Wichita State learning challenges of life on the road in the American

The Temple loss rubbed Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall the wrong way, figuratively and then literally when Temple students stormed the court following their team’s 81-79 overtime win.

“Some kid gave me a forearm shiver as I was finishing my handshakes and I obviously didn’t like that,” Marshall said. “But that’s what we’re facing. It’s just an additional thing that you have to overcome winning on the road.”

Just like in the Missouri Valley, No. 22 Wichita State (17-5, 7-3 American) is a marked team in the American Athletic Conference. Not only do the Shockers carry a national ranking before their name, but they are the new team that many national analysts were predicting to win the league.

All five of WSU’s road games has drawn better attendance for the home team. Most schools have featured special crowd promotions or brought back the program’s all-time greats. Every time WSU has faced a strong effort from the home team.

Next in line for WSU is a road trip to Memphis (14-9, 5-5) for Tuesday’s game at FedEx Forum.

“We’re everybody’s Super Bowl,” WSU senior Rashard Kelly said. “When you see people rush the floor against you, it makes you realize the respect they have for our program if they felt like that was necessary. It makes you understand what we’ve built in the past and just the name that Wichita State is and the weight our university holds.”

But life on the road in the American has proven to be a tougher challenge than in the Valley.

WSU dominated the Valley its last four years, losing four conference games, but it also never played more than four games in a season against top-100 teams in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. Currently WSU is scheduled to play 10 games against top-100 competition this season.

Some of WSU’s recent struggles – it has lost three of its last five games – has to do with the step-up in competition, but that wasn’t the focus for the Shockers in practices leading up to the Memphis game.

“It’s about us,” WSU junior Markis McDuffie said. “It’s not really about the other team. It’s really about are we willing to take that next step as a team?”

In his weekly news conference on Monday, Marshall lamented a missed opportunity at Temple.

“We kind of gave it away,” Marshall said. “All we needed to make was one more play, one more shot. We shot it so well early in the first half, then second half down the stretch we couldn’t make a basket. We turned the ball over, couldn’t get a stop when we needed to. We’ve just got to find a way to do that.”

Kelly said WSU’s practices since the loss have had more energy. Players are motivated after watching the mistakes that led to WSU failing to hold on to a seven-point lead in the final five minutes at Temple.

They recognize they aren’t playing close to their potential lately, but are choosing to focus on the positive side of that.

“We’re still learning, still growing,” Kelly said. “You don’t want to peak now, so the fact that we still have room to grow is our light at the end. We’re in a different league and it’s different. We’re not playing Bradley and Indiana State anymore. It’s not the same game plan or the same level of players. We’re challenging ourselves and we’re working through it and not hanging our head and trying to build.”

Marshall believes the pieces are in place, it’s just a matter of reconfiguring them.

“It’s been a while since all of those pieces came together and played well and that’s my directive as the head coach,” Marshall said. “I’ve got to figure that out. We’re working on it.”

Tuesday’s game will pit two teams ready to put poor performances behind them. WSU will be looking to end its recent road woes, while Memphis wants to rid itself of the memory of a loss to an East Carolina team ranked No. 315 in Pomeroy’s rankings.

After the loss, Memphis coach Tubby Smith went as far as saying his team needed “psychological help.”

“Once again we’re going to be playing an angry team and that doesn’t make it any easier,” Marshall said. “So there will be two angry teams and we’ll see who’s going to play the most angry.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Wichita State learning challenges of life on the road in the American."