Wichita State has for years carried a chip, and conference on its shoulders. Year in and year out, the Shockers have played to a remarkable winning percentage that didn’t translate in college basketball’s other numeric languages.
“If you’ve been following college basketball the last four or five years, you know that when Wichita State gets in that NCAA Tournament, we’ve been dreadfully under-seeded,” coach Gregg Marshall said earlier this season. “Maybe this will help.”
Wichita State moved to the American Athletic Conference to play tougher opponents, in bigger arenas, and on national TV. On Saturday, the Shockers (10-2) come to Hartford, where the XL Center is expected to be nearly full for their conference debut against UConn (7-5).
“They’re rebounding plus 11-12, they shoot the 3 very, very well,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. “[Landry] Shamet is one of the best point guards in the nation. They got two big guys, [Darral] Willis and [Shaquille] Morris, so they’re very balanced, a very disciplined team. If you’re giving them any angles and they smell that you’re not tough, they’re going to take advantage of it.”
The Shockers virtually forced the nation, and the NCAA selection committee, to pay attention in 2013-14, when they went undefeated in the regular season, getting a No. 1 seed, but lost in the second round to Kentucky. In the other four of the past five seasons, the Shockers have gone in as No. 7, 9, 10 and 12 seeds — this despite a 68-4 conference record, and 43-6 road record.
So while Wichita State brings basketball credibility to The American, now it’s up to the league to hold up its end, and that starts with UConn, still its biggest brand.
To date, this has not been the kind of vintage UConn team Wichita State was anticipating. The only time these schools have met, UConn won by four points on Maui in 2010, and went on to win the third of its four national championships.
“I have no idea how it will play out,” Marshall said, during the AAC’s media day. “UConn is a national name, a national program and that’s what we aspire to be as well. [A rivalry], that would be wonderful. I hope it’s a rivalry at the top and not at the bottom.”
So this is a matchup with implications — for this season and beyond. UConn attendance has fallen off, but a near-full house is expected Saturday, a chance to re-excite a fan base grown sullen.
“In this game, you’ve got to step up,” UConn sophomore Christian Vital said after practice Friday in Hartford. “You can’t just sit in the past or sulk around. I think we do have guys on this roster who are going to step up, and I believe in them.”
Shamet will certainly test the Huskies’ backcourt. He’s averaging 17.1 points, with 55 assists and 23 turnovers in 12 games. And he is shooting a ridiculous 50 percent on 3-point attempts.
“You know he’s going to come in here and try to make a statement,” Vital said. “It’s up to us to try to not let that happen.”
UConn has won all its home games, all against mid-majors. They have lost all five games against teams in the top-50 in RPI. They come off a two-game road trip where they were competitive at Arizona, but were blown out at Auburn.
“We need to come to play every game,” said Jalen Adams, UConn’s leading scorer, “we can’t just show up. We have a tendency to show up and when we get down 10-2 then we decide to play. But we also learned against Arizona that we can compete with the best of them. We can compete with people if we play the whole, entire 40 minutes.”
The Huskies have tried a number of players and combinations in the front court. In the waning minutes at Auburn, JuCo transfer Kwintin Williams got his first significant action. Wichita State, led bt Rashard Kelly (7.9) and Willis (7-5) rebound consistently.
Much of the focus of UConn’s troubles has been on offense, but the Huskies have also struggled to play man-to-man defense, which has resulted in a lot of penetration and kick-outs to open shooters. In other words, the Huskies have had a lot to correct since coming back from the Christmas break, but the biggest change they need as conference play begins may be intangible.
“We’re giving up too many layups, too many blow-bys, too many open 3s,” Ollie said. “In conference play, every possession counts. … There are going to be some ups and downs, but you can’t give in, you can’t quit, and that’s the one thing I don’t want to see. In that Auburn game, we kind of put out heads down a little. We have to compete on every possession.”
Subscribe and listen to the UConn Insider Podcast
iTunes | Soundcloud | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn