Eight minutes to knock off No. 1: The day that Wichita State got back on the national stage

Two days before playing a game that changed everything for Wichita State, Fred VanVleet listened to Southern University’s pep band play from his seat behind the basket in EnergySolutions Arena.

“Southern had the best band I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “They have a lot of rhythm. And I think Gonzaga’s band was so bad it made them look even better.”

Southern’s basketball team made a big impression on the Shockers, as well, in that March 2013 NCAA Tournament game in Salt Lake City. The 16th-seeded Jaguars had the game tied at 56 before losing 64-58 to top-seeded Gonzaga.

The Shockers, who knocked off Pittsburgh in an earlier game, watched. When CBS revealed the NCAA Tournament brackets six days earlier, players and coaches saw Gonzaga as a good matchup, despite its No. 1 ranking and 14-game win streak. Seeing the Zags live added to that confidence.

When WSU departed the arena to bus to The Hotel Monaco, the players knew they had a chance to advance. Gonzaga enjoyed a size advantage. Center Kelly Olynyk, soon to be picked 13th in the NBA Draft, presented a significant challenge with his mobility, height and skill. The Zags, however, did not awe the Shockers during that 40 minutes of basketball.

“We watched them play Southern, and they looked beatable,’ WSU guard Ron Baker said. “Obviously, they didn’t play their best game that night. We gained some confidence just by watching them in person.”

Two days later, WSU president John Bardo, and wife Deborah, rode the bus from the hotel to the arena, as is the custom.

He believes it is important for him to be there when his teams lose, to support his athletes in tough times. Bardo wore a black-and-yellow tie that coaches came to call the “Bugsy Seigel” tie for its nostalgic 1930s pattern. It became a good-luck charm for the tournament and coaches checked to make sure Bardo wore it around his neck. The short ride, less than a mile, remains notable for its lack of drama or nerves.

“They were no different than if they were playing Evansville or Illinois State,” Bardo said.

Assistant coach Greg Heiar, with help from assistant Chris Jans, prepared the scouting report on Gonzaga. The Zags didn’t fight through screens aggressively and the Shockers believed their sets, hard to prepare for on a quick turnaround, could produce baskets.

“We knew we were going to be able to score,” Heiar said. “It was their front line that really made us nervous.”

While Southern pushed Gonzaga, the Shockers cruised to a 73-55 win over Pittsburgh. Only one Shocker played more than 33 minutes and, trainer Todd Fagan noted, his team didn’t need to dip into their stores of energy deeply with a furious rally or full-court pressure.

Bardo’s support was not needed that day.

Ninth-seeded Wichita State knocked off Gonzaga 76-70 in front of 16,060 fans. The win propelled the Shockers to the Final Four and introduced the nation to freshmen guards Baker and VanVleet, both of whom played key roles in the dramatic final minutes.

While the Gregg Marshall era has produced many landmarks, no game altered the trajectory of the program more than that March 23, 2013 win over Gonzaga.

The final eight minutes of that game saw WSU rally from a seven-point deficit by making 6 of 7 shots, 5 of 5 from three-point range. The Shockers, down 55-49 with 7:55 to play, outscored Gonzaga 27-15 by scoring on 11 of their final 13 possessions.

Those eight minutes that changed Shocker basketball did not come from Marshall’s usual playbook. Gonzaga hammered the Shockers on the boards, beating them to offensive rebounds numerous times. The Zags kept scoring, just not enough to match the Shockers.

Over the past three months, people who were at the game watched a replay and discussed their memories with Paul Suellentrop of The Wichita Eagle. This is an oral history of those eight minutes:

Wichita State led by as many as 13 points in the first half. Gonzaga, however, went on a 18-9 run midway through the second half, with Olynyk scoring seven of those points and guard Kevin Pangos making a three-pointer and a layup. With 7:55 remaining, the Zags led 54-49 entering a media timeout and Olynyk added another point to the lead when play resumed.

Shocker radio voice Mike Kennedy mentions Gonzaga’s 12-point edge at the foul line for the game. Analyst Bob Hull points to seven Shockers turnovers in the half.

“Mark Few and Gonzaga, 7:55 away from a Sweet 16 trip,” says TNT play-by-play voice Spero Dedes.

Marshall: We had been up most of the game, then we got in foul trouble. Cle (Early) and Carl (Hall) got in foul trouble, because Jake White plays quite a bit and Ehimen (Orukpe) plays quite a bit.

I said to them, “If I had said to you at the start of practice in the fall, would you take being down five with 7:55 to play against the No. 1 team in the country and the No. 1 seed in the entire tournament, for the right to go to the Sweet 16, would you have taken it?”

You’ve got to try to read them, know their mindset. At that point, they needed some encouragement. I do remember Baker locking eyes with me and it was a very strange look that said to me, “I got it.”

Baker: Momentum was definitely shifting their way. It seemed like we had played well the whole game, and they were beating us. Sometimes a game is going so fast, for him to say that, it makes you slow down and capture the moment and realize what’s going on. It kind of relaxes you and lets you play harder.

Heiar: I remember Ron’s eyes, and Fred and Carl, Cle and Malcolm (Armstead). Just all of them, the look on their face was like, “Wow, that is reality. We’re playing the No. 1 team in the country. We’re only down five. We’ve got eight minutes to go to go to the Sweet 16. Let’s do this.”

Kennedy: What maybe has been forgotten about this game and this particular phase of that run to the Final Four is, I think Gregg did a couple of things psychologically that were masterful, said just the perfect things to prepare this team.

He asked them, “Are you satisfied?” That, and he had started using that “We belong” thing, too. I think he told them that before Pittsburgh, that you’re as good as these guys, we can beat these guys, we belong.

Orukpe: It was just a perfect timeout. Team morale was getting low. I remember staring at his eyes, there was this tone he was trying to pass on to us, this energy he was trying to pass on to us. I looked around, and the players really responded to that timeout. It was evident in the next few minutes.

Kellen Marshall (son of Gregg and Lynn): My mom was so nervous that she went up to the concourse and went to the bathroom and just stayed up there. She was kind of watching a little bit in the concourse. She just stayed up there. She couldn’t watch. Then she did the same thing at the Ohio State game.

Athletic director Eric Sexton: They weren’t panicking. They continued to work their plan. And that’s what we ask young kids to do.

Olynyk finished with 26 points, 13 in the second half.

Baker: Monster. They ran the same offense we ran with Team USA (in the Pan Am Games, with Gonzaga’s Mark Few coaching) and being 7-foot and mobile, it’s nearly unguardable when you have a player like him and (Elias) Harris on the same team.

Zach Bush: Carl got his glasses knocked off and (Olynyk) picked them up for him and I was like, “He’s a really nice guy, too.”

Sexton: He was an inside guy that had an outside game. Carl, the entire game, slowly, methodically moved him to the perimeter because he allowed Carl to move him to the perimeter. That was what was fascinating to me — our guys didn’t mind getting touched. They did not like being touched.

Early drove into the lane and banked in a runner out of the timeout to cut the lead to 55-51. “You’ve got to know where Pangos is,” Hull warns on the radio. After an offensive rebound by Mike Hart, Pangos’ three stretched Gonzaga’s lead to seven. “Drains it,” Kennedy says. “That is a huge missed rebound.”

Hull: They were killing us on the offensive boards all game. Pangos showed that he was an All-American. He wouldn’t go away.

Marshall: There’s Pangos, just killing us. We’ve got to find Pangos. We’re making a comeback and they’re hitting back-to-back threes.

Student manager Chad Gibney: Mike Hart was a beast. It was extremely frustrating. We couldn’t check them out. They were just punking us.

Baker: The Hart kid, he went to the glass every time. When we’re in zone, it’s hard to chase down box-outs and box out those type of guys.

WSU’s Tekele Cotton and Pangos traded threes before the Shockers began to make their final push. Dave Dahl, who does color for home radio broadcasts, watched the game at home, alone. He planned to fly to Salt Lake City to join Kennedy and Hull on the radio. A lack of interest canceled plans for a second charter plane, stranding Dahl in Wichita.

Dahl: I always watch the games by myself. I don’t go to any rallies or anything, because people want to talk too much. I want to be able to listen to Bob and Mike and pay attention.

That was a big shot for Tekele — just the fact that he took the shot when things were looking not-quite-as-good for Wichita State. And that carried over into subsequent games, when he didn’t mind taking the big shots, like against Ohio State.

With 5:09 to play. Early sank a three from the top of key. Dedes yells, “Answers for Wichita State,” and color man Doug Gottlieb, who in 2014 angered fans with his Twitter and radio commentary on the Shockers, screams, “Are you kidding?”

Kellen Marshall: I can’t believe Doug Gottlieb was on one of our best games ever.

Academic adviser Gretchen Torline: It was weird. Everybody felt confident, like we were playing well. But this was the No. 1 team in the nation. I was with (son) Blake, and I just kept saying, “Well, this was a great run.” Then, the further along you got in the game, everyone was like, “This is going to happen.”

Hall blocked a shot by Olynyk near the basket, and Olynyk protested the lack of a foul call by holding his arms out as he ran back on defense. “It was a foul,” Gottlieb says calmly.

Bush: We got away with one there.

WSU’s magic took over in a rush. A three by Baker and a 15-foot jumper by Hall from the right wing gave it a 62-61 lead with 3:29 to play.

Student manager Jeff Chapman: Ron hit the top-of-the-key three. I had to pee after that. I was very, very, very excited. I was running behind all the managers (sitting in the arena) to try to sneak out and come back. Blake (Peniston) thought I was trying to chest bump him, because I was running toward him with a big smile on my face. He chest-bumped me down, right into that metal arm rest, gave me the biggest bruise I’ve ever had in my life on my inner left thigh.

Baker: That was one of the shots that I remember most from the bench. Carl really didn’t shoot jump shots his junior year when he got here. Throughout the year, he started adding that to his game a little bit, and that was right in his range. If you go any farther than that, it really wasn’t his shot.

Heiar: Carl worked all offseason on expanding his jump shot. To get to do it at the biggest moment, that’s what this program is about. Working on your game. Becoming a better player. And Coach lets you make plays on the biggest stage. When he came, he was a four-foot-and-in offensive player.

Marshall: Carl Hall hit a jumper. How many jumpers did he hit that year? But you know what, he worked on it. It was Quick 5. There’s a stagger down-screen for Fred and then a fade from the guard to the forward. He worked on his game. When he left here, he was proficient at shooting a 15-footer. When he got here, he couldn’t shoot outside of 4 feet.

WSU’s Evan Wessel: That’s a confidence shot right there. You could probably count, on two hands definitely, how many times he’s taken a jump shot.

Chapman: There were Utah fans sitting behind us, a man named Kyle. I still have his phone number. When we took that lead, I turned around with my hands on the back of my head and gave him a look. He flipped something to me, and it was a casino coin. On the front it said, “Live Lucky.” Then we went on a nine-possession, perfect streak to take back that game. I took that coin with me everywhere from then on. I wore it my sock to every game. It’s in a shadow box in my house next to the Final Four ticket.

The teams traded foul shots, two by Harris for Gonzaga and two by Baker. The Shockers led 64-63 with 3:10 remaining. After Baker’s second free throw, Harris grabbed the ball, stepped over the boundary line and flipped it to teammate David Stockton. Stockton caught it and took three steps back over the boundary line. Referee John Higgins waved his palm to signal the turnover.

Dedes says “Monumental mistake with 3:10 left.” The TNT cameras soon find a stone-faced John Stockton, David’s father and former NBA great.

Darron Boatright, then senior associate athletic director: I was looking straight at the back of John Higgins’ head. He had the same view I did. In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘You had to see that, now you have to call it.’ As I watch the replay, I see that Coach Marshall is out past the three-point line with him. He was making sure. And Higgins never hesitated.

Gibney: I remember thinking the refs weren’t going to see it. I was stunned.

Baker: He traveled first.

VanVleet: That was surprising. Even if it happens, they never call it.

Armstead, WSU’s senior guard, took a long inbound pass and gave the ball to VanVleet to start the offense. Marshall began to play the two of them together more often late in the season, a move that helped the offense.

Marshall: Malcolm told me multiple times, “Coach, you’ve got to play me and Fred together.” Malcolm was the one who got that into my head a little bit. You get Baker back (from injury) and now you’ve got a lot of options.

Wessel: It gave us two point guards on the floor. Fred was young, but he was still really good. It was tough to guard, matchup problems for the other team.

Dominic Okon, director of operations: That was Malcolm for you – the confidence he has in everybody. I remember early in the season, he would tell Coach that he needs to play Fred.

Armstead’s contributions to the final eight minutes didn’t make any highlight shows. But his influence was felt all the way to Atlanta for the Final Four.

Torline: They were so mature, and I do think Malcolm was, he just seemed like such an old man. He was so calm and I think they fed off that. Ron and Fred were so mature beyond their years. Nobody had that frantic attitude.

Boatright: Be it good or bad, he believes he’s the best player on the floor, whatever floor he’s on. Just crafty. When you go into the NCAA Tournament and you have older players — think about the average age of that group when you have Carl, Ehimen and Malcolm to start with. They were just smart, intelligent basketball players. Young men vs. glorified teenagers. I think they were smarter, bottom line.

Baker: He was pretty confident in himself, and that carried over to us.

Gibney: I still remember that Malcolm never seemed fazed. He thought we were going to win every game. It started with Malcolm.

Baker sneaks away from Pangos and VanVleet passes to him in the right corner for a no-hesitation three and a 67-63 lead with 2:50 to play. “Good — What a game by Ron Baker,” Kennedy screams. “The freshman has been unbelievable.”

Baker: I remember turning down a three early on in the game and Jans kind of got on me. I started shooting when I was open and taking better shots.

After I made that I remember looking over looking over at Jans and he was freaking out, yelling, “Let’s go.”

Okon: Wow. Ron was in a zone. I could see it in his eyes. I have goose bumps just watching it.

Marshall: Can we get a stop? That was the crazy thing – we scored 23 points in nine possessions, but they were scoring, too.

Kennedy: It was the coming out for Ron Baker, too. He played well in the Valley tournament, kind of ran out of gas in the last game because he hadn’t even practiced up until a day or two before that. The big shots he hit in this game showed he was ready to assume his place as a go-to guy.

Wichita State is making these shots without Gary Bell, Gonzaga’s top defender, on the court. He went out early in the second half with an ankle injury and never returned. Stockton, smaller and not a shooting threat, replaced him.

Heiar: Huge. He was their best perimeter defender. And he could make plays.

Hull: I thought they were a different team without Gary Bell Jr., when he got hurt. He was neutralizing Malcolm, I thought, fairly well. He was another shooter. When they didn’t have him in the second half, they had to play Stockton a lot.

At the scorer’s table, media relations director Larry Rankin is keeping a scorebook and preparing for his postgame duties to wrangle Marshall and players to their interview stops. Bardo is seated near the WSU bench in media seating. Sexton spends most of the game roaming, as is his habit, to talk to fans, check on tickets and watch from different vantage points. When he sits, he raps his knuckles on the table to express his energy.

Rankin: I cheer inside. I think I wear that on my face. Even though I’m not cheering, the intensity of the game, I wear it internally and on my face. I remember thinking, “We’re not supposed to win, but it felt like we were in control and we were tougher.”

Bardo: The downside of that is you’re not allowed to react. We were as tense as tense could be, but we couldn’t do anything. My wife will grab my arm and say, “You’re the president.” I coach the referees. I’ve developed, it’s almost like a yoga-thing, where if I’m sitting like this (arms crossed), I can control what I do, almost always.

The Zags turned two offensive rebounds into a jumper for Olynyk to cut the lead to 67-65. After the Shockers run almost 30 seconds off the clock, VanVleet tries to get the ball to Armstead, the usual option for plays with the shot clock running down. Gottlieb prepares viewers for Armstead to drive left and shoot a floater.

Gonzaga’s defense keeps the ball from Armstead. VanVleet tries to drive past Stockton, who deflects the ball with five seconds on the shot clock. VanVleet turns, gathers the ball and shoots over Stockton, posing with his arm aloft and turning to the WSU bench as the ball swishes through the net for a 70-65 lead with 1:23 to play.

Marshall: Bam. He held his follow-through and winked. I’m thinking we’re going to win the game then.

VanVleet: That’s true. It was like this thing, all year, (Marshall) used to yell out percentages in practice if you weren’t shooting it well. ‘30 percent, VanVleet, 28 percent.’ It was this ongoing thing all year about him and my shooting percentages. That was like me giving him a little shot back.

Everybody feels like that started my career. I don’t know. I was just trying to make a play. It was pretty open. I didn’t even see Stockton. I thought I was really by myself. I just set my feet and launched it. It went in, thank God.

Bush: I remember he looked over at us. He may have winked. I know for he sure looked over at us with a little smirk. The wink might be his imagination. That’s the shot that made Fred VanVleet.

Kellen Marshall: I think I high-fived the usher right there. In the blue jacket. He looked like Willy Wonka.

Baker: That’s the good thing with having them both on the court at the same time. Fred was just getting his confidence toward the end of the year. Malcolm, being the veteran that he was, kind of peeked his head in the door and Fred had the ball. He thought it was his show there for those five seconds to make a play.

Fagan: The thing is, it wasn’t really surprising to them because they see it all the time in practice. He does it all the time. For them, it’s nothing new. For a kid that’s that young, to do it on that stage, it’s pretty huge.

Hull: I remember him standing there with his arm up. I thought, “Damn, that’s kind of cocky.” And Marshall is yelling, “Get back, get back.” Because Olynyk is trying to beat us down the floor.

Boatright: I felt sure Fred has his pocket picked. You get in environments like this and sometimes you find yourself fixated on something in the crowd. I can vividly remember when Fred shot that ball, my eyes focused on (senior associate athletic director) Rege Klitzke. The reaction he had, the response of just sheer disbelief and joy – I’ve never told him this. It was unbelievable. A fine basketball player in his own right, someone that understood what these guys were accomplishing.

Kellen Marshall: The day before, at practice, Fred practiced the exact shot that he hit to give us the five-point lead. He was over on that left wing, shooting three or four feet deep (behind the three-point line). Sometimes Fred will have people come out and guard him. Unfortunately, it’s me a lot of the time and he usually makes them.

VanVleet played 14 minutes in the win over Pittsburgh and felt the pressure of the big stage. Before the Gonzaga game, he told himself to play loose and play hard.

VanVleet: I’m in the hotel room before and I told myself to play with no regrets. I didn’t play very well in the Pittsburgh game. I was real tight and just nervous, for the first time ever. After that, I was going to play how I play and if it’s good enough I’ll be in.

Gonzaga is thoroughly rattled. Olynyk chucks a wild shot on the run that bounces off the backboard. VanVleet’s free throws with 39 seconds to play put the Shockers up 72-65. Dedes says, “Gonzaga in serious trouble.”

Stockton drives unmolested to the basket for a layup. Despite two missed foul shots by Hall, WSU’s lead 72-67 lead survives until 16 seconds remain. Armstead’s foul shots make it 74-67.

Boatright: Now the fan goes out of you. The coach goes out of you. Now you start thinking, ‘Oh boy, we’ve got a lot of work to do this week.’ You’ve got to get the aircraft. First of all, where are we going? OK, Los Angeles. When are we going to travel? What days are the games? How many tickets are we going to have? Did we communicate our ticket allotment in our postseason letter? There are going to be some people who are going to change their minds, that said they would not go, but now they are going to get wrapped up in it and are going to go.

Rankin: I didn’t realize the chaos that was ahead. The media requests. It had already been kind of crazy. The Final Four is a whole ’nother level. Not very much sleep and everything you do has to be at a completely different level when you know the whole world is watching. You really can’t prepare yourself for it, until you’ve been through it.

Boatright: I started thinking about who had been in this department for how long and what this moment was going to lead to. Most of them were part of the Sweet 16 run in 2006. To be a part of with them, knowing how hard they work and knowing what all they put in their jobs, whatever it is, it’s a point of pride that you’re going to get to share it with them forever.

I’ve made a habit on the road, or at a neutral site, to try to be at the edge of the court when the game ends just to monitor the hand-shake line, just to make sure nothing goes awry. Or if something does, you’ll be there to assist the situation. With 15 seconds or so, I’m making my way down to the opposite end of the court, opposite Wichita State’s bench. I want to be watching them come toward me. When I was an administrator at Murray State, we had an altercation in the hand-shake line at Tennessee State and I made a mental note at that point that you can’t be a fan. You have to be down there to help and hope nothing ever goes wrong.

WSU won at VCU 53-51 on Nov. 13, 2012. The Shockers spent the summer preparing for VCU’s pressing defense. That experience helped in the final minutes against Gonzaga. The Shockers, save one VanVleet turnover, retained possession and never got rattled. Dedes reminds viewers that Gonzaga has not lost in nine weeks. Gottlieb urges the Shockers to go get the ball against the pressure.

Heiar: Three (players) on four, five vs. three. One vs. two. Having to handle traps and pressure. Pass and catch vs. pressure.

VanVleet’s free throws give WSU a 76-68 lead with 12 seconds to play. Stockton’s layup with seven seconds to play creates the 76-70 score and the Shockers celebrate at the buzzer. Baker walks to mid-court, arms raised. Demetric Williams bounces off the bench, fists clenched. Chadrack Lufile leaps to bump bodies with Early and Hall.

“Wichita State knocks off the No. 1 team in the country and the Shockers are dancing into the Sweet 16,” Dedes says. Gottlieb follows with “Wow, they close the game on a 16-7 run. You stare No. 1 down and you beat them with three-point shots.”

Kennedy ends his call with “It is over. And Wichita State has beaten the No. 1 team in the nation to go to the Sweet 16. Go crazy Wichita, I know you are.”

Boatright: (Marshall) looked – of course, he has his cups – and I remember looking at him and him looking at me and we had a “Can you believe this moment,” in our eyes. He was spent.

Marshall, during his his TNT interview, hugs Kellen and daughter Maggie, telling TNT’s Jaime Maggio he can’t wait to get to Los Angeles for the Sweet 16.

Bush: There was a Gonzaga fan sitting (three rows) behind the bench. He was talking quite a bit and he was pretty cool. Some fans are kind of jerks, but he was cool. Every time we started making big plays, I would turn around and look at him, smiling. At the end of the game, and we won, and he gave me the nod, like “All right, you guys are the real deal.”

Marshall hugged his wife. Then the celebration moved in front of the Wichita State pep band, where coaches, fans and players danced.

Marshall: It started right there on the court. After I got done with the media and I remember walking toward our locker room and the players were right in front of the pep band and our fans. They were doing the “You Don’t Want to Go to War with the Shockers” song and they were dancing. It was really fun.

Kellen Marshall: That was when the “You Don’t Want to Go to War with the Shockers” song became extremely popular. Ever since then, it’s had nostalgia for that game.

Kennedy: It was right in front of us. It was the single most spontaneous, joyful moment of that entire run to the Final Four. The coaches were over in front of the band, dancing to “You Don’t Want to Go to War with the Shockers.” It was really fun to watch.

Kellen Marshall: Once we got into the locker room, that was crazier because people got the water bottles. I think Chadrack and Zach Bush got out the water bottles and started spraying. Everyone was throwing water around and no one cared. It was a big, sweaty mosh pit of people, the happiest people, for sure.

Cle – his phone was dead – so he asked if he could borrow my phone. He had my phone for over an hour. He logged into his Twitter and obviously his notifications were going insane. He took it to the media room, to the stage, to radio. He went everywhere with it. My phone was close to dead when I got it back. He had to check and see all the love he was getting on Twitter. Which I’m sure was just insane.

Gibney: It was so much fun. Families in there. Everybody was so happy, joyful. I remember thinking, “We get to go to L.A.” Malcolm said, “L.A.? We’re going to Atlanta.” He was confident, so nonchalant – “Why are we celebrating this?”

Bush: This whole tournament run basically gave me all my Twitter followers. I gained like a thousand followers. I remember going into the locker room after the game and hitting refresh and it just kept going. And I’m not even playing. Some were friends. Some were just random people.

Okon: Everybody went crazy. I think Coach came in late – he was out there dancing – and everybody was waiting for him. When he came in, everybody started jumping again. It was 15 minutes of celebration.

Atlanta, that’s where we’re headed. It was probably the most gratifying game that I’ve been a part of since I’ve been here. It was a big turnaround game for everybody.

The Shockers spent the night in Salt Lake City. The next day, La Salle defeated Mississippi in Kansas City to join WSU in Los Angeles. WSU handled the Explorers and Ohio State in the Staples Center.

That sent WSU to its first Final Four since 1965. Before Gonzaga, Wichita State was a No. 9 seed, the second-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference with a growing mid-major reputation, a 2011 NIT title and three NCAA Tournament wins since 1982.

After those eight minutes, well, Shocker basketball became something else, entirely.

Baker: When you create a legacy in your four years of college, there’s always something obviously that starts it and then you’re always hopeful that there’s something that ends it. These seven minutes, obviously, being my first year here, was something got my confidence up and our team’s confidence … it definitely started the snowball and it’s grown as it went down the mountain.

Marshall: Beating Pitt got us started. Then this game, got us the No. 1 team in the country. Getting to that second weekend is huge. We win two more games, we have a great chance to beat Louisville in the Final Four game. Next year, we go 35 wins in a row.

Heiar: You’re beating the No. 1 team in the country, the No. 1 seed in the region. Gonzaga is the mid-major that’s the high-major. Every team in a mid-major league wants to be that high-major dominant team. They would always say, “Who’s the next Gonzaga?” Wichita State’s the next Gonzaga. A high-major team that can compete to win national championships.

Boatright: This may have put us on the stage to change our identity. The two games that I think changed our identity nationally were the Louisville semifinal game and the Kentucky round of 32 game, coincidentally two games we lost. The nation believed, and still believes, we were just as good as either one of those teams on those particular days.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 7:31 AM with the headline "Eight minutes to knock off No. 1: The day that Wichita State got back on the national stage."