To win at Cincinnati on Sunday, Wichita State basketball will have to buck history
Winning at Cincinnati is hard enough, but beating the Bearcats a second time in a row at Fifth Third Arena has never happened in their seven-year run in the American Athletic Conference.
Wichita State will try to change that at noon Central time Sunday when the Shockers (20-6, 8-5 AAC) play at Cincinnati (17-9, 10-4 AAC) in a high profile, nationally televised game on ESPN.
WSU enters on a three game winning streak, while UC has played four straight overtime games — the most recent an 89-87 double-overtime loss at home to Central Florida on Wednesday. It was just the sixth conference loss at home for the Bearcats, who have won 90% (55-6) of their home games since joining the American in the 2013-14 season.
“It’s important for us to get these (wins) looking forward to the conference tournament and, God willing, the NCAA Tournament,” WSU freshman Tyson Etienne said. “We’re going into a lot of tough environments. Cincinnati is going to be a tough environment to play, but that’s a game we need to win. It’s going to show our character and our resiliency.”
WSU does own one of those precious few conference wins at Cincinnati, a 76-72 victory on Feb. 18, 2018 at BB&T Arena (when Fifth Third Arena was being remodeled). In fact, that is the only win WSU has in the series since joining the American.
Cincinnati has won five straight against the Shockers with three of those games being decided by three points or less. UC senior Jarron Cumberland is the reigning AAC Player of the Year and he has lived up to that billing almost every time against WSU, as he has a career average of 18.2 points in six games against WSU.
Cumberland scored a game-high 24 points, including the game-winning three-point play in the final seconds of Cincinnati’s 80-79 win at Koch Arena on Feb. 6. Fellow senior Tre Scott, a 6-foot-8 forward, is averaging 21.5 points and 16.3 rebounds while shooting 56.7% from the field and 37.5% on threes the last four games.
“We seem to bring out the best in Jarron Cumberland,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said Monday on his radio show. “We need to hope to get the law of averages working in our favor when we go to Cincinnati. That will be a very difficult game. They have great fan support and they’ll be battling to try to get into that NCAA Tournament just like us.”
As of Saturday morning, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had Wichita State as a No. 10 seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projection and Cincinnati as a No. 11 seed and the sixth-to-last team included in the field.
Sunday’s game at Cincinnati (NET ranking of 55) represents the opportunity for WSU to not only pick up a valuable Quadrant 1 victory, but also the marquee win that its postseason resume is currently lacking. For WSU, Sunday kicks off a challenging five-game close to the season where it will play against five of the top seven teams in the conference with three coming on the road.
But Marshall said he won’t be the one who tells his team anything about the NCAA Tournament. He still wants the focus to be on improving day-by-day.
“It’s just a better way to handle it with these young people,” Marshall said. “I’m not going to say, ‘You’ve got to win this game. This is a must-win game.’ They’re all must-win games if you want to ensure that you’re in the NCAA Tournament. So I’m not going to talk about that with them anymore. That didn’t work so well. I’m going to talk about getting better.
“I’m not talking about improving your vertical two inches or becoming a better ball handler or a better shooter. But just find a way to somehow with all of these video sessions, all of these practices, all of these games, to improve somehow, whether that be accepting coaching, playing more to your strengths, going to the offensive glass every time, sprinting in transition. If each individual can just improve 1%, then the group will improve even more than that.”
Wichita State at Cincinnati
Records: WSU 20-6, 8-5 AAC; UC 17-9, 10-4 AAC
When: Noon Central time Sunday
Where: Fifth Third Arena (12,012), Cincinnati
TV: ESPN
Radio: KEYN, 103.7 FM
Series: UC leads 23-12 (12-4 in Cincinnati)
Projected starters
| No. | Cincinnati | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 34 | Jarron Cumberland | G | 6-5 | 210 | Sr. | 15.2 | 3.8 | 4.9 |
| 3 | Mika Adams-Woods | G | 6-3 | 185 | Fr. | 5.0 | 2.2 | 1.7 |
| 2 | Keith Williams | G | 6-5 | 215 | Jr. | 12.7 | 4.9 | 1.7 |
| 13 | Tre Scott | F | 6-8 | 225 | Sr. | 11.2 | 10.4 | 2.2 |
| 33 | Chris Vogt | C | 7-1 | 260 | Jr. | 12.2 | 6.1 | 0.3 |
Coach: John Brannen, first season, 17-9
| No. | Wichita State | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Gr. | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. |
| 11 | Noah Fernandes | G | 5-11 | 172 | Fr. | 1.1 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| 52 | Grant Sherfield | G | 6-2 | 189 | Fr. | 8.1 | 3.0 | 2.8 |
| 2 | Jamarius Burton | G | 6-4 | 200 | So. | 9.9 | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| 0 | Dexter Dennis | G | 6-5 | 208 | So. | 8.7 | 5.0 | 1.1 |
| 21 | Jaime Echenique | C | 6-11 | 258 | Sr. | 11.3 | 6.5 | 0.5 |
Coach: Gregg Marshall, 13th season, 328-119
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