2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team

2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball
CBI 2nd Round
Conference Missouri Valley Conference
2008–09 record 17–17 (8–10 MVC)
Head coach Gregg Marshall 2nd season
Assistant coach Earl Grant
Assistant coach Marty Gross
Assistant coach Chris Jans
Home arena Charles Koch Arena capacity:10,502
Seasons
« 2007–08 2009–10 »
2008-09 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Standings
  Conf Overall
Team W L PCT W L PCT
Creighton 14 4 .778 27 8 .771
Northern Iowa† 14 4 .778 23 11 .677
Illinois State 11 7 .611 24 10 .706
Bradley 10 8 .556 21 15 .583
Evansville 8 10 .444 17 14 .548
Wichita State 8 10 .444 17 17 .500
Southern Illinois 8 10 .444 13 18 .419
Drake 7 11 .389 17 16 .515
Indiana State 7 11 .389 11 21 .344
Missouri State 3 15 .167 11 20 .344

Rankings from AP Poll
† MVC Tournament winner

The 2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team represents Wichita State University in the 2008-09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team, which plays in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), is led by second-year head coach Gregg Marshall. The Shockers opened the season with a win over Florida A&M on November 10, 2008, and ended the season with a loss to Stanford in the College Basketball Invitational. Their final record for 2008–09 was 17–17 (8–10 MVC), a huge improvement from their 2007–08 record of 11–20 (4–14 MVC).

Contents

Regular season

The Shockers started out with mediocre level of play, but performed well against then ranked Michigan St. and Georgetown and even beat a very good Siena team in the Old Spice Classic at the end of November. On February 21, the Shockers beat a Cleveland State team with an RPI of almost a hundred better than WSU's. Then came conference play. The Shockers lost their first 6 games in Missouri Valley play, and on January 14, were in dead last in the MVC. Then came the comeback. In the more-than-century-old MVC, 49 teams had started 0–6. None won more than five games in conference play for the rest of the season.

Post-season

Wichita State finished MVC play 8–4 but were not rewarded well with a 7 seed in the MVC tournament. They beat Missouri St. 59–46 in the play-in game at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, and now had to face a hot no. 2 Creighton team. It was a game no one expected them to win. The Shockers tried to keep close in the first half, but were down by 13 at halftime. Creighton came out and made a huge run in the second half, giving them a 22-point lead and a chance to embarrass Wichita State. But the Shockers did not give up, and shut Creighton down almost the rest of the way. They came within 13 with 3:43 to play in the game and 5 with about 1 minute. The Shockers were down 59–61 with about 10 seconds left, but had the ball. Toure' Murry, who had already had two game-saving shots this season, caught the inbounds pass and quickly shot a 3-pointer, which swished through the net. The Shockers had come back from 22 down to take the lead. With 9 seconds left, Creighton inbounded the ball and brought it all the way down, but shot a wild jumper that missed. A Shocker tried to grab the rebound but lost it out of bounds. Creighton had 1.8 seconds to take the lead. Brooker Woodfox half-fumbled the inbounds pass, but threw up a 17-footer which swished right through. The Bluejays had escaped.

The Shockers were given a chance to bounce back from the heartbreak with a spot in the College Basketball Invitational, one of the NCAA's minor post-season tournaments made for improving teams. In the first round of the single-elimination tournament, Wichita State beat Buffalo by a score of 84–73. The Shockers season was then ended on March 23 with a 70–56 loss to Stanford in the second round of the CBI.

Schedule

Missouri Valley Conference Standing: T-9th [1]
Date Opponent* Rank* Location Time# Result Overall Conference
Exhibition Games
November 10, 2008 Emporia State Wichita, KS ?:?? p.m. W 71–58 1–0 0–0
Regular Season Games
November 16, 2008 Florida A&M Wichita, KS ?:?? p.m. W 77–53 1–0 0–0
February 21, 2009 ESPNU Bracketbusters TBD TBD 0–0 0–0
Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
March 5–8, 2009 TBD St. Louis, MO TBA TBD 0–0 0–0
*Rank according to ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. #All times are in CST. Conference games in BOLD.

Notes and references

External links

References