The 2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team represented Wichita State University in the 2008-09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team, which played in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), was 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), an improvement from their 2007–08 record of 11–20 (4–14 MVC).
| 2008–09 Wichita State Shockers men's basketball | |
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| Conference | Missouri Valley Conference |
| Record | 17–17 (8–10 MVC) |
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| Assistant coaches |
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| Home arena | Charles Koch Arena capacity:10,502 |
| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Northern Iowa † | 14 | – | 4 | .778 | 23 | – | 11 | .676 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | .355 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| † Missouri Valley Conference tournament winner As of April 1, 2009 Rankings from AP Poll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regular season
editThe 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
editWichita 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
editMissouri Valley Conference Standing: T-9th[1]
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| Date | Opponent* | Rank* | Location | Time# | Result | Overall | Conference |
Exhibition Games
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| November 10, 2008 | Emporia State | Wichita, KS | ?:?? p.m. | W 71–58 | 1–0 | 0–0 | |
Regular Season Games
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| 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. | |||||||