The Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team is the NCAA Division I college basketball program representing Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.
The Shockers have made 16 appearances in the NCAA tournament, reaching the Final Four twice, the Elite Eight four times, and the Sweet Sixteen six times. The team plays its home games at Charles Koch Arena, where it averaged 10,391 fans per game in 2012, ranking 38th nationally.
The Shockers have made two Final Four appearances, losing both games. They made their first Final Four appearance in 1965 losing to UCLA 108–89. They made their second appearance in 2013, losing to Louisville 72–68.
In 2014, Wichita State defeated the Northern Iowa Panthers in the regular season finale for their 9th Missouri Valley conference regular season title, becoming two-time defending MVC champions. The Shockers completed a perfect, undefeated regular season and swept the conference post-season tournament en route to a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament where they lost to eventual national runner-up Kentucky in the round of 32.
The Shockers competed in the Missouri Valley Conference from 1949–50 to 2016–17 and have competed in the American Athletic Conference, now known as the American Conference, since the 2017–18 season.
History
Wichita State, then known as Fairmount College, first took the court in 1906 under head coach Willis Bates. During this time, the sports teams were known as the "Wheatshockers". The first official game was held in the basement of Fairmount Hall. Fairmount lost to Washburn University by a score of 37–10. During this inaugural season, the Wheatshockers only won two games.
Fairmount acquired a permanent home when Memorial Gymnasium was opened on January 15, 1921, in a game against the American Legion of Wichita. The gym was later renamed Henrion Gymnasium in 1926. That same year, the newly renamed Municipal University of Wichita (popularly known as "WU") joined the Central Conference in athletics.
WU gained notice outside of Wichita in 1927 when, led by First-Team All-American Ross McBurney and Second-Team All-American Harold Reynolds, the Wheatshockers finished the 1927 season with a 13–1 record and a second-place finish behind conference champions Pittsburg State University.
Early success
Shocker basketball achieved greater success with the arrival of Coach Ralph Miller and Cleo Littleton in 1951. Littleton averaged 18.2 points per game as a freshman, a school record that still stands today. He was the first player west of the Mississippi to score 2,000 points in his college career and is one of only five Wichita State players to have his number retired. He was also one of the first African American players in the Missouri Valley Conference, which it joined in 1945. Littleton averaged 19 points per game during his career and he still owns 7 school records. Due to this success, Wichita State decided to construct a new home for the Shockers. Through appropriated money by the WU Board of Regents, Wichita State was able to construct a new field house for the men's basketball team, costing $1.4 million. On December 3, 1955, the Shockers played their first game in WU Field House in front of more than 9,000 fans.
Dave Stallworth entered the program in the 1961–62 season. Nicknamed "The Rave", Stallworth became the Shockers' first consensus All-American in 1964. He finished with a career scoring average of 24.2 points per game and was second on the all-time scoring list with 1,936 points. During his 13-year stint at WSU, Ralph Miller became the winningest coach in Shocker basketball history, collecting 255 victories. Miller is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and currently ranks as the eighth-winningest coach in college basketball history.
First Final Four The 1964–65 season—the first after Wichita joined the state university system as Wichita State University—was the greatest in Shocker history until the 2013–14 season. On December 14, 1964, Gary Thompson led Wichita State to its first-ever No. 1 ranking. The 19–7 Shockers won the MVC and earned a berth into the Midwest Regional. After defeating Southern Methodist and an Oklahoma State team led by Henry Iba, the Shockers headed to the Final Four in Portland. There, the Shockers were matched against the defending national champion UCLA Bruins, losing 108–89. The Shockers played a third-place game against Princeton, losing 118–82.
During this period, Warren Armstrong played for the Shockers and made major contributions throughout his career. During his sophomore season, Armstrong set two school records, averaging almost 12 rebounds a game while setting a Shocker single-game assist mark with 12. Armstrong became a three-time all-Valley performer from 1966 to 1968, and still holds four of WSU's 10 triple double games (double-figure points, rebounds, assist, or blocks). He would later enjoy a productive career in the ABA. Terry Benton became a key contributor during this era as well, setting a WSU record of 16.8 rebounds per game for his career, and finishing his Wichita State career with 1,003 points and 963 rebounds.
Harry Miller era Wichita State went 97–90 from 1971 to 1978 under Harry Miller. They had several notable players during those years including Rich Morsden, Bob Wilson, Robert Gray, Bob Trogele, Cheese Johnson, Cal Bruton and Robert Elmore. They made it to the NCAA tournament in 1976, winning the Missouri Valley Conference and losing by one point to eventual national runner up Michigan. The following year they beat eventual NCAA Champion Marquette in Al McGuire's final home game in Milwaukee.
Elite Eight appearance and sanctions
In 1981, the Shockers would return to the NCAA tournament, defeating the Kansas Jayhawks 66–65 in the "Battle of New Orleans" before being defeated by LSU 96–85 in the Elite Eight. The 1980–81 team featured two future NBA players – Cliff Levingston and Antoine Carr, who would be chosen in the first 10 picks of the NBA draft. Carr, a local star from Wichita, would become WSU's third All-American in 1983, averaging 22.2 points a game during his senior season, and finishing his career with 1,911 points while shooting 55.7 percent. Levingston would average 15.7 and 18.5 points per game while leading the team in scoring his freshman and sophomore years, before declaring early for the NBA Draft.
Another future NBA player, Xavier McDaniel, would arrive the year after the Elite Eight season. McDaniel scored 2,152 points at Wichita State, second all-time behind Littleton, and set the school record with 1,359 rebounds. In 1984–85, McDaniel became the first player in NCAA Division I history to lead the nation in scoring (27.2 points per game) and rebounding (14.8 per game) in the same season.
In 1982, Wichita State would be placed under NCAA probation for the 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons, regarding improper actions of former assistant coaches in the late 1970s.
In nine seasons, Smithson won 155 games, placing him second in school history behind Ralph Miller. Smithson was the first coach to guide WSU to consecutive 20-win seasons. During the four-year span from 1980 to 1984, WSU produced a 92–29 record, the best four-year span in team history at the time.
Return to the tournament WSU hired Topeka, Kansas native Mark Turgeon as head coach on March 11, 2000. Turgeon guided the Shockers to a 9–19 record during his first season. In Turgeon's second year Wichita State began its resurgence with a combination of several veterans and newcomers to compile a 15–15 record in 2001–02.
Helped by an 11–3 record in Levitt Arena, WSU's overall record in the arena rose to 502–185 since it opened during the 1955–56 season. In the 2002–03 season, the Shockers would improve to 18 wins, and then to 21 wins in the 2003–04 season.
In 2004–05, Wichita State continued to improve, reaching the third game of the NIT, and taking the Shockers to back-to-back-to-back postseason trips for the first time since 1987–88–89. WSU's 2004–05 team went 22–10 overall, finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference, and were ranked in the top 30 for nine weeks.
In 2005–06, Turgeon lead WSU to its best season in over 20 years, reaching the Sweet 16 with victories over 10th seeded Seton Hall and shocking 2nd seeded Tennessee. In the Sweet 16, the Shockers would go on to lose to eventual Final Four participant George Mason.
In 2006–07, the Shockers entered the season with high expectations, and surged out to a 9–0 start, including a revenge-win over George Mason, as well as road victories over #6 LSU and #14 Syracuse. WSU rose as high as #8 in both the AP and Coaches' Polls on December 18, 2006, but the Shockers would struggle for much of the rest of the season, falling from the rankings and finishing 17–14, including only eight conference wins, for Turgeon's second worst mark as WSU head coach.
Head Coach Mark Turgeon left Wichita State on April 10, 2007, after a seven-year run and a 128–90 record, (at the time) the third winningest coach in Shocker history behind Ralph Miller and Gene Smithson. On April 14, 2007, Gregg Marshall was announced as 26th head men's basketball coach at Wichita State.
Second Final Four and undefeated regular season Gregg Marshall previously coached at Winthrop University for nine seasons. In his first season (2007–08) the team finished with a record of 11–20. In his second season they posted a 17–17 record, complete with a run to the second round of the 2009 CBI Tournament where they lost to Stanford. The following season the Shockers went 25–10, culminating with an NIT appearance. The invitation was due in large part to their strong 16–1 home record. Their only loss at home that year was in the NIT against Nevada.
In the 2010–11 season Wichita State improved once again to finish the season at 29–8, finishing second in the Missouri Valley to Missouri State. The Shockers would go on to win the NIT championship as a 4 seed, defeating two #1 seeds, first Virginia Tech 79–76, and then beating Alabama in the championship game 66–57.
In the 2011–12 season, they continued to improve under Marshall's guidance. In winning the regular season MVC title at 16–2 (26–4 overall), the Shockers reached a ranking of #14 in the coaches poll and #15 in the AP poll. After losing to Illinois State in the semi-finals of the MVC tourney in St. Louis, the Shockers were selected at large for the NCAA tournament as a 5 seed, their first NCAA Tournament in 6 years. They fell to VCU 62–59, ending the season with a 27–6 record.
Heading into the 2012–2013 season, despite being the reigning regular-season champions, the Shockers were predicted to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference. Wichita State went into the season having lost five of the top six scorers from the previous season, including Joe Ragland, Toure' Murry, Garrett Stutz, Ben Smith, and David Kyles. Despite the losses, the Shockers went on to win their first 9 games, including the Cancún Challenge, as well as 15 of their first 16, and 19 of their first 21. Wichita struggled in conference-play, however, losing three in a row in late January and early February. Nevertheless, the Shockers would eventually play rival Creighton in the final game of the season for the outright conference championship, losing in Omaha.
In the 2012–13 NCAA tournament, the Shockers upset top-seeded Gonzaga to move on to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006, followed by a 72–58 win over La Salle for their first Elite Eight appearance since 1981. They defeated Ohio State 70–66 for their first Final Four appearance since 1965, as well as their 30th win of the season, a then-Wichita State record. In the Final Four, Wichita State was defeated by the #1 overall seed and eventual tournament champion Louisville, 72–68 but that game was later vacated in 2018 by the NCAA.