WICHITA, Kan. – No. 25/25 Wichita State (25-4, 15-1) sends off seniors
Zach Bush and
John Robert Simon, while continuing its quest for a fifth MVC regular season title in six years,Tuesday evening against Evansville (14-15, 5-11 MVC).
The 7 p.m. CT tip airs on Cox Channel Kansas with
Shane Dennis and Bob Hull. Listen to every Shocker game, home and away, on FM 103.7 KEYN and online at goshockers.com/listen. Mike Kennedy -- now in his 37th year -- will call his 1,205
th consecutive game, alongside Dave Dahl.
STARTING FIVE:
1 ----- RACE FOR FIRST-PLACE: WSU and Illinois State remain tied for first-place heading into the final week of the regular season. Wins over Evansville and Saturday at Missouri State (11 a.m. CT, ESPN2) would guarantee the Shockers at least a share of their fourth-consecutive title. The Redbirds host SIU Wednesday and finish up at UNI on Saturday (1 p.m., CBSSN). If both teams win out, they'll share the title, with ISU likely earning the No. 1 seed at next week's MVC Tournament in St. Louis, via tiebreaker (RPI).
2 ----- TEN'S THE TREND: WSU's 10-game winning streak (which began with an 82-65 win at Evansville on Jan. 17) is one of the 10-longest in school history. During the streak, the Shockers have held opponents to 34.7%, and none have topped 70 points.
3 ----- RANKING FILED: WSU is back in the Top-25 for the first time since Feb. 29, 2016, checking in at No. 25 in both AP and Coaches Polls. Since earning its first ranking under
Gregg Marshall in Feb., 2012, WSU has totaled 60 weeks in the rankings. WSU has spent time in the top-25 in each of the last six seasons, matching a program best. Over a six-year stretch from 1960-61 to 1965-66, the Shockers logged 63 weeks in the polls.
4 ----- SENIOR MOMENT: Since the NCAA cut its scholarship limit to 13 in 1993, seniors
John Robert Simon and
Zach Bush are only the third and fourth Shocker walk-ons to play all four seasons. The duo are the last holdovers from the 2013-14 undefeated team's active roster. Bush is the final link to the 2013 Final Four squad (he redshirted). Marshall often reminds his players that "who starts" is far less important than "who finishes" games. Simon has been on the court for the end of 65 games in his career, and Bush has closed out 57. By comparison, two-time MVC Player of the Year,
Fred VanVleet finished just 57 of his 141 career games.
5 ----- DRIVE FOR 25: WSU secured an eighth-consecutive 25-win season on Saturday. That's an MVC record and one of the five-longest active streaks in Division I. Undefeated Gonzaga has already upped its own streak to 10, while VCU (7), Duke (9) and Kansas (11) are all on pace to reach 25 by the end of the month.
SIXTEEN, GOING ON 17?
*A Shocker win would give them 16 MVC victories for the fifth time in six years.
*WSU has an .887 winning percentage in MVC play since the start of the 2011-12 campaign (94-12).
*Since 1991-92, when the Valley expanded its schedule to 18 games, the rest of the conference membership has combined for just four other 16+ win finishes: Illinois State (16-2 in 1998), Southern Illinois (16-2 in 2003 and 17-1 in 2004) and Northern Iowa (16-2 in 2015).
REALLY GOOD AT MAKING OTHER TEAMS MISS SHOTS:
*In MVC play, WSU's .377 field goal percentage defense is one of the four best marks since 1980 (when the Valley began tracking that statistic).
*The 2015-16 Shockers held Valley foes to a record .359 in conference play, breaking the mark set by the 2014-15 Shockers.
THE SERIES WITH EVANSVILLE:
*This is the 47th meeting between WSU and Evansville in a series that dates back to 1994 (when the Aces joined the Missouri Valley Conference). The teams have met at least once in each of the last 27 seasons.
*The Shockers lead the all-time series 30-16.
*WSU's eight consecutive victories over Evansville are a win shy of their longest streak against the Aces. From 2003-07, WSU won nine straight meetings.
*The Shockers have captured 13 of the last 15 overall in the series, with a three-game sweep in 2013-14 during the undefeated run and two-game sweeps in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
*Head coaches
Gregg Marshall and Marty Simmons made their respective debuts at WSU and Evansville in the same season, 2007-08, and are the league's second-longest tenured coaches behind UNI's Ben Jacobson. Marshall is 15-5 against Simmons.
* WSU leads 17-5 in Wichita and has won 14 of the last 15.
*Evansville is 1-12 in Wichita since the 2003 renovation and rededication of Charles Koch Arena.
LAST MEETING: Jan. 17 in Evansville | 82-65, WSU
WSU outscored Evansville by 20 in the second half, and
Shaquille Morris tied his career high with 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds...
Conner Frankamp added 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc...
Rauno Nurger (12 points),
Landry Shamet (11) and
Darral Willis Jr. (11) rounded out a group of five double-figure scorers... WSU won its eighth-straight overal Evansville... Jaylon Brown scored a game-high 28 for the Aces, and Ryan Taylor tacked on 17. No other UE player scored more than four... WSU converted on 11-of-19 attempts from beyond the arc (58%)... WSU trailed 32-19 near the 5:00-mark but closed the half on an 11-1 run to pull within three, 33-30... After a 36% first-half, the Shockers hit 67% in the second half... WSU opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take its first lead since early on... Up seven with seven minutes left, WSU put the game away with another 13-2 run, fueled by Frankamp's shooting, to go ahead 77-59.
SWEEPING UP:
*WSU already has multiple wins in the bank against six MVC opponents this year.
*A victory over Evansville would give the their 50th Valley sweep since 2010-11. In that time, they've split 20 home-and-home series, while being swept on just occasions: Missouri State (2011) and Evansville (2013).
SOME SENIOR NIGHT INSIGHT:
*WSU has lost just one Senior Night under
Gregg Marshall -- four years ago against Evansville. A 59-56 setback ultimately cost them a share of the MVC regular season title. Three days later, they dropped a winner-take-all battle at Creighton and finished a game out of first-place in the standings.
*The Shockers' 2017 senior class is among the smallest in recent memory. Marshall's second WSU team (2008-09) had a pair of JUCO seniors, Ramon Clemente and Mantas Griskenas. His third team had just one senior, JUCO guard Clevin Hannah.
*Random fact: WSU won 17-straight Senior Days from 1974-1990.
MATCHUP MASHUP:
*WSU is on pace to set a school three-point record (8.6 threes per game). Of the 347 Division I teams, Evansville's 3.8 three-pointers is the nation's lowest per-game average.
*The lack of three-pointers is by design. The Aces rank somewhere near the top-third nationally in three-point percentage (.363), but rarely shoot them. League volume leader WSU has almost as many three-point field goals (250) as Evansville does attempts (303).
*In Valley play, Evansville has been the league's most blockable team. 9.3% of their field goal attempts result in blocks. WSU (4.5%) has the second-lowest percentage behind Missouri State (4.1%).
*The Aces shot 44.2% from the field against the Shockers in Evansville back on Jan. 17. Since then, WSU has held its last nine opponents under 40%.
*Evansville's Jaylon Brown is closing in on an MVC scoring title. If he can maintain his 20.3 point per game average, it'll mark the sixth consecutive year that an Evansville player has scored more than 20-a-game. The Shockers haven't had a Valley scoring champion nor a 20-point scorer since Jason Perez averaged 20.2 in 2000.
TEN AGAIN (MVC Winning Streak):
*WSU's 10-game MVC winning streak is one of the eight longest conference streaks in school history.
*Six of the top-10 streaks have come under
Gregg Marshall's watch.
*The Jan. 14 loss at Illinois State snapped a previous nine-game MVC streak that began in the final weeks of the 2015-16 campaign.
*From 2013-15, WSU set a modern conference record with a streak of 27-consecutive MVC regular season wins.
*Last year, the Shockers built up a similar 19-game streak that ranks among the 10-longest of the league's post World War II era.
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
... improve their overall record to 26-4.
...give them a 11-game winning streak for the eighth time in program history.
... give them 16 MVC wins for the fourt- straight year.
... Improve their overall MVC mark to 67-4 since the start of the 2013-14 season.
... slice their magic number to "1" to clinch a share of the MVC title and give them a temporary half-game lead on Illinois State (which plays Wednesday).
... give them 9-straight over UE and a 31-16 series lead.
... be their 15th win in the last 16 tries against the Aces in Wichita.
... extend their Charles Koch Arena winning streak to 19-games and make them 16-0 on campus this season.
... give them their 50th MVC sweep in eight years.
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...
... Drop their overall record to 25-5.
... Snap a 10-game winning streak.
... Sink them to 15-2 in league play and knock them out of first place.
... Be their first loss to Evansville since 2013 and snap an eight-game series winning streak.
... Be the Aces first win in Wichita since 2013 and just their second since the 2003-04 season when Charles Koch Arena made its debut.
... Make WSU 58-2 overall at CKA since the start of the 2013-14 season.
... Be just the fifth Valley loss by a Shocker team in the last four conference regular seasons.
... Be less good than a win.
UP NEXT:
*Wichita State finishes up the regular season schedule Saturday at Missouri State. The 11 a.m. tip airs on ESPN2.
*The Shockers have won 13-straight meetings against the Bears, last losing in the 2010-11 season finale in Springfield.
