‘It will be electric’: Wichita State-Memphis will be a top 25 showdown on Thursday
A top 25 showdown is coming to Koch Arena on Thursday.
No. 23 Wichita State (13-1) will play host to No. 21 Memphis (12-2) at 6 p.m. Thursday. The game will air on ESPN2 and fans already planning for a blackout in the Roundhouse for the most anticipated game of the season.
The Shockers gained 117 points in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll released Monday, moving up one spot to No. 23 following wins over East Carolina, 75-69, and Mississippi, 74-54. Memphis fell 12 spots to No. 21 after its 10-game winning streak ended with a 65-62 home loss to Georgia.
It will be the first matchup between ranked teams at Koch Arena since No. 6 Cincinnati beat No. 16 Wichita State, 62-61, on March 4, 2018 with the American Athletic Conference championship at stake. It’s too early in the season to know the stakes between Memphis and WSU, but it pits two of the top teams early in the conference race.
“The Memphis game will be its own animal,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said this weekend. “No one really plays a lot like Memphis. Memphis has its own style: very fast, very energetic and athletic and free-wheeling. It should be a highly-entertaining game.
“I anticipate Koch Arena being kind of like it was for Cincinnati in 17-18, the last game of the regular season. It’s going to be electric. You’re going to see some future pros on both sides and it’s going to be one heck of a basketball game.”
More importantly, WSU moved up two spots to No. 9 in the latest NET rankings, which are used by the NCAA selection committee to seed teams in the NCAA Tournament. According to the NET, the Shockers are 1-1 in Quadrant 1 games (a win at Oklahoma State) and 3-0 in Quadrant 2 games (wins over Oklahoma, VCU and Ole Miss at home).
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 11:29 AM.
.jpg)