VanVleet takes Wichita State’s career steals lead with 11 in three NCAA games (+video)

Wichita State senior Fred VanVleet isn’t finished with his statistical pursuits in college basketball.

He leaves as the program’s career assists leader (637) and steals (225). He owned the assists record since last season. He grabbed the steals title on Saturday with four, capping a tournament with 11 in three games.

VanVleet passed Jason Perez, who recorded 222 steals from 1996-2000. On WSU’s NCAA Tournament list, he passed former teammate Malcolm Armstead, who had 10 steals in five games in 2013.

In 13 NCAA games, VanVleet had 26 steals, 15 in the 10 entering this season. His five against Arizona matched Ron Baker (vs. Indiana, 2015) and former teammate Tekele Cotton (vs. Pittsburgh, 2013) atop WSU’s NCAA record.

There is one more meaningful statistic undecided for VanVleet.

He ends the season averaging 5.5 assists (after getting 13 in the tournament). That leads the Missouri Valley Conference over Northern Iowa’s Wes Washpun at 5.1. Northern Iowa plays Texas A&M on Sunday.

VanVleet led the Valley the two previous seasons and can become the fourth MVC player to lead the conference in assists three straight seasons. He would join Bradley’s Jim Les (1984-86) and Anthony Manuel (1987-89) and Illinois State’s Jamar Smiley (1996-98).

He can join a list of 14 athletes who led a major statistical category (scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks) three or more times. Evansville’s D.J. Balentine (scoring) and Egidijus Mockevicius (rebounding) added their names this season.

VanVleet also leads the MVC in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.1), ahead of Baker (2.0) and Washpun (2.0). With the likelihood that will hold up, VanVleet will become the first MVC player to lead in assist-to-turnover ratio three seasons. The MVC began tracking that stat in the 1996-97 season.

Bad ending for Brown — WSU sophomore forward Zach Brown’s nightmare of a postseason is finally over.

Brown, 6-foot-6, saw his season scoring average drop from 7.7 points at the end of the regular season to 6.8 after Saturday’s loss to Miami. Brown started off the preseason with 10 points in a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinal win over Loyola, then scored 10 points total over the Shockers’ next four games. Brown was 3 of 14 over that stretch and, more importantly, struggled on defense, which had been his specialty for most of the season.

Against Miami, he was continually beaten by second-team All-ACC forward and fellow Houston native Sheldon McClellan, who scored 18 points.

“It’s a sick feeling,” Brown said. “I don’t know what to say right now. Just disappointed with how things turned out.” 　

In total, Brown averaged 4.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in the postseason.

Big 12 trio — Miami relied heavily on a trio of Big 12 transfers to pull out Saturday’s win over Wichita State with starters Kamari Murphy (Oklahoma State), McClellan (Texas) and Angel Rodriguez (Kansas State) all coming up big at different times.

Rodriguez and McClelland combined for 46 points. Murphy did most of his damage on the defensive end with two blocks, seven rebounds and two steals, and scored all four of his points on dunks in the second half.

Flashback to 1976 – For Mike Shalin, Wichita State’s visit to Providence is a time to see old friends, reminisce about the Shockers and get his picture taken with coach Gregg Marshall.

Shalin, a freelance writer and official scorer for the Boston Red Sox, is covering the tournament for The Sports Xchange. He graduated from WSU in 1976 and worked as team manager for four seasons, including the 1976 NCAA Tournament team. From New York, Shalin knew many of the Big Apple Shockers such as Bob Elmore and Cheese Johnson from that era.

Shalin’s description of 1976 starts late in the season, when Neil Strom and Mike Edgar left the team. The final trip of the regular season took the Shockers to Bradley and Drake needing to win to grab the MVC title and the bid to the NCAA Tournament. WSU won both to return to the NCAAs under coach Harry Miller for the first time since 1965.

“The managers didn’t always travel … but we drove from Wichita to Peoria,” he said. “It was Chet Walker Night in Peoria. Then we went into Drake and Des Moines was covered in ice. We beat Drake to win it.”

Two days later, Shalin went to the sports information office to find phones ringing. The sports information director had quit and reporters from across the nation were calling for information on Wichita State.

“So I started answering the phone, answering the questions and doing a press release,” Shalin said. “The phone’s ringing off the hook, ‘Who the hell’s Wichita?’ ”

Shalin went to Denton, Texas for the NCAA Tournament game, a 74-73 loss to Michigan that still bothers him.

“Putting it mildly, we got (cheated),” he said. “We were ahead by 11 with six minutes to go. Back then, there were two referees and no TV. The referees looked at each other and said ‘Un-uh, Wichita State is not beating Michigan.’ ”

The Wolverines advanced to the title game, losing to the unbeaten Indiana team.

Shalin, who lives in Wrentham, Mass., said he watched two WSU games in person since 1976. In 1979, the Shockers played Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y. Shalin met coach Gene Smithson and a month later Smithson mailed him an MTXE jacket and sweater.

On Thursday, he watched WSU beat Arizona.

“I was just amazed at how intense those guards play defense,” he said. “I don’t recall seeing anything like it.”

Wide awake down under — Former Shocker Nick Wiggins plays for the Canterbury Rams of the New Zealand National Basketball League.

He watched Saturday’s game from Australia, Tweeting “2am in Australia and the Shockers tip in 10 minutes.. Wouldn't miss this game for nothing!”

Play again and again – Wichita State’s crazy travel was a topic all week.

Did it affect the Shockers on Saturday? Coach Gregg Marshall declined to use that excuse.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know how you can be fatigued in the first 10 minutes and not in the last 30.”

WSU’s schedule gave the national media a chance to bang on the NCAA and CBS/Turner for what many perceived as an unfair draw.

The Shockers started their NCAA Tournament with a flight on Monday to Dayton and an 8:10 p.m. game on Tuesday. They departed around two hours after the game and arrived in Providence around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.

On Thursday, they played the 8:40 p.m. game. Saturday’s game started at11:10 a.m.

That’s three games in around 88 hours.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 6:32 PM with the headline "VanVleet takes Wichita State’s career steals lead with 11 in three NCAA games (+video)."