Playing for Respect

(St. Louis, MO) – Is today’s game the one that validates the Wichita State season?  All year long the national pundits have put down Shocker success and today in St. Louis, college royalty stands in the way of ‘the perfect season.’

Kentucky, the blue-est of blue-bloods is the next opponent for Gregg Marshall’s 35-0 Shockers. I’ve heard rumblings from many that if Wichita State doesn’t make it to the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ their season has been a mirage or fraud. I completely disagree with that assessment, but here we are again. It’s the next test for this gritty team.

Both Marshall and Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari agreed they were never really in recruiting battles, since Calipari’s players wouldn’t consider Wichita and Marshall’s wouldn’t get noticed by Calipari. These programs find themselves on a collision course though their pedigree couldn’t be more different.

Even in the Missouri Valley Tournament the Shockers were given T-shirts that said Indiana State won the championship. Everyone expects the Wildcats to prevail and the whole nation is waiting for WSU to fold. In the first 35 opportunities they have stood tall.

We talked to Fred VanVleet, Cleanthony Early and Chadrack Lufile about the lack of respect still lobbed at them and their program. VanVleet said the t-shirt thing was no big deal, but it made sense considering the way people have looked at them all season.

Those Shockers don’t seem to be upset that others don’t believe. As Early says they just want to win games and they wanted to win them last year too.

So does another win on the Scottrade Center floor (they are 4-0 here) and a trip to the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ finally validate their season. Reasonable fans and ‘experts’ already believe the Shockers are not only ‘for real’ and have had an historical season, for some even a trip to Indianapolis won’t do it for a lowly Missouri Valley Conference team.

Here’s hoping we get to find out.

Do Good