Newcomers savor the feeling of Wichita State basketball’s first road win at Temple
For the group of 11 newcomers on the Wichita State men’s basketball team, it has been a challenge to uphold the tradition of a proud program.
It wasn’t long ago when 25-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances were the norm. When you wear the Shocker uniform, winning is the expectation, regardless of roster turnover.
The first-year players have felt that pressure and suffered through the lows of losing, which is why the celebration deep inside the Liacouras Center was so raucous late Thursday evening following the Shockers’ 79-65 win over Temple — the program’s first win in Philadelphia and the team’s fourth straight on the road.
Music blared, players danced and some grabbed their phones to share the celebration on Instagram Live. In a season filled mostly of heartbreaking losses caused by their own mistakes, the Shockers were finally afforded the opportunity to celebrate a victory they went out and snatched.
“That excitement in there is the best thing I’ve wanted for those guys,” said senior leader Craig Porter after emerging from the locker room party. “These guys, all they’ve ever wanted to do was win. We’ve been working our butts off and I’ve been trying to lead them the best I can. Honestly, I’m just really happy for all of them right now getting this moment. This is everything they’ve wanted and they’re getting it at the right time.”
A segment of WSU fans agonized about the program’s fall from grace after embarrassing losses to Alcorn State and East Carolina at Koch Arena earlier this season. They’ve bemoaned the mistakes made in late-game collapses that have robbed the Shockers of chances of winning at least five more games.
Their disappointment is justified in most cases, but the coaching staff is quick to point out that it’s sometimes easy for fans to forget that no one wants to win more than the players.
The players know they have left wins on the table and that WSU is a better team than its 14-12 record, but the players also know they are playing their best basketball together at the right time of the season after winning for the seventh time in their last 11 games. Entering the final four games of the regular season, WSU (7-7) is one game back of fourth place in the conference standings to Temple (8-6) and Cincinnati (8-6).
“We know the fans are going to be down when we lose, but we’re down on ourselves too because we know how hard we work in practice,” said Jaykwon Walton, who scored a game-high 21 points in the Temple win to continue his breakout debut season with the Shockers. “We’re starting to get there and I think everybody who watches our games can definitely tell that we are getting better. I feel like we can make a good run here to close out the year.”
There have been several points this season where it felt like WSU’s season could go off the rails. Blowing another late lead in a 72-67 home loss to UCF on Feb. 8 certainly felt like it could be the death blow to the Shockers’ season.
But WSU has responded by erasing a six-point lead in the final 90 seconds of regulation to earn a 91-89 double-overtime win over SMU at Koch Arena, then battling back from another deficit down the stretch to pull out a road win at a place where the nationally-ranked 2018 and 2020 Shocker teams failed to do so.
“I tell those guys all the time to try to stay off of social media and don’t worry about anything other than what’s in this locker room,” WSU head coach Isaac Brown said. “Don’t listen to nothing on the outside. Just keep working and keep getting better and these guys have done that.”
That’s why Porter was beaming with pride talking about the win because he was mostly reflecting on the growth of his first-year teammates.
Like when Jaron Pierre, who came to WSU as a pure scorer, blocked a shot on the defensive end, which led to a fast break and a layup for him at the other end. Or walk-on Melvion Flanagan, the smallest player on the court, coming up with seven rebounds to help WSU dominate the battle on the glass. Or Walton, who was mired in a shooting slump not long ago, draining five three-pointers.
Or Xavier Bell, who has seen sporadic playing time, coming off the bench to score seven crucial points in the second half. Or James Rojas, who was effectively benched last game, to shake off the poor performance and deliver his third double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds) of the season.
“I’m so proud of every one of those guys in there right now,” said Porter, who once again delivered a crunch-time masterpiece to help WSU end the game on a 21-3 run. “We’re going up against every odd there is with basically a brand-new team. We’ve beat ourselves in a lot of the games we’ve lost, so seeing us put together a full 40 minutes to win here is really impressive. It’s awesome to see all of the excitement right now.”
Before the road trip, Brown was asked why WSU was so much better on the road — Thursday’s win improved the Shockers’ record to 6-3 this season in road environments — compared to their disappointing record (7-8) at home, which has put WSU’s 26-year streak of a winning record at home in jeopardy.
No one could seem to put their finger on the stark difference, but after Thursday’s win over Temple, Rojas had an inkling.
“I feel like it’s because road games have that us-against-everybody vibe,” Rojas said. “I feel like we just go harder on the road because we’re trying to prove something. We want to get another road kill so bad, so everybody plays their hearts out every away game.
“Now we’ve got to start playing the same way at home and we’re going to be a tough team to beat here.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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