Tulsa’s path to first place in the American might seem familiar for Shocker fans
Five seasons ago, Tulsa entered the 2015-16 basketball season with nine seniors, a junior and two freshmen. The Golden Hurricane finished 20-12 and earned its highest NCAA Tournament seed since Bill Self was coach in 1999-2000.
A year later, Tulsa brought back 19.4% of its scoring and 17.5% of its minutes. Only one senior was in the team’s top 11 scorers, and the Hurricane finished with a losing record and in seventh place in the American.
The season that followed, Tulsa was back on track.
Sound familiar?
Two seasons ago, Wichita State brought back an average of 2.2 years experience based on minutes played, according to Sports Reference. The Shockers returned 91.9% of their scoring and 88.8% of their minutes.
The year that followed, WSU had its worst season in a decade with a .556 win percentage. Here is a comparison between the 2015-16 Tulsa team and the 2017-18 Shockers that featured Landry Shamet, Shaq Morris and Conner Frankamp:
Tulsa’s rebuild has come full circle. The Golden Hurricane sit atop the AAC standings at 6-1 almost halfway through the conference schedule. Tulsa is 14-6 and has won five straight heading into one of its biggest tests of the season as WSU (17-3, 5-2 AAC) goes to the Donald W. Reynolds Center at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Last season, like Tulsa did four years ago, WSU had only two seniors on the roster. But in 2019-20, the Shockers have proven to be ahead of Tulsa’s schedule.
With 11 games left in the regular season, the Shockers are only two wins away from tying the Tulsa team that came two years after its heavy senior class in 2015-16. WSU is doing it with fewer returning points, fewer returning minutes and less than half the experience of the 2017-18 Tulsa team.
In fact, this year’s WSU team is arguably better than the Tulsa team it will face on the road Saturday. The Shockers have a better national average than Tulsa in 11 of 15 major categories, including scoring offense, scoring defense and rebound margin.
Tulsa has been a bit of a surprise in the AAC this season, but with only five underclassmen on the roster, perhaps the rest of the country should have seen it coming. The Hurricane are near the end of another senior-heavy cycle.
Tulsa is looking to cash in with a return to the NCAA Tournament, its first since the 2015-16 season. As of Monday, the Hurricane is a No. 12 seed in ESPN’s Bracketology. The 23rd-ranked Shockers are a No. 7 seed.
By the time the final whistle blows in Tulsa, WSU could shoot into a tie for second in the AAC with Cincinnati (13-7, 6-2 AAC).
“They’re got experience, guys who have been in their program — grown men coming together and playing good basketball,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said Tuesday.