WSU women look to claim outright MVC title
The Wichita State women’s basketball team has clinched a share of its third consecutive Missouri Valley championship, but it has a chance this weekend to do something its predecessors were unable to do.
That is to win the title outright, which WSU (24-4, 15-1 MVC) can do in its final road swing of the regular season starting Thursday night at Evansville and ending Saturday at Indiana State.
After losing four games down the stretch in 2014 and sharing the title with Indiana State, and losing three in 2013 to share it with Creighton, Wichita State is poised to win its first outright title thanks to a 7-0 start to the second half of the league schedule this season.
“This is a business trip for us,” WSU coach Jody Adams said. “We don’t want to share this title. We want to win it outright and that’s our goal right now.”
An outright championship is important, but not as important as WSU’s resume for the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers own a 24-4 record with an RPI of 43, both good marks for a team playing in a conference rated 19th out of 33 in the nation.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme currently has Wichita State as a No. 13 seed with it as a team “moving in” to the at-large discussion.
“I think we’ve proven that we are one of the best 64 teams in the country,” Adams said. “I do think that we deserve it.”
Wichita State owns Top-100 RPI wins over Creighton (85), Ohio State (34), Kansas State (67), and Drake (66). The Shockers took Tennessee, ranked No. 2 in RPI, down to the wire in Knoxville, and three of their four losses are to Top 70 teams.
This all coming with a schedule of opponents geared to stop the Shockers from repeating as champions once again.
“People were always giving us their best shots,” WSU senior Alex Harden said. “They made sure if they didn’t play good against anybody else, they were going to play good against you.”
Despite its most impressive resume to date, Wichita State will not be able to comfortably rely on an at-large berth if it falters this weekend or in St. Charles, Mo., for the conference tournament next week.
Relying on someone else, in this case a committee, has never been Adams’ style, though. There’s only one way Wichita State can guarantee itself entry and that is to sweep the conference tournament for the third year in a row.
“You don’t want to leave your season up to somebody who doesn’t know us and is only going to look at the last 10 games or our conference RPI,” Adams said. “I just believe in our consistency over the years with the success that we’ve had and the winning that we’ve had. Like I said, I think those show that we are a top 64 team in the nation.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 6:30 PM with the headline "WSU women look to claim outright MVC title."