KU coach Bill Self on Wichita State: ‘They could beat anybody, anytime, anywhere’
The praise is pouring in for Wichita to start the week after the Shockers’ convincing 80-61 victory at Oklahoma State Sunday.
WSU is starting to gain buzz from national pundits, moving up in various rankings, and is now included in Joe Lunardi’s ESPN Bracketology for the first time in two years.
But the most surprising praise of all came from University of Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, who was in Wichita Monday for a luncheon. In talking with KAKE News’ Scott Braswell, Self brought up the Shockers on his own when discussing the college basketball landscape.
“I don’t think there’s much separation at all from the teams that are ranked high and the teams that maybe aren’t even ranked,” Self said to KAKE News. “Like right now, Wichita State, who would want to play Wichita State? Regardless of where you’re ranked, they could beat anybody, anytime, anywhere.”
The topic of the in-state teams playing one another has been a hot-button issue for Shockers fans. The two teams haven’t played each other in the regular season since 1993, when the Jayhawks beat the Shockers 103-54 in Lawrence.
From 1984 and 1993, WSU and KU played a regular-season game every year with the exception of two years. In the meantime, WSU coach Gregg Marshall has struck up multi-year agreements with Big 12 teams like Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in recent memory.
That’s what intensified the meeting between the two programs when WSU and KU met in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament and the seventh-seeded Shockers knocked off second-seeded KU 78-65 in Omaha to advance to the Sweet 16.
But Self wasn’t the only one showing WSU some love Monday.
Andy Katz, a college basketball correspondent for the NCAA, moved the Shockers into his Power 36 rankings for the first time and has them slotted at No. 33 in the country.
“The Shockers crushed Oklahoma State on Sunday,” Katz wrote. “Their only loss was to West Virginia in Cancun.”
WSU also made its debut in Lunardi’s ESPN Bracketology. He had WSU as one of the final teams in the bracket and as a No. 10 seed playing No. 7 seed Florida in the first round. WSU was one of three teams in from the American Athletic Conference, joining Memphis (No. 7 seed) and Houston (No. 11 seed).
On the predictive analytical website KenPom.com, the Shockers have climbed 24 spots from their preseason ranking up to No. 38 in the country. In Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings, WSU’s defense has peaked at No. 10 overall. Haslametrics.com, a performance-based ranking, has moved WSU to the No. 10-ranked team in the country following the win at OSU.
The Shockers (8-1) are back in action this weekend when they take on Oklahoma (7-1) at Intrust Bank Arena at 5 p.m. Saturday.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 5:06 PM.
.jpg)