The Magic Wichita Ride Has Ended

(St. Louis, MO) – The fantastic run of success for the triumvirate of Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Evan Wessel has come to an end. Saturday, Wichita State was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by the University of Miami, and those three seniors were forced to shed their Shocker uniforms for the last time.

They actually surprised us.

VanVleet showed up from Rockford, Illinois and was the most highly touted of the three, but playing behind Malcolm Armstead his freshman year, you could see he was going to be a good, maybe a very good Missouri Valley Conference player.

Baker was injured most of his freshman season and burst on to the scene during the MVC conference tournament. The Scott City, Kansas walk on, exploded during Arch Madness and the Shockers catapulted into the national lime-light and a run to the Final Four.

Wessel is a Wichita guy that has been the ultimate ‘glue guy’ and ‘dirty work’ doer. His big baskets during the historic win over Kansas last season were irreplaceable.

In the four years together, the Shockers have won 121 games, gone to the NCAA tournament four times, winning nine games and Baker and VanVleet have both been named to all-American teams.

VanVleet is a two-time Larry Bird Trophy winner as MVC ‘Player of the Year’ and he and Baker have assaulted the WSU record book, but this article is not about statistics.

Gregg Marshall said yesterday, and all season long that those seniors had meant an enormous amount to the university, the program and even the city of Wichita. They have won a ton of games and made Koch Arena a destination location and every game a sell out.

We’ve heard stories of hospital visits, wedding proposals and long arduous practices. ‘Play Angry’ has reached into the lexicon of sports reporting. The MVC is relevant nationally, in large part, because of these three seniors and the Shocker program.

When Creighton bolted for the Big East Conference, the MVC desperately needed a program to arise. Already the Shockers were the chief combatant to the Bluejays, but the league NEEDED a team to be nationally significant. The St. Louis based league didn’t need Wichita just to be the best team in the league, but weak nationally. They needed a team that could make national statements.

Boy did they. Marshall and this senior class routinely beat teams from ‘money conferences’ and pardon the pun, it wasn’t shocking. A Final Four and another Sweet 16, and Wichita State and the MVC weren’t a cute little story, they weren’t George Mason, they were Gonzaga. They weren’t Valparaiso, or Belmont or even Memphis. They were a known national entity.

You could see it in their eyes Saturday. The cruel suddenness of being eliminated in the NCAA Tournament can hurt in deep ways. A tearful Baker telling reporters in Providence that he had promised VanVleet they would get back to the Final Four and felt like he had failed to keep a promise.

A tearful Marshall was more saddened at the prospect of not coaching those guys, than losing a game or being eliminated from a tournament. Basketball coaches and players become family, more than a collection of athletes. They live together, travel together and hurt together.

VanVleet said the experience was surreal. He was thinking about how he needed to get back and look at tape and get ready for the next game.

The game that will never come.

VanVleet and Baker have professional basketball opportunities before them, but the four year journey for these players will not soon be forgotten, by them or by us. I’ve spoken with these guys often (in media/player environments) they strike you as respectful, diligent, humble and professional.

The Bible says you should judge a tree by its fruit. When you inspect the fruit of four years of Gregg Marshall, Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker and Evan Wessel, you know you have seen a great tree.

Do Good