It wouldn't be a whole lot of fun cutting down the nets at Koch Arena today after a loss to Drake. The Shockers have a chanced to atone for an overtime loss at Drake(one of only four all season), to celebrate an already wrapped up Missouri Valley Championship with their fans—and to send off five seniors in style.
Watch out Drake, there's a train coming down the tracks.
The Bulldogs are a decent story. Head coach Mark Phelps has done a nice job with this team and in Rayvonte Rice and Ben Simons(just back from injury) he has two of the Valley's four leading scorers. Wichita State didn't shoot the ball well three weeks ago in Des Moines, but still should have won. They missed the front end of a one and one, turned the ball over in the last 12 seconds and couldn't get a defensive rebound off a miss at the buzzer –all of which lead to three overtimes and their fourth(and last loss of the season.
This is a good matchup for the Shockers, especially at home. Drake is trying to avoid the playin round at the Valley tourney, my guess is that they won't get a lot of help from the Shockers.
By the way, there are 32 potential tiebreakers in play for the MVC tourney in the final day of the regular season. Drake, like everybody save WSU and Creighton at the top and Southern Illinois and Bradley at the bottom—could finish between third and eighth.
If you're heading to the Shocker game today, send us your picutures to photos@kwch.com And stay with Eyewitness Sports and kwch.com for the latest on Shocker basketball.
