Tell me about the dark days

[Play Angry]

Michael Wiggins being forced to play 30 mpg with a broken arm for half a season because we literally had no other bench options was a real treat.

[shox1989]

That green floor was a running track, believe it or not.

The 90's also caused us to lose the games being shown on a local network affiliate. Now we have KN22.

The 90s did not cause WSU to lose games on channel 12. Channel 12 was still televising games until 2010 (the Tulsa game at INTRUST arena was the last game KWCH did).

[Bluzrover]

I have to say, I'm really enjoying this thread because, although I'm a long-time Shocker fanatic, I'm not familiar with the history from 1983 through 2000 due to my leaving Wichita for the Navy in 1983. Pogo and others have described those early years of Henry Leavitt Arena that I knew as I grew up. My parents had season tickets and I remember going to games watching Terry Benton, Cheese Johnson, Tony Martin, Greg Dreiling, AC, X and others not nearly as famous or talented and coached by the likes of Gary Thompson and Harry Miller. They didn't necessarily have the NCAA success but the teams were fun to watch and the crowds were pretty lively as I remember. Mom and Dad had their own seat backs they used to carry to every game as we sat on the old wooden benches that are long gone.

From my perspective, the basketball program really took its nose dive after it was placed on three years probation in January of 1982. At the time, WSU was the most penalized program in the NCAA with a total of six penalties up to that point. The violations occured in 78-79 during Gene Smithson's first two seasons. He was never penalized, it was tied to a couple of his assistants who were found to have offered airline tickets and cash to players, but he could never recover and Lew Perkins fired him in 86.

So as I said, I left Wichita in 83 and spent the next 22 years floating around the world and it was impossible to follow Shocker basketball. I know it was miserable because my Dad gave up his season tickets and started following KU (I still talk to him though). Thanks to the interwebz, I started catching up on Shocker basketball late into the Randy Smithson era and really got back into it once they hired Turgeon. I was able to watch the Shox beat George Mason in 2007 when they came to Northern Virginia to play them the year after they beat the Shox in the 2006 Sweet 16.

[newshock1234]

Yup I remember going to games as a kid during the Cohen era and even tho they were awfully bad I inherit them as my team and would never look back. Its also what makes the successful season such as the last few so special.

[chitown_shocker]

A personal bright memory during the abyss was seeing LD Swanson tie the game with a decent Gonzaga team at the end of regulation and then win the game on a last second three in OT. Cessna classic in 94 I believe. That was an exciting game and a good win.

[ABC]

I don't think the probation killed WSU. Fogler did take two teams to the NCAA and they were solid teams.

Anyone remember Lance Krull?

[rjl]

A lot of these old time memories don't feel like they were that long ago.

Time flies. Love it while you're in it.

[Shox1979]

A personal bright memory during the abyss was seeing LD Swanson tie the game with a decent Gonzaga team at the end of regulation and then win the game on a last second three in OT. Cessna classic in 94 I believe. That was an exciting game and a good win.

Didn't he win a game against the citadel the previous night with a last second shot as well? I was pretty young, but I remember waiting for LD to sign my shirt after that game.
I remember them handing out LD Swanson masks at his senior night. I ended up with a handful and wore them around the house all the time.

[Ricardo del Rio]

For $64, where did Coach Fogler live?

[Aargh]

I always respected Craig Stevens as a player because he tried so hard, but was limited by possessing no visible basketball skills. He was allowed to be a walkon because bodies were needed for practices. I don't think he would have even had an offer from a bad NAIA team. J.R. Simon is polished and skilled, compared to what Craaig was able to bring to the game.

The team was so thin in those years that Craig ended up starting games as a walkon Fr PG. Today, we have "invited" walkons. In the dark days, we had "begged" walkons.

Craig ended up starting games all 4 years he was here. Craig was not a walkon like Adam Emmenecker (all-Valley PG from Drake), or Ron Bakler, or Jake Odum. If not for the lack of depth and injuries, he would have been a walkon that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE would remember two years after he graduated. That's what we had for a backup and sometimes starting PG for 4 years.

I don't blame Craig. He just wanted to help the team out by giving them someone to practice against, which was needed. He didn't ask to be an on-court contributor. He didn't expect to be an on-court contributor, but he was forced into attempting that by the lack of recruiting ability of the staff. When there was no one left who could play his position, he gave it his best, and I thought he was actually inspirational for trying as hard as he did to overcome his lack of recognizable D1 skills. His main deficiencies were shooting, passing, and handling the ball, but he really tried hard.

[ShockerDave]

For $64, where did Coach Fogler live?

I believe in Benton

[Rosewood]

The 90s did not cause WSU to lose games on channel 12. Channel 12 was still televising games until 2010 (the Tulsa game at INTRUST arena was the last game KWCH did).

Cox 22 in association with metro sports has had local rights for some time. The Tulsa game in 2010 was in 22 per goshockers.com. Using the same site going back to 06-07 they were using ks22 and sometimes KWCH.
The last game on KWCH was dec 09 at UMKC and that was the only game under KWCH that year. (We played uni in the MVC championship game aired on cbs and thus carried by KWCH)

[molly jabali]

Most of what is remembered is pretty accurate and that that wasn't has been corrected. We really had some bad management of our athletics during the real bleak years. The athletic department was saddled with a huge deficit from football and Sweet Lew at the behest of Warren Armstrong shut down football. Smithson was fired and Fogler was hired which was done to give the program a clean image and looked to be a good hire at the time. The Black uniforms were discarded because that was a reinforcement of our Bad Boy image so we couldn't have any of that. Fogler recruited academic all americans short on athletic talent. The young guys just did not progress and looking at the staff behind Eddie it may not be surprising. Eddie left and not with the same talent level he had inherited. There were some athletes but not enough of them. Gary Hunter came in and was an attorney with a k who diploma in hand. I believe he was here for one year and was probably daunted by the enormous task at hand. Cohen could not find a recruits house here in Wichita and just blew it off and the young man winds up at SwoMo...the mans name Johnney Murdock who torched us every game. Inept at about everything but was passionate about the kids in the program. Next was Scott Thompson and he did have a very successful year at Rice before coming to WSU. The support at WSU from the administration was little and support from boosters had dwindeled to a few strong supporters. Scott Thompson was by all accounts a fine man and should have been a good hire but again not enough horses. I believe it was he that recruited Jason Perez to WSU but played for Randy. Randy was a great player and a great JuCo coach but was not suited to coach D1 ball. He was not a good rep for the U or the basketball team. He was abrasive to many of the players and his top asst was even more so from what I have been led to believe. One time during one of the coaches shows he made a comment something to the effect "he jumps pretty good for a white guy". Really? On the radio? The Maurice Evans debacle kind of showed how the program was being run along with some other kids with some character issues. The U approached Koch during RS first couple of years where the W's increased and asked about helping with the renovation and I believe was told to wait a couple more years and see how things were going. MT was hired and he was a fresh face for the program and was a good representative. The program started to come around and the renovation of the old Levitt arena into the CKA began and Preferred Health and others helped with all of the phases of construction. My version of what happened and its up for correction as well. I remember the horrible lines and odor of the basement urinal and I remember the smoking that went on in the concourse area and would then filter into the arena leave a pall during the 2nd half. During the Gene Smthson regime it seemed like the women that went to the game were there to be seen and they dressed accordingly. Not in the black and yellow but they dressed like they were set to go out afterwards and party. Of course that may be what was going on but I don't know. The games during the dark times were hard to watch but there were still a core of fans that went to every game and there was another group that would show up for games that had a name brand opponent. The core group was there to support the U and the student athletes no matter how bad the game was. We were a horrible road team for all of those years and even into the first couple of years with MT and then again under GM. You can see what we have now but even with success it was tough to get the students to finally get involved and the band has been outstanding as of late. Enjoy what we have now and when some people complain about some of those old farts not being engaged remember that they were probably engaged during the worst of times.

Wow!!!! Spot on in so many ways!

[SB Shock]

Mark Turgeon and I started WSU at the same time. I finished before he did though. But as someone who only knows of good times I am curiously drawn to know more about the bad times. Maybe it is a Jungian thing I dunno. But I want to know how WSU went from X to high school classmates of mine asking if WSU played D1 ball when I told them I was going to WSU.

I know that for those of you who remember it and lived through it you may not want to relive the pain whilst in the best year ever. But remember the sweet is never as sweet without the sour. So tell me how sour it was.

koch arena had only ~5,700 people in it at the low point. Warren Armstrong got rid of "were going to beat the hell out of you..." cheer - it was to mean

[shockmonster]

This whole thread is a total downer.:)