Wichita State – Why So Special?

(St. Louis, MO) – 34 and 0 is historic, unique, amazing and yes, SHOCKING! With a Missouri Valley Conference tournament title victory, Wichita State has now reached these unprecedented heights. A Final Four team in 2013, the Shockers have run off 34 wins in a row and head to the NCAA tournament as one of the four, number one seeds in March Madness.

After the 83-69 win over Indiana State, I was looking for answers to the question, “why is this team so special?” You hear words like chemistry, family, togetherness, but in today’s skeptical sports journalistic world, those sound like cliches that every successful team uses and losing teams seem lack.

But watch the Shockers as they react to Tekele Cotton being named the Most Outstanding Player of Arch Madness. This was not orchestrated and by the time this was announced, two of Wichita’s ‘big four’ players Cleanthony Early and Fred Van Vleet were already named to the all tournament team. So Cotton and Ron Baker were either going to be the MOP or not on the all tournament team at all. Watch the video and observe Baker celebrate his teammate’s award and his own snub.

Van Vleet, the point guard and floor general has a job both on and off the court of helping his teammates stay focused, but says their team wins in part because of the preparation work of the coaching staff and partially because of the overall team chemistry.

One hidden motivation comes from the hardship of one of their teammates. Freshman D.J. Bowles collapsed at a September practice and after much testing, was found to have a heart condition that will not allow him to play basketball at the competitive level ever again. As Head Coach Gregg Marshall told me after the game Bowles will “go on to live a very successful life in something other than basketball.”

Bowles has continued to be a part of the Shocker family, but the Cleveland, Tennessee native can no longer compete for titles with his teammates.

Van Vleet told me that D.J. provides motivation for him every day.

Marshall has a unique blend of players and citizens. The Shocker spectacular play-by-play announcer Mike Kennedy told me this team is one of the most unique he’s ever covered. Mike told me they are genuinely a nice and respectful bunch of guys that authentically care for one another and look out for each other.

Baker, Early and Van Vleet each told me they would be glad to come back to St. Louis to play in the NCAA’s

Another person, close to the program told me stories of their accessibility and reliability in terms of following through on off the court obligations.

As Marshall says, 34-0 is a perfect record, but they are not a perfect team and haven’t played the perfect game, but this team is a perfect model for what “team” ought to look like.

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