By Hunter Fullhart – Social Media and Photography Media Editor
Wichita State men’s basketball has become the poster child for Kansas universities when it comes to basketball. With their steadily rising success, nothing is stopping them from becoming one of the top collegiate programs in the nation.
Last season, the Shockers bid farewell to the iconic trio that put them on the map. Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Evan Wessel all hung up their jerseys and played their last games as Shockers. With the departure of the three, one question is still hanging above everyone: Are the Shockers still good even without VanVleet, Baker and Wessel? The answer is yes!
Believe it or not, the Shockers have the potential to be just as good, if not better, than last year. It may be hard to believe, but numbers don’t lie and this year’s team has the numbers to stun any basketball team out there. The Shockers opened the regular season with four home games in a row facing South Carolina State (W 85-39), Long Beach State (W 92-55), Tulsa (W 80-53) and Maryland Eastern Shore (W 116-79). After that, they traveled to the Bahamas, over Thanksgiving to take part in the Battle 4 Atlantis where they beat LSU (W 82-47) and picked up their first two losses to Louisville (L 62-52) and Michigan State (L 77-72). They also knocked off Division II foe Southern Nazarene (W 87-57). With killer wins and close losses to two dominant basketball programs, please tell me that doesn’t look good on any stats sheet that you throw down.
This year’s team has a better shooting team than last year by far. The Shockers are also known for having a killer defense and this year, the defense is manipulative and evil. Their defense keeps their opponents from scoring easily, and it pushes them to the edges of the shot clock, usually forcing them to chuck a shot in hopes that it will sink in. Freshmen Austin Reaves and Landry Shamet, sophomore Markis McDuffie, along with juniors Connor Frankamp, Rauno Nurger and Shaquille Morris are all defensive monsters, and McDuffie, Reaves, and Shamet are shooting icons and can basically knock down any shot they take. The talent on this team is beyond impressive: It’s textbook. You have freshmen who aren’t timid and are aggressively attacking the basket and knocking down shots, and then you have returning players who are so smooth, it’s like silk on the court. It’s magical to watch and exciting to wonder what’s next.
This team will go far this year, I know it. This team has the potential to knock out some of the biggest names in the NCAA Tournament in March and also become back-to-back-to-back-to-back champions of The Valley and take the Missouri Valley Tournament championship in St. Louis, Mo. This team is the best in Kansas, and I don’t care what anybody says about us, we can take KU and Kansas State in a heartbeat – bring it.
Wichita State isn’t done “shocking” the nation. Don’t think that just because our iconic players have left, that we don’t have more players brewing and ready to fight for that ultimate goal in March: The National Championship. Shockers up!
