Jayhawks, Shockers haven’t seen eye to eye on meeting again

It is a rivalry that does not exist until it does, a basketball series that has become more known for dormancy and dead periods than anything.

Kansas and Wichita State, two schools separated by 161 miles of interstates and rolling Kansas farmland and Flint Hills, first played a basketball game more than 100 years ago. Yet they have faced off just 14 times — and not since 1993.

If you are a resident of the state of Kansas — and depending on your point of reference — this is either a good thing, a bad thing, or not a thing at all. But as the NCAA Tournament begins this week, this much is certain:

The series that isn’t could be back on.

If No. 2-seed Kansas defeats No. 15 New Mexico State on Friday, and No. 7-seed Wichita State handles No. 10-seed Indiana, the two schools will meet up on Sunday in Omaha, a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 on the line.

A Kansas-Wichita State matchup would spark local tensions, command national attention and become one of the most anticipated games of the early rounds. And all of this begs the question:

Why haven’t the teams played in 22 years? The answer is both complicated — fused with historical angst built over the eras — and also obvious, a sentiment perhaps best expressed by Kansas coach Bill Self.

“This isn’t knocking Wichita State,” Self said in late 2013. “But if it was best for our program, I would reach out to them about scheduling them. But it’s not.”

In Self’s view, the non-conference schedule is a precious commodity. KU officials strategically schedule games in fertile recruiting grounds and in big markets where the Jayhawks can expand their brand. During the Self era, Kansas has played non-conference games in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, among other places. In the coming years, they will travel to San Diego State and UNLV, tapping into West Coast markets.

Self, meanwhile, sees little value in a game against Wichita State, and this is where it becomes more complicated. Part of the reason for this hesitancy is the idea that Kansas would have nothing to gain — and everything to lose.

“I’ll speak for Bill and say it’s probably not in Kansas’ best interest to play Wichita,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, former Wichita State coach and Kansas guard, said last year. “But when I was (at Wichita State), I certainly wanted to (play KU).”

Even in the early years, though, the series was a sporadic endeavor. The first game was played on Dec. 18, 1908, in Wichita, and Kansas rolled 65-15. The two schools didn’t meet again for another 33 years.

Kansas scored double-digit victories in Wichita in 1941 and 1942, and in 1955, the Jayhawks came to town for the dedication game of WU Field House in Wichita. The matchup pitted Wichita coach Ralph Miller, a Kansas grad, against his mentor, Phog Allen, and Kansas left town with a 56-55 victory.

Cue another 26 years of waiting.

Former Kansas coach Ted Owens, who led the program from 1964 to 1983, said last year that he had a difficult time remembering why Kansas and Wichita State never played in those years. Owens, now retired and living in Oklahoma, said he had some talks with former Wichita State coach Harry Miller, who coached the Shockers from 1971 to 1978. But a game never materialized.

“I can’t really answer that,” Owens said last March. “I don’t think anybody ever told me not to play them, and I don’t think anybody ever told Harry not to play us.”

Finally, Kansas and Wichita State met up in the 1981 NCAA Tournament, a Midwest Regional semifinal at the Superdome in New Orleans. Mike Jones’ 25-footer with two seconds to play lifted WSU to a 66-65 victory.

Thousands of T-shirts flooded the state, commemorating “The Battle of New Orleans,” and two years later, Wichita State athletic director Lew Perkins and KU athletic director Monte Johnson agreed to a four-year series.

Kansas won the first three contests, while Wichita State won 54-49 at the Roundhouse on Jan. 6, 1987. One season earlier, Kansas coach Larry Brown had weighed in on the series, saying: “It’s stupid for us not to keep playing Wichita.”

That sentiment would change during the early years of Roy Williams, who racked up five straight blowout victories over Wichita State from 1989-93. The Shockers had fallen on hard times. Williams insisted on a two-for-one series, with at least two games at Allen Fieldhouse for every one in Wichita. And the Shockers said no.

Two decades later, the Wichita State program is back in the top 25. Marshall has led Wichita State to a Final Four in 2013 and an undefeated regular season last year. But back in Lawrence, the idea of rekindling the series is still a non-starter.

Turgeon, who laid the groundwork for the Shockers’ revival in the early 2000s, remembers calling his old boss, Williams, hoping to play host to Kansas when Wichita State christened a remodeled of Koch Arena in 2003. That went nowhere. He would later have some informal talks with Self during his first years at Kansas, but those never progressed, either.

“I think it was great for Wichita State,” said Turgeon, a guard on the losing end of the 1987 game. “I don’t think it was that good for Kansas. They played nine times; in Wichita, they just remember the one.”

In recent years, Self has expressed similar sentiments, much to the frustration of Marshall, who has looked for ways to build his program’s strength of schedule. Though he wouldn’t address KU specifically Sunday after the bracket was announced, he has said WSU would play KU in a home-and-home series, but not a two-for-one weighted toward Lawrence.

“The one thing about being in coaching a long time and coaching at different schools and different levels is the fact that you understand that coaches schedule what’s in the best interest of their program,” Self said in late 2013. “Nowhere does it say that they are obligated to schedule in the best interest of somebody else’s program that wants to play them.”

All of this, of course, has led to the following irony. Wichita State finished 28-4, won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship, and was slapped with a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. One reason: The Shockers’ resume lacked wins against top competition.

Now it could all change this weekend. Is the state of Kansas ready for the Battle of Omaha?

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Jayhawks, Shockers haven’t seen eye to eye on meeting again."