2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team

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2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball
Wichita State Shockers alternate logo.svg
CBI 2nd Round
ConferenceMissouri Valley Conference
2008–09 record17–17 (8–10 MVC)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
Home arenaCharles Koch Arena capacity:10,502
Seasons
2008-09 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Standings
  Conference Overall
Team W L PCT W L PCT
Northern Iowa 14 4 .778 23 11 .677
Creighton 14 4 .778 27 8 .771
Illinois State 11 7 .611 24 10 .706
Bradley 10 8 .556 21 15 .583
Southern Illinois 8 10 .444 13 18 .419
Evansville 8 10 .444 17 14 .548
Wichita State 8 10 .444 17 17 .500
Drake 7 11 .389 17 16 .515
Indiana State 7 11 .389 11 21 .344
Missouri State 3 15 .167 11 20 .344
Rankings from AP Poll
† MVC Tournament winner

The 2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team represents Wichita State University in the 2008-09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team, which plays in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), is led by second-year head coach Gregg Marshall. The Shockers opened the season with a win over Florida A&M on November 10, 2008, and ended the season with a loss to Stanford in the College Basketball Invitational. Their final record for 2008–09 was 17–17 (8–10 MVC), a huge improvement from their 2007–08 record of 11–20 (4–14 MVC).

Regular season[]

The Shockers started out with mediocre level of play, but performed well against then ranked Michigan St. and Georgetown and even beat a very good Siena team in the Old Spice Classic at the end of November. On February 21, the Shockers beat a Cleveland State team with an RPI of almost a hundred better than WSU's. Then came conference play. The Shockers lost their first 6 games in Missouri Valley play, and on January 14, were in dead last in the MVC. Then came the comeback. In the more-than-century-old MVC, 49 teams had started 0–6. None won more than five games in conference play for the rest of the season.

Post-season[]

Wichita State finished MVC play 8–10 but were not rewarded well with a 7 seed in the MVC tournament. They beat Missouri St. 59–46 in the play-in game at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, and now had to face a hot no. 2 Creighton team. It was a game no one expected them to win. The Shockers tried to keep close in the first half, but were down by 13 at halftime. Creighton came out and made a huge run in the second half, giving them a 22-point lead and a chance to embarrass Wichita State. But the Shockers did not give up, and shut Creighton down almost the rest of the way. They came within 13 with 3:43 to play in the game and 5 with about 1 minute. The Shockers were down 59–61 with about 10 seconds left, but had the ball. Toure' Murry, who had already had two game-saving shots this season, caught the inbounds pass and quickly shot a 3-pointer, which swished through the net. The Shockers had come back from 22 down to take the lead. With 9 seconds left, Creighton inbounded the ball and brought it all the way down, but shot a wild jumper that missed. A Shocker tried to grab the rebound but lost it out of bounds. Creighton had 1.8 seconds to take the lead. Booker Woodfox half-fumbled the inbounds pass, but threw up a 17-footer which swished right through. The Bluejays had escaped.

The Shockers were given a chance to bounce back from the heartbreak with a spot in the College Basketball Invitational, one of the NCAA's minor post-season tournaments made for improving teams. In the first round of the single-elimination tournament, Wichita State beat Buffalo by a score of 84–73. The Shockers season was then ended on March 23 with a 70–56 loss to Stanford in the second round of the CBI.

Schedule[]

Missouri Valley Conference Standing: T-9th[1]
Date Opponent* Rank* Location Time# Result Overall Conference
Exhibition Games
November 10, 2008 Emporia State Wichita, KS ?:?? p.m. W 71–58 1–0 0–0
Regular Season Games
November 16, 2008 Florida A&M Wichita, KS ?:?? p.m. W 77–53 1–0 0–0
February 21, 2009 ESPNU Bracketbusters TBD TBD 0–0 0–0
March 5–8, 2009 TBD St. Louis, MO TBA TBD 0–0 0–0
*Rank according to ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. #All times are in CST. Conference games in BOLD.

References[]

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