Community Picks: Evansville 0% vs Northern Iowa 0%

The toughest team for the selection committee to figure out how to seed in six weeks may very well turn out to be Wichita State. The Shockers are somehow on pace to have an AP Top 25 ranking, a top 15 KenPom rating and the resume of a mid-major bubble team all at the same time. Hampered by a wave of injuries during November and December, Wichita State did not live up to preseason top 15 expectations in non-conference play. The Shockers dropped games against Alabama, USC and Iowa at the Advocare Invitational in Orlando, stumbled again on the road at middling Tulsa and Seton Hall and only managed to notch one top 50 win. Many questioned whether Wichita State would be dominant enough in league play to contend for an at-large NCAA tournament bid, but the Shockers have thrived so far despite scant margin for error. Wichita State improved to 10-0 in the Valley on Sunday after traveling to second-place Evansville and thumping the Purple Aces 78-65. Not only have the Shockers won their league games by an average of 20.3 points apiece, they're now done with maybe their three toughest road games in league play.  Why has Wichita State been dominant in league play despite a disastrous start to the season? Some of it is that the rest of the Valley is unusually pedestrian this year. Some of it is the continued improvement of freshman forward Markis McDuffie. But a lot of it is also that the Shockers have nearly their full complement of weapons again after playing without star point guard Fred VanVleet for most of five games, without starting forward Anton Grady for four games and without sharpshooting Kansas transfer Conner Frankamp until mid-December. Back at nearly full strength, Wichita State is 16-5 overall and has a realistic chance of not taking a loss the rest of the regular season. KenPom favors the Shockers in each of their remaining games but projects them to slip up in one of them and enter the Missouri Valley tournament with a 24-6 overall record and a 17-1 record in league play. Say that projection turns out to be spot-on and then the Shockers win three more games to capture the Missouri Valley tournament and improve to 27-6 entering Selection Sunday. Where do you seed them? On one hand, its lone top 50 win would still be its Dec. 12 home victory over Pac-12 contender Utah. On the other hand, the Shockers would be 26-3 with VanVleet in the lineup and 23-2 with VanVleet and Frankamp both available. Mock brackets currently have Wichita State anywhere from a No. 6 seed to a No. 12, which reflects the challenge of figuring out what to do with the Shockers. Do you reward them for running roughshod over the Valley? Do you penalize them for a lack of marquee wins? Or do you try to find some happy medium? Ultimately, if Wichita State keeps winning, I hope the selection committee bucks history and take VanVleet's injury into account because otherwise the Shockers have a chance to be the team no high seed wants in its section of the bracket. Otherwise, can you imagine the reaction from the No. 1 seed whose second-round draw is a 27-win Wichita State team with a top 15 KenPom rating and loads of postseason experience? It's all conjecture at this point, yet such a scenario is looking increasingly possible the way Wichita State is playing. Six weeks before Selection Sunday, the Shockers are trending toward becoming one of the committee's trickiest decisions. - - - - - - - Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @JeffEisenberg Continue to Article

February 01, 2016 1:51:pm EST

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- Fred VanVleet scored 32 points and Connor Frankamp added 10 to lead No. 22 Wichita State past Evansville 78-65 on Sunday. Continue to Article

January 31, 2016 8:54:pm EST

Wichita State has easily handled all of its Missouri Valley Conference rivals this season except for Evansville. The No. 22 Shockers will seek a more decisive result while attempting to spoil the Purple Aces' perfect home record Sunday and push coach Gregg Marshall into a tie for the school wins record. Wichita State (15-5, 9-0) has won its conference games by an average of 21.1 points following an 80-54 rout of Loyola of Chicago on Wednesday. Continue to Article

January 30, 2016 12:35:pm EST

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) -- D.J. Balentine and Mislav Brzoja each scored 25 points, a career high for Brzoja, and Evansville beat Southern Illinois 85-78 in overtime Thursday night. Continue to Article

January 28, 2016 10:51:pm EST