Wichita State basketball to rekindle old rivalry with Drake in Kansas City
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wichita State schedules Drake in Kansas City on Dec. 18, 2026.
- Game revives former Missouri Valley Conference rivalry and ties.
- Drake joins Boise State and Loyola Chicago on WSU’s known 2026‑27 slate.
Wichita State has added a familiar old rival to its 2026-27 men’s basketball schedule.
The Shockers will play Drake on Friday, Dec. 18 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., a matchup first reported by Alex Rosinski and confirmed by The Eagle. It marks the first known date on Wichita State’s 2026-27 schedule and revives one of the more recognizable series from the program’s Missouri Valley Conference days.
For Wichita State, the game offers more than nostalgia. It gives the Shockers a neutral-site date in a city where they have played often in recent years and another regional opponent with name recognition for fans.
With regional power-conference opponents increasingly shutting out WSU — a challenge facing nearly every program outside the power structure — the Shockers have leaned more heavily on familiar Missouri Valley Conference ties to fill out their nonconference schedule. WSU brought Southern Illinois to Koch Arena for a win in 2023, then swept Northern Iowa in a home-and-home that played out in 2024 and 2025.
The Shockers also beat Loyola Chicago at Koch Arena in 2025 and will finish that series this coming season with a return trip to Chicago, making Drake the latest former Valley rival to resurface on Wichita State’s schedule.
Also of note, WSU athletic director Kevin Saal recently said on The Roundhouse podcast that WSU was in the process of finalizing a neutral-site game in Kansas City that would include an “element” of NIL funds being directed to both teams. It is unclear whether Saal was referring specifically to the Drake game, although the timing and location appear to line up.
It has been done before by WSU in Kansas City, as the Shockers previously played Kansas there in a setup where both sides took home money to help pay their athletes.
Drake went 14-20 this past season in Eric Henderson’s first year as head coach and finished No. 205 in KenPom and No. 199 in the NET rankings. Even with drastic improvement, the game will likely fall in the Quad 3 range for WSU. Neutral-site games are classified as Quad 1 for opponents ranked 1-50, Quad 2 for 51-100, Quad 3 for 101-200 and Quad 4 for 201-365.
There is also no shortage of history between the two programs.
The last meeting came in one of the more painful recent postseason moments for WSU when Drake edged the Shockers 53-52 in the First Four of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The last true Missouri Valley Conference matchup between the schools came on Feb. 1, 2017 when WSU won 77-69 in Des Moines.
Even after WSU left the Valley, the connection never fully disappeared. Drake came to Koch Arena last year for an open scrimmage before the start of the season, giving the two staffs some recent familiarity before now agreeing to meet again in a game that counts.
Kansas City has also become something of a recurring stop for Wichita State under recent schedules.
The Shockers beat Saint Louis 88-63 there in 2024. In 2023, WSU lost neutral-site games in Kansas City to Kansas State, 69-60, and KU, 86-67. WSU also played in the two-game Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City in 2022, beating Grand Canyon 55-43 before losing to San Francisco 67-63.
For now, Drake joins Boise State and Loyola Chicago as the only known opponents on Wichita State’s 2026-27 schedule. The Shockers are set to host Boise State at Koch Arena in a return game, while they will hit the road and face Loyola Chicago at Gentile Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 18 in a return game to conclude both of those series.
More dates and opponents are expected to surface over the coming months, as WSU typically announces its full nonconference schedule sometime in July.
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 1:52 PM.
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