WICHITA, Kan. – No. 3/3 Wichita State (8-1) puts a 14-game home winning streak on the line Saturday when it hosts rv/24 Oklahoma (7-1) in its annual downtown game at INTRUST Bank Arena.
Game Notes (PDF)
The game airs nationally on ESPN2 (and streams via WatchESPN) with Rich Hollenberg and Tom Crean. The Voice of the Shockers, Mike Kennedy, has the call on Shocker Radio (103.7 FM KEYN and GoShockers.com/Listen).
STARTING FIVE:
1 --- THE SERIES:
This is the back-half of a two-year home-and-home between the schools and marks the Sooners' first visit to Wichita since 1975. The Shockers won 76-73 last December in Oklahoma City to close the gap in the all-time series to 4-2 (OU).
2 ---
ON A ROLL:
Winners of four-straight, WSU climbed three notches in both the AP and Coaches Polls to No. 3 – the program's highest perch since March, 2014 when the unbeaten Shockers closed the regular season with four-straight weeks at No. 2... WSU's 78-66 win at Oklahoma State last Saturday marked just the eighth non-conference loss for the Cowboys at Gallagher-Iba Arena since 1989... A win over USC last weekend in Los Angeles pushed OU into the Coaches Poll at No. 24 and earned the Sooners enough votes for the equivalent of No. 27 in the AP.
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WHEN YOU'RE DOWNTOWN:
This is WSU's eighth visit to INTRUST Bank Arena all-time. The downtown arena will play host to First and Second Round games during the 2018 and 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships. This year marks the tournament's first stop in Wichita since 1994 at the Kansas Coliseum... WSU has played a home game at INTRUST Bank Arena annually since it opened prior to the 2010-11 season...The Shockers have sold out the 15,004-seat building in each of their last three go-arounds against Saint Louis (2014), Utah (2015) and Okla. St. (2016). A 93-76 loss to OSU last year was WSU's first (and only) downtown loss in seven trips.
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BIG STRETCH vs. THE BIG 12:
The Shockers are playing the last in a string of back-to-back-to-back Big 12 Saturdays. A Dec. 2 win at No. 16 Baylor was the first in a home-and-home series between the schools, with the Bears coming to Charles Koch Arena in December, 2018… WSU salavaged a split in its home-and-home with Oklahoma State with last Saturday's victory in Stillwater... WSU is 6-1 against Big 12 opponents since the start of the decade. The lone loss came last year against OSU.
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LANDRY RUSH
WSU's
Landry Shamet is the reigning American Athletic Conference Player of the Week after averaging 25.5 points and 6.5 assists in two games last week... Shamet's 30 points at OSU made him the first Shocker underclassman in nearly two decades to score 30-or-more. Maurice Evans (5x, 1998-99) was the last.
BONUS BULLET:
Wichita State leads the nation in rebounding margin (+14.6) after finishing second in that category a year ago behind eventual national champ UNC… The Shockers have outrebounded 14-straight opponents dating back to last March, including Kentucky in the NCAA second round. They were +2 on the glass at Baylor, becoming just the fourth team in the last three seasons to out-rebound the Bears on their home floor. Last Saturday they kicked OSU on the glass, 36-26.
WICHITA STATE AT INTRUST BANK ARENA
Wichita State annually hosts a non-conference men's basketball date downtown, continuing this December with a visit from Oklahoma. Past Shocker opponents include Tulsa (2010), UAB (2011), Southern Miss (2012), Tennessee (2013), Saint Louis (2014), Utah (2015) and Oklahoma State (2016). WSU is 6-1 all-time at the arena and has played its last three games there in front of capacity crowds.
Dec. 21, 2010 -- WSU 82, Tulsa 79
WSU's first appearance in the new building came against its oldest rival. The crowd of 14,112 was, at the time, the largest to ever watch a college basketball game in Wichita. David Kyles hit three treys in the first two minutes of the game and scored 14 of the Shockers' first 16 points. Garrett Stutz added 20 points, and the Shockers sent the fans home happy.
Nov. 25, 2011 -- WSU 68, UAB 46
One of the best defensive performances of the Gregg Marshall era came in year-two of the downtown series, when WSU held a UAB team fresh off a Conference USA title and a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament to just 46 points.
Dec. 22, 2012 -- WSU 59, Southern Miss 51
In another defensive masterpiece against a Southern Miss squad that would go on to post 27 wins, WSU overcame a 12-point second half deficit by limiting the Eagles to four points over the final eight minutes.
Dec. 14, 2013 -- #12 WSU 70, Tennessee 61
WSU clinched the best start in school history by beating eventual Sweet-16 qualifier Tennessee, 70-61, to improve to 10-0. Tekele Cotton led the way with 19 points.
Dec. 6, 2014 -- #8 WSU 81, Saint Louis 52
The Shockers posted the most lopsided win in INTRUST Bank Arena history in December of 2014, crushing defending Atlantic-10 champion, Saint Louis by 29 points.
Dec. 12, 2015 -- WSU 67, #25 Utah 50
WSU committed just three turnovers while forcing 19 in a 17-point rout of nationally-ranked Utah.
Markis McDuffie connected on four of his five three-point attempts.
Dec. 17, 2016 -- Oklahoma State 93, WSU 76
Darral Willis Jr. scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds (nine of them on the offensive glass), but the double-double wasn't enough to overcome a red-hot OSU, which knocked down 14 threes.
THE SERIES WITH OKLAHOMA
*The teams faced off last season for the first time in 41 years… This is only the fourth post-World War II meeting between the programs.
*The teams split a home-and-home series in December of 1974 and 1975. Robert Elmore (brother of former NBA player/TV analyst, Len Elmore) scored 20 points for the Shockers in both games.
*The two coaches have combined for over 1,000 wins. Gregg Marshall (455-173 entering his 20th season) faces Lon Kruger (601-381 entering his 32nd year).
*Silver Lake, Kan. native Lon Kruger played and coached at Kansas State. As a head coach, he's 7-2 all-time against the Shockers (4-1 at K-State, 2-0 at Florida, 1-0 at Illinois and 0-1 at Oklahoma). Kruger hasn't coached a game in Wichita since Dec. 7, 1991, when his Florida team defeated Mike Cohen's Shockers, 61-50, at Levitt Arena. Kruger is 2-1 all-time in Wichita.
*Marshall is 1-0 against Kruger.
*Marshall is 1-1 against Oklahoma. The other matchup came during his second season at Winthrop in the 2000 NCAA Tournament when his 14
th seeded Eagles lost to No. 3 Oklahoma in the first round.
OU's LAST TRIP TO WICHITA (Dec. 20, 1975)
*Wichita State picked up its 200
th win at the Roundhouse (then known as Levitt Arena).
*Tied at 60 with 1:16 to go, OU played for a last shot, but WSU freshman
Bob Trogele forced a steal and converted a layup with 46 seconds to go to put the Shockers in front.
Eddie Field's 15-footer missed for OU, and Trogele rebounded. His two free throws with 16 seconds remaining effectively iced the game.
*Another WSU freshman,
Robert Elmore, led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
MARSHALL vs. THE BIG 12:
*WSU is
6-3 against Big 12 teams under
Gregg Marshall , with wins in six of the last seven encounters.
*The Shockers are 3-0 against ranked Big 12 teams under Marshall with a 2010 home win over #18 Texas Tech, an upset of 10
th-ranked Kansas in the 2015 NCAA Tournament and their recent victory at No. 16 Baylor.
MATCHUP MASHUP:
*WSU redshirt senior center,
Shaquille Morris was in the same graduating class as former Sooner Jordan Woodard at Edmond Memorial High School. Morris averaged 20 points and nine rebounds as a senior, and the pair led Memorial to the 2013 Oklahoma Class 6A State Championship.
*A motivated Morris helped key WSU's win in Oklahoma City last December with seven points, six rebounds and five blocks in 30 minutes.
*WSU assistant Kyle Lindsted built tiny Sunrise Christian Academy into a high school and prep basketball powerhouse, producing nearly three dozen Division I players over the last decade. His prize pupil was former Sooner, Buddy Hield – the 2016 NCAA Player of the Year and a catalyst for OU's Final Four run. Lindsted brought Hield (from Freeport, Bahamas) to the United States as a high school junior and coached him for two seasons. Lindsted made the jump the collegiate level in the summer of 2015 and is now in his third season working under Marshall.
A SHOOTING STAR:
*
Landry Shamet is a member of the 50/40/90 club – the unofficial benchmark for shooting excellence.
*The sophomore averages a team-high 16.3 points and is hitting at a .553 clip through nine games...
*His .535 three-point percentage (23/43) ranks eighth nationally among qualifiers (min. 2.0 3FGM/game)...
*Just five players in Shocker history have finished north of 90 percent from the foul line over a full season (min. 40 FTM). Shamet (30/33, .908) is on pace to join Jamie Thompson (1966-67) as the only Shockers to make 100-or-more free throws in a season at better than a 90-percent clip.
LONG RANGERS:
*WSU has hit at least 10 threes in four-straight games, matching their school record from December, 2014. WSU is shooting at a .441 clip over that span (45/102).
Landry Shamet (13/23, .565) and
Conner Frankamp (12/25, .480) have accounted for over half of that production.
HOME RUNS:
As of Wednesday, Wichita State's 14-game home winning streak is tied for the nation's seventh-longest active. Three of the 10 streaks reside in The American, with Cincinnati (31) and SMU (28) sitting one-and-two.
QUICK HITS:
*
Conner Frankamp broke teammate LandryShamet's school record for consecutive games with a three-pointer. Saturday marked his 31
st straight. Shamet's 29-game streak (which ended Nov. 22 against Notre Dame) stood for less than two weeks.
*Frankamp has hit multiple threes in six-straight games and is 10-of-18 in three December contests.
*
Conner Frankamp's 129 three-pointers rank 13
th on WSU's career list. He needs 6 more to crack the top-10.
WSU is 96-5 (.950) overall in Wichita since the start of the 2011-12 campaign.
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
… Improve their record to 9-1 with five straight wins.
… Give them three-straight wins against the Sooners and close the gap in the all-time series to 4-3 (OU).
… Make them 3-0 against the Big 12 this year (with wins over Baylor, OSU and OU).
…Make them 7-3 against the Big 12 under Gregg Marshall with wins in seven of the last eight encounters going back to 2010.
… Make them 4-0 against nationally ranked Big 12 teams during that span.
… Make them 75-6 in home non-conference games under Gregg Marshall (11th season).
... Make them 97-5 in Wichita since the start of the 2011-12 season when their run of NCAA Tournament appearances began.
… Extend their home winning streak to 15, dating back to last December.
... Up their INTRUST Bank Arena record to 7-1.
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...
… Drop them to 8-2 and snap a 4-game win streak.
… End a 14-game home winning streak.
… Give OU a split in the home-and-home series and a 5-2 advantage all-time.
… Be just the seventh non-conference loss for the Shockers in Wichita under Gregg Marshall, sinking their mark to 74-7.
... Be just the sixth Shocker loss in Wichita since the start of the 2011-12 season when their run of NCAA Tournament appearances began.
… Be less good than a win.
UP NEXT:
WSU wraps up non-conference play with home games on Tuesday (Arkansas State, 7 p.m., YurView Kansas) and Friday (Florida Gulf Coast, 6 p.m., CBSSN) at Charles Koch Arena.
