No matter what happens at the Missouri Valley tournament, 15th-ranked Wichita State knows its name will be called when NCAA tournament bids are announced a week from Sunday.
Wins in 16 of its last 17 games allowed the Shockers to win the regular-season championship by two games over Creighton and make a strong claim on at least an at-large NCAA bid.
Coach Gregg Marshall doesn't want to let a good thing end in St. Louis.
"We're going there to win the tournament," Marshall said. "Our guys, without being over the top, have been solid in their resolve and approach and haven't gotten too high or too low. This is just the next challenge and obstacle in our way. We're looking forward to the opportunity to go to St. Louis and be the first Shocker team to come out of there with a victory."
Wichita State won the tournament in 1985 and '87, but not since the event moved to St. Louis in 1991.
The tournament opens Thursday with Indiana State (17-13) matched against Southern Illinois (8-22) and Drake (16-14) against Bradley (7-24). Friday's games pit Wichita State (26-4) against the Indiana State-Southern Illinois winner, Illinois State (18-12) against Northern Iowa (19-12), 25th-ranked Creighton (25-5) against either Drake or Bradley and Evansville (15-14) against Missouri State (16-15).
Semifinals are Saturday and the championship game is on Sunday.
"The way Wichita has entered the tournament, they're playing as well as anybody in the league and maybe as well as anybody in the country right now," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "Someone is going to have to slow that train down somehow."
Second-seeded Creighton, like Wichita State, also is on track for an NCAA at-large bid if it doesn't win the MVC's automatic berth. The Valley has received only one bid four straight years but could get as many as three if a team other than Creighton or Wichita State wins the title.
The top-seeded team has won the tournament 13 times in 35 tournaments, but it has happened only six times in the 20-year history in St. Louis.
The Shockers' appearances at the Valley tournament have been, to say the least, eventful in Marshall's time at the school.
He was ejected from a first-round loss in 2008 after getting called for a second technical foul. The next year, the Shockers started celebrating an apparent quarterfinals upset of Creighton when officials put 1.9 seconds back on the clock. They ended up losing on a buzzer-beater. Marshall complained afterward that the clock didn't start immediately when the ball was inbounded.
Wichita State squandered a second-half lead and lost to Northern Iowa in the championship game in 2010. Last year, the Shockers lost to eventual champion Indiana State in the semifinals before going on to win the NIT.
One team that would like to get another shot at the Shockers is Creighton.
"Absolutely. I wouldn't want it any other way," said sophomore forward Doug McDermott, the Valley player of the year.
The Bluejays won 68-61 at Wichita State on New Year's Eve, but were embarrassed in an 89-68 loss in Omaha, Neb., three weeks ago. Creighton has won four straight since then - the last three by a total of four points.
"I want Wichita in the finals," senior point guard Antoine Young said. "It's Wichita. I don't think Creighton likes Wichita very well. I respect Wichita. I don't like Wichita."
