Wichita State’s Monday starters

Highlights of the week ahead:

▪  If the MVC is going to offer any intrigue, we should find out this week.

The Shockers (8-5, 2-0 MVC) play Evansville (13-2, 2-0) on Wednesday (7 p.m., Cox Kansas) at Koch Arena. On Saturday (3 p.m., CBS Sports Network), they travel to Southern Illinois (13-2, 2-0).

The Aces are what we expected. They rolled through a soft non-conference schedule and lost to Providence and at Arkansas. Center Egidijius Mockevicius is coming off a 21-point, 21-rebound game in a win over Missouri State.

SIU is not what we expected. The Salukis were picked ninth in the preseason poll. They went 12-21, 4-14 last season.

▪  WSU’s women’s team returns home after an 0-2 start to MVC play on the road. The Shockers (3-10, 0-2) play Northern Iowa (6-7, 1-1) on Friday (7 p.m.) and Drake (8-5, 1-1) on Sunday (2 p.m., Cox Kansas).

▪  Indoor track and field season starts with the Wildcat Invitational on Saturday at Kansas State.

Looking back:

▪  WSU’s men’s basketball team blew out Drake (67-47) and Bradley (85-58) to start MVC play 2-0 for the fourth straight season.

▪  The Shockers women are struggling on offense, just as they did in non-conference play. WSU averages 52.4 points and is shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from three-point range.

Around the MVC

Loyola is 0-2 and shooting 39.6 percent from the field in losses to SIU and Indiana State. Opponents are out-rebounding the Ramblers by 9.5 a game. Against Indiana State, Milton Doyle went scoreless and committed five turnovers in 27 minutes.

Ouch. That isn’t the way things were supposed to go after an encouraging 2014-15 ended with a CBI championship.

Monday’s reading recommendation

Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State’s All-Throwback team includes Jackie Stiles.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 6:34 AM.