March Madness – (7) Wichita State vs. (3) Notre Dame
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
(7) Wichita State Shockers (-1, 136 o/u) vs. (3) Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The No. 7 Wichita State Shockers (30-4, 17-1 MVC) wanted the Kansas Jayhawks in their region in 2015. The perennial Missouri Valley power got its wish when the Selection Committee seeded the neighboring schools No. 7 and No. 2 in the Midwest Region, setting up a Round of 32 battle.
The much bigger and more storied Jayhawks have repeatedly declined Wichita State’s invitation for a non-conference game in recent years. But they ran out of hiding places in the tourney, and were upset by the upstart Shockers 78-65.
On Thursday, the road will get even tougher for Wichita State, though, as they run headlong into the scorching hot No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (31-5, 14-4 ACC) (7:15 p.m. Eastern at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland).
The Irish come into Thursday’s game on a seven- game win streak, including a dominant run through the ACC tournament, a Round of 64 win over Northeastern (69-65), and an overtime squeaker against Butler in the Round of 32 (67-64).
Guard Steve Vasturia headed the charge for Notre Dame on the weekend, scoring 23 points against the Bulldogs. Leading scorer Jerian Grant (16.8 PPG) was having an off-night in regulation, but came up huge in OT with four points and one dime.
“We made big plays down the stretch. We’ve been doing that all year,” said Grant, who had 16 points total. “We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. We want to keep it rolling.”
Wichita State, meanwhile, reached the Sweet 16 with an 81-76 win over Indiana (narrowly missing the cover as 5.5-point favorites) followed by their 78-65 domination of Kansas.
The Shockers’ three-guard set of Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker, and Tekele Cotton was superb against the Jayhawks. Cotton scored 19 points in the win, VanVleet added 17 and six assists, and Baker chipped in with 12.
“It’s a big thing for the state of Kansas,” said Baker, a native of Scott City, Kansas. “A lot of houses were divided. I’m really fortunate to be in this game. These types of games don’t happen a whole lot.”
The game opened as a pick’em but the line is now Wichita State (-1). The game total is at 136 points. The Shockers have had a lot more success in the tourney in recent years (reaching the Final Four in 2013 and narrowly falling to runner-up Kentucky in the Round of 32 last year). Their three star guards have been around for all of it.
(Photo credit:Â Thomson20192 (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
