Covering the Wichita St Shockers is tricky for a whole host of reasons. First off, they’re a mid-major, so wave goodbye right now to the idea of having a ton of people read what you write about that. Unless you actually get linked by any mid-major or WSU message boards or fan blogs, very few people will read it. Of course now, search engine generated traffic is higher for every thing college basketball and you want to know if Wichita St is legit or not.
You obviously know that they went to the Final Four last year, and that magical run made the “SHOCKER” and “SHOCKING” puns over-used to the point that you no doubt want to vomit. You learned what media members sucked at their jobs- those who kept going with that in their headlines.
If you’re still using that cliche now, THIS year….wow you really have no originality or personality. If they make it back to Final Four this year, you will want kick every person who uses that pun straight in the throat. Because using the shocker mascot pun to try and sound witty is just too easy. Quoting Dr. Frasier Krane “a bit on the nose, don’t you think?”
Okay, so why does an undefeated college basketball team fly so far under the radar? Why do the Wichita St Shockers, who have made history by starting so hot, and had one of the greatest regular seasons in college hoops history go so ignored? Is it because the name of their mascot is also slang for a sex act?
No.
It’s because they play in an awful conference.
The Missouri Valley was so bad this year that there was never a question of it not being a one-bid league. They came to Chicago last month and NO ONE HERE CARED. The game generated zero buzz. It’s not so much their fault. It’s that they came to Loyola. And Loyola Ramblers basketball barely even exists here. DePaul has fallen into obscurity, Northwestern hoops doesn’t get a lot of publicity, and Loyola is way below them. Only the biggest of sports geeks can even name who LU’s Coach is. I don’t know anyone that can name a Loyola player.
This is what the Wichita St Shockers encounter in their league every night: teams that suck that no one cares about. But that doesn’t mean they’re not legit. It doesn’t mean they’re not a true #1 seed. They beat everyone on their schedule. Now in the future, they have to go out and try to schedule better games.
But they’re six wins away from making all that irrelevant now. Except, the NCAA made it as difficult as possible for the Wheat Shockers to get there.
The 34-0 Wichita St Shockers get a play-in game winner in the first round, but they have to face the winner of Kentucky and Kansas in St. Louis in the second round. The four seed in their region is Louisville, the defending champs. Rick Pitino is correct when he talked about just how under-seeded his team is. Michigan is the two in the region, while Duke is the three, so have fun with that.
I predict they’ll get bounced by Louisville in the Elite Eight. I also believe the NCAA intentionally made their bracket as hard as possible; on purpose. I feel they slighted the Wichita St Shockers because a.) they don’t truly believe they’re actually that good and b.) they don’t want another mid-major going back to the Final Four because it’s bad for ratings. I disagree with them on their first one. WSU is for real. It’s not their fault that their conference is a total joke. On the second point, well, yeah I see where they coming from, which is why I brought up how the Wheat Shockers are page views Siberia. But it doesn’t make it right.
Here’s out resident college hoops genius David Kmiecik, breaking down the Wichita St Shockers bracket.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on multiple news talk radio stations. The former NBC Chicago and Washington Times contributor has also been featured on the History Channel.