Should I Be Shocked?

On Tuesday night the Wichita State Shockers became the first Division 1 men's basketball team to achieve a 30-0 record in the regular season.  While I consider it impressive. hell it's over four times the amount of wins my seven win Boston College Eagles have had all season, it does not "Shock" me.  Wichita State plays in the relatively weak Missouri Valley Conference, who will most likely be a one bid league come NCAA Tournament time, and they have only had 3 quality wins all year.  The Shockers have beaten two NCAA lock teams in BYU and Saint Louis as well as beating an NCAA fringe team in Tennessee.  Besides these these wins, which all occurred over two months ago, none of their wins jump off the page to me.

I am not saying Wichita State won't be able to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, since almost all of the Gregg Marshall's squad that made it to the Final Four last year is back.  However, I am always fearful taking mid-major team seriously when filling out my bracket.  Last year Gonzaga was in a very similar position when they were a #1 seed and they were knocked out in the second round  coincidentally by Wichita State. The Shockers deserves to be a #1 seed and should be strongly considered to be the overall #1 seed especially if they win their conference tournament, but there is a good chance their second round opponent will be better than any team they have faced since they played Tennessee in December.

As I said the Shockers definitely have the talent to make a deep run in March.  Fred VanVleet is one of the best point guards in the country, and Ron Baker (who has one of the best haircuts in college basketball), Cleanthony Early and Tekele Cotton are all also great players as well.  What makes the Shockers so tough to play is that all four of the previously mentioned players are all capable of scoring 25 a night and on most nights they all score about 15 point which makes it hard for the opposing defense to focus on just one or two players.

While I do love seeing mid-majors such as Wichita State make deep runs in the tournament, I am always very cautious about what they are capable of since most of the teams haven't been tested for nearly the whole season. The best part about all of this is that in two weeks the fun begins with the conference tournaments and shortly thereafter the Madness begins.

Expect many more college basketball Rants to come as we enter the month of March.