Dec 01, 2020

Debut Redo: Shockers Host Oral Roberts Wednesday

Posted Dec 01, 2020 9:58 AM


WICHITA, Kan.—The Wichita State Shockers will make another attempt to open the 2020-21 season on Wednesday evening when they play host to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

ORAL ROBERTS (1-1, 0-0 Summit) at WICHITA STATE (0-0, 0-0 American)WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2, 2020 | 6:01 P.M. CTWICHITA, KAN. / CHARLES KOCH ARENATV: ESPN+ (Shane Dennis & Bob Hull) RADIO: KEYN 103.7 FM (GoShockers.com/Listen) 

WSU withdrew from last week's Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D. after multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the team travel party.

The Shockers and Golden Eagles are meeting for a third-consecutive year in Wichita. Wichita State won 68-59 last November behind Trey's Wade's 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks and lead the all-time series 8-5.

ORU is picked second in the Summit League poll and has a pair of preseason all-conference performers. The Eagles lost their opener at Mizzou (WSU's Sunday foe) but bounced back Saturday to defeat Rogers State.

The Shockers are picked seventh in the American Athletic Conference but return three starters (Wade, Tyson Etienne and Dexter Dennis) from a team that finished 23-8 last year and was a consensus NCAA at-large team among bracketologists. They also add UConn graduate transfer Alterique Gilbertat point guard.
THE SHOCKERS ON ESPN+Wednesday's game will air on ESPN+ with Shane Dennis (pbp) and Bob Hull (analyst) on the call. The American Athletic Conference is in the first year of a new 12-year contract with ESPN, which now controls television rights to all conference games and all home non-conference action. Games not selected for air on ESPN's linear networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ABC) will be available exclusively on ESPN+. ESPN is still finalizing its conference TV picks, but approximately half of all league games are expected to air on ESPN+. Subscriptions to ESPN+ are available for purchase via ESPN.com or the ESPN App for iOS and Android devices.  For more information, visit espnplus.com. 

SHOCKER RADIO:Listen live on KEYN 103.7 FM and online at GoShockers.com/Listen. Division I college basketball's longest-tenured duo, Mike Kennedy (pbp) and Dave Dahl (analyst) tip off their 40th season together on radio. Kennedy is in his 41st season as Voice of the Shockers.

THE ISAAC BROWN SHOW:Join Kennedy and interim head coach Isaac BrownLIVE from 6-7 p.m. every Monday throughout the season at A.J.'s Sports Grill at The Alley, or listen to the show on KFH (97.5 FM / 1240 AM). The show is rebroadcast in a television format Mondays at 9 p.m. on Yurview Kansas (Cox HD 2022 in Kansas and online everywhere at YurView.com/Kansas). The next two shows are Dec. 7 and Dec. 28.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS:

<br>Story Links

  1. SHOCKER NOTES
  2. LISTEN
  3. LIVE STATS
  4. SERIES HISTORY

<br>Story Links

  1. SHOCKER NOTES
  2. LISTEN
  3. LIVE STATS
  4. SERIES HISTORY
  1. Charles Koch Arena's streak of 244-consecutive regular season games with at least 10,000 in attendance will end on Wednesday night.
  2. Due to a county health mandate, WSU will play without fans at Charles Koch Arena until at least Dec. 31. Attendance (which includes players, coaches, officials, media and other essential personnel) will be capped at 100.
  3. Record-low attendance at the Roundhouse came on Feb. 1, 1960 when 2,477 turned out to watch the Shockers  play North Texas State.
  4. Record-low since the arena's 2003 renovation came against Buffalo (6,647) in the 2009 CBI.
  5. Shocker fans won't physically be able to attend games, but they can be there in spirit. WSU is selling fan cutouts, starting at $50. The two-and-a-half-foot tall "big heads" will be on display at all home men's and women's basketball and volleyball matches. For more information, or to purchase cutouts, log on to goshockers.com.


OPENING STATEMENTS:

  1. The Shockers are tipping off their 113th season. 
  2. Dec. 2 would be WSU's latest regular season opener in 49 years. On Dec. 4, 1971, the Shockers won at Nebraska (74-61). This is the latest date for a home opener since Dec. 2, 1969 when WSU took down Oregon at Levitt Arena. Current WSU radio analyst Dave Dahl was a senior on that squad.
  3. WSU will start at home for the 17th straight year. The Shockers have won 23 of their last 24 home openers, with the only loss coming to LA Tech in 2018.
  4. Since 1992, the Shockers are 25-2 in season openers. 
  5. Last year WSU opened on Nov. 5 with a 68-54 win over Omaha.
  6. WSU is 84-28 (.750) all-time in season openers, including 60-15 (.800) in the modern era (1945-pr.).
  7. WSU is 16-1 in home openers since Charles Koch Arena's 2003 renovation. The lone loss came in 2018 against Louisiana Tech.
  8. WSU is starting its 65th season at the Roundhouse (1955-Pr.). The Shockers have lost just eight openers in that span (56-8).
  9. Antoine Carr holds the school record for most points by a freshman in his Shocker debut (19). He dunked a school-record six times on Northern Michigan to help WSU to a 76-61 victory on Nov. 30, 1979.
  10. WSU's highest-scoring varsity debut came Dec. 1, 1972 at Oregon State when Bobby Wilson -- a transfer from Northeastern (Colo.) Junior College put up 29 points.  Wilson went on to play parts of four NBA seasons with the Bulls, Celtics and Pacers.
  11. On Nov. 5, 2019, Trey Wade became the first Shocker newcomer in 20 years to debut with a double-double, finishing with 19 points and 11 boards against Omaha.


NON-CONFERENCE CONFIDENCE:The Shockers'  15-game non-conference home winning streak is the seventh-longest in school history. A win over ORU would tie for sixth on the list.WSU has defeated 57 of its last 58 non-conference foes at Charles Koch Arena, dating back to 2011. The lone loss came to LA Tech in the 2018-19 season opener. WSU was 12-1 against last year's non-conference schedule and is 111-26 (.810) in non-conference regular season contests since the start of the 2009-10 season.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:After missing out on three games in three days in Sioux Falls, WSU currently has just 24 contests on its schedule. That would be the fewest regular season games for a Shocker team since the 1949-50 campaign (24 games)... The 1944-45 Shockers were the last to play fewer than 24. They went 14-5 in the regular season, then lost their opener in the NAIA national tournament... WSU has never played a game under an interim head coach. Shocker teams officially had no head coach during the 1908-09 and 1918-19 seasons and were instead led by team captains Jay Plank and Vic Grandy led their respective squads.
MILESTONES:Dexter Dennis'103 career triples are already 24th on WSU's all-time chart. He was just the fifth player in Shocker history to reach the century mark before the end of his sophomore season, joining Randy Burns (2001-03), Maurice Evans (1997-99), Sean Ogirri (2004-06) and Landry Shamet (2015-18).Alterique Gilbertenters the season with 227 career assists. That number ranks second among active players in the American Athletic Conference, trailing only USF's David Collins (234 going into 2020-21).
THE SERIES WITH ORAL ROBERTS:

  1. This is the 14th  meeting all-time between WSU and Oral Roberts. The Shockers lead 8-5 (5-3 in Wichita).
  2. This is the third straight year that the teams have played in the regular season and the fifth consecutive year that they've met in some form. WSU and ORU were preseason closed door scrimmage opponents in 2016 and 2017 (the latter was Mills' first year as ORU coach).
  3. WSU won the 2018 matchup, 84-63, and triumphed again last November, 68-59.
  4. WSU is 3-1 vs. ORU at the Roundhouse since the building's 2003 renovation. The Eagles' 76-73 win (on Dec. 30, 2003) was the first by a visiting team in the Charles Koch Arena era (the Shockers have dropped just 11 other non-conference games in the 17 years since).


MEMORABLE SERIES MOMENTS:Dec. 22, 1979 (Wichita) | WSU 70-66The Shockers defeated ORU for the first time in three tries. A sellout crowd watched Randy Smithson score 15 points and hand out 11 assists.

Jan. 6, 1988 (Wichita) | WSU, 94-72Joe Griffin set a school record that still stands with 16 assists. The previous mark, set by Warren Armstrong Jabali, had held for 20 years. Griffin's performance was remarkable in that he played just 25 minutes. He had nine dimes in less than nine minutes to start the game. He set up a Sasha Radunovich three-pointer with 11:15 to play in the first half, at which point the home team had built a 25-6 lead. He had 11 assists by halftime to make it a 28-point margin.

Dec. 12, 1988 (Tulsa | WSU, 92-91Sasha Radunovich sank two free throws with no time remaining to win the game. He was fouled by ORU's Rufus Freeman on a rebound under the basket as time ran out. Radunovich's first free throw rolled around the rim and dropped. He calmly swished the second for the game-winner. ORU had taken the lead with 38 seconds to go on Clarence Thompson's seventh three of the night. Haywoode Workman (who went on to play and officiate in the NBA) scored 28 points for ORU.

Dec. 30, 2003 (Wichita) | ORU, 76-73ORU's win was the first by a visiting team in newly-renovated Charles Koch Arena.

Dec. 7, 2013 (Wichita) | WSU, 71-5811th-ranked WSU Improved to 9-0 (on its way to 35-0), led by All-American Cleanthony Early's 16 points.

Dec. 19, 2018 (Wichita) | WSU, 84-63Markis McDuffie scored 19 of his 25 points in the sercond half, and the Shockers outscored the visitors 30-15 over the final 12 minutes to push a six-point lead to 21.

Nov. 23, 2019 (Wichita) | WSU, 68-59Trey Wade shared high scoring honors with 14 points, and WSU survived a late charge to improve to 5-0... The Shockers watched a 15-point lead shrink to three with 5:00 to go before restoring order with a 9-2 run... WSU dunked seven times... Tyson Etienne finished with 12 points on 3-of-4 three-point shooting... WSU senior Jaime Echeniquemade his triumphant return from a preseason hand injury, clocking 11 minutes in his first action in 30 days... Elijah Lufile loomed large for for ORU with 13 points and 10 rebounds... WSU held ORU to 32.3% shooting... ORU played without leading scorer Emmanuel Nzekwesi.
MATCHUP MASHUP:

  1. ORU redshirt junior Elijah Lufile is the youngest brother of former Shocker Chadrack Lufile, who played two seasons in Wichita (2012-14). He was a rotation player on WSU's 2013 Final Four team and averaged 5.9 points and 5.1 rebounds the following year on a Shocker squad that went undefeated during the regular season.
  2. The Shockers defeated all four of Oklahoma's Division I programs in 2019-20 (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, ORU).
  3. In an odd scheduling quirk, WSU will face three December opponents who are fresh off games against ORU. The Golden Eagles lost their opener last week at Missouri -- the same Missouri team that will play in Wichita this Sunday. ORU travels to Oklahoma State on Tuesday evening. Four days later, OSU will be in Wichita to face the Shockers. ORU welcomes crosstown rival Tulsa to the Mabee Center on Dec. 12. Three days later, WSU opens its conference slate with a game at... Tulsa.


SCOUTING ORU:

  1. ORU is picked second in the Summit League race behind South Dakota State.
  2. The Golden Eagles (17-14, 9-7 last year) lost their top two scorers -- Emmanuel Nzekwesi (16.3 ppg) and Deondre Burns (15.3) -- but return a pair of preseason all-league players in Kevin Obanor (12.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg last year) and Max Abmas (14.5 ppg, .366 3pt).
  3. Obanor -- a 6-foot-8, 240 pound junior -- was the Summit League freshman and sixth man of the year in 2019.
  4. The 6-1 Abmas made the Summit League's all-newcomer team after hitting 87 threes on 36.6% accuracy as a true freshman.
  5. ORU is out to a 1-1 start with a 91-64 loss last Wednesday at Missouri and a 93-63 victory over Division II Rogers State.
  6. Obanor and Abmas combined for 35 of ORU's 64 points at Missouri. The host Tigers led by 10 points at halftime and shot 60.6% in the second half to pull away.
  7. ORU shot 53.4% in Saturday's win over Rogers State, including 13-of-29 from distance. Obanor (18 points, 11 rebounds), Abmas (17) and Arkansas Tech gaduate transfer RJ Gasper (17) did the heavy lifting.
  8. Fourth-year ORU head coach Paul Mills worked 14 years at Baylor, with the last eight as an assistant under Scott Drew (2009-17).
  9. ORU was 13-1 at home last year but just 3-12 on the road.


A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...... make them 1-0 for the 26th time in 28 years.... give them wins  in 24 of the last 25 home openers.... be their 16th straight non-conference win at CKA (tied for sixth-longest in arena history) and their 57th in 58 tries going back to 2011.... be their fourth straight vs. ORU and up their all-time series lead to 9-5 (5-3 in Wichita and 4-1 since the CKA renovation).... be their second straight (including last year's finale)... extend their home winning streak to five games.
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...... drop them to 0-1 for just the third time since 1992.... snap a three-game winning streak vs. ORU.... be the Golden Eagle's first series win since 2003.... be only their second non-con loss at CKA since 2011
UP NEXT:WSU hosts Missouri, Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. CT) on ESPN2 in the first meeting between the two programs since 1951.

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