WSU is off to its fifth best start in school history, but Marshall pumps brakes
Thursday night, Wichita State captured its most important home basketball win since the 2014-15 season.
The Shockers are off to a 2-0 start in AAC play after a 76-67 win over No. 21 Memphis at Koch Arena. Memphis was the preseason pick to win the conference, and as of Friday morning, only two other teams are undefeated in AAC play.
None have WSU’s record. Then again, only four other Shockers teams have started 14-1 or better: The 35-1 team in 2013-14 that didn’t lose until the NCAA Tournament, the 1926-27 team that started 18-1, the 1953-54 NIT team that started 16-1 and the 2012-13 Final Four team, which started 15-1.
WSU didn’t hit 14 wins last season until the final day of February.
The Shockers are set to soar up the AP Top 25 poll. The win over Memphis will undoubtedly put a spotlight back on WSU hoops. But coach Gregg Marshall isn’t getting ahead of himself.
“All it does is make us 2-0 and them 1-1,” Marshall said. “There is a lot of basketball left to be played, 16 more games.”
AAC standings entering Friday
- Wichita State, 14-1 (2-0)
- SMU, 12-2 (2-0)
- Houston, 12-3 (2-0)
- Cincinnati, 9-6 (2-1)
- Memphis, 12-3 (1-1)
- Tulsa, 9-6 (1-1)
- East Carolina, 7-8 (1-1)
- Connecticut, 10-5 (1-2)
- Temple, 9-5 (1-2)
- Tulane, 9-6 (1-2)
- South Florida, 8-8 (1-2)
- Central Florida, 9-6 (0-3)
The Shockers play Houston at 3 p.m. Jan. 18 after returning home from a two-game road trip against Connecticut and Temple. They go to Houston less than a month later and visit SMU on March 1.
Houston is the defending AAC regular season champion, and Cincinnati won the conference tournament. On Jan. 9, 2018, SMU was undefeated in conference play and finished tied for ninth in the AAC standings.
Thursday’s win was the Shockers’ first over a top 25 team at Koch Arena since Feb. 28, 2015, against No. 10 Northern Iowa. It was their first against a ranked Memphis team since Dec. 30, 1974.
After the game, sophomore guard Erik Stevenson said WSU “could beat anybody.” To this point, with two wins over Big 12 teams, two wins over SEC opponents and the Memphis victory, it’s hard to argue against his point.
Marshall said his group will have to play even better than it did Thursday if it wants to win a pair of conference road games coming up. When asked whether the Memphis win puts a national spotlight back on the program, he said that is for the media to decide.
“I’m in little Wichita here,” Marshall said. “I’m just doing my thing.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 1:22 PM.