WICHITA STATE (19-14) at [4] OKLAHOMA STATE (15-17)
Tuesday, March 18 | 8:00 p.m. CDT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena
 
TV: ESPN2 with Mark Neely & Jess Settles
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy, Dave Dahl & Bob Hull
 

---

OPENING TIPS
• The Wichita State Shockers open the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in Stillwater, Okla. vs. the No. 4 seed Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday, March 18 at 8 p.m.
• Wichita State is making its 14th appearance in the NIT and first since 2019 when the Shockers advanced to the NIT semifinals.
• Wichita State is 11-12 all time in the NIT, which includes a 2011 NIT title.
• The Shockers are 5-15 all time in Stillwater vs. OSU.
• In Wichita State's second round win over South Florida, Corey Washington scored 21 points and Bijan Cortes registered a career-high 20 points. They are the first pair of Shocker teammates to score 20+ points in a conference tournament game since 2014.
• Quincy Ballard became the first player to record 10+ rebounds and 5+ blocks in an AAC Tournament game. Against South Florida he had 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.
• Cortes tallied 20 points and 7 assists vs. South Florida. He joins Craig Porter Jr. as the only Shockers to record 20 points and 7+ assists in an AAC Tournament game.
• Xavier Bell was named First Team All-Conference and Corey Washington was named to the Second Team. They are first teammates to earn conference accolades since 2022 when Tyson Etienne (Third Team), Dexter Dennis (DPOY) and Ricky Council IV (6MOTY) took home hardware. Bell is the fourth Shocker to earn American First Team All-Conference honors.
• Quincy Ballard's 9 double-doubles are second most in the American and the most by a Shocker since Garrett Stutz in 2011-12. Ballard's 75.1 effective FG Pct. leads the nation.
• Ronnie DeGray III returned to action on Jan. 14 after missing nearly two months with a fractured wrist.
• Wichita State has a quartet of 1,000-point scorers on the roster. Xavier Bell reached 1,000 career points on Dec. 17 vs. Kansas City and Harlond Beverly made it to 1,000 on Jan. 14 vs. Charlotte. Corey Washington scored his 1,000th career point on March 3 at North Texas. Justin Hill has more than 1,500 career points.
• Ballard ranks 1st in the American in blocks per game (1.94) and 29th nationally. His 62 total blocks also rank 1st in the AAC, while ranking 28th in the NCAA.
• Ballard moved into 2nd on the Wichita State career blocks list in the AAC Championship vs. Memphis with 150. He's on pace to break the WSU career record for blocks per game at 1.97.
• Eight student-athletes on Wichita State's roster have NCAA Tournament experience: Quincy Ballard (Florida St.), Xavier Bell (Drexel), Harlond Beverly (Miami), Ronnie DeGray III (Missouri), Justin Hill (Longwood), AJ McGinnis (UNCG), Zane Meeks (San Francisco) and Corey Washington (St. Peter's).
• Head Coach Paul Mills has won 33 games over his first two seasons, tied for 3rd most in program history.

THE SERIES WITH OKLAHOMA STATE
• Oklahoma State holds a lopsided, 32-11 lead in the all-time series, which began in 1932 and included 24 Missouri Valley Conference contests between 1945 and 1957, however WSU has taken three of the six matchups since the series' 2016 revival.
• This will be the seventh meeting between the schools in a 10-year span.
• The road team has won seven straight in the series, with Oklahoma State victories at the Kansas Coliseum (2002), INTRUST Bank Arena (2016, 2022) and Charles Koch Arena (2020). The Shockers won at Gallagher-Iba Arena in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
• WSU's three-game winning streak in Stillwater comes on the heels of eight decades of futility. Shocker teams were 2-15 prior (2-14 at GIA).
• The series began Dec. 12, 1934 when the teams were know as the Oklahoma A&M Aggies and the University of Wichita Shockers. The Aggies' 24-17 victory was their first under a young head coach named Henry Iba.
• Iba, of course, stuck around for many more years. He's the coach of record for 31 of the 43 games in the series.
• WSU is 5-7 against OSU coaches not named Iba.
• The Cowboys got a sizeable headstart, winning 18 of the first 19 meetings between 1934 and 1953. Since 1965, WSU teams are a combined 6-7 against OSU.
• OSU was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference for 31 years and won 19 of the 24 conference meetings against the Shockers between 1945 (when Wichita joined) and 1956 (when OSU made its exit).
• The most important series meeting took place in the 1965 Midwest Regional Final at K-State's Ahearn Fieldhouse. The Shockers stuck with their starting-five for all 40 minutes in a 54-46 victory. Kelly Pete finished with 19 points and nine rebounds to go with 12 points from Vernon Smith and 11 from Dave Leach. WSU scored on its first nine possessions, then spent the next 35 minutes milking the clock to secure a Final Four bid.

SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE
• This will be the Cowboys' 43rd postseason tournament bid and 14th NIT. They've made the quarterfinals in each of their last two appearances (2018 and 2023).
• Oklahoma State (15-17, 7-13 Big 12) played the nation's 20th toughest schedule and entered the day at No. 95 in the NET rankings.
• Under first-year head coach Steve Lutz, Oklahoma State posted its best regular season home record (12-3, .800) in more than a decade, with the only losses coming to teams that ranked among the top-12 in the NCAA NET heading into Selection Sunday.
• Lutz promised fans fast-paced basketball and delivered with a team that ranks 15th nationally in adjusted tempo and among the Big 12 leaders in steals (9.0) and opponent turnovers (14.8).
• Lutz comes to Stillwater after a season at Western Kentucky and two seasons at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. He led each of those three teams to the NCAA Tournament and was a perfect 8-0 in conference tournaments.
• One of 12 newcomers who have logged time, Xavier transfer Abou Ousmane is Oklahoma State's leading scorer (12.2), rebounder (5.3) and shot-blocker (29).
• Junior guard Arturo Dean, the NCAA's active career steals-per-game leader (2.74), is among the keys to an OSU defense that is second in the league in steals (9.0) and takeaways (14.8).
• One of just three holdovers from last season, graduate guard Bryce Thompson is averaging a career-best 12.2 points (including a team-high 13.3 points in Big 12 play).
• Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery has been an impactful weapon off the bench, averaging 11.4 points and 4.3 rebounds while knocking down a team-high 56 threes.
• Helped by Avery's effort, Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 and ranks 10th nationally in both bench points (31.2) and minutes (42.2%).

ABOUT THE NIT
• The 2025 NIT bracket consists of 32 teams with seeds assigned to the top 16 and the remaining schools placed by geographic fit.
• The top four seeds in the Dallas Region are No. 1 SMU, No. 2 North Texas, No. 3 Arkansas State and No. 4 Oklahoma State. SMU hosts Northern Iowa, North Texas hosts Furman and Arkansas State hosts Saint Louis in the other first round matchups.
• Wichita State is quite familiar with three of the four teams in the Dallas Region, having been conference opponents with SMU, North Texas and Oklahoma State at one point in program history. The Shockers have a winning record against Arkansas State (2-1), SMU (12-6) and North Texas (26-15).
• The winner of the eight team bracket advances to Indianapolis for the semifinals and championship (Apr. 1 and 3) at Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse.
• This is the 88th edition of the NIT. Its first 82 champions were crowned exclusively at New York City's Madison Square Garden (1938-2019), however, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the final site has rotated between host cities: Frisco, Texas (2021), Madison Square Garden (2022), Las Vegas (2023) and Indianapolis (2024, 2025).
• Indianapolis has the honor again in 2026 as part of a massive weekend that will also include championship games from all three NCAA men's divisions.

CHAMPIONSHIP 20-20 DUO
• In Wichita State's AAC Championship second round win over South Florida, Corey Washington scored 21 points and Bijan Cortes registered a career-high 20 points. They are the first pair of Shocker teammates to score 20+ points in a conference tournament game since March 9, 2014 when Fred VanVleet and Tekele Cotton finished with 22 and 20 in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship title game vs. Indiana State.

BALLARD MAKES AAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• Quincy Ballard became the first player in American Athletic Conference Championship history to record 10+ rebounds and 5+ blocks in a tournament game. In Wichita State's second round win over South Florida, Ballard logged 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.
• He's the first Shocker since at least 2004-05 to have 10+ rebounds and 5+ blocks in a conference tournament game.

CORTES IN GOOD COMPANY
• Bijan Cortes tallied 20 points and 7 assists in the second round win vs. South Florida, joining Craig Porter Jr. as the only Shockers to record 20+ points and 7+ assists in an American Athletic Conference Championship game.
• Porter had 22 points and 11 assists on March 10, 2023 in the AAC Quarterfinals vs. Tulane.
• Cortes is the 13th different player to accomplish the stat line in AAC Tournament history, and only the second to do it while committing zero turnovers. PJ Haggerty is the only other player to post 20+ points, 7+ assists and 0 turnovers in a tournament game. Haggerty had 29-9-0 vs. East Carolina exactly one year ago.

MEMPHIS LEFTOVERS
• Wichita State dropped to 14-22 all-time vs. Memphis, including a 1-1 record vs. the Tigers in the American Athletic Conference Championship.
• Wichita State finished the 2024-25 season with a 1-2 record against the Tigers.
• The three games between Memphis and Wichita State were separated by an average of 5.3 points.
• Wichita State's 10 made three-pointers were the second most in a game this season.
• The Shockers finished the AAC Championship shooting 19-for-45 (42.2%) from beyond the arc over two games.
• Wichita State is 8-8 when losing the turnover battle.
• Wichita State was outrebounded by 13, second most this season.
• PJ Haggerty tied an AAC Tournament record with 42 points. He's the first player to score 40+ against Wichita State since Creighton's Doug McDermott scored 41 against the Shockers on March 2, 2013.
• Bijan Cortes posted back-to-back games in double figures in Fort Worth. After scoring a career-high 20 vs. USF, he followed with 19 against Memphis.
• In two games at the AAC Championship, Cortes averaged 19.5 points and 6.0 assists on 6-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc.
• Xavier Bell was a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line, finishing with 18 points. Its the second time this season he's made 10+ free throws in a game.
• Since Feb. 9 at South Florida, Bell is 72-for-77 (93.5%) from the free throw line.
• Quincy Ballard blocked four shots, giving him nine for the tournament.
• Ronnie DeGray III finished one point shy of a career high with 14 points, nine rebounds and four steals. His four steals tied a career best.
• It marked his third game in double figures this season.

BELL, WASHINGTON NAMED ALL-CONFERENCE 
• Xavier Bell was named American First Team All-Conference, becoming the fourth Shocker to earn AAC First Team honors and first since Tyson Etienne in 2021. During conference play Bell averaged 16.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and converted 90.7% of his free throw attempts. He reached double figures in all but two games.
• Corey Washington picked up Second Team All-Conference honors in his first season at Wichita State. He was second on the team in both scoring (13.8 ppg) and rebounding (8.1 rpg) to go with 21 steals and 11 blocks. Six of his eight double-doubles this season came in conference play.
• Bell and Washington are the first pair of Shocker teammates to earn conference honors since 2022 when Tyson Etienne was named to the Third Team, Dexter Dennis was the Defensive Player of the Year and Ricky Council IV took home Sixth Man of the Year.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                                                                                   
... Make them 20-14 this season and move them to the second round of the NIT.
... Improve their record to 12-12 in the NIT all time.
... Make Paul Mills 35-33 as Wichita State head coach.
... Give Mills 141 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,692-1,278 all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... End their season at 19-15.
... Make them 11-13 in the NIT all time.
... Make Paul Mills 34-34 as Wichita State head coach.
... Lower Mills' career record to 140-118.
... Drop their record to 1,691-1,279 all time.

GAME 35: NIT                                                                         
• Wichita State is 11-12 all time in the NIT.
• The winner of Wichita State and Oklahoma State advances to face the winner of SMU and Northern Iowa.
• Wichita State is 12-6 vs. SMU all time and 29-28 vs. Northern Iowa. The Shockers defeated Northern Iowa earlier this season in Wichita, 79-73.