Posnanski (and readers) are choosing the best basketball, football and baseball player from schools, as well as a wild-card selection. It’s quite a task. I didn’t see any MVC schools represented, so here goes:

Wichita State

Basketball: Dave Stallworth (X will get many votes. People who I know who watched both usually go with Dave.)

Football: Linwood Sexton (Tough one. Sexton and Prince McJunkins are the only Shockers to with numbers retired. Several Shockers had longer pro careers than either.)

Baseball: Joe Carter

Wildcard: Bill Parcells

Bradley

Basketball: Hersey Hawkins (Chet Walker?)

Football: Marcus Pollard (played hoops at BU before going to the NFL)

Baseball: Kirby Puckett (played one season at BU (1981) and hit .378)

Wildcard: Charley Steiner

Creighton

Basketball: Paul Silas

Football: Johnny Knolla (great pizza, for a bonus)

Baseball: Bob Gibson (No. 18 on Creighton’s basketball scoring list)

Wildcard: ??? (Need some help)

Drake

Basketball: Lewis Lloyd

Football: Johnny Bright

Baseball: Lee Stange (Pitched for 10 seasons in the majors)

Wildcard: Zach Johnson (2007 Masters champion)

Evansville

Basketball: Jerry Sloan (Larry Hume?)

Football: Sean Bennett (Former Giants running back. FYI: Evansville won the 1949 Refrigerator Bowl)

Baseball: Andy Benes

Wildcard: Steve Welmer (NCAA basketball referee)

Illinois State

Basketball: Doug Collins

Football: Boomer Grigsby (Help)

Baseball: Dave Bergman

Wildcard: John Malkovich

Indiana State

Basketball: Larry Bird

Football: Vencie Glenn

Baseball: Wallace Johnson

Wildcard: Bruce Baumgartner (Two-time Olympic gold-medal wrestler)

Missouri State

Basketball: Curtis Perry

Football: Brad St. Louis (Help.)

Baseball: Ryan Howard

Wildcard: John Goodman (Kathleen Turner)

Northern Iowa

Basketball: Jason Reese (This is not a school overflowing with basketball tradition)

Football: Kurt Warner

Baseball: Ryan Brunner

Wildcard: Bryce Paup

Southern Illinois

Basketball: Walt Frazier

Football: Jim Hart

Baseball: Dave Stieb (Steve Finley??)

Wildcard: Jim Belushi (Jenny McCarthy, Dennis Franz, Richard Roundtree – MVC’s strongest list of acting alums by a nose over Missouri State)

Q: Have the Redbirds emerged from a tumultuous week a better team, as the win at Drake might suggest? Or are the Redbirds in a bad spot after the Lloyd Phillips leave of absence and return?

A: I definitely saw a better team in the last week. With the Phillips leave of absence and Sead Odzic’s knee injury, the team found some depth it didn’t seem to have a week earlier plus it played more as a team. There was a chemistry on the court that was missing. Whether it had anything to do with Phillips is the big question.

Q: How do you expect coach Tim Jankovich to handle his starting lineup when Phillips returns?

A: Jankovich will probably keep Shipley in the starting lineup and bring Phillips off the bench for the next couple games and maybe the rest of the season. Phillips probably will get Odzic-type minutes, which is about 10-15 minutes a game. The interesting part will be if the game is close down the stretch, whether Shipley or Phillips get the call. Not sure right now how that would play out.

Q: WSU’s bench outscored Illinois State’s bench 23-2 in Koch Arena. Will the ISU reserves play better at home, or is that still a problem for the Redbirds?
A: Brandon Sampay has really played well in the last three weeks or so, plus now Brandon Holtz and Alex Rubin had good games last week without Phillips around. If Phillips come off the bench, that should give the Redbird reserves even more punch. ISU looked like a seven-player rotation two weeks ago, but now it could be 9-10 deep the rest of the season, especially when Odzic returns in a couple weeks. Jankovich has more confidence in some of his subs now.

Q: How much enthusiasm is there for the BracketBusters trip to Niagara around the Redbird basketball office?
A: Actually, the Redbird coaches seem to like the idea of going to Niagara. I think some of them haven’t seen Niagara Falls, so that’s one perk to the trip. Plus, they like getting on ESPN2. ISU volunteered to play on Friday night so it could have an extra day of rest because the Redbirds play Northern Iowa on the following Tuesday. ISU really has nothing to lose at Niagara. The only way the Redbirds go to the Big Dance is by winning the Valley tourney, so a loss won’t bust anything.

Q. What is your favorite Shocker football memory?

A. I only get one? Can I have three? No. 1, having a sideline pass to watch my brother-in-law (Barry Bales) start at left tackle under the lights against Oklahoma Stae. I can still see Barry out there engulfing the defense.  An unbelievable night. No. 2, Seeing my dear childhold friend Ruben Eckels (a receiver at WSU) catch passes, break tackles and score touchdowns. It was like seeing a piece of me down there. No. 3, watching the Shockers play SMU in Cessna Stadium and seeing the Pony Express backfield of Craig James and Eric Dickerson run up and down that field. It was an incredible sight.

Q. What level (Football Bowl Subdivision or Football Championship Subdivision) do want WSU to play?

A. That is a such a secondary thing, I honestly have no interest. I just want to see the black and gold down there.

Q. Shocker football is a topic that never dies. Why?

A. I think there’s a number of factors. Given the size of the city that Wichita is, I think there was an enormous amout of civic pride that went into this team. The basketball team and the baseball team do a great job of carrying that on, but they can’t do it in the fall. There is still a lot of emotion and we’ve got to capture that emotion and build on it.

Q. Would be willing to drop a men’s sport in order to bring back football and satisfy gender equity and budget demands?

A. I have no intention of answering that. That needs to be answered by a (WSU) compliance officer. We do want to (raise enough donations through pledges) to start other sports.

On one hand, it is a topic that always grabs the attention of people. It’s an interesting and worthy topic to discuss. Some people, for good reasons, take the subject seriously and think WSU desperately needs football.

On the other hand, it is irresponsible to treat the subject too seriously. There is no indication, also for good reason, that WSU is the least bit interested in football. Anybody can fire up a Web site.

Which is exactly what two people did. They are both quite good – one devoted to pledges and donations and one devoted to blogging about Shocker football. According to Shockerfootballnow.com, KGSO, 1410-AM, will hold a roundtable discussion from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, featuring former players and others.

I’m sure these people are passionate and well-meaning. I’m not sure they understand what an enormous task it would be for WSU to revive football. It would – and I don’t think this is much of an exaggeration – rip apart almost everything that holds the athletic department together. It is a smooth-running department now. Adding 100 or so athletes changes the culture dramatically. Is that a reason not to bring back football? Maybe. Maybe not. I know it is part of the issue that needs to be seriously considered when talking about costs and benefits.

For now, Shocker football is good talk radio and not much more. Can the Internet change that?

Football advocates point out the positives, real and imagined, of reviving the sport. No doubt, there are some positives. We just don’t know if the positives are enough to make it worthwhile. We do know WSU’s athletic department is in fine shape, financially and competitively, without football these days.

Here is the reality at two schools in similar positions to WSU: San DIego State and Memphis. Those stories sound a lot like the WSU football story in 1986.

Links courtesy of The Wiz of Odds.

Totally by coincidence, a site devoted to reviving Shocker football is up and running today after an earlier aborted start. Brad Justice, a former WSU student, has put together a nice website (I wonder what game the lead picture is from) and makes a passionate plea.

Some of the arguments are flawed (football advocates never mention WSU’s highest enrollment came in 1989, three years after the program folded). There is no mistaking some people remain interested in WSU football. Is it enough?

Power to the people. I don’t expect Eric Sexton to start ordering pads and helmets soon, but you never know.