For the last two years or so, Wichita State has had a difficult time finding high-quality opponents. Major college basketball teams looking to make it to the NCAA Tournament aren’t willing to play the Shockers because a) they’re supremely talented, b) Gregg Marshall is a helluva coach and c) they play in the Missouri Valley, so a loss would look “poor” on a resume come tournament time.
During this time as well, Wichita State has dealt with the stigma of not being able to beat top teams, which came to light with the loss at Utah this past season. The Shockers came back and quieted those doubters, taking down Kansas in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, a game that Bill Self had been avoiding like the plague as long as he could.
With that win against Kansas, the returns of Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet and Marshall remaining with the Shockers, Wichita State is heading into the 2015-16 season looking to take on anyone and everyone willing to play them.
Most teams won’t have their schedules finalized until August or September, but Wichita State has already lined up a number of solid games that will challenge them throughout the non-conference schedule.
So far, the Shockers have games lined up at home against UNLV (Dec. 2; Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge) and Utah (Dec. 12; return of home-and-home), both of which could/should be ranked in the top 25 when the games are played in December.
Wichita State also has road contests against Saint Louis (Dec. 5; return of home-and-home) and at Seton Hall (Dec. 19; return of home-and-home).
These games all come after the Shockers take part in the Orlando Classic, which will take place Nov. 26-29. Teams in the Orlando Classic field includes Iowa, Notre Dame, Alabama, Dayton and Xavier. The bracket for this tournament will come out sometime this summer, but it’s entirely possible Wichita State takes on two or three top 25 teams in this tournament alone.
The Shockers had three games last year against ranked opponents in the regular season (@ No. 25 Utah, @ No. 18 Northern Iowa and at home vs. No. 10 Northern Iowa), going 1-2 in those games. In the two previous years combined, Wichita State faced one ranked opponent in the regular season.
Prior to the 2014-15 season and their three ranked opponents, the last time Wichita State faced multiple ranked opponents in the regular season was the 2011-12 season when they played four (losses to No. 16 Alabama and No. 21 Creighton; wins against No. 18 UNLV and No. 17 Creighton).
Now, some may look at this and say that the Shockers schedule softly to up their win totals. That is not the case, however, because for a team like Wichita State, avoiding ranked teams does nothing. It would hurt their recruiting, their marketing schemes, money coming in and out and hurt their national recognition. They’re not avoiding the ranked teams, it’s the ranked teams avoiding them.
Sooner or later, though, teams won’t be able to avoid Wichita State. We’ve seen this same sort of occurrence with Gonzaga. Teams avoided Gonzaga as much as they possibly could, because despite their mid-major status, they were, and are, a legitimate program on the national landscape. Now teams aren’t just willing to play Gonzaga, they’re even going so far as to schedule home-and-homes with them. Arizona and UCLA are venturing to Spokane for contests against the Zags.
Wichita isn’t there quite yet, but one thing they’ve proved is that they’re not just a flash in the pan and major conference programs are going to have to deal with them eventually. Whether that be in tournaments, neutral court games or with home-and-homes, the Shockers are ready and willing to take on all challengers and has assembled a number of key games already to make their 2015-16 schedule interesting.
The Shockers aren’t scared to play anybody, and they’re attempting to prove that once and for all with their scheduling. They’ve got a good start so far and plenty more games will be added to the non-conference slate moving forward.
It’ll be interesting to see what other teams are willing to take on the challenge, because Wichita State is.
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