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So this is pretty long for an internet forum post. I'm a Shocker fan in Houston, Texas, and the following means very little to the people here. Hopefully, my fellow WSU fans will appreciate it.
As a sports fan, it’s funny how much things can change, and how much they can stay the same. I remember my formative days in Derby in the late 90’s, watching Cincinnati Reds baseball and Miami Dolphins football with my dad. I’ve loved sports for as long as I can remember - often too much, to the detriment of my studies and my responsibilities. This season of Wichita State basketball means a lot to all of us, but for me, it provides an opportunity to reflect on then and now like few other aspects of my life.
I was introduced to Shocker basketball by older members of my family who had watched them in the 80’s. To them, the glory days were long over, and there was no reason to follow along with the product of the 90’s. I was about 10 when Maurice Evans transferred, and the laughingstock narrative seemed to be confirmed. Then I moved to Houston, and started following the Shockers more closely, I suppose as an effort to hold on to my roots. When the time came to visit home for Christmas and New Year’s, I listened to Shocker games featuring guys like Terrell Benton and C.C. McFall. I never saw them play, but I listened intently whenever I could. I started learning about Mark Turgeon and his plan to rebuild the program, and started my transition to all-out fandom.
By the time Randy Burns and Jamar Howard were shaping the future of Shocker basketball, I discovered a way to listen to games on the internet. I kept track of individual scoring with a pen and printer paper. The NCAA tournament seemed like the holy grail of sports, and an impossible dream. I can still see the glossed-over look on my friends faces in Houston when I tried to steer a sports conversation towards WSU. Why not? To them, I might as well have been singing the praises of some Division II school in Idaho.
In 2006, I experienced all the ups-and-downs of college basketball in a three-week span. After years of promising my friends and family that the Shockers were ready to return to glory, they actually made the Tournament - for the first time in my lifetime, notwithstanding 1988, when I was six months old. I watched the second-round game against Tennessee like it was the Super Bowl - or a game that would determine life or death. I don’t remember every play now, but I remember the apprehension, hope, fear, and eventually, unadulterated joy. The Sweet 16 loss to George Mason was like a punch in the gut, and almost made me lose hope. After all, the next season, the Shockers totally collapsed, didn’t even make the NIT, and lost Mark Turgeon to Texas A&M.
And so, life returned to normal, and the Shockers to obscurity. While they struggled their first couple of years under Gregg Marshall, I struggled on my own for the first time. I was about 20 - with only a high school diploma, $250 in the bank, and a gambling problem. The glossed-over look returned to my friends faces, and my predictions of future Shocker success seemed more-and-more wishful thinking. Even when they won the NIT in 2011, and secured a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2012, a tough loss to VCU left me thinking that the team had taken me as far as it could.
The 2012-2013 season gave me sweet vindication. The high rankings and deep tournament run I’d been promising everyone since the days of Terrell Benton had finally arrived. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to react. In pro sports, even if your team is abysmal, you have a shot. Watching a team go from outside the top-300 nationally to the Final Four is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in sports and maybe in life.
That brings me to the point - the more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed the same. The stakes are different now, but I still live and die with every inbound, every shot, every pass. I still hope for a championship, though a lot more realistically now. I’m 26 now, married to a beautiful girl. We’ve recently purchased a house in West Houston and had a daughter, who is approaching her 2nd birthday. My life has changed so much over the last 15 years, I’m not sure if I would recognize myself at certain points in the timeline. But through all that’s changed, WSU basketball has been a constant for me. It’s taken me through the ups-and-downs, shown me to appreciate what I have, and how to be hopeful for the future, even when things are at their darkest.
As a sports fan, it’s funny how much things can change, and how much they can stay the same. I remember my formative days in Derby in the late 90’s, watching Cincinnati Reds baseball and Miami Dolphins football with my dad. I’ve loved sports for as long as I can remember - often too much, to the detriment of my studies and my responsibilities. This season of Wichita State basketball means a lot to all of us, but for me, it provides an opportunity to reflect on then and now like few other aspects of my life.
I was introduced to Shocker basketball by older members of my family who had watched them in the 80’s. To them, the glory days were long over, and there was no reason to follow along with the product of the 90’s. I was about 10 when Maurice Evans transferred, and the laughingstock narrative seemed to be confirmed. Then I moved to Houston, and started following the Shockers more closely, I suppose as an effort to hold on to my roots. When the time came to visit home for Christmas and New Year’s, I listened to Shocker games featuring guys like Terrell Benton and C.C. McFall. I never saw them play, but I listened intently whenever I could. I started learning about Mark Turgeon and his plan to rebuild the program, and started my transition to all-out fandom.
By the time Randy Burns and Jamar Howard were shaping the future of Shocker basketball, I discovered a way to listen to games on the internet. I kept track of individual scoring with a pen and printer paper. The NCAA tournament seemed like the holy grail of sports, and an impossible dream. I can still see the glossed-over look on my friends faces in Houston when I tried to steer a sports conversation towards WSU. Why not? To them, I might as well have been singing the praises of some Division II school in Idaho.
In 2006, I experienced all the ups-and-downs of college basketball in a three-week span. After years of promising my friends and family that the Shockers were ready to return to glory, they actually made the Tournament - for the first time in my lifetime, notwithstanding 1988, when I was six months old. I watched the second-round game against Tennessee like it was the Super Bowl - or a game that would determine life or death. I don’t remember every play now, but I remember the apprehension, hope, fear, and eventually, unadulterated joy. The Sweet 16 loss to George Mason was like a punch in the gut, and almost made me lose hope. After all, the next season, the Shockers totally collapsed, didn’t even make the NIT, and lost Mark Turgeon to Texas A&M.
And so, life returned to normal, and the Shockers to obscurity. While they struggled their first couple of years under Gregg Marshall, I struggled on my own for the first time. I was about 20 - with only a high school diploma, $250 in the bank, and a gambling problem. The glossed-over look returned to my friends faces, and my predictions of future Shocker success seemed more-and-more wishful thinking. Even when they won the NIT in 2011, and secured a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2012, a tough loss to VCU left me thinking that the team had taken me as far as it could.
The 2012-2013 season gave me sweet vindication. The high rankings and deep tournament run I’d been promising everyone since the days of Terrell Benton had finally arrived. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to react. In pro sports, even if your team is abysmal, you have a shot. Watching a team go from outside the top-300 nationally to the Final Four is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in sports and maybe in life.
That brings me to the point - the more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed the same. The stakes are different now, but I still live and die with every inbound, every shot, every pass. I still hope for a championship, though a lot more realistically now. I’m 26 now, married to a beautiful girl. We’ve recently purchased a house in West Houston and had a daughter, who is approaching her 2nd birthday. My life has changed so much over the last 15 years, I’m not sure if I would recognize myself at certain points in the timeline. But through all that’s changed, WSU basketball has been a constant for me. It’s taken me through the ups-and-downs, shown me to appreciate what I have, and how to be hopeful for the future, even when things are at their darkest.
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