Marshall thinks WSU is in 'March form' after Cincinnati win

Not even 15 minutes after he led No. 19 Wichita State to its first top-five road win since 1964, Gregg Marshall was engulfed by a throng of national media, bright lights shining down on him outside the locker room at BB&T Arena on Sunday evening.

Marshall was soaked. His slicked-back hair dripped with sweat and his button-up dress shirt, once a soft yellow, was now two shades darker drenched in a mixture of perspiration and water from a raucous post-game celebration.

That’s the price of going into enemy territory, withstanding the fury of a sell-out crowd, and coming out with a win, this one a 76-72 defeat of No. 5 Cincinnati that ended the nation’s longest home winning streak at 39 games. It’s a familiar feeling to Marshall, who has won 85 percent of road games at WSU and totaled 47 road wins the last five seasons — both the best marks in college basketball.

“This is like the 50th red-out or white-out or black-out we’ve seen,” Marshall said. “So yeah, we feel pretty comfortable when that happens.”

But after this victory, which Marshall validated afterward as the team’s best yet this season, the coach was beaming with an extra bit of pride.

Cincinnati is known for overwhelming opponents with its pressure and leaving offenses in shambles. On Sunday, WSU became the first team to make more than half of its shots (52.9 percent) against Cincinnati and delivered the second-most efficient offensive performance against the Bearcats this season.

“They’re in March form already,” Marshall said. “They put so much effort and energy and toughness into every practice and every day in the weight room and film study and class. They’re excited. When you see the energy and the love that’s in that locker room and how vibrant they are, it makes this all worthwhile. It’s really cool to see.”

Wins in Waco over Baylor, in Stillwater over Oklahoma State, and in Hartford over Connecticut were nice, but a win at Cincinnati gives WSU what it was previously missing: a signature victory.

Point guard Landry Shamet, who scored a game-high 19 points, has said he tends to play his best when he’s on the road and knows “everybody in the building hates you and wants you to lose.” But in perhaps the loudest road environment of the season, Shamet said WSU drew on its past experiences in the win Sunday.

“I’ve never played in anything like that before,” Shamet said. “And I think the Valley is an underrated basketball league, but you’re not playing Cincy with 10,000 going crazy and a student section like that.”

The three biggest challenges facing WSU entering the game was playing Cincinnati even in the rebounding battle, limiting live-ball turnovers, and forcing the Bearcats into jump shots.

While WSU coughed up 15 turnovers, it negated the damage by scoring 22 points off 13 Cincinnati turnovers. The Shockers played Cincinnati to a virtual draw rebounding (UC had a 27-26 advantage), and forced two-thirds of Cincinnati’s shots to be jumpers (UC made 14 of 35 shots for a 40-percent success rate).

All of this accomplished with the communication challenges of playing on the road in front of a sell-out crowd of 9,523.

“This is just what we do,” Austin Reaves said. “We stick together on the road because we know every time it’s going to be a battle. When you stick together, good things come out of it.”

Senior Zach Brown’s voice was nearly gone after the game, expired from constantly yapping praise and encouragement to his teammates over the course of the last two hours.

“I don’t think I’ve stopped talking since I got here,” Brown said. “I think I’m cramping in my lungs.”

Before the game, Brown said WSU’s “manhood” would be challenged by the test presented by Cincinnati.

So how did WSU fare by his standards on Sunday?

“I guess we men then,” Brown said. “But success isn’t about what we do here or how high we get over one achievement. It’s about how are we going to build on this and how hungry are we going to be for the next one?”

This story was originally published February 19, 2018 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Marshall thinks WSU is in 'March form' after Cincinnati win."