The RoundHouse | 12/3/2021 2:11:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
Give yourself 60 seconds to vent your partisan feelings on Kansas State vs. Wichita State, no matter your rooting interest.
 
"Weird we couldn't work out a date while Fred and Ron were on the roster."
 
"The game does us no good."
 
"Scheduling is hard."
 
OK, with that done, we can agree on the inconsistent history of the games, the opportunities missed for roaring crowds in venerable college basketball venues and the matchups of All-Americans ghosted.
 
And let's hope things change in the future.
 
On Sunday, Wichita State and Kansas State meet on the basketball court for the first time since 2003, which seems odd for two fine basketball schools 130 miles apart. Sunday's game at Intrust Bank Arena (5 p.m. ESPNU) is the first of four scheduled meetings – next season in Bramlage Coliseum, Kansas City's T-Mobile Center in 2023 and Koch Arena in 2024.
 
Perhaps the current revival will produce more memorable moments than the previous games. It's an odd series, one sporadically renewed and with few heated highlights that stick with fans. The schools managed to play 31 times – with Kansas State winning 20 – while leaving few marks on either's history.
 
Shocker fans likely feel more fondness toward recent regular- and post-season series against VCU, George Mason and Alabama, or the meandering four-game sweep of LSU. In the 1960's, Michigan, Ohio State and Loyola of Chicago highlighted the non-conference schedule.
 
Kansas State fans might point to Sunflower Doubleheaders in the 1950s and 1960s or meetings with Indiana and Kentucky during that era. More recently, wins over No. 8 Florida (2012-13) and No. 21 Gonzaga (in Wichita in 2013-14) stand out.
 
The most significant Shocker-Wildcat game – by 130 miles – happened in 1964, in another era of college basketball. Kansas State handed the Shockers likely their most disappointing loss, 94-86 in Wichita. That win sent the Wildcats to the Final Four, in a time before it was known as the Final Four.
 
Even that game comes with an asterisk well-known to devoted Shocker fans of a certain age. Starting guard Ernie Moore, who averaged 17.4 points, played the second semester and in a Missouri Valley Conference playoff game for the Shockers. A three-man NCAA eligibility board ruled Moore ineligible for post-season play, and he sat out the NCAA Tournament.

The 1964 meeting is the lone game during that era in which both regularly advanced to the NIT or NCAA. Beyond that game, the teams rarely played when both excelled.
 
From a Shocker perspective, pick a possible highlight: Greg Carney's 30 points in a 1969 win over the eventual Big 8 champions; Dwight Praylow's three-point play with two seconds remaining for a 63-60 win in 1986; a 1996 win in Manhattan behind Jason Perez's 20 points, or Mark Turgeon's first game as Shocker coach, a 76-66 win over the Wildcats with Terrell Benton scoring 23 in 2000.
 
Wichita State and Kansas State split six games – twice a season – from 1969-72. The schools didn't play from 1972-1985, depriving fans of matchups featuring stars such Wichita State's Cheese Johnson, Antoine Carr and Xavier McDaniel and Kansas State's Mike Evans, Rolando Blackman and Ed Nealy.
 
The series resumed in the late 1980s. They split two games in the 1986-87 season when both advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Kansas State won a 1988 game 58-47 on its way to the Elite Eight with Mitch Richmond.
 
It continued in the 1990s, a decade neither fan base remembers with great fondness. Kansas State made two brief NCAA appearances from 1990-1999 and the Shockers stumbled through that period. The schools split four meetings from 2000-03.
 
What did we miss? Quite a bit.
 
Carr vs. Nealy in 1981. Toure Murry vs. Jacob Pullen in 2011. Cleanthony Early vs. Rodney McGruder in 2013. Dean Wade vs. Landry Shamet in 2017. Think about the T-shirts, coaching dramatics, packed arenas and smack talk unrealized.
 
Consider these potential matchups:

• By 1961-62, coach Ralph Miller had the Shockers poised for a strong era with Moore, Gene Wiley and freshman Dave Stallworth. The Shockers went 18-9 and played in the NIT after beating No. 6 Purdue, No. 2 Cincinnati (eventual NCAA champion) and No. 9 Bradley. Kansas State finished 1962 ranked No. 6 nationally with a 22-3 record. The next season, the Wildcats shared the Big Eight title led by Willie Murrell. The Shockers went 19-8 with wins over No. 1 Cincinnati, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Loyola on their way to the NIT.
• Wichita State's best team of the 1970's won the MVC in 1976 to advance to the NCAA Tournament with Johnson, Bob Elmore and Cal Bruton. The Wildcats went 20-8 in 1976 and played in the NIT with the star backcourt of Evans and Chuckie Williams.
• Shocker coach Gene Smithson returned the program to prominence in the early 1980s with stars such as Carr and Cliff Levingston. Wichita State defeated Iowa and Kansas before losing to LSU the Elite Eight in 1981. That season, Kansas State, led by Blackman and Nealy, also advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to North Carolina. A meeting the next season would have been just as tantalizing – the Shockers went 23-6 and rose to No. 2 in the national rankings, while the Wildcats returned to the NCAA Tournament and finished 23-8.
• In 2000, Turgeon won his debut game against Kansas State and started rebuilding the Shockers. He took them to the 2006 Sweet 16. The next season, both teams played in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic with the 9-0 Shockers ranked No. 8 and the Wildcats coached by Bob Huggins on their way to the NIT. A loss by Wichita State to New Mexico derailed that possible matchup.
• Gregg Marshall and Frank Martin took over their programs in 2007 and quickly got the teams into post-season play. In 2011, the Shockers won the NIT while Martin's Wildcats played in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, both teams played in the NCAA Tournament. A Kansas State loss to LaSalle in 2013 kept them out of Wichita State's path to the Final Four. In 2014, Kentucky handled Kansas State before its game against the top-seeded Shockers in St. Louis.
• In 2017, Wichita State, with Shamet, Conner Frankamp and Markis McDuffie, made its sixth straight NCAA appearance.  Kansas State returned to NCAA play after a two-year absence. In 2018, both teams also played in the NCAA Tournament.

On Sunday, the Shockers and Wildcats get back together. It is never too late to start making basketball memories in Kansas.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.