Wichita State men’s basketball completes unique journey and captures first AAC title
Koch Arena has seen its fair share of conference championships over the years, but the way this one was clinched Saturday may never be seen again.
This could have been a lost season given everything that this Wichita State men’s basketball team went through.
The players who returned had to watch as six of their former teammates transferred out of the program. The newcomers never got the chance to play for the coach they signed to play for. An investigation that these Shockers had nothing to do with created a turmoil that they had to live through.
Oh, and they did all of this while playing through perhaps the most challenging college basketball season in history, during the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Wichita State will hang a banner after clinching the outright American Athletic Conference regular-season championship on Saturday with an 80-63 win over the South Florida Bulls and will head to the conference tournament next week in Fort Worth as the No. 1 seed. WSU (15-4, 11-2 AAC) will play the winner of the No. 8-No. 9 matchup in next Friday’s quarterfinals at 11 a.m.
It was the second time in four years that WSU has played for the AAC title at home in its final game of the regular season. After a team ranked 11th in the nation loaded with seniors and a future NBA player came up short in a heartbreaker to Cincinnati in 2018, this WSU team — once picked to finish seventh in the AAC by conference coaches — was the one to deliver the Shockers their first championship in the their new conference. WSU last won a league title in the 2016-17 season, its last one in the Missouri Valley.
In a season where their modus operandi has been to play up or down to their competition and pull out close games in the end, the Shockers finally closed the door on an opponent for their largest win in conference play in the first home game since WSU removed the interim tag on coach Isaac Brown. It also extended WSU’s season-best winning streak to seven games and its conference home winning streak to 11 games.
WSU turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 18-point lead within the first four minutes of the second half. The lead swelled to as many as 28 points in the second half, as WSU’s defense once again suffocated another opponent. USF was shooting 31.4% from the field before making its final six shots of the game against WSU’s backups.
It was also a rewarding day for the team’s four seniors, who were honored after the game with a championship ceremony. Trey Wade, a junior-college transfer who came to WSU for his final two years, finished with eight points and nine rebounds, while Connecticut graduate transfer Alterique Gilbert put the finishing touches on his standout season playing point guard for the Shockers with nine points and six assists. Even the two local walk-ons, Brycen Bush and Jacob Herrs, saw court action.
Despite allowing 15 offensive rebounds, WSU was able to pull away in the game thanks to 11 three-pointers and 48% from the field. WSU leading scorer Tyson Etienne shook off a cold start to finish with a game-high 21 points, thanks to six three-pointers.
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Wichita State men’s basketball completes unique journey and captures first AAC title ."
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