Big city, bright lights: Shockers arrive in New York in search of another NIT title
The sun had nearly set, not that any of the Wichita State men’s basketball players could tell stepping off the team bus.
They had seen videos of Times Square, but to those who had not been to New York City before, they couldn’t possibly comprehend the sheer magnitude of the flashing billboards, neon signs and bright lights until they were surrounded 360 degrees by them.
Senior Markis McDuffie, a Paterson, N.J., native, played tour guide for the rest of the team on the hour-long trek from the airport. The freshmen were wide-eyed the whole trip, asking McDuffie what was what. McDuffie and junior Eli Farrakhan took great delight in spotting a person wearing a Cookie Monster costume on the streets.
“They’re having fun,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said outside of the team hotel. “They’re enjoying this experience. Many of them, this is their first time in New York.”
Eight years ago, Marshall guided the Shockers to this same situation: playing in New York City in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament. While WSU is in the same position this week, down to staying in the same hotel, the Marriott Marquis, the circumstances are certainly different.
The first time around, in 2011, Wichita State had not yet gone to a Final Four or started 35-0 in a season. The program was still on the come-up to the nationally prominent entity it has become. Not to mention the team make-up is completely different: the 2011 squad was full of veterans, where as these Shockers are almost all first-year players.
And Marshall isn’t putting much stock in the 2011 experience of winning it all helping the Shockers do the same this week.
“I don’t think (director of operations) Dominic (Okon), (manager of player development) Devon (Smith) or I are going to be suiting up or making any shots,” Marshall said. “We’re the only ones that have any recollection of that. Everybody else has moved on, or graduated or doing something else with their lives. I don’t think it really makes a difference.”
The sight-seeing for the Shockers ended Sunday night. The business trip began first thing Monday, as the Shockers (22-14), winners of nine of their last 10 and 14 of their last 17, lock in for their 6 p.m. Central time semifinal against Lipscomb (28-7) on Tuesday for an ESPN broadcast.
Just 11 blocks away — that’s about an eight-minute drive in traffic or a 15-minute walk in New Yorker terms — from where the Shockers are staying rests Madison Square Garden.
Staying in Times Square is cool to a teenager, but to a basketball player, playing at the Garden — widely recognized as a basketball mecca among hoop-heads — is the real treat out of this experience.
“Coach says it’s one of the best places to play,” WSU freshman Jamarius Burton said.
On top of that, the team was motivated to bring its senior leader, Markis McDuffie, to this basketball cathedral. While McDuffie, who grew up across the Hudson River, is clear he is New Jersey through and through, he admits that he’s always wondered what it would be like to play on the same floor as the Knicks.
“As a kid growing up, you’re watching (the Knicks) all your life and always watching how famous that arena is and how many celebrities have been in that arena to watch games,” McDuffie said. “For us to get the experience to play there, considering I’ve never played on a floor like that and I’m sure these guys haven’t either, is special.”
But it doesn’t take growing up in the area to appreciate the history in the building.
Marshall recalled the time in 2011 when he took a stroll down the hallways of Madison Square Garden before WSU’s shootaround.
“I saw the championship (Knicks) picture from ‘71,” Marshall said. “There was Red Holzman and 12 guys. You recognize some of the guys — Clyde Frazier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and Phil Jackson — but then there are the two Shockers, Dave Stallworth and Nate Bowman.
“I continued down the hallway and started seeing pictures of all the performers that have done shows there — Elton John, Billy Joel, Dianna Ross and the Beatles. It was everybody, the biggest of the best. It was really cool to just go down memory lane.”
After the Shockers are done pinching themselves, they’ll try to recapture the magic that allowed them to become the first team in NIT history to knock off the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds en route to New York City.
“Being able to play in April, we are all happy to be here,” WSU sophomore Asbjorn Midtgaard said. “Sometimes you see teams in the NIT taking a break, and that is not the case with us at all. We all want to be here and we all want to win. We all wanted to get Markis home to New York, now our next goal is to end the season on a win.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2019 at 7:09 PM.