Bob Lutz: Could this be the time for a Shocker women’s breakthrough?

Two years ago, the Wichita State men’s basketball team had a breakthrough in the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers stormed Salt Lake City, then took over Los Angeles on the way to the Final Four.

Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, La Salle and Ohio State were left in the rubble and Wichita State came close to knocking off Louisville in the national semifinals. The Shockers had a moment.

Now it could time for the Wichita State women’s team to do something similar.

The Shockers were 28-4 this season, won 17 of 18 games in the Missouri Valley Conference and two of its losses were to 30-2 Florida Gulf Coast, which has locked down a No. 7 seed in the NCAA women’s tournament, and by three points to perennial powerhouse Tennessee, 27-5 and a 2-seed.

Wichita State also lost to Eastern Washington 86-58, which can be chalked up to “just one of those nights.” The Shockers’ only MVC loss was to Drake, which finished second to WSU in the regular-season standings.

What a season.

And what a … reward?

We think not.

Wichita State locked down a No. 13 seed – which speaks more to the weakness of the Valley than to any flaw with the Shockers – and is headed to Berkeley to face fourth-seeded California on the Bears’ home floor Friday night.

It’s strangely similar to last season, when the Shockers were given a No. 14 seed and sent on the road to play Penn State in a first-round game in State College, Pa.

WSU led by five at halftime of that one before the Nittany Lions opened the second half with a 17-0 run. The Shockers persevered, though, and closed to within two points with a minute left before falling short.

The Shockers are playing in their third consecutive NCAA Tournament after never playing in one before. It feels like something big is about to happen.

“I agree,” said WSU coach Jody Adams, who has never backed down from a challenge. “We’ve been there and we know what it’s about. We’ve competed. We have the veteran leadership and these guys know what to expect. Now we’ve got to get all A-pluses in everything we do. It’s that time of year.”

The Shocker women, like the men, have been dominating the Valley of late. And not getting much of a boost for doing so. Unfortunately, that’s the state of the conference right now.

Even so, this is a dangerous WSU women’s team. The Shockers are led by senior Alex Harden, the best player in the school’s history. Senior guard Jamillah Bonner is explosive and will be a tough matchup for whomever has the assignment to cool her jets.

Junior Michaela Dapprich is an outstanding offensive player and the Shockers have size in senior Kelsey Jacobs and a three-point threat in sophomore Alie Decker.

What the Shockers don’t have, though, is depth. Adams has been getting by on a wink and a prayer as those five starters play an extraordinary number of minutes.

Harden, Bonner, Dapprich, Jacobs and Decker have combined to play 81.3 percent of the minutes for the Shocker women this season. WSU has made due with 10 players. There’s a fine line here, but so far everyone has held up.

For context, the five starters on the Shocker men’s team – Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet, Tekele Cotton, Darius Carter and Evan Wessel – have played 68.1 percent of the available minutes. And we know that team has struggled to find consistent reinforcement.

Harden has averaged nearly 36 minutes per game and has been a workhorse for four seasons. She’s had an incredible career, which would be enhanced by winning an NCAA Tournament game or two.

The WSU-Cal winner will take on the winner of Texas-Western Kentucky for the honor of playing No. 1 East Regional seed Connecticut in Albany. The train probably stops there.

But the Shockers are capable of getting on board.

Adams isn’t crazy about her team’s seed or having to play on an opponent’s home floor in the first round again.

“The Wichita Eagle isn’t big enough for me to explain how I feel,” she said.

But she is not into looking for excuses or reasons why the Shockers can’t break through.

“We don’t have the tradition of winning in the NCAA Tournament so there’s still not a lot of respect there,” Adams said. “They don’t know who we are on the west coast. I think we are better than a 13-seed, absolutely. But I can’t focus on that and our players won’t focus on that. We’ll focus on our opponent. We’ll stay on our own little island and concentrate on basketball.”

I haven’t seen Cal play this season. I have no idea how good the Bears are. I do know they have seven players who are 6-foot-2 or taller and nobody on the team is shorter than 5-10. Seniors Reshanda Gray and Brittany Boyd combine for 30.8 points and 14.9 rebounds per game.

The Shockers drew tough.

“Last year was a great building block,” Adams said. “These players reflect back to that. It’s another stepping stone in where we want to be and what we want to do.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Could this be the time for a Shocker women’s breakthrough?."