‘Be like those guys’: Current Shockers want to replicate past WSU March Madness runs
After three years in the Wichita State men’s basketball program, the plays are etched in the memory of Dexter Dennis.
He’s watched Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker lead the near-perfect close to topple No. 1 seed Gonzaga. He’s seen Tekele Cotton and Zach Brown embody the “Play Angry” motto in a win over Kansas. He’s marveled at the mastery of Fred VanVleet running the show in a win over Arizona.
Those are some of the defining March Madness moments from the Gregg Marshall era, which saw the Shockers play in seven straight NCAA Tournaments, win a game in five of them and reach the 2013 Final Four and a 2015 Sweet 16.
And those are the moments that current Shockers like Dennis have watched over and over again, wishing to some day have the chance to make their own. That opportunity arrives to make new memories in the Isaac Brown era on Thursday when WSU (16-5) faces Drake (25-4) in a No. 11 seed play-in game at 5:27 p.m. broadcast on TBS.
The winner of Thursday’s game at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana will play No. 6 seed Southern California in a first-round game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“I’ve been hearing about those runs ever since I was a freshman,” Dennis said. “We go back and watch those all the time. We used to go to Coach (Marshall’s) house and he would show us old film of when they played Ohio State and Arizona.
“You watch it so much, it’s a place you really want to get to. You want to be like those guys who have been doing that for a long time around here.”
For a tradition-rich program like WSU, which has been selected for eight of the last nine NCAA Tournaments, it’s a bit of an anomaly that no scholarship player on its roster has played in a March Madness game. Senior walk-ons Brycen Bush and Jacob Herrs were part of the 2017-18 WSU team that was a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost to Marshall in the first round.
For seniors like Alterique Gilbert and Trey Wade, the experience of playing in the Big Dance is what they came to WSU to do.
“For basketball players, this is everything,” Wade said. “This is somewhat bragging rights to some of my friends and former teammates who might never get to experience this. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
The Shockers were also on the bubble last season entering the conference tournament and that team also believed it was getting into the tournament. When the coronavirus pandemic canceled the postseason, that experience was taken away from a core that was looking to improve on its NIT semifinals run the season before.
Finally leading WSU to the NCAA Tournament meant a lot to the team’s three-year players in the junior trio of Dennis, Morris Udeze and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler.
“As a kid, I used to watch (March Madness) all the time,” Udeze said. “To actually be a part of it and making it for the first time in three years is an amazing feeling. I just want my guys to enjoy it as well.”
“It means a lot because this is my first NCAA Tournament,” Dennis said. “It’s going to be a new experience for me. I’m going to treat it like it’s do-or-die. It’s one game at a time, survive and advance. This is what Division I basketball players dream of. This is the highest level you can play at, so I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can.”
WSU’s players aren’t the only ones experiencing March Madness for the first time. Drake’s team is also going through the NCAA Tournament process for the first time. The Bulldogs are in the midst of one of their best seasons in program history and are playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.
While these Shockers don’t know what it’s like to play on college basketball’s biggest stage, they play for a program that is used to winning in March. After hearing so much about past WSU runs, these players want to make one of their own.
“You never know when you can get something taken away from you, so you’ve got to cherish every moment,” Etienne said. “I’m just grateful that we have a chance. Now I, along with my teammates, have an opportunity to write our own story. Maybe we’ll have one of those memories.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 6:05 AM.
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