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Alterique Gilbert

Shockers Meet Cincinnati on Semifinal Saturday in Fort Worth

3/12/2021 9:49:00 PM

rv/rv [1] WICHITA STATE (16-4, 11-2 American) vs. [5] CINCINNATI (11-10, 8-6)
AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
SATURDAY, MAR. 13, 2021 | 2:00 P.M. CT
FORT WORTH, TEXAS | DICKIES ARENA (Covid Capacity 25%)
TV: ESPN2 | RADIO: KEYN 103.7 FM
SERIES: Cincinnati leads 24-13 | LAST: Jan. 10, 2021 in Wichita (WSU, 82-76)
 
 
TUNE IN:
Friday's matchup airs nationally on ESPN2 with streaming available through the ESPN App, accessible on computer, smart phones, tablets and devices to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider. Kevin Brown and Dan Dakich have the call. Mike Kennedy and Bob Hull describe the action on KEYN 103.7 FM. Kennedy is in his 41st year as Voice of the Shockers.
 
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • The top-seeded Wichita State Shockers take on No. 5 seed Cincinnati in a semifinal matchup in the Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Championship inside Dickies Arena in Fort Worth,Texas.
  • Saturday's 2 p.m. CT tipoff airs on ESPN2. The winner advances to Sunday's title game (2:15 p.m. CT, ESPN)
  • WSU rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final 12:26 to defeat South Florida, 68-67, in Friday's quarterfinal opener. Tyson Etienne scored 20 points, including the game-winning free throws with eight seconds left, and Morris Udeze (career-high 11 rebounds) delivered a game-saving defensive play with four seconds left when he drew a charge on USF's David Collins.
  • Cincinnati held off No. 4 seed SMU, 74-71, behind 19 points from Jeremiah Davenport.
  • WSU has reached 11-straight conference tournament semifinals since 2010, including three-in-a-row in The American. The Shockers are in search of their first title game appearances after dropping close games to Houston (2018) and CIncinnati (2019).
  • WSU defeated the Bearcats earlier this year in Wichita, 82-76, but their Jan. 27 return trip to Cincinnati was canceled due to the Bearcats' COVID-19 shutdown.
  • In a span of just three months, Isaac Brown went from "coach for a year" to "coach of the year" in The American. Brown was named interim coach on Nov. 17. WSU removed his interim tag on Feb. 26.
  • Sophomore guard Tyson Etienne -- the AAC's co-Player of the Year -- is averaging 17.3 points and 3.1 threes-per-game on 39.5% accuracy.
  • Point guard Alterique Gilbert was a third team all-conference pick. He averages 10.2 points and leads the team in assists (4.1) and steals (1.6).
  • Ricky Council IV (AAC All-Freshman Team) has been a major scoring weapon off the bench, averaging 18.3 points-per-40-minutes.
  • Junior guard Dexter Dennis (Mar. 8 AAC Player of the Week) is one of the nation's elite defenders and has averaged 12.5 points and 2.1 threes on 40.5% accuracy during WSU's eight game winning streak.
  • WSU last tasted defeat more than seven weeks ago (Jan. 21 at Memphis).
  • WSU appeared in seven-straight NCAA tournaments from 2012-18 and reached the 2019 NIT semifinals. The Shockers were a consensus NCAA at-large pick in 2020 before the season's cancelation.
  • WSU had 10 AAC postponements due to COVID-19 protocol -- all of them initiated by opposing teams.
  • Three teams separate WSU from the Coaches Poll top-25. The Shockers are the equivalent of No. 32 in the AP.
  • WSU has reached the semifinals in each of its last 10 conference tournaments (2010-17 MVC, 2018-19 AAC).
  • WSU is 9-1 in games decided by five points or less.
 
 
THE SERIES WITH CINCINNATI:
  • This is series game No. 38. Cincinnati leads 24-13. 
  • WSU won the last meeting (Jan. 10) in Wichita, snapping a six-game series losing streak.
  • The Shockers' Jan. 27 return trip to Cincinnati was canceled due to the Bearcats' COVID-19 shutdown.
  • UC won both meetings in 2018-19 by a combined four points and swept all three 2017-18 matchups, capped by a 66-63 thriller in the semifinals of the 2019 AAC tournament in Memphis.
  • Both sides went wire-to-wire in the 2017-18 national rankings and split a pair of high-stakes matchups. The Shockers ended No. 5 Cincinnati's nation-best 39-game home winning streak, but the Bearcats returned the favor in the regular season finale, defeating the 11th-ranked Shocker in Wichita to claim the AAC title outright.
 
 
LAST MEETING WITH CINCINNATI:
Jan. 10, 2021 (Wichita) | WSU, 82-76
  • Ricky Council IV scored a career-high 23 (most by a WSU freshman in 12 years) and WSU snapped a six-game losing streak against Cincinnati.
  • Morris Udeze scored 18 points to go with 16 from Tyson Etienne.
  • WSU scored 33 points over the final nine minutes (on 10-of-14 shooting) to expand a three-point lead to as many as 16. That trio combined for 29 of them.
  • Former Topeka Hayden standout Zach Harvey scored 19 points to lead Cincinnati, which had won each of its first three American era visits to Charles Koch Arena. 
  • Instead of settling for jumpers as they had in past matchups against the Bearcats, the Shockers spent most of the second half in attack mode. Council and fellow guards Etienne and Craig Porter Jr. took turns driving the lane for baskets and/or Bearcat fouls. The trio combined to draw 15.
  •  WSU attempted just 12 three-pointers – fewest by a Shocker team since Jan. 17, 2015 when they made 4-of-11 tries in a 20-point win at Evansville.
  • The Shockers went to the line 34 times to Cincinnati's 23 and outscored the visitors 23-16. They also converted 15 Bearcat turnovers into 28 points.
  • Led by Council's 23 points and six-each from Porter and Clarence Jackson, the Shockers bench supplied 41 points.
 
 
OTHER MEMORABLE SERIES MOMENTS:
  • WSU and Cincinnati played 26 times from 1958-70 while Cincinnati was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bearcats won six-straight conference titles from 1958-63 and played in five-consecutive Final Fours, winning national titles in 1961 and 1962. The Shockers supplanted Cincinnati with back-to-back MVC titles in 1964 and 1965. The latter group reached the Final Four for the first time in school history.
  • 62 years ago, Bearcat legend Oscar Robertson set the Roundhouse's single-game scoring mark (50 points). The record – set Mar. 1, 1958 in Cincinnati's first-ever visit to Wichita – still stands. It came in the arena's third year of existence.
  • WSU's first series win came in 1961 (52-51). Lanny Van Eman hit the game-winning jumper with three seconds to play to stop the defending national champion Bearcats' 27-game winning streak.
  • The Shockers lost six-straight times to Cincinnati before finally breaking through in 1963-64 with a 59-58 overtime victory. The sixth-ranked Shockers thought they had won the game, 56-54, in regulation on a corner jumper by Dave Stallworth, but the timekeeper ruled otherwise and officials forced the Shockers to return to the court at UC Armory Fieldhouse. After the Shockers rallied to win (again), 59-58, some 2,000 fans were on hand to greet them at the Wichita airport with a trophy that included an inscription "One Game-Won Twice."
  • In 1963, Stallworth produced what is regarded as the greatest game ever by a Shocker in a 65-64 win over No. 1 Cincinnati. He scored 46 points, including the game's final seven, to rally from a six-point deficit. That win ended a 37-game Bearcat streak.
  • In 1969, the Shockers trailed 10th-ranked UC 54-42 with 11:30 to play but won 67-66 with reserve guard Greg Rataj scoring eight points in the final minutes.
  • Prior to 2018, the teams had last played on Dec. 5, 1981 at Levitt Arena (now Koch Arena). The future NBA trio of Xavier McDaniel, Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston combined for 35 points and 24 rebounds, and the Shockers pulled away for an 87-67 victory. Michael Williams (24 pts, 13 reb) and Dwight Jones (13 pts, 16 reb) starred for the Bearcats.
 
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD….
... improve their record to 17-4.
... move them into the championship game (2:15 p.m. CT, ESPN) for the first time in four seasons as a league member.
... be their ninth-straight and 16th in 18 tries.
... make them 5-2 in AAC tournament games.
... put them into the title game of a conference tournament for the first time since their 2017 Arch Madness title.
... make them 1-2 in AAC semifinal games and avenge a loss to Cincinnati in the 2019 semis.
... make No. 1 seeds 5-2 all-time in AAC semifinal contests.
… give them back-to-back wins over UC and narrow the Bearcats' all-time series lead to 24-14 (6-3 AAC era).
 
A SHOCKERS LOSS WOULD... 
... eliminate them from the tournament.
... give them three-straight AAC semifinal exits (the last two at the hands of Cincinnati).
... snap an eight-game winning streak and be their first loss since Jan. 21 at Memphis.
... be their seventh to UC in nine tries since joining the AAC.
… be WSU's first Quad-3 or Quad-4 loss since November, 2018 (LA Tech).
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