How Wichita State made Shocker Madness basketball event into recruiting win for all teams

When competing for recruits against power-conference teams, Wichita State softball coach Kristi Bredbenner has long had to get creative on official visits.

It’s standard practice for top recruits to be invited to a home football game on a Saturday to experience the best version of campus life for that college, a luxury not afforded to the coaches on Wichita State’s campus.

In an attempt to fill that void, Wichita State has revamped its annual Shocktoberfest event to showcase athletics on Saturday. The festivities kick off during the afternoon with an athletic department-wide tailgate outside Koch Arena, which will lead straight into a new-look Shocker Madness event that will conclude with a free concert performance from rapper Tech N9ne.

WSU athletic director Kevin Saal has encouraged all coaching staffs to prioritize this weekend to hosting recruits and at last count, nearly 40 prospective student-athletes across all sports will be in attendance at Koch Arena on Saturday.

“Seeing the university invest in doing something like this and bringing in an artist to perform and creating an environment that somewhat rivals what a football weekend looks like, that’s a huge positive,” Bredbenner said. “We’re challenged with that all the time, thinking outside of the box. I think this is going to showcase our university in a really positive way and that’s a good starting point.”

The idea for creating a recruiting-friendly event to combat the absence of football on campus originated from Saal’s internal program audits he conducted after being hired last June.

From there, it took a collective effort across campus to pull off the event. Saal spearheaded efforts within the athletic department, while coordinating with Stacie Williamson, vice president of Alumni Engagement for the WSU Foundation, and Teri Hall, vice president for Student Affairs.

“This all started with, ‘How do we create a really special weekend that might be different than any other place that a prospective student-athlete would go?’” Saal said. “We’re trying to jam-pack the weekend with things to do and create a really cool experience, not only for our student-athletes, but for our alumni, the university and our prospective student-athletes.

“We’re really trying to drive home the family feel for all of our constituents. Our hope and goal is with that tailgate, meeting our staff and other student-athletes, is that those prospective student-athletes walk away from this weekend thinking, ‘Wow, family is really important there. That was different than anywhere I’ve been and I want to be a part of that for the long term.’”

The family feel will be emphasized at Shocker Madness, an event that has typically been reserved for the basketball teams.

This year, every WSU team in the athletic department will be in attendance and introduced to fans on Saturday before the basketball scrimmages.

“I really appreciate the thought and the initiative to make something like this happen,” WSU track and field coach Steve Rainbolt said. “It’s going to be a fun weekend for the recruits and their families, but also for our athletes already in our program. I think they’re really going to enjoy it more than they probably realize.”

When planning the event, WSU wanted to choose a weekend where it could showcase as many of its sporting teams as possible. The plan began to come into place when the American Athletic Conference obliged WSU’s request for Friday and Sunday matches for its volleyball team, its premier fall program, for this weekend.

The WSU volleyball team kicks off the weekend festivities with a 7 p.m. Friday match against Temple at Koch Arena, then plays again at 1 p.m. Sunday against South Florida. The WSU softball team is in action with an exhibition game against Emporia State at Wilkins Stadium at noon Saturday, then a doubleheader against South Dakota State at noon Sunday. Fans can also catch Shocker baseball in an intrasquad scrimmage beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eck Stadium.

“Athletics is a unique engine on a college campus,” Saal said. “We maintain an academic focus, but we also have a significant student life and connection with alumni function as well. When you think about all of the folks that are going to be involved, from our coaches, our current student-athletes, prospective student-athletes, athletic department administration and staff, alumni and students, we want to develop a special Homecoming experience for everyone and this just plays into all of that.”

The only drawback to the new-look Shocker Madness is the decrease of basketball events. There will be no 3-point or dunk contests this year and the intrasquad scrimmages for the women’s and men’s basketball teams have been trimmed to 12 minutes with a running clock — hardly enough to satisfy basketball-hungry Shocker fans curious to see as much of the teams under first-year coaches in Paul Mills and Terry Nooner as possible.

But WSU is betting that sacrifice will be worth it to improve the overall experience.

Following the scrimmages, a fan will be selected to attempt a halfcourt shot for $10,000 and then local DJ Win Crabtree, known as DJ 4 the Win, will perform a set leading into the live performance by Tech N9ne, the Kansas City rapper who has become known in recent years for his Chiefs’ anthem, “Red Kingdom.”