‘I’m a Shocker for life’: Xavier McDaniel supports Wichita State basketball at Missouri
From one Columbia to another, Wichita State basketball legend Xavier McDaniel caught his first Shocker game of the season in person for Sunday’s 82-72 loss at Missouri.
The South Carolina native said many of his WSU contacts were wondering why he wasn’t in attendance at the Myrtle Beach Invitational with games being played a little more than two hours away from his hometown in Columbia, South Carolina.
McDaniel said lately he has been spending more time in St. Louis, where his wife, Morra Gill McDaniel, is the head women’s basketball coach at Harris-Stowe State University, a local NAIA school.
Sunday’s game in Columbia, Missouri, was about a two-hour drive for McDaniel, who was accompanied by his family and sat directly behind WSU’s bench. The husband-and-wife duo both sported Seattle Supersonics hoodies, an ode to his NBA playing career.
“I’ll probably catch that (Dec. 30) KU game in Kansas City,” McDaniel said. “But only if there’s no snow on the ground.”
Nearly four decades after he became the first college basketball player to lead the country in scoring (27.2) and rebounding (14.8) in the same season for the Shockers, McDaniel still watches his former team religiously.
Like many WSU fans, McDaniel has been frustrated by the dramatic increase in player movement in the new age of college basketball with the transfer portal. It has seemed like every year WSU has revamped nearly its entire roster in recent memory.
But through it all, the former WSU All-American has remained a die-hard Shocker fan.
“I’m a Shocker for life, man,” McDaniel said. “I still watch all of their games. I’ve been seeing there ain’t a lot of Shocker fans that have been coming to games, so we’ve got to get out and support them. I know a lot of people, especially Shocker fans, they’re used to familiarity. I don’t know when college basketball is going to get back to when you have guys for three or four years, but right now this is the way it is, so we still have to come out and support them.”
McDaniel saw some things he liked and didn’t like from the Shockers on Sunday in their first real road environment of the season under first-year head coach Paul Mills.
Still a connoisseur in rebounding, McDaniel appreciated the 18 offensive boards the Shockers collected against an SEC opponent.
But after WSU slashed a double-digit deficit to a single possession in the final minutes by attacking the basket, McDaniel didn’t like that the team stopped doing what was working and hoisted four straight 3-pointers — all misses — down the stretch of the loss. WSU shot 28.6% on 3-pointers for the game.
“I know the analytics say you shoot them, but analytics never played the (expletive) game before,” McDaniel said. “You’ve got to recognize what’s working for you and the 3s weren’t working. Live by the 3, die by the 3.”
Sunday may have ended in a loss, but McDaniel said he sees potential in Mills and his first team at WSU.
“They’ve got to find their identity,” McDaniel said. “Once they figure out what they do well, they’re going to be all right.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2023 at 9:44 AM.
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