Category Archives: Basketball

Shockers add two good guarantee games

May 15, 20138:25 p.m.

Wichita State’s men’s basketball team will play guarantee games against Western Kentucky and Oral Roberts, two programs that it wouldn’t seem odd for the Shockers play home and home.

Senior associate athletic director Darron Boatright said those games (at Koch Arena with no return to the other school) represent a need for WSU to be more aggressive in upgrading its schedule. He is concerned Creighton’s departure from the Missouri Valley Conference will hurt schedule strength and power rankings.  Every MVC team loses two (sometimes three) valuable games with Creighton. WSU possesses the money and cachet to try to bump up its non-conference schedule.  Other MVC teams may not.

“With the exit of Creighton, there’s no place it hurts worse than in men’s basketball scheduling,” he said.  ”I think we need to be pretty aggressive.”

ESPN helped WSU with the Western Kentucky game. It will be part of ESPN’s Tip-off Marathon on Nov. 11. The Shockers could sell an ESPN game, as well as a guarantee, to land the Hilltoppers. Last year, games started at midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m. etc. WSU will lobby for one of the more reasonable tips.

“We will probably play at a crazy time, but we’re not going to play at a ridiculous time,” Boatright said. “I think it’s really good get. They’re back-to-back NCAA Tournament participants. We feel pretty confident scheduling them  because we feel like they will have success in the Sun Belt.”

The Shockers will play Oral Roberts (Dec. 7)  for the first time since a 76-73 loss to the Golden Eagles in 2003. Western Kentucky visited Koch Arena in 2005 for the NIT, an 85-81 Shocker win.

 Western Kentucky (19-16) finished the 2013 regular season with an RPI tied for No. 149. ORU  (19-15) is one spot back. Both programs are capable of performing better. If they stay the same, it is better than the 250-300 range guarantee games often bring.

 ”That is part of the department being more aggressive and trying to capture some of this momentum,” Boatright said. “We were able to put a little more money behind some of those games. In the case of Western Kentucky, we were able to guarantee them a nationally televised game. That’s usually not a card that we have in our pocket.”

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Weekend review: Creighton at Wichita State

May 13, 201311:22 a.m.

Scores: Creighton 6, WSU 5; Creighton 3, WSU 1; WSU 4, Creighton 1

Records: WSU 31-24, 15-6 MVC; CU 28-14, 11-7

Key stats: WSU ranked No. 25 nationally in fielding percentage entering the weekend, .975. The Shockers committed five errors, contributing to five unearned runs for Creighton. Errors – and walks – figured into most of Creighton’s scoring, especially in Saturday’s game. Creighton’s error-less defense magnified the Shocker mistakes. Most painfully, the errors (and walks) let Creighton get leads and neutralized WSU’s bullpen. Shocker relievers again starred, with four combining to pitch 9 2/3 scoreless innings. WSU out-hit Creighton 25-18, stole nine bases to its zero, walked 11 times to Creighton’s eight and struck out 12 fewer times than the Bluejays. Both teams scored 10 runs and Creighton won two of three because of timely hitting and Shocker mistakes.

  • WSU blew a chance to clinch the MVC title and build itself a good stretch of baseball after sweeping at Missouri State.  It went 1-3 (with a 7-5 loss to Kansas). Had the Shockers gone 3-1, they’re MVC champions and a team with a slim chance to win 40 games. Instead, Creighton almost did to WSU what WSU did to Missouri State. In two close wins, the Bluejays got the timely hits, executed and played cleaner baseball. In total, going 4-2 vs. the Bears and Bluejays is good. It’s disappointing that WSU had the MVC race in its hands and let it slip away at home.
  • Nine of WSU’s past 11 losses are by one or two runs (the other by three).  In four of those games, WSU score three runs or fewer. In the other five, it scored five or more.
  • WSU needs one Illinois State loss (at Southern Illinois starting Thursday) to win a share of the title. More important is the No. 1 seed in the tournament, which WSU would get because of its 2-1 series win over the Redbirds. The Shockers will either finish No. 1 or No. 2, avoiding the host Redbirds until the championship game. The No. 1 spot appears to be critically important because of the pitching matchups. The No. 1 seed is grouped with Nos. 4,5 and 8. The No. 2 seed gets Nos. 3,6 and 7. The current No. 7 seed is SIU, which will throw Shocker-killer Cody Forsythe in the opening game of the tournament. The No. 1 seed gets Bradley, which is 1-16 in Valley play. Forsythe beat WSU this season, holding it to three hits and one earned run over seven innings in a 5-4 victory. In the 2012 tournament, he struck out eight in seven innings and SIU won 6-3. In the regular season, he struck out seven in seven innings and didn’t allow an earned run in a game WSU won 4-3 in 10 innings. The Shockers want no part of Forsythe in the tournament.
  • WSU shortstop Dayne Parker went 3 for 4 on Sunday, scored and drove in a run. He played flawlessly at shortstop. What made the effort more impressive is that Parker, a junior who started 59 games last season, hadn’t played since April 28 at Southern Illinois. Losing his starting job, during a hitting slump, didn’t keep Parker from preparing for another shot. “He is a great student of the game,” WSU coach Gene Stephenson said. “Sometimes that opportunity helps guys a little bit, meaning that they get to sit and look at things and evaluate how they would approach something. He is an excellent team guy and he’s been putting in his work so that he could be in a position, if the time came, that he could help us.” Parker kept a bat in his hands even when he wasn’t starting, often working with junior infielder Sean Moore in the Eck Stadium batting cages. “Me and him hit after every game,” Parker said. “You’ve got to take a lot of reps on your own. I hit every day before practice and then after games.”
  • Creighton’s departure to the Big East hurts MVC baseball, although less than in men’s and women’s basketball. The addition of Dallas Baptist next season helps repair the damage some.  The Valley will miss Creighton, which is one of the schools that takes baseball seriously and plays a good non-conference schedule. It will also miss TD Ameritrade Park, which is a marquee place to hold a conference tournament. The Valley appears to be going in a strange direction for the tournament by downgrading from the home of the College World Series to smaller fields. This season’s tournament is at Illinois State and MVC officials recently visited Indiana State to evaluate its worthiness as a host. The fact they needed to go to Terre Haute to check out Bob Warn Field is troubling. It is a fine park for the Sycamores and it’s been upgraded in recent years. It is not worthy of hosting the MVC Tournament. When the MVC Tournament has options such as TD Ameritrade, Eck Stadium and Hammons Field, regression shouldn’t be considered.
  • Creighton is worth the price of admission for its defense. I would love to accompany Bluejays coach Ed Servais on a recruiting trip where he describes his style of play and the defensive practices. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to hit against Creighton and see the groundballs that scoot through, or force errors, against other teams end up in easy outs. The Bluejays are a fantastic defensive team. WSU is a very good defensive team – even after the weekend its fielding percentage is .974, which ranks second in the MVC. But it is bunching errors recently – two or more in seven of the past 11 games. WSU’s margin of error with its pitching and offense is not enough to overcome two-plus errors and that trend must stop in the MVC Tournament.
Next up: vs. Oklahoma State, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday (Cox 22)

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Marshall likes the practice change

May 11, 20131:15 p.m.

NCAA rules makers made several changes for college basketball recently and turned down a chance to make one big alteration to the game. The headliners is a change in the start of fall practice. The big one that won’t change is the shot clock.

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall is good with both.

In short, practices can begin six weeks before the first regular-season game. Coaches can get in 30 practices of that time. Previously, they got four weeks. That puts most practices starting around Sept. 27.

Marshall likes the idea of spreading out his practice time. He may consider a schedule that practices for three or four days, then takes a day or two off.  More time to teach and work around classes is helpful.

“I think this gives you more flexibility,” he said. “It gives you more time to implement your stuff. You’re starting earlier, so there is more time to get it their head, from a teaching standpoint.”

 A decline in scoring sparked a national debate about the length of the shot clock. Some coaches advocated cutting to back to force more possessions and, theoretically, help the offense. Not everyone agrees with that theory, and the NCAA did not make changes to the shot clock.

“I like it where it is,” Marshall said. “I’m not trying to become the NBA.”

The NCAA rules committee made other changes, most notably to the replays in the final two minutes and block/charge calls.

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Murry wins NBA D-League title

April 28, 20137:17 a.m.

Former Shocker Toure Murry helped Rio Grande Valley, affiliated with the Houston Rockets, win the NBA D-League title. (Associated Press photo)

Former Shocker Toure Murry scored 13 points for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in Saturday’s NBA D-League championship series win over Santa Cruz. The Vipers won 102-91 to win the best-of-3 series 2-0.

Murry registered a triple-double (17 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) in a Game 1 victory.

Murry averaged 14 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists in six playoff games, making 33 of 67 shots and 7 of 18 threes. For the season, he averaged 8.3 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds. Coaches voted him to the All-Rookie third team and All-Defensive second team.

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Signing classes around the MVC

April 19, 20138:39 a.m.
By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Darius Carter will sign Wednesday

April 16, 201311:26 a.m.

Vincennes (Ind.) University forward Darius Carter will sign a letter of intent on Wednesday with Wichita State, he confirmed with a text message.

Carter, 6-foot-7, 230 pounds, averaged 15.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks for the Trailblazers. He made 54.4 percent of his shots and 59.6 percent of his foul shots. He orally committed to WSU during the Final Four earlier this month.

Carter made his official visit last weekend. He got an earlier look at WSU during the NJCAA Tournament when Vincennes practiced at Koch Arena on its way to Hutchinson.

As a freshman, Carter averaged 11.6 points,8.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.
Carter, from Akron, Ohio, averaged 19.5 points in four games in the NJCAA Tournament in Hutchinson to earn a spot on the all-tournament team. Vincennes (33-4) finished fourth.
You can check out Carter’s game in this video.

Wednesday is the first day of the spring signing period.

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Wichita State, ORU and the MVC

April 15, 201310:19 a.m.

From a Wichita State perspective, the empty spot in the Missouri Valley Conference offered a chance for geographic relief.

Shocker teams suffer the biggest travel disadvantage in the MVC and it gets worse with Creighton’s departure. WSU will have seven trips of 500 miles or more with the addition of Loyola. It is a competitive and budget hit that the Shockers deal with well enough to field the MVC’s strongest athletic program.

So did WSU push for Oral Roberts and the comfy-sounding road road trip of 177 miles to Tulsa? Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball, Basketball, MVC | Comments

Loyola’s track record

April 14, 20133:06 p.m.

Cross country fans, this is your day.

What kind of all-sports addition is the Missouri Valley Conference getting in Loyola?

Its athletic program is characterized by  average results in the Horizon League and little impact nationally. The clue that things might be changing is in the coaching roster.  In men’s basketball, volleyball, women’s basketball Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Loyola’s history with Wichita State

April 14, 201312:56 a.m.

Loyola coach George Ireland led the Ramblers to the 1963 NCAA title.

Wichita State and Loyola share a basketball history from the 1960s, when both ran as national powers. From 1963 to 1969, the schools met 13 times, playing at Chicago Stadium for Loyola’s home games.

Most times, they met as two of college basketball’s best.

Loyola won the NCAA title in 1963.  The Shockers played in the 1965 Final Four. The Ramblers also played in the NCAA Tournament in 1964, 1965 and 1968. The Shockers played in the 1964 NCAA Tournament and the NIT in 1962, 1963 and 1966.

Seven times one of the teams was ranked when they met during the 1960s. In 1963 and 1964, they met three times with both teams in the top 10. In 1963, the eighth-ranked Shockers defeated the eventual national champions 73-72 in Chicago Stadium, Loyola’s only loss in Chicago and one of two that season.

While both teams slid from prominence in the 1970s, the series continued. Loyola served as de facto member of the MVC for  the Shockers. They played twice, usually during January and February, from 1964-1974, even adding a tournament matchup in 1970. The series continued with single games in 1974-75 and 1975-76 before slipping away. They last met in 1989 in an Indianapolis tournament. Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, MVC | Comments

Reports: Loyola replaces Creighton

April 13, 201311:06 p.m.

Any school that produced Bob Newhart should be welcomed.

According to the Chicago Tribune, among others, Loyola (Ill.) will join the Missouri Valley Conference for the 2013-14 school year.

The exercise of replacing Creighton was, from the start, a losing proposition. No school interested in the MVC can replace Creighton, at least in the short term. No school appeared to be a great addition in men’s basketball. No school presented a no-risk scenario (which is why adding three of that ilk makes no sense).

Apparently, the MVC presidents (who vote on the addition) are betting that Loyola possesses resources and will devote additional resources to escape years of men’s basketball mediocrity. Loyola athletic director M. Grace Calhoun was hired in 2011. Her top priority should be reviving Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball, MVC | Comments