Men’s Basketball | 6/25/2025 3:22:00 PM
Today: Stories 5-7
5. Wichita State turned downtown Wichita into a hoops hotbed in March. The university hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at INTRUST BANK Arena.
Eight teams and their fans visited Wichita for six games, attended by well over 14,000 fans for the peak games.
Wichita State started hosting NCAA men’s basketball games in 1956 on campus. It hosted eight times in what is now Charles Koch Arena and in 1994 at the Kansas Coliseum. INTRUST BANK Arena opened in 2010 and Wichita returned to hosting duties. With Wichita State leading the bid process, the 2011 women’s tournament returned NCAA basketball to Wichita at the new arena.
INTRUST BANK Arena hosted the men’s tournament in 2018. It was scheduled to host men’s games again in 2021 before COVID moved the entire tournament to Indiana. In 2022, women’s NCAA regional play came downtown.
“We can control what we do and how we treat people,” said Brad Pittman, senior associate AD/facilities and operations at Wichita State University. “You hear from the NCAA and the people who come here that we do it well. Our arena is great. There’s a lot to do in Wichita. It’s how we treat people and how we manage the tournament really is what puts Wichita in the mix and keeps Wichita in the mix.”
Wichita State’s contributions to the local sports scene also include serving as home for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, The Basketball Tournament and the NBC World Series.
6. As a Wichitan and a Shocker legacy athlete, Xavier Bell understands the importance of WSU basketball to the community. Nobody on the 2024-25 team worked harder to give fans a reason to cheer than did Bell, a senior guard from Wichita. Wayne Bell, who played for football for WSU, named his son in honor of Shocker great Xavier McDaniel.
Xavier Bell led the Shockers in scoring at 15.2 points on his way to earning All-American Athletic Conference honors. He is the first Shocker on the AAC first team since Tyson Etienne in 2021.
He transferred to WSU from Drexel and made significant improvements in his game each season. In 2022-23, he started nine games and made 22.8 percent of his three-pointers. Last season, he made 34 percent of his threes.
But he did much more than shoot jumpers.
𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 🏀
Xavier Bell x @GoShockersMBB #AmericanWay x #AmericanHoops pic.twitter.com/pyoBZFPzTd
— The American (@American_Conf) February 24, 2025
Bell led the Shockers with 151 free throws made and shot 88.8 percent from the line, the No. 7 mark in school history.
He came up big in several of WSU’s best wins. He started the season scoring 17 points in a win at Western Kentucky. He made 9 of 17 shots to score 24 points in a win over Kansas State, also adding five rebounds and two blocks. When the Shockers heated up in February, he did his part with 26 points in a win at USF and 24 in a win at Florida Atlantic.
Bell, who worked on his game daily outside of practice, also put in time in the classroom. He compiled a 4.0 grade-point average for the Fall 2024 semester and is a regular on the AAC All-Academic Team.
7. Outfielder Lauren Lucas returned from a season off to finish her Shocker career as expected – she hit and hit and hit.
Lucas, who missed 2024 with a shoulder injury, earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region third team honors. She hit .378 with 11 doubles and 13 home runs. Lucas ranks in WSU’s career top 10 in batting average (.377), slugging percentage (.658), on base percentage (.464), doubles (40), triples (11), RBIs (144) and runs scored (138).
Those numbers come from natural ability, strength conditioning and a devotion to video study and time in the batting cages.
“I believe that hitters that hit the most, hit the most,” she said. “I am very, very particular about the things I do, because I believe that when I don’t do the things that have set me up for success in the past, I won’t have success in the future.”
Shocker Senior: Lauren Lucas 🖤💛 pic.twitter.com/5KOKcOP5Gb
— Wichita State Softball (@GoShockersSB) April 27, 2025
In 2023, Lucas earned Softball America third team All-American honors and all-conference honors in 2023 after hitting .384 with 62 RBI, second-most in WSU history. In 2022, she earned all-conference and third team All-Central Region honors.
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
Season tickets are on sale now, and season ticket renewals are available as well. To purchase, visit GoShockers.com/Tickets, dial 316-978-FANS (3267) or stop by the Shocker Ticket Office, located inside Charles Koch Arena, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
