Bracket | Tournament Central

WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State makes its seventh-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.
 
The Shockers (25-7 and ranked No. 11 in the most recent Associated Press Poll) are headed to San Diego as the East Region's No. 4 seed. They'll tip off their tournament at 12:30 p.m. Friday against No. 13 seed Marshall on TNT.

Marshall (24-10, 13-5) is dancing for the first time since 1987 after winning the Conference USA Tournament.

This will be the third meeting all-time between WSU and Marshall but the first since Dec. 15, 1941. The Shockers won 36-33 in Wichita on Dec. 17, 1940. A year later, Marshall won 60-24 in Huntington, W.V.
 
The WSU-Marshall winner advances to Sunday's second round to face either No. 5 West Virginia or No. 12 Murray State at a time to be determined.

The Shockers have never faced West Virginia. They won the lone meeting with Murray State in 1953.
 

---

More Tourney Tidbits:
 
First and second round games will be played at Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl on the campus of San Diego State University. The Shockers last played there during the 2010-11 season as part of the MVC-Mountain West Challenge Series.
 
Gregg Marshall spent two seasons as an assistant at Marshall (1996-98) and helped the Herd to the 1997 Southern Conference Championship. Shocker assistant Donnie Jones worked six years at Marshall as an assistant (1990-96) under Billy Donovan and three more as the program's head coach (2007-10).
 
This is WSU's 15th overall appearance in the NCAA tournament. The No. 4 seed is the second-highest in program history, trailing only the 2014 team which earned a No. 1 seed with a 34-0 record.
 
Shocker teams are 18-15 all-time with Final Fours in 1965 and 2013. WSU teams reached regional finals in 1964 and 1981 and made regional semifinal appearances in 2006 and 2015.
 
Wichita State is one of five schools that have won a game in each of the last five tournaments, joining Kansas, Gonzaga, Oregon and North Carolina.
 
Since 2013, Wichita State has won 10 tournament games. Six have come against higher-seeded teams (most in the nation in that span).
 
The Shockers are prepping for their 34th NCAA Tournament game all-time. Notably, half (17) of those contests have come within the past seven years. Prior to Marshall's arrival, the Shockers had made the field in consecutive years on just two occasions (1964 & 65; 1987 & 88).
 
Marshall owns an 11-13 career record in NCAA Tournament play (1-7 at Winthrop; 10-6 with WSU). 
 
The Shockers have held a second-half lead in all 16 of their NCAA Tournament games under Marshall.
 
Since the NCAA began seeding the tournament in 1978, Shockers teams are a remarkable 9-8 as the underdog.
 
Also since '78, Shocker teams are 7-4 in first round games (2-3 as the underdog, 5-1 as the favorite). No. 12 VCU scored the first and (so far) only first round upset of a Marshall team in 2012, downing the fifth-seeded Shockers, 62-59, in Portland.
 
The Shockers are a combined 16-8 in postseason games under Marshall, boosted by a 2011 NIT Championship. A run of 10-consecutive postseason trips began with a 2009 CBI bid.
 
This is WSU's 29th overall postseason appearance (15 NCAAs, 13 NITs and 1 CBI). In the 15 seasons since Charles Koch Arena's renovation, Shocker teams have reached postseason 12 times (with 8 NCAA bids).