Thirty-one and zero.
It’s a number that still feels fake when you say it out loud. In a modern era of college hoops where parity is supposed to be the law of the land, the 2014 Wichita State basketball team basically decided that losing was optional. They didn't just win games; they suffocated people. Gregg Marshall, with that intense, almost manic energy on the sidelines, had built a roster of "Play Angry" disciples who looked like they were trying to win a fistfight that just happened to involve a basketball.
People love to hate on the Missouri Valley Conference. They called the schedule soft. They said the Shockers were "mid-major frauds" who wouldn't last ten minutes in the Big 12 or the ACC. But honestly? If you actually watched them—I mean really sat down and watched Fred VanVleet probe a defense—you knew better. This wasn't a fluke. It was a machine.
The Perfect Regular Season That Nobody Expected
Coming off a Final Four run in 2013, you’d think the world would have seen them coming. But the 2014 Wichita State basketball team lost pieces like Malcolm Armstead and Carl Hall. Most pundits figured they’d regress. Instead, they got meaner. They started the season by handling a decent LSU team and then went into Saint Louis—who was actually ranked and very good that year—and ground out a win.
By the time January rolled around, the national media started getting twitchy. You could feel the tension. Every time the Shockers stepped on the court against a team like Drake or Southern Illinois, the entire country was rooting for the upset. It never came. Cleanthony Early was playing like a lottery pick, floating between the perimeter and the paint with a smoothness that didn't match the team's gritty reputation.
The pressure of "The Streak" is something most players can't handle. It gets in your head. You start playing not to lose instead of playing to win. But Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker weren't built like that. They were the most "un-mid-major" backcourt in history. VanVleet was the floor general, a guy who never seemed to sweat, while Baker was the quintessential "coach's kid" archetype who would bury a transition three and then strip you on the other end.
Why the "Weak Schedule" Argument Was Garbage
Look, I get it. Playing Loyola Chicago and Bradley isn't exactly a gauntlet of Hall of Fame coaches. But going 31-0 entering the postseason requires a level of mental discipline that most blue-blood programs lack.
Kansas, Duke, Kentucky—they all trip up. They have "off nights" where a shot won't fall and they lose to a cellar-dweller. The 2014 Wichita State basketball team refused to have an off night. They were ranked 1st in the MVC in defensive efficiency and it wasn't even close. They beat teams by an average of 15.7 points. That is pure dominance, regardless of the logo on the opponent's jersey.
Statistically, they were a monster. They ranked in the top 20 nationally in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency according to KenPom. That’s usually the calling card of a National Champion. They didn't just rely on grit; they were actually elite at putting the ball in the hoop. Tekele Cotton was arguably the best perimeter defender in the country, and Chadrack Lufile provided the muscle inside that kept teams from getting easy looks at the rim.
The Selection Committee's Massive Mistake
Then came Selection Sunday. This is where things get controversial, and frankly, a bit annoying for any Shocker fan. Despite being the first team to go into the tournament undefeated since UNLV in 1991, the committee did them no favors. They stuck Wichita State in the Midwest Region.
Who else was there? Oh, just a "lowly" 8-seed named the Kentucky Wildcats.
Wait.
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Kentucky was an 8-seed? Yeah. John Calipari had a roster loaded with future NBA talent—Julius Randle, the Harrison twins, James Young—that had struggled early in the year but was peaking at exactly the right moment. Putting an undefeated #1 seed on a collision course with a preseason #1 team in the second round was, quite frankly, a slap in the face to the regular season. It was a "made-for-TV" disaster waiting to happen.
The Game That Broke the Bracket
On March 23, 2014, in St. Louis, we saw what many believe was the actual national championship game. It wasn't played on a Monday night in April. It was a Sunday afternoon in the Round of 32.
The 2014 Wichita State basketball team played out of their minds. Cleanthony Early dropped 31 points. He was hitting NBA-range threes, dunking on people, and basically carrying the weight of the city on his back. The Shockers shot 55% from the field. In almost any other year, against any other 8-seed, they win that game by twenty.
But Kentucky was different. They were huge. They were athletic. And they were hitting everything.
The final minute was pure chaos. Kentucky took a two-point lead. Wichita State had the ball with a chance to keep the dream alive. Fred VanVleet, the guy you’d want taking that shot ten times out of ten, got a look at a three-pointer at the buzzer. It looked good. It really did. But it hit the back of the rim and bounced out.
35-1.
The streak was over. The "perfect" season ended in a gym in Missouri, not in a domed stadium in North Texas. It felt wrong. It felt like the sport had cheated itself out of seeing how far that Wichita State team could really go.
The Lasting Legacy of the 2014 Shockers
We shouldn't let the Kentucky loss define them. Seriously.
Think about what happened to those guys afterward. Fred VanVleet went from being an undrafted free agent to an NBA Champion and an All-Star with the Toronto Raptors. Ron Baker played in the league. Cleanthony Early was a high draft pick. These weren't "scrappy overachievers." They were pro-level talents who stayed in school and played for a coach who demanded perfection.
They changed the way we look at mid-majors. Before 2014, a team from a non-power conference going undefeated was seen as an impossibility or a joke. Wichita State proved that with the right culture and a lockdown defense, you can stare down the giants.
They also proved that the NCAA Tournament is a cruel, high-variance mistress. One bad draw, one shot that's an inch too long, and your historic season becomes a "what if" story.
Lessons from the 35-1 Run
If you’re a coach or a student of the game, there are a few things you can actually take away from the 2014 Wichita State basketball season. It wasn't just about talent; it was about a specific blueprint.
- Consistency over Flash: They didn't have many 100-point games. They didn't care about highlights. They cared about "kill shots"—their term for three consecutive defensive stops.
- Veteran Guard Play: In March, guards win games. Having VanVleet and Baker meant the Shockers almost never turned the ball over in high-pressure situations.
- Embracing the Villain Role: They knew the "mid-major" label was a slight. They used it. They played with a chip on their shoulder that was visible from the nosebleed seats.
The 2014 season was the peak of the "Play Angry" era. While the school eventually moved to the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to find better competition, that specific year in the Valley remains the gold standard for mid-major excellence.
If you're looking to relive the magic or study how to build a winning culture, start by digging into the game film of their win at Northern Iowa that year. It was a clinic in defensive rotations. Or just go back and watch the Kentucky game. Even in a loss, Wichita State showed that they belonged on the same floor as the blue bloods. They weren't just a great "small school" team. They were a great team, period.
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To truly appreciate what they did, you have to stop looking at the bracket and start looking at the 35 wins that came before it. In a sport designed to make you lose, they almost forgot how to do it.
Actionable Insights for Hoop Historians and Fans:
- Watch the "Lasting Legacy" documentary or YouTube deep dives on the Wichita State vs. Kentucky 2014 game to see elite-level tactical adjustments.
- Study Fred VanVleet’s pick-and-roll navigation from this season; it remains some of the best fundamental guard play in the last twenty years of college basketball.
- Analyze the KenPom data from 2014 to understand how their defensive efficiency compared to other legendary undefeated runs like 1991 UNLV or 2015 Kentucky.
- Acknowledge the shift in NCAA seeding after this year; the committee faced immense criticism for the Wichita/Kentucky pairing, which influenced how "mid-major" undefeateds were seeded in later years (like Gonzaga).