Wichita State is in.
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No rest for the tired.
Wichita State: Second-round game against Miami. While standing next to his team, he raised his arms slightly away from his body to try to cool off. Two Fred VanVleet foul shots made it 62-51 with 48.4 seconds to go. But at the end of the day, we don’t play to prove other people wrong.
In fact, find me a team in recent years that have had better senior leaderships. We could have played this morning.
“Congrats, good work, you’ll sleep on the plane, you’ll sleep on the plane”, Marshall preached to his players.
Entering tournament play, Wichita State had the nation’s top adjusted efficiency defense, and it showed against Vandy, whose trio of 7-footers sputtered against the Shockers.
The Hurricanes (26-7), who meet the Shockers at 12:10 p.m. Saturday (CBS) in a second-round NCAA Tournament game, say their opponent’s line on the bracket is utterly meaningless. Why?
The Wildcats watched it unfold on television, then held a meeting.
Simply put, it’s rare to see a Sean Miller-coached team get so out-hustled and physically overmatched defensively, but that’s exactly what happened here. But again, they didn’t ask me.
“We can’t make you respect us”, Wichita State Gregg Marshall said. Arizona ranks 19th in the country with 81.2 points per game and 21 in the NCAA with 40.2 rebounds. “We get an opportunity to play an Arizona”. He has not yet reached a Final Four with the team from Tucson, which went 25-8 overall in the regular season/conference tournament and 12-6 in the Pac-12.
“That obviously is something that we’re going to have to address with our players as to how to attack them and how to score against their defense”, said Miami head coach Jim Larranaga.
“We just looked very immature at the end”, USC guard Julian Jacobs said. Against Arizona, Wichita State didn’t even get off to a good start themselves and still dominated the Wildcats to close the game out. The Wildcats shot just 35.5 percent from the floor, far below the Shockers’ 44.7 percent.
FAMILIAR FOES: Arizona’s Tarczewski knows all about Wichita State’s dynamic duo. He’s in total control of the game, and he’s better on defense than he is on offense, and they have a 2 guard who’s kind of the same in [Ron] Baker.
“Those two individuals are the ultimate competitors”. Like I said, they’re a great basketball team, and a team in every sense of the word. To think the only two programs with more NCAA Tournament wins during that time are Louisville (11) and Duke (10) and WICHITA STATE is tied for third on that list just doesn’t make sense.
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Baker said the adrenaline rush from Tuesday’s First Four game has not quickly wore off. He also shared the same desire VanVleet expressed, wanting to lace up and play quickly. Fred and Ron really run their team, so it’s going to be a huge game tomorrow.
