St. Louis, MO – Wichita State is back in the ‘Elite Eight’ and the Missouri Valley Conference is making serious noise in this post season! The Shockers knocked of La Salle 72-58 Thursday and move on the national quarter-finals on Saturday.
Coach Gregg Marshall’s team was just too much to handle for the smaller Explorer team as they pounded the ball inside to Carl Hall (16 points & 8 rebounds) and out rebounded La Salle 44 to 23. It is Wichita State’s first trip to the ‘Elite Eight’ since 1981 when legendary Shockers Antoine Carr & Cliff Levingston were on hand.
Malcolm Armstead led WSU with 18 points and four assists. Freshman Ron Baker scored 13 points and has been a major part of this NCAA tournament run. Baker missed 21 games due to a foot injury and only re-joined the line-up at ‘Arch Madness’ the MVC’s end-the-season conference tournament. Since that time the Shockers are 5 and 1 and Baker has had three double digit scoring performances.
Armstead who averaged around ten points per game heading in the Valley tournament is averaging 16 points per contest since the regular season ended.
Like in 1981, the Shockers lost to Creighton in the MVC tournament final and then went on a run sparked by Levingston (18.5), Carr (15.2) and Coach Gene Smithson’s son Randy.
With the win, Wichita has tied the school record for wins with 29. The 2010-2011 team held that record and won the National Invitation Tournament. This year’s Shocker team (29-8) has a much bigger goal. They play Ohio State on Saturday for a ‘Final Four’ trip to Atlanta. No MVC team has reached the ‘Final Four’ since Larry Bird’s Indiana State team of 1979.
Meanwhile there are two other Valley teams still playing post season basketball. Evansville and Northern Iowa are both in the semi-finals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and play on Saturday. Thursday’s win by Wichita State gave the MVC 12 post season wins for just the second time in league history.
Only the Big Ten’s 15 post-season wins are more than the 12 belonging to the MVC. Evansville plays at East Carolina and Northern Iowa hosts Weber State in CIT semi-final action on Saturday.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
