Turgeon’s Shockers off to fast start

It'd be silly to predict Final Four run for WSU, but stranger things have happened

Wichita State’s players didn’t get the nickname “Shockers” for what they do on the court.

It comes from the days when young men in Kansas worked in the fields “shocking” wheat during harvesting and threshing time.

And though casual fans might be shocked to see Wichita State ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press poll – highest in their state, by the way, two spots ahead of tradition-rich Kansas – the Shockers have done plenty to earn it.

They already have defeated George Mason and Louisiana State, half of last season’s Final Four.

They won at George Mason last month on the night the ultimate Cinderella team hung its Final Four banner in front of the largest crowd in Patriot Center history.

Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” must have sounded a little flat after Wichita State – the opponent George Mason defeated to reach the Elite Eight last season – spoiled the party with a 72-66 victory.

“It was special and kind of cool to be there,” Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon said. “I don’t know if that will happen again in our lifetime, a non-BCS school going to the Final Four.

“I don’t think college basketball is set up for non-BCS schools. I hope I’m wrong. I hope it’s us, or somebody like us.”

The Shockers’ victory at LSU came when the Tigers were ranked No. 6. On Saturday, they made it two victories over Top 25 teams when, after leading by 23, they held on to beat then-No. 15 Syracuse, 64-61, in front of almost 24,000 in the Carrier Dome.

“A very good team,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called Wichita State.

This is the time of year when the Ratings Percentage Index rankings are notoriously skewed, but if you take teams simply on which teams they’ve beaten and where they’ve done it, Butler and Wichita State as the current RPI leaders isn’t as crazy as it seems.

In a season when the success of mid-major teams makes its difficult to know where to rank anybody, Wichita State stands out partly because not only has it won, it has won on the road. And not at neutral sites, either, in their opponents’ own gyms.

“I couldn’t get home games and I couldn’t get neutral-site games,” Turgeon said. “I just took road games.”

It would be silly to predict a Final Four run or anything like it.

UCLA, North Carolina, Ohio State and Florida look like a tough foursome. But if WSU – which reached the Final Four in 1965 – made a deep NCAA run with its blend of defense, balanced scoring and success on the road, it wouldn’t be entirely unfamiliar territory.

Turgeon, 41, was a player on the 1986 Kansas team that went to the Final Four, then was part of Larry Brown’s staff when Kansas won the 1988 NCAA title with Danny Manning, and was an assistant on Roy Williams’ 1991 Final Four team.

Part of his heart is always with Kansas, but not all of it.

“I think KU is really talented and I stayed up rooting for them the night they beat Florida,” he said. “But I was going to be disappointed if we weren’t ahead of them. If we lost to Oral Roberts and DePaul, we wouldn’t be ranked in the top 50.”