Did you know Wichita State is good? The No. 3 Shockers are 27-0, are undefeated, have not lost a game this season, are on a 27-game winning streak and have a winning percentage of 1.000 in games played this season, among other accolades. Whether you are a college basketball enthusiast or hobbiyst, you likely know either in granular detail or at least in passing that Wichita State is very good and has some kind of nonzero chance at this point of finishing its regular season undefeated, and that’s a cool thing to still be on the line as March approaches.
Better Know a Conference: The Missouri Valley Conference
Did you know Wichita State hasn’t lost yet? I bet you didn’t.
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
What you may not know is that the Shockers play in the Missouri Valley Conference, and that the league is not at its best in the first post-Creighton season. With the Bluejays having defected to the Big East, the MVC will be, unless Wichita State does not win the conference tournament, a one-bid league for the first time since 2011.
While we await a possible—nay, likely—Wichita State-Indiana State III in the MVC tournament final in St. Louis, not much of interest will happen before then unless, again, the Shockers lose. Remember: They're undefeated.
The Best Team: Wichita State made the Final Four last year as a No. 9 seed, topping top-seeded Gonzaga in the round of 32 and No. 2 seed Ohio State in the Elite Eight. The Shockers held a 12-point lead over eventual national champion Louisville with 13 minutes to go in the national semifinal, but the Cardinals came back to win. That game was played April 6, 2013, and it was the last time Wichita State has lost an organized game of intercollegiate men’s basketball. I would like to take the rest of this sentence to remind you again that Wichita State is undefeated.
The Shockers aren’t invincible, because no team is invincible. Still, SB Nation bracketologist Chris Dobbertean recently upgraded them to a No. 1 seed in his tournament projections.
The Contenders: Indiana State is the obvious first choice here, though “contender” is used relatively. Nobody else is strictly contending here. Take away the Sycamores’ two losses to Wichita State, and they’d be 10-1 in the league. Of course, you can’t take those two losses away, so they’re in second place but three games out of first with four games to play. The next best of the pack is probably Northern Iowa, and Wichita State won both its games over the Panthers by a combined 23 points.
The Best Players: Wichita State's Cleanthony Early is the likely Missouri Valley Player of the Year, having averaged 16.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. The 6'8 senior does a fantastic job getting to the basket and drawing contact, which does him well because he's an 84.6-percent foul shooter. Shockers point guard Fred VanVleet is the conference's best point guard. The sophomore is averaging 11.9 points per game, and 5.2 assists to 1.4 turnovers per-game average is outstanding. In the non-Wichita State division, Evansville's D.J. Balentine is the league's only player to average more than 20 points per game; he's currently at 23.1.
The Best Upcoming Games
2/19: Evansville at Indiana State
2/22: Illinois State at Northern Iowa
2/25: Wichita State at Bradley
All 10 teams get in to the MVC conference tournament, so it’s all about seeding at this point. With a win Wednesday against Evansville, Indiana State can clinch the No. 2 seed with three games to play. Illinois State and Northern Iowa are among a three-way tie for third (Missouri State is the other team), which is important because the No. 3 seed gets on the bottom half of the bracket, presumably with Indiana State, whereas Nos. 4 and 5 get shipped to the top half with the Shockers.
On Feb. 25, Wichita State will attempt to complete its undefeated regular season on the road against Bradley.
The Mascots
Wichita State Shockers: Hey, an actual nickname that reflects the heritage of the school’s student body. It comes from early students “shocking”—harvesting—wheat for work. The story goes that an early version of the nickname was “Wheatshockers,” and it was shortened from there. If it were still Wheatshockers, the world would be one Rick Reilly pun-centric column poorer. Out of taste, we will not link to that column in this space.
The actual mascot is a cartoonish wheat stalk, and it looks uncomfortably like Gary Busey.
Indiana State Sycamores: There are a lot of sycamore trees in Indiana, so this is the name. Early Indiana State athletics teams were called the Fighting Teachers, because the college was originally Indiana State Teachers College, and that would have been a much better nickname moving forward.
Missouri State Bears: Named such because there are bears in Missouri, Missouri State captured the essence of midwestern flair with all its usual pizzazz in a nickname.
Illinois State Redbirds: boring
Northern Iowa Panthers: boring
Drake Bulldogs: boring
Bradley Braves: Bradley doesn't have a mascot, because it abandoned Native American imagery that accompanied the Braves name into the '90s. Its new mascot will be a gargoyle, and it will be debuted Feb. 22 at Bradley's game against Loyola. Bradley will still be the Braves, but its mascot will be a gargoyle (a prominent architectural feature on Bradley's campus).
Southern Illinois Salukis: The southern Illinois area carries the nickname "little Egypt," which the university attempts to explain on its website. Given that history, the saluki—the royal dog of Egypt—is a fine and unique mascot.
Evansville Purple Aces: Named because somebody a long time ago said an Evansville team played like aces, the mascot’s name is Ace Purple and was designed to look like a riverboat gambler. Nobody tell the NCAA.
Loyola (Ill.) Ramblers: According to the school’s website, the student body originally voted to call the school’s teams the Grandees, but it never took.
How have Missouri Valley teams fared in the NCAA tournament?
Did you know Wichita State made the Final Four last year? What a sho- *slams laptop shut*
Current NBA players from the Missouri Valley Conference
Gal Mekel, Dallas Maverics: Mekel played professionally in his native Israel for his first five years out of Wichita State, and the 25-year-old point guard is in his rookie season in Dallas. He's averaging 2.4 points per game.
Toure' Murry, New York Knicks: He went undrafted out of Wichita State in 2012, but he's caught on with the Knicks after bouncing around in the summer league and spending last year playing professionally in Turkey. Murry is averaging 3.2 points per game in 32 appearances as a rookie.
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