March 23--OMAHA, Neb. -- Wichita State won the state and a trip to the Sweet 16.
In a showdown of the Sunflower State in the NCAA tournament round of 32, the Shockers advanced with a 78-65 victory against No. 2 seed Kansas.
They face No. 3 seed Notre Dame in the Midwest Regional in Cleveland.
As time wound down, point guard Fred VanVleet dribbled the ball and pointed to his ear to further rev up the wild Wichita State fans. Coach Gregg Marshall left his standing point for a CBS interview to dance for a bit with the band. He embraced Evan Wessel, a lesser known recruit and high school teammate of Kansas forward Perry Ellis.
"To me this is probably one of the biggest wins I've been involved with being a Shocker just because we don't get the opportunity to play (Kansas), and we're going to the Sweet 16," said Ron Baker, a Kansas native who scored 12 points. "Both tremendous achievements. Really, really proud of what we have accomplished."
Despite the celebration, big-time tournament wins are nothing new for Wichita State anymore, who advanced to the Final Four just two seasons ago and was a No. 1 seed in last season's tournament.
Wichita State took momentum into halftime and never looked back.
The Shockers hit 10 of 20 3-pointers as all five starters scored in double figures, led by guard Tekele Cotton's 19 points.
Even after Kansas pulled back to within eight with less than six minutes to play, the Shockers kept coming in waves. They shot 59 percent in the second half.
Kansas never looked like it had enough.
The Jayhawks shot only 35.1 percent for the game, while guard Wayne Selden Jr. was held to 0-for-5 shooting. This is the first time since 2010 Kansas has been absent from the Sweet 16.
"It makes for us an off-season that obviously it will be hard to put this aside," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "It's obviously going to weigh on us and it's going to weigh on others. I'm very disappointed and hurt that it happened, but I'm not embarrassed that we lost to a really good team today."
The showdown was a highly anticipated one as the in-state rivalry isn't build around games but the lack of contests between the schools. The teams haven't played each other since 1993, with Wichita State fans accusing Kansas of ducking them when it comes to scheduling.
The Shockers might have just made it a little harder to get a home-and-home with Kansas as they proved a formidable opponent.
This is second straight early exit for Kansas after bowing out in the same round last season.
sryan@tribpub.com
