team National Invitation Tournament. Their first
game, they would host a decent Nebraska Cornhusker team which had beaten highly-ranked
Texas in their final year in the Big 12 Conference.
The Shockers came out and absolutely blew the doors off of
Nebraska. They scored the first ten points of the game and never looked back.
The crowd responded in kind by cheering so loudly they nearly broke the sound
barrier. ESPN announcers Mike Patrick and Dan Dakich made note of it during the
game. Early in the first half as the rout was on, Patrick remarked “You’d think
it was the Final Four, not the First Round of the NIT.”
The final score ended at 76-49 in favor of the Shockers, and
it didn’t even seem that close. Patrick chose words like “beatdown,” “bury” and
“manhandling” to describe the game, and he was spot on. The only redeeming
quality for Husker fans was that then-Nebraska Athletic Director and Hall of
Fame coach Tom Osborne was present. The line to greet him at halftime could
have stretched to Braeburn Golf Course (pour one out for Braeburn).
“I don’t think it’s been a lack of effort on Nebraska’s
part, I just think Wichita State’s been a lot better,” – Mike Patrick, ESPN
play-by-play announcer
Then came a road test on a Sunday morning at Virginia Tech,
coached by now-ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg. The game was a fight all the way,
with both teams trading punches the entire game. Virginia Tech held a slim lead
in the first half, only to have it erased. Wichita State did the same in the
second half. Virginia Tech held a slim 69-66 lead with a minute remaining, but
JT Durley hit a nice 3-pointer with 47 seconds remaining to tie the game at 69
and send it to overtime. A Joe Ragland floater in the lane with 2.6 seconds
left in overtime put Wichita State ahead for good. Only one game stood between
them and a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four.
The College of Charleston Cougars came to town after
victories over opponents that were, let’s say, of a lower caliber than the
teams Wichita State had ousted. They defeated Vermont and Cleveland State, but
still possessed high quality players and future NBA player Andrew Goudelock, a
shooter capable of catching fire as quickly as the Human Torch. This game was
much more highly-contested, at least in the first half, as teams traded blows
for the first ten to fifteen minutes.
The second-most memorable highlight from that game was the
show Goudelock and Charleston put on in the last ten minutes of the game. They
scored 35 points, and Goudelock, according to Shocker basketball lore, was
hitting shots from the (old) WuShock logo. That hot streak, of course, was made
all the more palatable to Shocker fans due to the result.
Over the past two Selection Sundays, there has been a
collective apprehension, if not nervousness, in anticipation of the inclusion
and seeding of Wichita State for Shocker fans. The thought of going to the NIT
with players like Baker and VanVleet in 2016 was enough to make Shocker fans
experience a conniption fit. But that wasn’t the case back in 2011. The mere
thought of being in a position to make it to the NIT Final Four in New York
City was a tantalizing one. The Cohen era, the Smithson era and the end of the
Turgeon era all served to whet the competitive appetite of a fanbase that was
already a powder keg if there ever was one.
In New York City, future Splash Brother Klay Thompson and
the Washington State Cougars awaited in the NIT Semifinal matchup. Reports do
indicate that Steph Curry was not also on that team to take pressure off Thompson,
however, and Thompson struggled to get his offense going, picking up three early
fouls and finishing with only six points and 1 of 10 shooting. Garrett Stutz
notched a career high 24 points and the Shockers rolled to victory 75-44.
The NIT Championship game against Alabama was a big enough
draw that around 3,000 fans filed in Charles Koch Arena to watch it on the
video board, which at the time was not even high-definition at that time (How
did fans ever survive?). The Crimson Tide also boasted a future NBA player,
JaMychal Green, who is currently with the Memphis Grizzlies.
This matchup was much different from the Washington State
drubbing a couple of nights earlier. Alabama challenged Wichita State with its
length and athleticism, taking a 41-40 lead with around fifteen minutes
remaining. The Shockers promptly went on an 8-0 run and would not look back.
With the lead holding steady at around 5 to 9 points a little while after,
Wichita State needed to put the nail in the coffin or the last few minutes
would get nerve-racking. Thankfully, Tournament MVP Graham Hatch hit two
monster three-pointers down the stretch, and he and JT Durley both contributed 12
points on the evening.
When the final buzzer sounded, all of Shocker Nation knew
this team had accomplished something special. No, it wasn’t the NCAA
Tournament, but the squad finished the season with a championship and gave the
college basketball world warning that Gregg Marshall might have just woken a
sleeping giant. It built on the previous season. It gave fans another taste of the recent successes provided by Mark
Turgeon and his staff, and would prove to be one of many galvanizing moments for the
Wichita State fan base.
Everything is
Different Now
In 2017, these events seem like they occurred nearly a lifetime ago. The Shockers have
reached the NCAA Tournament in six consecutive seasons, with no signs of
slowing down. Wichita State’s athletic programs are set to join the American
Athletic Conference that features historically great basketball programs such
as Connecticut, Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston and others. It seems every time prognosticators
assert that Wichita State Men’s Basketball has reached its peak or lost seemingly
irreplaceable players, Gregg Marshall and his staff manage to prove them wrong.
The conversation in Wichita, the state of Kansas and beyond has seismically
shifted, from “Do you think Wichita State will make the tournament this year”
to “Does Wichita State have a chance to make another Final Four or win a National
Championship with Gregg Marshall at the helm?”.
As such, it’s always helpful to look back and reflect on every
struggle and hardship this program went through to get where it is now. The
great philosopher Curtis Jackson once quipped, “Sunny days wouldn’t be special,
if it wasn’t for rain; joy wouldn’t feel so good, if it wasn’t for pain.”
Curtis Jackson, great philosopher
Source: wikipedia.org
There’s no telling what the next five to ten seasons and
beyond could bring for the Shocker Men’s Basketball program. But it wasn’t
built overnight, and Wichita State University and the City of Wichita owes a great debt of gratitude to Gregg Marshall, his coaching
staff, the players and everyone else who helped rebuild and the program. In the
meantime, enjoy the ride.
