Shocker fans achieve early visibility at MVC Tournament in St. Louis

It wasn’t hard to see Wichita State’s influence inside the Scottrade Center on Thursday night as the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament kicked off with a pair of games between the bottom four teams in the conference.

As Missouri State and Southern Illinois battled for the right to play the top-seeded Shockers on Friday at noon, there was the black and yellow, dotting the arena, with at least as many fans as either team actually playing.

These days, that’s just how WSU fans roll.

“I think Wichita is the farthest team from the site, if I’m not mistaken, and we bring probably one of the larger fan bases here in St. Louis,” WSU guard Ron Baker said. “It goes to show, for us players, that our fan base is very supportive and active.”

Coming to St. Louis has been a tradition for Shocker fans for years, but it took a quantum leap last year when WSU – coming off a Final Four appearance – won the MVC Tournament for the first time since 1987 and improved to 34-0 in doing so. The tournament moved to St. Louis in 1991.

WSU fans filled the majority of the seats in the 22,000-seat arena last year, and while that kind of turnout isn’t expected this year, the attendance of WSU fans is still expected to be huge.

Last season, WSU’s Alumni Association brought seven buses of fans to the tournament. This year, it is bringing six.

But registration ended in early February and interest is already growing for wherever the Shockers end up in the NCAA Tournament in two weeks.

Friday at 10 a.m., WSU has a pep rally set up at PBR at Ballpark Village. WSU coach Gregg Marshall and athletic director Eric Sexton are both scheduled to speak as are the WSU radio team of Mike Kennedy and Dave Dahl.

The designated restaurant for Shocker fans in St. Louis is Joe Buck’s Downtown.

“We moved the pep rallies to PBR in Ballpark Village in anticipation of rivaling last year’s attendance,” said Courtney Marshall, WSU’s Alumni Association president and CEO. “We’re expecting huge support from our loyal Shocker fans once again this year in St. Louis.”

As far as the Shockers’ opponent, Southern Illinois won 55-48 Thursday night. The Shockers beat the Salukis 67-55 on Jan. 14 in Wichita and 84-62 on Feb. 17 in Carbondale, Ill.

The tournament semifinals are Saturday and the finals are Sunday on CBS.

“I think we’ve got one of the best fan bases in the country,” WSU guard Fred VanVleet said.

“They do a tremendous job, and we just try to pay them back by playing as hard as we possibly can.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Shocker fans achieve early visibility at MVC Tournament in St. Louis."