The RoundHouse | 4/2/2019 8:55:00 AM

  Bob Hull and Paul Suellentrop discuss the 2019 Shockers and the NIT semifinal vs. Lipscomb

 
The NIT serves Wichita State basketball well over the years, boosting the Shockers as an entry point into prominence, a safe harbor during tough times and a launching pad into better times.
 
In 1954, the Shockers played in the NIT – then a 12-team field with 24 in the NCAA Tournament – a mere eight seasons after playing in the NAIA Tournament and 10 seasons removed from a schedule consisting largely of small Kansas colleges such as Bethany, Washburn and Baker. True to its reputation as worthy rival to the NCAA, the NIT field included four teams ranked in the top 20 of the final Associated Press poll - No. 3 Holy Cross, No. 5 Duquesne (which spent two weeks at No. 1 in February), No. 8 Western Kentucky and No. 16 Niagara.
 
The Shockers and coach Ralph Miller hit college basketball's national stage for the first time.
 
Appearances in 1962 and 1963 foreshadowed NCAA Tournament appearances in 1964 and 1965. Coach Gene Smithson took stars Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston to the 1980 NIT on their way to the 1981 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
 
In 2003, a trip to the NIT gave the Shockers their first post-season appearance since 1989 and signaled that coach Mark Turgeon's building efforts progressed. Wichita State so yearned for an NIT bid in 2003-04, it scheduled a game at Manhattan to play in front of NIT decision-makers.
 
In 2011, the Shockers won the NIT title in coach Gregg Marshall's fourth season, the "Bloom where you're planted" season that contributed to the success that followed, starting with a 2012 return to the NCAAs.
 
Wichita State's top NIT moments:
 
No. 1 – Cutting down the nets in Madison Square Garden in 2011 played a major role in launching the current era of Shocker basketball.
 
Wichita State handled Alabama 66-57 with Graham Hatch earning tournament MVP honors. The momentum and ESPN exposure from that title run helped the program build financial support from boosters and set the stage for seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
No. 2 – The Shockers made their first NIT appearance in 1954. It was their first national tournament after moving to the NCAA Division I ranks with membership in the Missouri Valley Conference in 1945.
 
Cleo Littleton scored 20 points in an 88-84 loss to Bowling Green.
 
The 1954 Shockers went 27-4. They won 67-66 at Oklahoma State, their first victory at Stillwater in 10 trips, on Paul Scheer's famed last-seconds shot to secure the NIT bid. 
 
No. 3 – Joe Ragland's floater with 2.6 seconds to play lifted fourth-seeded Wichita State over top-seeded Virginia Tech in a 79-76 overtime win in the 2011 second round.
 
Ragland went coast-to-coast, lost one defender with a behind-the-back dribble, and lofted in a shot that broke a 76-all tie. 
 
That road win sent the Shockers home for a quarterfinal game against College of Charleston.
 
No. 4 – The Shockers defeated Washington State 75-44 in the 2011 semifinals. They held Cougars star Klay Thompson to six points on 1-of-10 shooting. Murry defended Thompson for most of the game and fouls limited him to 25 minutes.
 
No. 5 – Wichita State advanced to New York this season with a 73-63 win at Indiana, its first trip to Assembly Hall. Freshman Dexter Dennis continued his emergence with 17 points, 14 in the second half. He made 5 of 7 three-pointers and blocked six shots.
 
No. 6 - Wichita State's Warren Armstrong scored 24 points and grabbed 24 rebounds in a 1966 90-84 overtime loss to New York University at Madison Square Garden. It remains tied with Levingston (1980 vs. UTEP) for program's high points NIT game.
 
No. 7 - Wichita State started its 2011 NIT by jumping to 10-0 lead against Nebraska. Gabe Blair blocked two shots in the opening minutes and the Shockers didn't allow a basket for the game's first 4 minutes, 18 seconds.
 
That burst erased any doubts about Wichita State's desire to play in the NIT and the 76-49 rout of the Huskers got the momentum to New York rolling.
 
No. 8 -  Houston fell apart late in a 2005 first-round game at Koch Arena after a technical foul on Andre Owens for slapping the backboard after a dunk. The Shockers turned a two-point deficit into a 69-66 lead after two foul shots by Kyle Wilson and a three-pointer by P.J. Cousinard.
 
That started a 19-3 run to the end the game with an 85-69 win.
 
No. 9 – A 91-84 double-overtime loss to Florida State in 2004 remains a much-remembered game for the crowd noise and the three-point shooting of Seminoles guard Tim Pickett in Koch Arena. 
 
Pickett, who scored 25 points, made two threes in the final minute of regulation to force overtime. In the first overtime, Wichita State's Jamar Howard tied the game 80-all with a three with nine seconds to play. The Seminoles finished the second overtime with an 8-2 run.
 
No. 10 – The Shockers handled College of Charleston 82-75 in the 2011 quarterfinals to clinch the trip to New York and unleash Frank Sinatra's anthem from the Koch Arena sound system.
 
Blair scored 16 points. Charleston guard Andrew Goudelock scored 31 points and made seven three-pointers, several from well beyond the line, to put a scare in the Shockers late in the game.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.