[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello, welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. As always, we really appreciate your time. My guests today are Mike Kennedy, voice of the Shockers, and Bob Hull, former Wichita State assistant coach, former head coach of the Metro State Roadrunners and current TV V of Shocker basketball. We're here to talk about the 2014-15 Shockers. We all love a 10 year anniversary. It's been 10 years since that memorable season. 2014-15 Shockers, they went 35, 17 1. They won the Missouri Valley Conference by one game over a really good Northern Iowa team. Shockers defeated Indiana and Kansas in the NCAA tournament before losing to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 game. They were nationally ranked start to finish, peaking at number eight in December and then again in March. So let's start kind of with a big picture. Three season arcs. This would be a really good one. You had 63, 64, 65. You had 81, 82, 83. And this stretch you had a Final four, a number one seed and a sweet 16. Mike, where do you slot this 13, 14, 15 run in shocker history?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: I think I would put it at the top.
You mentioned those three tremendous arcs. I just think that that it by 13, 14, 15 had gotten harder for Wichita State to be at that level nationally, everything that's happened in college athletics.
So I think from that standpoint, that's why I would put it maybe a little above those other two.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Bob, what's your historical perspective on this group?
[00:01:47] Speaker C: It was kind of like, how do we top this?
We went to the Final Four, man. What are we going to do next year? Well, let's just go undefeated and then lose in the second round in maybe the best NCAA game I've ever seen to Kentucky. And then, okay, now how do you top that? Well, let's just go 30 and 5 and then be KU in the NCAA tournament. That's how we top it. So each year kind of almost outdid the one before.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: That's a good point. I had not thought about it in that way. Let's start with former coach Greg Marshall. He was the architect of all this. Bob. Why was he the right guy to do this for Wichita State basketball?
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Wow.
He really wanted to be here.
This was a job that he thought was a real step up from where he was coming from.
He embraced this job. I'm not sure every coach that comes in here, I think some of them are looking as a stepping stone to another job. I think Greg Marshall, this was his job and he was Embraced by the town, by Wichita. And he loved everything about the city. He and his wife would love to get out around town and golf and go to dinners and fundraisers. And it just seemed to be a really, really good fit. And this was a culmination of some of his best recruits. Fred Van Vliet, Ron Baker, Takele Cotton. Those three guys were the heart of this team. And he had them in their junior seasons.
And of course, Takehill was a senior, but. And it was kind of like it was his bunch. Play angry, tough kids.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Mike, why did this work so well under Greg Marshall?
[00:03:35] Speaker B: I think he had figured out a formula, maybe even working with John Kress at Charleston, but certainly during his days at Winthrop, that you could put together a team that was maybe not as heavily recruited and quite as talented as some of the power fives, but if you played hard enough and tough enough and played together, were unselfish, that you could beat some of those teams. And that really was what happened throughout his tenure. Bob mentioned the recruiting class. The recruits got a little better each year, it seemed like as they went through this and had some success, but it was still that formula that Wichita State used to beat team. I mean, they beat ku, Indiana, Arizona. You can go through all those, Ohio State, Gonzaga, all those powerhouse teams that they beat in the NCAA tournament. It was by being a little tougher and maybe playing a little hard and really being together as a team.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: So we've done several of these retrospectives, and I always wrap them up and think we didn't talk enough about the assistant coaches. So let's do that real quick here. In 2014-15, Steve Forbes, Greg Heyer and Isaac Brown were the assistant coaches. All of them went on to become head coaches. Isaac Brown replaced Chris Jans, who has had a lot of success as a head coach. Bob, why did Greg Marshall do such a good job finding talented assistant coaches?
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Well, I think junior college experience and exposure was a common factor. And these guys I know, especially Forbes and Heyer and Jans before them, they came up through the junior college ranks, and so they knew junior college really, really well, not only in the Midwest, but also in the south and in Florida. So I think that's a big factor. They were really good at junior college. You got to be good at evaluating talent, and then you got to take that talent and then, you know, and get it, put it all together.
So I think those guys were really good at that, and they were all good enough to be head coaches. I think if you have a good staff, you have to have guys that. Where the assistants could be a head coach somewhere else. They're that good, and then you got to keep them together, you know, and not lose them every other year.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Mike, how about you? What's your perspective on the assistants?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: I think the other thing is there was, you know, I think Greg Marshall allowed a certain amount of input from his assistant coaches that made it, you know, positions that helped them develop as coaches. And the thing Bob was talking about, going on to be head coaches, I think they recognized that. I think it also worked because they recognized, and I've had them express to me, they had a very good understanding of Greg Marshall and what it takes to play for him. He was not an easy guy to play for. And they. When they were out there recruiting, they were not only looking for talent, but guys they knew could take it if they got chewed out once in a while and could be tough enough to play.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: The way Greg Marshall talking about the players or coaches?
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Players.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Well, I think the coaches, too.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly both.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: I think coaches had to take that, too.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: You know, there's that input, and then there'd be, you know, Chris Jans telling him, I think we need to go zone here. And the team, other team comes down, hits a three on the first possession, and Marshall's looking at him like, yeah, that was a brilliant success.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: And I think they've expressed that. The assistant coaches that I've talked to, and the way they would put it is, boy, you were really held accountable within that basketball office. And maybe it wasn't always pleasant at times, but that made you. Made you a better coach.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: He even chewed out the radio crew.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Every now and then if we needed it.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yes. No one was immune. All right, I've got a trivia question. I know you guys are looking forward to this. Shockers needed an offensive rebound and a basket with three seconds remaining in overtime to defeat Hawaii early in that season. Who made that play?
[00:07:31] Speaker C: Richard Kelly.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Very good. Richard Kelly, freshman that year, that was a hint of what was to come with Richard. 12 points, six rebounds in that game and the follow shot that beat the Rainbow Warriors.
So we had the Shockers early in the season. They're the overwhelming favorite in the Valley preseason poll. They were number 11 nationally. Reset the team Cleanthony early. Kadeem Kolbe, Shadrach Lafield and Nick Wiggins were gone from that top seed in 2014. What were your expectations in the preseason as they kind of reset a little bit?
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Wow.
You know, I'm not sure I sit down and really plan. Some guys say, okay, how many wins can we get? And they try to figure it all out. I've been coaching long enough that I figured, hey, you can't figure it out. You never know what you have until you get out there. I was a little worried about the inside game. I thought we were going to be really solid at guard with Fred and Ron and Takeo. But Darius Carter, kind of an undersized five man, he got Shaq Morris there, but he was a freshman and a knucklehead and he wasn't ready to help the team at all.
We had some guys that young, guys that were unproven. Rashard Kelly, Zach Brown, Rono Nerger, Bushwomakota. You know, how good are these guys? You know, we're not going to know till we watch a month of practice to see how good they are, so. And then Wessel. Where does Wessel fit in? You know, so there was a lot of questions. I thought my questions were mainly the front line. Were we good enough at forward and center?
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Mike, what are your memories of the preseason?
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that was my thought exactly. And, you know, I certainly thought it would be a good season, but certainly felt like it's not going to be anything like last year when they didn't lose till the second round of the NCAA tournament. And I don't know that I would have foreseen a 35 final record going into that season, but certainly, you know, felt like they would be in contention for the Valley title and maybe the favorite from that standpoint, just because college basketball is so predicated on guard play and they were really strong at those positions.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: So I surprised you with the trivia questions. I also solicited questions from Twitter or Twitter from X. I'm going to surprise you with that, too. This one fits perfectly. This question is from wichitabyeb. Everybody knows Eddie. He is the king of all social media and restaurant reviews. Big shocker fan. Here's his question. Going into the season, which freshman were you the highest on and felt could make the biggest immediate impact we had? Zach Brown, Rashard Tilly. Yeah. On this team, Rono?
[00:10:12] Speaker C: None.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Not sure about any of them at that point.
[00:10:14] Speaker C: No, I wasn't sure about any of them. Although actually, after you watched the practice, physically, Rashad Kelly and Zach Brown physically looked like they could play. You know, they had the bodies. Sure.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm kind of there. I'm kind of that way every year. There's a tendency to overhype guys from what you see in the early practices and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I tend to take Kind of a wait and see attitude with freshmen.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Probably wise. So this was one of the strongest non conference schedules of the Greg Marshall era. Ken Pomeroy had it number 58 nationally. Shockers defeated Memphis early in the season, just blew them out up in South Dakota, Beat Seton hall, beat Alabama, lost by one point in overtime at Utah, which had three future NBA guys on their team. Dahlon Wright, Kyle Kuzma, Jakob Poeltl. What stands out from the non conference schedule as far as revealing the stuff of this shocker team?
[00:11:16] Speaker B: Well, I think we have a pretty good field even say this year when you look at a non conference schedule. I think we have a good sense of what are quality teams on that schedule. Even if they're not maybe big names or power five names. And so you know, like we said, we had some questions going into that season and when you go through some of those, getting some of the wins that they did and that loss at Utah certainly could have gone either way. You know, you kind of came through that feeling, hey, this is a pretty good team.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Again Bob, anything stand out to you from the non conference schedule?
[00:11:50] Speaker C: Well, the fact that they beat Memphis so easily up in Sioux Falls, I was surprised with that. I thought Memphis would have a better team. But our guards were just a lot better than their guards and just dominated them. Beat Tulsa here by 20.
You know, if we hit the threes, if we were hitting threes, we were really, really hard to beat in that game. Ron was 6 for 11 from 3.
The game at Utah, that was probably the biggest game other than the Diamond Head Classic. And I guess you're probably going to go to that next. But the game at Utah, that was two really, really good teams lining up against each other. Was kind of like an NCAA tournament game.
Their arena is really, you know, create arena. That's where Bird Magic played the NCAA Finals. Huntsman back in the 79. Yeah, it's a great arena. They were all jacked because we were coming out that undefeated season in the final four. So they had their place packed. They had those future pros on the team. Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright. Delon Wright was great. I don't even remember Kyle Kuzma.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: He was a play whole lot.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't even remember him being on that team. But that came down to a really close finish. Fred Van Vliet actually missed a couple of free throws and that's why it went overtime. And I remember losing an overtime. But number on memory of that game was my buddy one of the officials, David, I can't think of his last name.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Got knocked.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: David hall got knocked out on the jump ball to start the overtime. He tossed it up and Shaq was playing center. And Shaq came down on the top of his head with his elbow and knocked him out, knocked him back and did a backflip and they had to carry him off the court. And he finished the overtime with two officials.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: I do not. I do not remember that. Yeah, Kyle Kuzma played only three minutes in that game. Did not score. That Memphis game. One of my favorite stats. Shockers forced 24 turnovers and gave up only 20 baskets to Memphis. 71, 56 win. That was. That was. That was quite the defensive effort by the Shockers.
[00:13:59] Speaker C: I think it sent the coach into the. Into the broadcast business.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: I remember Bob Lutz tried to fire Josh Pastner, the Memphis coach, at halftime. That caused a kerfuffle on Twitter. I do remember that. Next trivia question. Who was the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year in 2014-15? Mike, got a guess?
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Seth Tuttle.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Seth Tuttle? Yeah. Northern Iowa. Seth Tuttle. Fabulous player. I'm sure Shocker fans did not take that well. They did get Takeo Cotton won defensive player of the year. Baker and Van Vliet were all Valley. Takeo was on the second team. Which team also had two on the all mvc? First team along with Wichita State had two. What was the other school that had two guys on that first team?
[00:14:40] Speaker C: Oh, boy.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: This is a little tougher than set.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Illinois State had a pretty good team.
Who was that kid there? I wrote it down. I don't even remember this kid's name.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Gosh, I have. I have no idea.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: Daeshun Knight.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: He may have been on there. He had a really good season. The answer is Evansville.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: D.J.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Ballantyne and Egidius Mikavicius. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Miscavige.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Miscavigis. Yeah. Two Evansville Aces, two Shockers.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: He always said somebody was averaging about 25 a game, you know.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Yes, he needed to do that. Okay. This was an excellent MVC race, largely because of the Panthers. Northern Iowa 31, 4, 16, 2. They were nationally ranked. They beat Wichita State pretty handily. 7054 in Cedar Falls in late January. And that set the stage for the rush through February.
Tuttle, West Washburn. Dion Mitchell.
Describe playing against coach Ben Jacobson and the Panthers. Bob, what was that like?
[00:15:39] Speaker C: Oh, going to the dentist.
As a coach, you knew you can win, but it's going to be Painful. It's going to be painful because they kept the game slow. They really didn't let you do what you wanted to do. And very good, very good at trying to take you out of what you want to do. And then Seth Tuttle, I'll tell you what, his junior and senior years, he was pretty much unstoppable inside. You had to send a double team at him. And they had enough good players and he was a good enough passer that they would make you pay when you double teamed him. So he was, I think he was probably the best player in the league that year. He had 20, what, 27, 29 against us up there in Cedar Falls. And then the Washburn kid, he ended up being really good that year and then really even better the year after. A very quick guard that was hard to cover.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Mike, what memories does playing Ben Jacobson's.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Team conjure up what Bob said? And they tended to be one of those teams that didn't do much to beat themselves. They rebounded, they played defense. Their defense was always interesting. They played man, but it was almost like a zone. They kind of played off of you and dared you to shoot over them from the outside. So. So he usually had to make some threes and had a bunch of tough, hard nosed guys with usually one or two athletes mentioned West Washburn later, there was Kajoah Heligba. They always had one of those guys that was tough to stay in front of that would kind of make it all happen for them.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Ben Jacobson definitely had it rolling during that period and still doing a really good job with the Panthers. Here's another Twitter question from Curtis Nelson. Looking back at that season, was there a game that surprised you? The outcome, win or loss? Bob, anything jump off the page as.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: Far as a surprise conference or overall?
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Overall?
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Overall, I guess the one that shocked me the most was probably losing to Illinois State in the semifinals of the Valley Tournament. I didn't think they were good enough to beat us and they did.
That was kind of a shock and sent us home. And we were wondering, okay, we're probably gonna get in the NCAA tournament, but we're gonna have to wait like four days to find out, you know.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: And that would have been the Daeshun Knight game, if I'm remembering correctly. He just went crazy against the Shockers in St. Louis. Illinois State won that 65, 62.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: We were 4 for 18 from 3 in that game.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: That'll do it.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: Fred, Ron and Takeo were 3 for 16 in that game against Illinois State.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: That'll do it. Mike, how about a surprise game from that season?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: That one. And then, you know, you mentioned the first. The uni win in the first game up at Cedar Falls. Not so much that they won, but 16 points. Shockers only scored 54. That was a little bit of a.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: Surprise, GW beating us, you know, the finals of the Diamond Head Classic. I didn't. I didn't know much about George Washington, and I didn't know much about their coach. And doing this research, that guy was a heck of a coach. And I didn't think that. I thought we were going to win that. That game after we. After winning the overtime game against Hawaii. And I was real surprised how good.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: George Washington was, you know, and you haven't. That was one of the strangest experiences in all my years of doing Shocker basketball. Being in Hawaii on Christmas Day was just so incongruous. And they, you know, the staff that was there and they really tried to do some stuff to kind of make it like Christmas, but it just. It didn't feel like it at all. I know that Coach Marshall afterwards said he'd never go back and do that again. So go somewhere.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: I loved it. All the Christmas music on ukulele.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: You had all your family over there, too.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I had both kids and Cindy there. So, yeah, that made it. That made it a lot better.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: So the Valley always tried to set up a big game for TV purposes on the final day of the regular season, and they nailed it. In 2015. Northern Iowa, Wichita State are tied for first. Both of them are nationally ranked. They brought ESPN game day to Kocarina. February 28th, winner take all.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Game.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: There was two inches of snow. I went back and looked at Wichita Eagles story, Gavin Darr. Props to Gavin Darr. He was a student. He camped out two nights before. According to the Eagle, Jay Williams wore a Ron Baker wig. Jay Bilis was here. Stephen A. Smith, Seth Greenberg, Reese, Stacy Davis.
Shockers number 11. They defeated number 10, Uni, Ron Baker, 17 points, 7 assists. Shockers only had 3 turnovers. Mike, memories of that. That would be a very memorable day in the history of Koch Arena.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Well, first of all, the game day experience, I mean, it was almost like a challenge, I think, to Shocker fans. They'd seen game day. They'd seen how lap two, the game. And then, of course, tremendous response to the. The Shockers on play. I'll never forget was very late in the game. The game was in hand, but Takeo got a breakaway and Threw down just a monster windmill dunk on a breakaway.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: You know, I remember more the lead up to the game than the game itself. I remember just all the hoopla with the game day and early morning and then just a buzz around the arena all day and then I don't remember a lot about the game because I think, I think we won so easily, that it was just a celebration because we just kind of.
It was unlike most of the games we had with Northern Iowa.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: And the Shockers did not shoot well, 5 of 24 from 3, but did so well in so many other areas that you know that they were able to. Able to win that one pretty easily. Fred had 18 points, three assists. Just a really nice. Oh, that's the. I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong game. That was the road game. This is the game at Koch arena for game day. Yeah. The shockers only had three turnovers, balanced scoring. Fred had 13 points, seven assists.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: What were we from three?
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Shockers were 11 to 24. So there's the difference. The importance of the three point shot.
And they held Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa was 8. 20 turnovers really turned out to be a big part of that. 10 offensive rebounds for the Shockers. All right, another trivia question fits in well with this from Travis Hope. I'm pronouncing this right, Colbert. What was a standout moment from the fans in an arena that season and game day would certainly be at or near the top of the list.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: That would be the top for me, I think, just because that's a long time to sustain that kind of effort and enthusiasm. And they were certainly up to the challenge.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: And I would add Omaha, the KU game in Omaha. The amount of interest in getting tickets for that ball game after upsetting, not upsetting, but after beating Indiana in the first round. The build up to the KU game on that Saturday, I guess it was, it was unreal. And the ticket prices and people trying, scrambling for tickets and then the game itself was big time.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Now you're jumping ahead, Bob. We're going to get to that. Let's reel you back in with another trivia question. And I already gave you part of the answer. My favorite shocker stat during this time is when Wichita State would force more turnovers than allow baskets. How many times did the opponent commit more turnovers than make shots during this season?
[00:23:06] Speaker B: I have no idea, but that's a.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: I gave you one. It was Memphis.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: That's a great, that's a great statistic to be able to Accomplish anytime, let.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Alone more than once.
Bingo. Bob hall, very nice. Memphis, Drake, Missouri State. Drake had a big couple in Southern Illinois.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: Drake wasn't very good then.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: I've got a spreadsheet with all of those from that era and they would routinely do it 1, 2, 3 times a season and that was always an interesting thing to follow.
So this puts the seven seeded Shockers in Omaha first round game against 10 seeded Indiana. We've also got second seeded Kansas playing New Mexico State. Omaha, familiar territory. Close enough to drive two brand names chance to play the Jayhawks. Mike, how did this bracket reveal hit you?
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Well, obviously a lot of excitement about the potential to play ku, but you had to beat Indiana first and that's, that's a storied program that I can't even remember. Is that the first time Wichita State had ever had an opportunity to play Indiana? If not, it hadn't happened more than a couple.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: They played them under the Mike Cohen era, didn't they?
[00:24:13] Speaker B: In a neutral site game in Indianapolis. Yeah, but another rare opportunity. And one thing that I really remember about that game, the assistant coaches, whoever had recruited Fred had mentioned they saw him in a summer game against Yogi Farrell who was the point guard for Indiana by then. And he had been a highly recruited guy, one of those really, really blue chip recruits. And Fred was on a team with just a bunch of guys that nobody knew and nobody was recruiting and they beat Yogi Farrell's team and Fred outplayed Yogi Farrell and that kind of thing was such a matter of pride with him. And so you just knew going into that game that was going to be a pride game for him. And he played tremendously against him.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Yeah, he wasn't on the Chicago elite team or whatever, the Northern Illinois elite team. He was on the second tier team and then they knocked off the big names, you know. But Pharrell was good. I mean he was little, but he was good. He had 24 in that game. He had four out of six threes, but Fred had 27. And it was a battle of guards and Tom Green was the coach at Indiana and he had a lot of talented guys. He had a number of guys that left early and went pro out of that program over those two or three years there. But that was a really good win against Indiana.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Fred had 27 points in that game. We were seeing Zach Brown becoming more and more prominent. He had 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks coming off the bench. And the Shockers outscored Indiana by 12 points at the free throw line. They made 29 of 34 foul shots. So that gets Wichita State through to the KU game. What do you remember about the mood and the hype for playing the Jayhawks?
[00:26:00] Speaker B: You know, first of all, this is kind of a mean thing to say, I guess, but I rarely have ever rooted for ku, but that was one time I did, because certainly you wanted that matchup. You wondered what you tossed to have the chance to play them. We watched that New Mexico State game you mentioned in your notes, just kind of preparing for this, that it felt different from 1981 when the Shockers played them in the NCAA tournament. I think there was a lot more of a chip on the shoulder then with Wichita State's fans.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: In 1981?
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Yeah, in 1981.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: And that's my impression. I'm interested to know your perspective.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: I really think this time it was more like it's an opportunity to show the KU people that we belong and that we can be as good as they are and all that sort of thing. It wasn't that just nasty type of thing. And for that matter, I don't know that it was the same from the KU standpoint. I remember being in New Orleans in 81 and down on Bourbon street and KU Fence Bridge, particularly students, you know, taunting the Wichita State students and that kind of thing, like, you kidding me? You know, that kind of stuff. And I didn't feel that from the KU side either. This time I think they knew they were in for a pretty good ball game.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Bob, what do you remember about the lead up to the Kansas game?
[00:27:24] Speaker C: Well, we're up in Omaha. We knocked off Indiana, and we got a couple of days until the KU games. And it was a beautiful week. Beautiful week. The weather was good and the hotels were right not too far away from the arena. So everybody's just milling outside and enjoying the spring, kind of like yesterday here.
And just. Just a buzz, just the buzz about, hey, we're playing ku. We're playing KU to see who goes to the sweet 16. And the scramble for tickets. I just remember that, how hard it was to get tickets. I was trying to get tickets for Cindy and my kids, Michael and Jordan, and there weren't any. There weren't any. I ended up $300 apiece for upper deck in the corner. That's the demand. How high the demands were for that ticket. I mean, everybody, because you said it was drivable. So everybody was coming up from Kansas City, from Lawrence, from Wichita. The guys that were out in, you know, playing golf in Scottsdale and down in Palm Springs, they flew in for the game. It was a big game.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: And Omaha, excellent site for the NCAA tournament. Maybe one of my favorites from both, from atmosphere around the arena and the working conditions. They really do a nice job there. The KU game, was this the Evan Wessel game?
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Well, certainly for starters, I mean, I.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Noticed that Bill Self thinks it is.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: You'll remember, forget Wessel, just that matchup. And he and Perry were not only, you know, former high school teammates, Perry Ellis, but good friends. And so it's one of those things that could be a little uncomfortable in some ways playing against each other. But, you know, Evan was certainly up to the challenge. No surprise there. The thing also is, you know, he hit, what was it, four of six threes or whatever. But he was, you know, he was a pretty good three point shooter. He shot 36% that year.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: I was surprised. I looked that up and I thought, I didn't think he was that good at three point shooter.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: He didn't shoot a lot of them. But it wasn't just out of the realm of possibility that he would shoot the ball like that.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Evan Wessel, 46 from 3, finished up with 12 points and played a lot of the defense on KU forward Perry Ellis. And they of course played together at Wichita Heights. Bob, your memories of the 78, 70, 65 win over the University of Kansas.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:46] Speaker C: To Kale, 19 points in that game. That was more scoring than he normally would have. Okay. I remember blue bloods versus blue collar. I thought that was just a great way to frame that game.
And let me tell you, KU had a really impressive team. Perry Ellis, Wayne Selden, Kelly Oubre, who jumped and went pro after this year. Landon Lucas, I'd forgotten about him. Six foot ten, power forward. And then our two guards were freshmen, but really talented freshmen, Frank Mason and Devonte Graham, who became all everything in the Big 12 the next three years.
I remember that game, watching the start of the game and just looking out there. And our guys were really uncomfortable with their size. KU was so big and when we tried to get the ball inside and score, we were intimidated. We were intimidated by Perry and by Landon Lucas and we couldn't guard Landon Lucas. And it took a while for our guards to take control of the game. We won the game because our guards were, I'm not going to say they're better. They were more experienced and better than the KU guards and they just took over. Ron and Takale and Fred took the.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Game over, you know, and I had kind of forgotten and this was just. I don't know, a couple of months later, a couple of three months later, Bob had some people over to his house, and we watched the game again, you know, and I had forgotten, because of the way it ended up, that for most of the first half, KU was not only ahead, but looking like, you know, they were kind of in control. And then the Shockers started to make a comeback toward the end of the half, and Fred kind of keyed that comeback, made some plays. But there are two plays that stand out for me that game.
One, the Zach Brown Hustle play where he outraced Kelly Oubre to a loose ball at half court, took it down and dunked on him. To me, that play not only kind of defined the difference in the two teams in that game, but to me, that might be as defining a play as there ever was of the Greg Marshall era of just what Shocker basketball was all about. And then the other one, we were closer to one end of the floor than the other. And there was a loose ball during the game in the lane at that end. And there were two or three KU guys bending over, reaching for the ball. And Wichita State had three guys on the floor, one of them, Shaq, who never got on the floor. And it was just, you know, that kind of tone that changed things.
[00:32:29] Speaker C: You know, it's a big game. If Shaq gets on the floor, I'll give you one more play that you'll remember. Fred drives in the lane, and here comes Perry Ellis to block his shot. And Fred rips the ball through and catches Perry right in the nose with his forearm and his elbow as he's shooting. Doesn't look like he's throwing an elbow, but he's coming through. And he catches Perry right in the nose. Sends Perry out of the game with a bloody nose for a few minutes. And after the game, I asked Fred, I said, that was unintentional, right? You weren't trying to bloody his nose? He says, oh, yeah, I was trying to bloody his nose.
I was trying to hit him right in the face. So it was kind of that kind of game. You know, we had some tough kids.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: And then also there was just something special about seeing the KU fans start to leave early. The game was in hand enough that their fans were starting to file out before it was even over. And then I thought our fans were excited, happy, but not rubbing it in so much. I thought our fans really kind of handled themselves pretty well. Like, hey, this is just what we do. Okay, so it was ku, but not anything special. We do this all the Time type of attitude.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: I think all those circumstances, games being in Omaha, beating the two big name brand schools really made it a special weekend. I think my overall impression was how easily the Shockers did pull away. Just tougher, better team in the second half. I would have expected a closer game and they just kind of put the Jayhawks down and they never really rallied in the last segment of the game.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: Really interesting, five or six minutes to go. I vividly remember Bill Self was out of timeouts and he just sat down in his chair on the bench and put his hands behind his head and his feet out and like, okay, this game's over. Let's just ride right into the end. Our season's done.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: Really nice effort from the Shockers. So the Shockers then go to Cleveland. Their season ends and with an 8170 loss to third seed at Notre Dame, Shockers, this will Continue. They were 3 of 18 from 3 in that game. Mike, do you have a favorite player from this group, one that was enjoyable to talk to or had a compelling story? What's your memory of that part of this story?
[00:34:48] Speaker B: You know, there were several, obviously.
Ron was always great, Takeale was quiet but just really cool, I thought.
But Fred will always be one of my very favorites to ever wear a Shocker uniform. And I go back to the first time we ever interviewed him as a freshman and Dave and I. It was Dave and I doing the game. We just looked at each other when he got up like just holy cow, that was like Talking to a 35 year old assistant coach or something. The kid's just a freshman and there was just always that, that sense about him. And so, yeah, he'll always be one of my all time favorite favorites.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Bob, how about you? Who did you enjoy speaking with during that time?
[00:35:33] Speaker C: All of them. All of them.
I, I really, you know, I think they, they just had, they grew on you. I remember watching Fred as a freshman the year that we knocked off Gonzaga and early in the season, watching the early practices going, boy, can this kid shoot. I don't know if he's gotten a good enough shot shot to play at this level. You know, I just didn't, I wasn't impressed by his shot. And then as the season went on, he got better and better and better and got more confidence and you could see how cocky and confident he was. And all of a sudden at the end he's playing with Malcolm. He's playing major, major minutes alongside of Malcolm.
And then Takeo, I remember watching him in practice and I said to Chris, Janzak, said, this guy can't shoot. I mean, he's only about 6 foot 3. How's he gonna play? You know, he can't. He doesn't handle the ball very well. He doesn't shoot very well. And Chris looks at me, said, bob, just believe me, you're gonna love this kid. You are gonna love this kid. And he was right. I love the way Takeil played.
Just a, just a great defender, great rebounder and just a winner. And then of course, Ron, Ron's your small town guy, gets overlooked. Nobody recruits him, comes here, has to sit out of here, pay his own way for a year. I mean, there's not a better story than that. And then for him to come in and play like he did when the shotgun they run to the final four, you know, after being out all year with a foot injury is pretty cool. So I liked all of them and.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: I don't want to leave out Evan. And we just talked about the game Evan had against ku, but I remember Greg Marshall saying one time, if we run a loose ball drill, I could run it 100 times. And when it's over, Evan Wessel's going to have the ball. I don't care how he has to get to it. Evan Wessel will always have the ball at the end of it. And he was that tough. But he didn't strut around, he didn't pose, he didn't show off how tough he was. But you just knew there was just a quiet presence there. And you'd look at him and think, you do not want to mess with this guy.
[00:37:43] Speaker C: I think Joe Auer told me that it came down to a championship football game and they put him at quarterback and he throws a game winning touchdown back. I mean, he's just one of those guys that whatever you need, he's going to do it for you. Got to beat ku. Okay, I'll hit four three. I'll hit four threes in this game.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: You know, Evan's certainly very businesslike and very hard working and aggressive. An important part of that team, no doubt.
[00:38:06] Speaker C: Darius Carter was a big surprise. I mean, I didn't think we were big enough to really. We lost Clee Anthony early. We lost the big seven footer, Kadeem Coleman. Kadeem and the other one, we had a couple of seven footers and then now we're going to go with a 6 foot 7 forward as center, you know, and he doesn't really, he's not a leaper either. So Darius really, really came on and then Rashard Kelly and Zach Brown made major contributions in that season.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: Darius averaged 11.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, started all 35 games. That's our look back at the 2014-15 Shockers. Mike Kennedy and Bob Hull, thanks very much for your time.
[00:38:47] Speaker C: You bet.
[00:38:48] Speaker B: Pleas great insight as always. Thanks for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find more roundhouse
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[00:39:20] Speaker D: Martin left wing to Mike Jones, 8 seconds left. Smithson out to Mike Jones, 25 footer good. He got it with 3 seconds left. Mike Jones, from about 25ft out, hit another lo long jumper. 2 seconds. Showing on the clock. That may not be official. The wichita State lead 66, 65. Timeout Kansas 2 seconds to go. Wichita State 66, Kansas 65.
