American coaches excited for RPI boost that Wichita State will provide

Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin may have captured the collective sentiment for the coaches around the American Athletic Conference about Wichita State joining this season.

“It’s going to be great for everyone in the league,” Cronin said, “except the night we have to play them.”

No coach is looking forward to play Wichita State, a consensus top-10 entering the season, at Koch Arena this season. But they all understand the impact the Shockers can make to a conference that was rated as the seventh-toughest in the country last season and put two teams in the NCAA Tournament.

“When you add a team of their ability, all you do is elevate your league,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “Hopefully now we can get multiple teams in the tournament. Now maybe we can get four or five teams in the tournament because you have a team like Wichita State in your conference.”

“Wichita State has a brand,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson added. “They’re established. They would do well in any league they go in. I think it’s a win-win for Wichita State and our conference.”

The American is trying to establish itself among the major conferences, as it feels it has been overlooked in the past by the NCAA Tournament committee. That’s a feeling WSU coach Gregg Marshall can relate to.

“If you’ve been following college basketball for the last three or four years, then you know when Wichita State gets in the tournament, we’re dreadfully underseeded,” Marshall said. “Maybe this will help.”

Marshall pointed out that in his 10 years at Wichita State while it was in the Missouri Valley, the Shockers were the only team to earn an at-large bid during that time span. There was real pressure to win the conference tournament.

“In this league, I don’t think that’s the case,” he said. “If you play a decent non-conference schedule, which we do every year, now you get an opportunity to play six, eight, 10 games in your league against top-50 teams.”

And there are no more cakewalks, either.

“If you don’t play well, you’re going to lose,” Marshall said. “There’s times in the past where we could just play okay and still eke out a win. Those days are gone.”

In the final RPI report released by the NCAA, Wichita State finished No. 29 in the country out of the Missouri Valley. That would have ranked third in the AAC, behind Cincinnati (12) and SMU (16).

“Anything that helps our league as far as strength is a good thing for all of us,” Cronin said. “It was great to see we did something for basketball. It’s nice to see somebody actually did something for a sport that’s not football. We have a lot of great basketball schools in our league. It’s the first time since I’ve been a coach that I’ve seen a move made for basketball reasons in a league that plays football.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 1:21 PM with the headline "American coaches excited for RPI boost that Wichita State will provide."