Wichita State's six seniors agree after first-round NCAA exit: "We underachieved"

As the reality begin to set in for the six seniors on the Wichita State basketball team, the hard truth became apparent following an 81-75 loss to 13th-seeded Marshall on Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

"We underachieved from the head to the bottom," WSU senior Rashard Kelly said in conclusion of WSU's 25-8 season. "Losing in the first round of the tournament? That's nothing but underachievement on what we were capable of."

The warning signs were there.

The defense struggled to stop high ball screens and slow down premier scorers, as Marshall's Jon Elmore highlighted with 27 points and four assists. And too many times the offense came up empty down the stretch of close games and it did so once again on Friday in San Diego, as the Shockers came up empty on six of its final eight possessions.

"It's surprising, but then again you've got to look at our season," WSU senior Shaquille Morris said. "Other than at UCF, we never really pulled out a tough game."

"We just could not execute and that's all of our fault," junior Markis McDuffie said. "We never got no luck with that last shot or that shot to go up. We never really executed and that cost us. We were so close. We were right there. We just couldn't get over the hump."

After shooting 3 of 13 with eight assists and four turnovers, WSU sophomore guard Landry Shamet battled back tears while addressing the media 10 minutes after the game.

"I was really bad," Shamet said. "That's completely on me, this loss is. I'm the point guard and I'm going to take the brunt of it. It's 100 percent my fault."

Sitting next to him in the locker room, a downtrodden Austin Reaves came to Shamet's defense.

"It's not his fault," Reaves said. "He gave us everything he had this whole year and has been spectacular. There's a lot of what-ifs when it comes to close games like this. You can go around the room and say what-ifs, but he doesn't need to take all of the (blame) because he gave us so much all year."

Memories of the preseason top-10 ranking and predictions of a Final Four run with eight core players returning from a 30-win team seemed like another lifetime ago in the locker room in San Diego, more than 1,000 miles from where this season began.

"Some guys honestly regressed, you can't have that," WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. "You've got to get better and continue to evolve, as an individual, as a team, and as a coach. We've just got to be better."

WSU won on the home courts of Big 12 foes Baylor and Oklahoma State, but neither of those team made the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers blew out Houston in their first home American Athletic Conference game and won 76-72 at Cincinnati.

But this season will be remembered for what could have been: a missed Maui Invitational championship, a missed chance to share the AAC title in the final game, a loss in Orlando, and now the program's first first-game exit in the NCAA Tournament since 2012.

"We didn't play our best," Marshall said. "We never really at any point said, 'Wow, that may have been the best game we played all year.' I would have a hard time coming up with that individual game where we played that well."

No one on WSU could pinpoint exactly what never clicked this season.

But in the moment, what they did know was this was an end to an era. This was it for Morris, Kelly, Conner Frankamp, Zach Brown, Darral Willis and Rauno Nurger.

"I feel bad for all of the seniors," Reaves said. "All six of them. They gave this program everything they had and this hurts a lot more for them than for any of us."

"Those guys basically raised me," McDuffie said. "I came here when I was 17 and they took me under their wings. D-Will became my brother. Rashard is kind of the OG here. Zach is that cool guy. Big Shaq is so Hollywood. Rauno is chill. I'm going to miss those dudes, man."

For one last time, Brown peeled off his Wichita State uniform and spoke with a clear mind.

"I played my heart out and did everything they asked me to do," Brown said. "I scarified a lot, a whole lot. I went through so much pain and hurt, but I feel like I did a pretty good job."

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Wichita State's six seniors agree after first-round NCAA exit: "We underachieved"."