Quotes for a Shocker Story

[Awherm]

Hey all Shockers Fans --

I'm new to this site, but my name's Adam Hermann, and I write for midmajormadness.com. I'm finishing up a feature on the Shockers' NCAA run and the impact on it had on the Wichita/mid-major communities.

Are there any fans on this forum that can give me some thoughts on being a Wichita fan during the season and finally seeing their hard work and diligence pay off with the Tournament run?

And if there are any students at Wichita on this forum, I'd love to hear about your experiences on campus during the Tournament run.

Thanks folks!

[SHOXJOCK]

Welcome to shockernet

Just to save you some crap please edit to Wichita/Non BCS communities.

Thanks

[Ta Town Shocker]

The out pour of community support was amazing. Many workplaces throughout the city gave employees the opportunity to wear Shocker gear on game days. I live near one of the local sports shops and after reaching the Final Four there were lines of people waiting to grab a shirt. I will never forget the night after our win against Ohio State. Multiple people in our neighborhood were shooting off fireworks afterwards.

[Kung Wu]

I could SWEAR since the Shoxers made it the Final Four, it's as if they added Viagra to the water here in town.

[kcshocker11]

I could SWEAR since the Shoxers made it the Final Four, it's as if they added Viagra to the water here in town.

Can they quote on that?

[another shocker]

long overdue.

[WUSHOCKBPELI]

PM Sent

[ABC]

It might be interesting to hear from Shocker fans outside of Wichita.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Shocker Final Four shirts in the grocery stores, Target, etc. in Topeka. The Kansas Sampler/Rally House sold out of Shocker shirts.

[Kung Wu]

Can they quote on that?

Somehow I don't think we'll have to worry about that. ;)

[jpshocker]

Pretty amazing considering the roller coaster ride we've been on since the mid eighties. We didn't just have a couple bad years, we had a couple terrible decades. Seeing the program evolve the way it has over the last ten years and then culminate in a final four run this year is incredible. The beauty is that because of the support and resources this program has this shouldn't be an anomaly.

[Kung Wu]

Show me another team that has fought so much adversity in one season and still made it to the Final Four and I'll buy you a Shocker T-Shirt.

As mentioned elsewhere in the run up to the Final Four, every other person in every grocery store (including the employees) was wearing a Shocker shirt of some sort. That was pretty darn cool.

This was a season of drama. We were rockin' so hard with a killer win/loss record, then suddenly we are down four starters at one point. Fortunately Orukpe was able to come right back but three other starters were known to be out for a concerning period of time and we all thought the entire season might be in jeopardy. I mean it was somber.

But ... we won a few games with the bench squad, and didn't just win them, but won them convincingly. It didn't take Shocker fans but about three microseconds to start believing again and next thing you know we go seven and one with three bench players in the starting lineup.

Then fate kicks us in the grapes again and we lose three in a row. We predicted two of those losses but the third one ... man that third one. We shouldn't have put ourselves in the position to lose it, but honestly it just felt like it was taken from us. There was so much controversy on the last play against a poor SIU team, and with an NCAA tournament invitation and seed riding on these games, the air was sucked out of the city.

But ... this team is tougher than a New York junkyard dog and HC3GM just turned the right screws to tune the machine and get it cranking again. And crank it did. Creighton went off up in Omaha, like it was the last time they would ever play us for a conference title (because it was), but other than that -- we were evolving into a hardened team of seriously tough competitors again. In fact they call it MTXE around here -- Mental Toughness and eXtra Effort. And that's just what we were showing: MTXE.

When MVC tournament time came around, our newly evolved stud, Cleanthony was sicker than a green cow patty in the hot Texas sun. He was using IVs, but still out on the court trying to get it done. In hindsight it would probably have been better if he had just sat out, but that's the luxury of hindsight. Make no mistake, if Cleanthony was healthy, Creighton would have lost the championship game.

And the rest? Well everyone knows the rest.

[ISASO]

What is this mid-major thing of which you speak? I'm not aware of how that term is connected with Wichita State? You might want to ask Coach Marshall about it...or not.

[1979Shocker]

long overdue.

What? Viagra in the water?

[kstarheel]

I grew up in North Carolina, big fan of the Tar Heels since '77. That is a program with a ton of history and success. BUT I will say that the thrill I got watching WSU make it to the Final Four this season topped any moment I have had as a fan of UNC.

[Aargh]

We pay our coach around $1.5 mill even if he doesn't get any post-season incentive money. With incentives this year, he was right at $2 mill. The team flies charter, not commercial, to every away game other than Tulsa nd Missouri State. It doesn't take much longer to bus to those plces than fly. Our coach gets almost unlimited use of a private jet to fly anywhere in the world to look at recruits.

We have a newly remodeled arena and we consistently put over 10K in there - even for buy games against teams no one has ever heard of. We have a recently built practice facility attached to our arena. Our weight/conditioning facility is the equivalent of about any of the top-tier programs in the nation.

If you're a new season ticket holder, you're going to be paying in the range of $1,500 a year for the privilege of buyng season tickets in row 24. The price moves up dramatically as you get closer to the court. That was before making the F4. That's a bit misleading. It's virtully impossible for a new season ticket purchaser to get a seat that close. Those have been sold out for well over a decade and renewals keep those seats unavailable to new purchasers.

Former coach, Mark Turgeon, said WSU was a major program in a mid-major conference. Coach Marshall will tell you that he's got all the perks and facilities that a coach in a BCS conference could expect. The only way that WSU resembles a mid-major is that we don't have a high-dollar TV contract. That affects the ability to recruit at the highest levels and means that our AD has to raise more money from boosters than BCS schools - and we're apparently doing that , considering what we spend on our basketball program.

Please do not confuse WSU with a mid-major just because we're in a mid-major conference.

We knew we had signed a gem when we got Early. It takes JuCo trfr's some tme to adapt to D1 bal, officiating, and systems. Early had some stretchews where he struggled.

The two best shooters on the team were Baker and Wessel. Neither one played in a single game in the league because of injuries. Wessel was lost for the season. Baker had a chance to be cleared to play around the start of the MVC post-season tourney. What can anyone expect from a Fr who missed 20+ games and is coming off a stress frature in his foot and only becomes available in the post-season?

We were told by those who know the players that Baker would be back and "he will be pissed". That prediction was made before "Play Angry" became the Shox motto.

There were a few Shocker fans who knew what Baker could do and were not surprised by his performance in the NCAA's. Most of us didn't expect any significant contribution from a Fr who had missed over half the season. Can you imagine what he may have done in the post-season if he had had a whole season to work on his game?

Early and VanVleet were both projected to better in February or March than they would be earlier.

We knew we had a beast named Carl Hall. Then we had a lot of players with a lot of talent and we had a pretty good idea of what we could expect from them. In the post-season, Tekele Cotton caused a lot of our opponents best players to have an "off night". Early, VanVleet, and Baker showed what they were capable of. Malcolm Armstead hit a stretch where he played with consistency at a high level.

We knew about Cotton and that there would not be one opponent who would have a decent game if Cotton was guarding their offensive perimeter threat. Sure enough, everybody WSU played had on "off night", giving WSU an "easy route" to the F4.

Whewn WSU's top 2 3-pt. shooters went down with injuries, the MVC teams played zone against WSU. Cotton worked on his outside shot, VanVleet learned the system at PG nd gained confidence in his shooting, and Baker returned for the post-season. Zoning the Shox, which had been effective in league play, was suicidal in the post-season.

Watching the emergence of two Fr (VanVleet and Baker) and the improved late-season play of Early was the big thrill for Shocker fans - we pretty much knew what Armstead, Hall and Cotton were able to do.

We saw the difference in the team by adding Baker as an outside threat. Next year Evan Wessel will be a RS So - and he was the best shot from 3 last year before he was hurt.