Shockers a March threat again

The favorite to win the Missouri Valley tournament isn’t even the No. 1 seed.

That’s fine with Wichita State.

The Shockers are seeded second for the conference tournament this week in St. Louis behind Illinois State, which earned the No. 1 seed by having a slightly better RPI. That was the tiebreaker when both finished 17-1 in league play and split their meetings with each winning at home.

But there is little disputing the No. 21 Shockers (27-4) are the hottest team in the Valley these days, maybe even the entire country. They’ve ripped off 12 straight wins, most with laughable ease, and ripped off an 86-45 win over the Redbirds (25-5) at Koch Arena last month.

So why are coach Gregg Marshall’s guys OK with staring up at Illinois State in the bracket?

Because nobody relishes having a chip on their shoulder more.

“Our guys have done a nice job of maturing and showing the way,” said Marshall, whose team had few expectations nationally after losing star guards Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet to the NBA.

“Our team is very, very good,” Marshall insisted, “and will cause teams opposite us in the bracket to say, ‘Oh boy,’ because we’re very, very good again.”

The MVC tournament begins Thursday when Evansville faces Indiana State and Bradley takes on Drake. The winner of the opener gets Illinois State in the quarterfinals while the Shockers get the winner of the nightcap. Southern Illinois-Loyola and Northern Iowa-Missouri State the other two quarterfinal games already set for Thursday.

“After Illinois State and Wichita State, there’s a bunch of schools battling like crazy to see if we can knock off one of those guys,” Indiana State coach Greg Lansing said.

The tournament’s top seed hasn’t won the title since Wichita State did it three years ago.

“I think three through 10, the league is better than it’s been,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “When someone looks at the records and says, ‘Well, the rest of the league is down, I think that’s false.”