Busting Brackets
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Bracketology Losers: Indiana, Virginia Tech among this week’s wounded

By Andrew Dieckhoff

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - DECEMBER 13: Aljami Durham #1 of the Indiana Hoosiers shoots the ball against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on December 13, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - DECEMBER 13: Aljami Durham #1 of the Indiana Hoosiers shoots the ball against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on December 13, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY – FEBRUARY 18: Gregg Marshall the head coach of the Witchita State Shockers (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY – FEBRUARY 18: Gregg Marshall the head coach of the Witchita State Shockers (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers were in the Top 25 at the beginning of the week, but they’ll have work to do to make it back into the national polls after losing to Tulsa on Saturday.

It does feel a little strange to shed a negative light on such a good story from the Golden Hurricane’s buzzer-beating win, but if you’re a Wichita State fan, all of the Tulsa-centric feel-goodery doesn’t do much to salve their wounds.

Gregg Marshall needed to get his team a Q1 victory to help their seeding in the NCAA Tournament. At 17-4—with seven Q2 victories—the Shockers are a veritable shoo-in for the Big Dance. Before the loss to Tulsa, they were angling toward a potential 5-seed, but now may find themselves much closer to a dreaded 8/9 matchup.

They can avoid that fate by scoring two huge wins next week when they host Cincinnati on Thursday before heading down to the gulf to take on Houston. But a stumble in either of those games could compound some of the damage done by the loss this weekend. Especially important will be to avoid a home loss to the Bearcats.

There is a real possibility that the American puts five teams into the NCAA Tournament this season, but that number will probably depend on how some of the “power” conferences ahead of them shake out. The league hierarchy has been in flux for the past few weeks, as Memphis was the first to fall from their perch as media darlings. The Shockers were the first to challenge for that spot, but have been overtaken by Houston recently.

Wichita State is now in open competition with the Cougars, Tigers, Bearcats, and Hurricane for supremacy in the American. SMU has also had a good start to the year but is a step back from those top five teams. It’s not impossible that all five get in, but for the Shockers’ part, they need to sure things up with a few Q1 wins.

Road games against Houston, Cincinnati, SMU, and Memphis will provide them plenty of opportunities to add to a respectable batch of non-conference victories that includes VCU, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Oklahoma State, and Ole Miss.

So while getting a bid may not be a big issue at this point, the Shockers did do some damage to their seeding when they fell on the wrong side of the strange poetry of college basketball.

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