Shockers book series with VCU

WSU Athletics
Bryan Holmgren, Director of Communications

WICHITA – Wichita State will play a home-and-home men’s basketball series with VCU beginning this December in Richmond, Va.

The teams square off Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018 at VCU’s Siegel Center. The Rams pay a return visit to Charles Koch Arena on Dec. 21, 2019.

WSU is 2-2 all-time against VCU.

Spurred on by ESPN’s now defunct Bracket Busters series and later the NCAA Selection Committee, the two emerging powers played three memorable matchups over a 21-month stretch between February, 2011 and November, 2012. All three games came down to the final possession.

VCU’s 2011 Final Four team might have missed the field entirely were it not for a pair of last-second free throws and a 68-67 victory in Wichita on Feb. 18, 2011. The Shockers have since won 45-consecutive non-conference games at Charles Koch Arena.

Early in the 2012-13 campaign, WSU’s own Final Four squad returned the favor with a 53-51 win in Richmond.

In between, the teams met in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament when 12th-seeded VCU scored a 62-59 upset over the fifth-seeded Shockers in Portland, Ore.

A young VCU team finished 18-15 last year and missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2006. Prior to that, the Rams had posted eight straight 25-win seasons and qualified for seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

WSU (25-8, 14-4 American) claimed a runner-up finish in its inaugural year in the American Athletic Conference and earned a No. 4 seed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. However, the Shockers will be doing some rebuilding of their own in 2018-19 with just three scholarship players returning from last season’s active roster.

WSU and VCU have been two of the decade’s most successful programs. Since the start of the 2010-11 season, the Shockers’ 233 wins are fourth-most nationally. Only Kansas, Gonzaga and Kentucky have more. VCU ranks 16th on the list with 205 victories in that span.

WSU will release its full non-conference schedule on Thursday.

Wichita State All-Time vs. VCU:

12/28/1996 – Wichita – W, 80-50 (Cessna Classic Championship)
2/18/2011 – Wichita – L, 67-68 (Bracket Busters)
3/15/2012 – Portland, Ore. – L, 59-62 (NCAA Tournament, Rd. of 64)
11/13/2012 – Richmond, Va. – W, 53-51 (Bracket Busters return game)
12/22/2018 – Richmond, Va.
12/21/2019 — Wichita

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