Bob Lutz: Fred VanVleet gets a chance to make up for St. Louis

Fred VanVleet gets a reprieve.

Wichita State’s senior guard, such a dynamic force as a Shocker with a fantastic NCAA Tournament resume, doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life feeling like he’s the guy who cost WSU a spot in this year’s field.

VanVleet would have felt that way had the Shockers’ number not come up as a No. 11 seed Sunday.

“Everybody knows it’s been a long week of not knowing,” VanVleet said. “We all felt good about it, but you never know. We don’t get to be in that (selection committee) room. Just to see our name go up there — everybody’s mood was that we didn’t care where, when or how. Show our name and we’ll be excited to go anywhere.”

“Anywhere,” in this case is Dayton, Ohio, for a First Four matchup Tuesday night against Vanderbilt. Win that one and the Shockers fly farther east to Providence, R.I., to take on No. 6-seed Arizona on Thursday.

Nobody is likely giving Wichita State much of a chance. Remember 2013, when WSU made it to the Final Four as a 9-seed?

VanVleet was instrumental in a win over top-seeded Gonzaga in that tournament. He also made a huge contribution in an Elite Eight win over Ohio State.

In three NCAA Tournament games last season, VanVleet averaged 23 points and was particularly magnificent in a second-round win over Indiana and Yogi Ferrell, scoring 27 points.

He wasn’t anything like that last weekend during the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis, with two of the worst games of his career.

In the quarterfinal against Loyola, VanVleet was plagued by foul trouble, played only 20 minutes and made 1 of six shots.

In a semifinal loss to Northern Iowa, VanVleet was 2 of 9.

“Anytime you lose it’s bad, but especially the way we lost and didn’t have guys play well,” VanVleet said, speaking mostly of himself. “It puts a bad taste in your mouth. Obviously, everybody would have been really sick and disappointed if we hadn’t gotten in. But now we’ll never really know, thank God.”

The Shockers are a team that looks for slights as a way to motivate. Coach Gregg Marshall mildly mentioned being underseeded as a tool he might use to give his team a nudge.

VanVleet, though, isn’t likely to need a prod. Not after the way he played in St. Louis.

Getting another chance is all he wanted, and not in the NIT.

“Well, if he doesn’t correct that, it’s not a good way for us to go into the tournament,” Marshall said of VanVleet. “We will probably have a short stay because when Fred doesn’t play well, we usually don’t play well. That’s just the way it is. He’s been a big part of what we do for a long time.”

If VanVleet rediscovers his mojo, though, who knows how far the Shockers could advance.

“That would give us a big boost and we’ll probably have much better results,” Marshall said. “We’ve had a lot of faith in Fred for a long time. He’s made us all look smart. My money would be on him performing the way he can perform.”

VanVleet said he’s tried to avoid the non-stop banter about Wichita State’s NCAA chances, both locally and nationally.

As a guy who loves watching college basketball on television, though, it was impossible to ignore one analyst after another weigh in on the Shockers’ chances.

“There’s always doubt when you don’t know about something,” VanVleet said. “You’ve got all these experts trying to set up their TV shows all week with talk about this. So there are all these people who don’t make decisions giving their opinions.”

VanVleet did his best to stay away from Twitter, and we all know how difficult that can be.

“We put ourselves in this position,” VanVleet said of the lingering doubt about a bid. “I think as a group we felt pretty confident about our chances. And we were ready to play anybody, no matter who it is.”

It’s Vanderbilt, from the SEC. Another bubble team, obviously, that many thought shouldn’t be in the field.

The Commodores will have their own motivation, their own players looking for redemption.

The Shockers, we know, thrive on being underestimated.

“We have to use that to our advantage if we can,” Marshall said.

He has a senior point guard, an iconic player in Shocker history, who is looking to make amends for a terrible St. Louis weekend.

“My money,” Marshall said, “would be on Fred performing the way he can perform.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Fred VanVleet gets a chance to make up for St. Louis."