Welcome to 'The Year After'
— -- It's a Monday in October, and Gregg Marshall has pressing concerns.
First, of course, is practice. Today the Shockers are putting in "Monster," their term for a hard double-team in the post. Some of the new guys -- the guys expected to keep Wichita State, fresh off a 35-1 season and 18 months removed from the Final Four, among the nation's elite -- aren't quite getting it.
That's one thing. There's also an appointment with a reporter, and a visit from a former athletics office assistant. Oh, and home by 6 p.m. for dinner with his daughter, Maggie, and her high school volleyball team. Catered Chipotle and Lynn Marshall's homemade chicken queso dip are on the menu. Can't miss that.
But for now, there is the rain in Kansas City.
"I think the tickets are going to be pushed back a game," Brian Holmgren, Wichita State's assistant director of media relations, says. Game 3 of the Royals-Orioles American League Championship Series has just been postponed. Marshall's tickets and transportation -- home plate seats for himself, his family, along with a big group flying in on a private plane -- are suddenly at risk. "So if you've got tickets for Wednesday, they might be for Thursday now."
"That can't be how it works," Marshall says. "I can't go Thursday."
"Well, if you're looking to get rid of them, I'm sure I could find someone to help you out," Holmgren replies, smiling. He means himself.
"That's not going to happen," Marshall said. "You're going to be waving at us behind home plate. Well, you might need a TV screen to see us from where you'll be. But you'll see us."
It takes until midway through team dinner, but Marshall has a guy, and the guy sorts things out. Two nights later, Wichita State's head coach boards the scheduled flight with his family. His son, Kellen, tweets a photo of his ticket: Row A, Seat 1, Kauffman Stadium Crown Club. Later, Kellen tweets: "Parents just got into an elevator with [Royals color announcer] Rex Hudler. #jealous." Kansas City sweeps the Orioles, and clinches the AL pennant, with a thrilling 2-1 win.
"You want to ask me how the offseason has been?" Marshall said. "I'll tell you: It's been too short. It could have gone on forever and that would have been just fine by me.
"I still have to pinch myself," he said.
Which is precisely the problem: You have to pinch yourself. You have to wake up. It can happen in April or October. It always happens. The warm lucid dream of last season's success must come to an end. Another new day begins.
For Wichita State, waking up means integrating eight new players as quickly as possible, replacing almost all of last season's trademark rebounding in one fell swoop. More than that, it means seeing what happens when Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet -- young men who experienced the basketball equivalent of the moon landing last season -- rejoin the mere mortals on Earth.
For Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Arizona, it means waving farewell to brilliant freshmen (or keeping them, in UK's case) while restocking for another title chase. For UConn, it means losing Shabazz Napier to the Miami Heat and still believing you should be the favorite to repeat, even if no one else does. For Wisconsin, it means a once-in-a-decade roster that got a taste -- sweet, then bitter -- of the Final Four. For Creighton, it means life after Doug McDermott. Anno Dougini.
For the sport, it means following up a 2013-14 season that had everything: brilliant NBA prospects; a historic 35-0 start; one of the greatest offensive players ever; and those Huskies, so cool and composed, playing keepaway from the nation's best in March.
That wasn't just a year. That was the year. And this is The Year After.
Where do we possibly go from here?
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