If you are not pre-season Top 10....

[im4wsu]

i've been going to wichita state games since 1980, and been accused of being a black and gold glasses unrealistic fan on this board since 1999.

there is now way in hell that the shockers finish lower than 5th ranked, at the very worst. how could you possibly say otherwise after watching that shocker run? do you even know what they just did? you don't seem too.

I started following WSU in games in the Forum downtown and also have had season tickets since 1978. I know what we've done, but the voters will no allow us to be in top 5

[ShockTalk]

i've been going to wichita state games since 1980, and been accused of being a black and gold glasses unrealistic fan on this board since 1999.

there is now way in hell that the shockers finish lower than 5th ranked, at the very worst. how could you possibly say otherwise after watching that shocker run? do you even know what they just did? you don't seem too.

It doesn't matter where @im4wsu: thinks the Shocks should finish. He's telling you what he thinks the ones that will actually do the voting will do.

Two totally different things: Where we feel they should be ranked vs Where the voters will rank them.

[1979Shocker]

If you go by history, we should make the top 4 in the polls. From 2008 through 2012 the coaches poll has had the Final Four teams ranked 1-4 every year except 2010 when they had VCU ranked #6.

[HarpBros]

Jason King has us at 11th,

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9147684/very-early-top-25-2013-14-season-ncaa-men-college-basketball


"11. Wichita State Shockers: There's a strong chance that next season's Shockers could be even better than the unit that lost to Louisville in the Final Four. Losing bruising forward Carl Hall and court leader Malcolm Armstead will hurt, but Gregg Marshall's team will return all of its other key pieces. Cleanthony Early, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville, is an NBA-caliber small forward. Ron Baker ignited the Shockers' NCAA tournament run with his prowess from beyond the arc and point guard Fred VanVleet logged valuable minutes as a freshman backing up Armstead at point guard. Tekele Cotton is a returning starter who helps set the tone defensively. Standout shooter Evan Wessel, who redshirted this season, also returns. Look for 6-foot-9 Louisiana-Lafayette transfer Kadeem Coleby to replace Hall in the paint. Coleby has spent the past season working out with the Shockers and Marshall couldn't be more impressed. Chipola (Fla.) Junior College transfer Earl Watson will also be in the mix down low."

[kcshocker11]

Jason King has us at 11th,

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9147684/very-early-top-25-2013-14-season-ncaa-men-college-basketball


"11. Wichita State Shockers: There's a strong chance that next season's Shockers could be even better than the unit that lost to Louisville in the Final Four. Losing bruising forward Carl Hall and court leader Malcolm Armstead will hurt, but Gregg Marshall's team will return all of its other key pieces. Cleanthony Early, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville, is an NBA-caliber small forward. Ron Baker ignited the Shockers' NCAA tournament run with his prowess from beyond the arc and point guard Fred VanVleet logged valuable minutes as a freshman backing up Armstead at point guard. Tekele Cotton is a returning starter who helps set the tone defensively. Standout shooter Evan Wessel, who redshirted this season, also returns. Look for 6-foot-9 Louisiana-Lafayette transfer Kadeem Coleby to replace Hall in the paint. Coleby has spent the past season working out with the Shockers and Marshall couldn't be more impressed. Chipola (Fla.) Junior College transfer Earl Watson will also be in the mix down low."

oh no KU at #20

[GoShockers89]

Jason King has us at 11th,

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9147684/very-early-top-25-2013-14-season-ncaa-men-college-basketball


"11. Wichita State Shockers: There's a strong chance that next season's Shockers could be even better than the unit that lost to Louisville in the Final Four. Losing bruising forward Carl Hall and court leader Malcolm Armstead will hurt, but Gregg Marshall's team will return all of its other key pieces. Cleanthony Early, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville, is an NBA-caliber small forward. Ron Baker ignited the Shockers' NCAA tournament run with his prowess from beyond the arc and point guard Fred VanVleet logged valuable minutes as a freshman backing up Armstead at point guard. Tekele Cotton is a returning starter who helps set the tone defensively. Standout shooter Evan Wessel, who redshirted this season, also returns. Look for 6-foot-9 Louisiana-Lafayette transfer Kadeem Coleby to replace Hall in the paint. Coleby has spent the past season working out with the Shockers and Marshall couldn't be more impressed. Chipola (Fla.) Junior College transfer Earl Watson will also be in the mix down low."

I would be a-okay with this starting slot for 2013-14. Good find!

[tropicalshox]

Got to chuckle.

[ShockerFever]

oh no KU at #20

Good thing they're not on the schedule. RPI hit.

[ShockerFever]

No Creighton? :cry:

[Rlh04d]

Jason King has us at 11th,

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9147684/very-early-top-25-2013-14-season-ncaa-men-college-basketball


"11. Wichita State Shockers: There's a strong chance that next season's Shockers could be even better than the unit that lost to Louisville in the Final Four. Losing bruising forward Carl Hall and court leader Malcolm Armstead will hurt, but Gregg Marshall's team will return all of its other key pieces. Cleanthony Early, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville, is an NBA-caliber small forward. Ron Baker ignited the Shockers' NCAA tournament run with his prowess from beyond the arc and point guard Fred VanVleet logged valuable minutes as a freshman backing up Armstead at point guard. Tekele Cotton is a returning starter who helps set the tone defensively. Standout shooter Evan Wessel, who redshirted this season, also returns. Look for 6-foot-9 Louisiana-Lafayette transfer Kadeem Coleby to replace Hall in the paint. Coleby has spent the past season working out with the Shockers and Marshall couldn't be more impressed. Chipola (Fla.) Junior College transfer Earl Watson will also be in the mix down low."

I REALLY respect Jason King as far as ESPN analysts go. For instance: He's the first guy from ESPN that's realized Evan Wessel was a starter last year, or that Kadeem Coleby is even on the team.

However, if King has us at 11, I'd expect the general media, who are more representative of the ramblings of ESPN analysts who don't know who Coleby is because he's not listed on this year's recruiting lineup, to put us at 20. King is very knowledgeable and respectful to us, and always has been -- but he's the only one there.

[ShockTalk]

No Creighton? :cry:

Not even in the next 15.

[n8]

If I recall correctly, Jason King is from Overland Park or somewhere near there... which may explain why he is more in tune with our program than the other national writers.

However, I don't think that Jason King is the ONLY ESPN guy that gives us respect. I have spent a lot of time this season reading the reports from Eamonn Brennan, Myron Medcalf and Dana O'Neil (the espn.com writers) and all of them have been respectful of what the Shockers were capable of. It took a couple of them longer to come around than others, but I don't think they doubted us past the point in the season when Carl came back from his injury. O'Neil, for instance, was one of the few ESPN people who was certain that our National Semifinal game was going to be a close one.

I won't try to defend the on-air ESPN people, as there is some serious east coast/power conference lean there. Bilas is the only one that is consistently fair to non-power conference teams.

I am a little more optimistic about the look we will get from the national media in the preseason. We are losing two top contributors, but are retaining a lot from a Final Four team. I repeat, a Final Four team. The fact that we were playing on the last weekend of this season buys us some spotlight in the lead up to next season, particularly because the country has seen what Marshall can do when he is "rebuilding." The national level coverage of Marshall is likely what gets us past the "eye-test" barrier and into the polls early. Remember, this season we made it into the polls a week or two sooner than in 2011-2012 because of the success of that team. I see the same repeating itself here, and we simply aren't losing enough from a Final Four team to warrant being written off.

It will be hard to know what the AP is going to do, but 10-20 is extremely likely. Anything less is underselling the team.

[Rlh04d]

However, I don't think that Jason King is the ONLY ESPN guy that gives us respect. I have spent a lot of time this season reading the reports from Eamonn Brennan, Myron Medcalf and Dana O'Neil (the espn.com writers) and all of them have been respectful of what the Shockers were capable of.

I have no respect for Brennan after his recap of our game with Louisville written entirely in the context of Ware praying on the sidelines. Pandering crap. ESPN can't ever let the game itself be the story ... you can't just have a great basketball game. It's got to be soap opera crap. I feel bad for Ware's injury, but no worse than I feel for Evan's.

As for Medcalf and O'Neil, I haven't seen anything from either outside of us being in the tournament. I'm not willing to buy into either given a couple of fluff pieces and a prediction or two.

[SubGod22]

Medcalf is an idiot.

[CBB_Fan]

I remember asking Medcalf before the season started if there was any way Wichita State could reload for this season. In particular, I compared us to Kentucky, and asked whether we could reload as well as they had (ranked #3 preseason remember).

His response? "No chance."