Is Wichita State a Bust? [POLL]

Through 34 games in the Missouri Valley Conference, Wichita State hadn't played anyone.  In fact, they'd only played three other tournament teams - only one of which was a single digit seed.

So when the haters criticized the Shockers as phonies, lampooning their strength of schedule and questioning their number one seed, no one was all that surprised.

And when the formerly undefeated squad lost their round of 32 matchup to the Kentucky Wildcats, and the haters' bombastic rhetoric grew louder, the few who looked past Wichita State's weak opponents and pronounced them a "real contender" were silenced.

That game proved it.  They're a bust.

Or so says conventional wisdom - wisdom that, in my opinion, is recklessly overlooking the truth.

The truth that Gregg Marshall's team didn't just get upset by an eight seed.  They got upset by the nations' preseason number one team who everyone agrees is finally beginning to show the promise their roster implied.

The truth that Wichita State didn't get blown out, they lost a desperately close game - one that many are heralding as the year's best.

And the truth that they're not just a number one seed who won't get out of their region, they're a number one seed who won't get out of the toughest region anyone will remember.

The truth that should be so evident to anyone who watched the Shockers' battle with Kentucky.  That though they lost, they were definitely for real.