Wichita State: Resounding Shock

The Kentucky-Wichita State game this past Sunday was bar none, the best college basketball game this season. While the Shockers entered the contest as the undefeated 1 seed and Kentucky as the underachieving 8 seed, the narrative was still ironically archetypical. The Wildcats boast more NBA-caliber talent on this team than Wichita has had in their entire program history.

It's the oldest story; David vs. Goliath, Empire vs. Rebellion, dark vs. light. But in the world of sports, these battles don't always end the same way. I suppose that's the beauty of it. The unpredictable human drama of it all can't be paralleled. But with that double-edged sword comes heartbreak.

As Fred Van Vleet scampered around a high ball screen and launched the would be game winner, the pulse of America running rampant, the heartbreak began to surface. As the ball clanked off the rim, the disappoint that came over me is something I've never felt from a non-Philadelphia loss. 

As I sat in my history class the next day, I overheard people in the row in front of me talking of how "Wichita State was never that good" and "they didn't play anyone all year." This infuriated me. You don't win 35 straight Division-I college basketball games on accident. Anyone who watched that game saw that it took 110% and a hell of a lot of luck from the "most talented team in the country" to beat the Shockers. Yet this was bound to be the discussion. 

So why did this game bother me so much? Before Sunday I watched maybe 3 Wichita State games this year. I've rooted for march madness Cinderella's before, like Butler and Davidson, but this was different. The end-game buzzer felt like a punch to the gut.

Was it beacuse I hate John Calipari's face? Maybe. Was it the self-loathing that occurred when I realized the Harrison twins are a month younger than me? Probably a little. Do I have a bit of a man crush on Ron Baker? You bet. Does 2006 Ben wish he could have Baker's killer middle school haircut? You know it.

For all of the unpredictability of March Madness, the one lasting effect is the finite nature of the games. The results are final, never to be tampered with. The 2013-2014 Wichita State basketball team is no longer. It does not exist. Kentucky will play again Friday night. This hardly seems fair but it wouldn't work any other way. 

David may have lost to Goliath this time, but the Shockers won't soon be forgotten by the college basketball world. Kentucky can go on to win the national title for all I care, but the eternal memory of this tournament will be the Wichita State that almost was.