The RoundHouse | 12/21/2018 2:11:00 PM

 
Former Wichita State star Ron Baker remembers the noise, much of it directed at teammate Carl Hall, the look on Shaka Smart's face and Malcolm Armstead's winning basket.
 
"VCU was on the pedestal where Wichita State is now," he said. "That was the first (big) college basketball game for all of us new guys."
 
Wichita State travels to VCU on Saturday for the start of a two-game series that revives a rivalry that helped push both teams – and schools outside the elite conferences – into the national spotlight. VCU returns the game to Koch Arena next season.
 
VCU won the first two meetings. The Shockers won the third. 
 
All three games alter change how fans look at college basketball. They helped show basketball-dominant schools that, with appropriate resources and good coaching, they could win big against schools rich with football money. VCU and Wichita State used the basketball success to upgrade conferences – VCU moving from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Atlantic 10 (in 2012) and the Shockers from the Missouri Valley Conference to the American Athletic Conference (in 2017).
 
Mark Adams, who will provide analysis on Saturday's ESPN2 broadcast, calls it a series that changed the sport and points out the two schools shaped each other's rise in ways many conference opponents don't. 
 
"While the conferences have changed, this unusual connection and rivalry continues," he said in a text message. "These two are connected by history."
 
For the Shockers, the 53-51 victory on Nov. 13, 2012 is remembered as the launching point to the 2013 Final Four. Armstead's jump shot with 3.6 seconds to play quieted a sellout crowd at Siegel Center.
 
The Shockers were, in large part, starting over after the departures from 2011-12. For Baker, Cleanthony Early, Fred VanVleet and others, the trip to VCU was their first game (on ESPNU) on a big stage after a home opener.  Hall, recruited heavily by VCU, received much attention from the student section. Baker remembers his phone filling with texts after the game.
 
"They were yelling at Carl to cut his hair," Baker said. 
 
In March, when the Shockers needed an at-large bid to start its NCAA Tournament run, the win at VCU played a major role in boosting its resume.
 
"That was when I started to suspect this team of Shockers was special," Adams said. "That was the first indication that the Final Four team was legit."
 
The first two matchups played equally large roles for the Rams in their move into the spotlight under Smart, now coach at Texas. 
 
In 2011, VCU came to Koch Arena for a Bracket Busters game. It won 68-67 after guard Joey Rodrigue drew a much-disputed foul in the final seconds and made two free throws. That RPI-boosting win – as intended by Bracket Busters organizers – helped get VCU into the NCAA Tournament with a First Four trip to Dayton as a No. 11 seed. 
 
NCAA wins over Southern California, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas carried VCU to the Final Four in Houston, where it lost to Butler. Smart's "Havoc" style of play had made it big.
 
Wichita State won the NIT in 2011, a building block in its rise to more prominence. 
 
"That game marked two divergent paths to history," Adams said.
 
The next season, the Shockers won the Missouri Valley Conference and cruised into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed, easily earning an at-large bid.
 
VCU, a No. 12 seed, awaited and the Rams derailed the Shockers with a 62-59 win in Portland, Ore.
 
That set up the Bracket Busters return game early in the 2012-13 season in Richmond, Va. 
 
The Shockers lost four starters from the 2012 NCAA team. Armstead – in his lone season with Wichita State after transferring in – joined Hall, Baker, Evan Wessel and Ehimen Orupke in the lineup. 
 
Early came off the bench to lead the Shockers with 13 points. Hall added 12 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. Armstead played 33 minutes against VCU's pressure defense to record 11 points, six assists, four steals and three turnovers.
 
That three-game series added to the surge that started with George Mason in 2006 (also with Wichita State connections) and included success and investments in salaries and facilities by Butler, Wichita State, Gonzaga and others. Last season, Loyola added its name to that list with a trip to the Final Four.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.