After Four Years, Fred VanVleet And Ron Baker Leave A Legacy At Wichita State

This feature is part of VICE Sports' March Madness coverage.

Leaning against a wall in the corner of Wichita State's locker room at Providence's Dunkin' Donuts Center on Saturday afternoon, Fred Van Vleet looked more like a boxer after a grueling fight than a tough point guard recovering from a game. Three adhesive strips above his right eye covered a gash he'd suffered in a previous game.

This was it—after four years of consistent excellence, including a historic Final Four run in 2013 that announced the Shockers as a mid-major power, VanVleet and fellow senior guard Ron Baker were done. The Shockers had been eliminated in a 65-57 loss to Miami in the second round of the NCAA tournament, and it was hard to take.

"It's up and down," VanVleet said. "I'm good when I'm just by myself, but when other guys start crying and people tell you how much they feel about you, it's tough. I don't cry a whole lot, but it's been a roller coaster for the last 30 minutes just trying to take it all in, trying to understand that it's over."

Few people predicted the mark VanVleet and Baker would leave on a program that had made the NCAA tournament only once in the 24 years before Baker arrived on campus in the fall of 2011. Baker was a walk-on, then, and redshirted that first season with the promise that he would receive a scholarship for the next one. VanVleet, who was ranked among the top 100 high school players in the country by ESPN.com and Scout.com, joined Baker a year later. The two soon became good friends.

"Our minds kind of clicked right off the bat, just in pickup and short practices we had," Baker said. "I could tell me and him were going to hit it off, on and off the court."

When Baker and VanVleet were both healthy and on the floor, Wichita State went 105-15 overall and put up a 9-4 record in four NCAA tournament appearances. As freshmen, they were contributors on the ninth-seeded Shockers team that made the Final Four. During Wichita State's second round victory over top-ranked Gonzaga, Baker scored a team-high 16 points and VanVleet had 13. VanVleet's three-pointer with one second left on the shot clock, with 1:28 left in the game, gave the Shockers a five-point lead; they never relinquished it. The Shockers won two more games before losing to eventual national champion Louisville.

The next season, Wichita State entered the NCAA tournament with a 34-0 record, the number two ranking in the polls, and the top seed in the Midwest regional. After a first round victory, the Shockers lost to Kentucky 78-76 in a game for the ages; VanVleet's three-pointer at the buzzer went off the back of the rim. Wichita State had another memorable run last season, pulling off a second round upset over two-seed Kansas, a team that refuses to schedule games against the Shockers.

When Wichita State lost to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 last year, VanVleet and Baker contemplated leaving school to begin their professional careers. In mid-April, after coach Gregg Marshall spurned an offer from Alabama and received evaluations on VanVleet and Baker from an NBA Draft advisory committee, they chose to return for their senior season.

"Fred and I kind of made the decision together," Baker said. "He told me he was going to stay. He gave me a call. It was pretty obvious. I just got that gut feeling that it was right for me to stay, as well."

The Shockers were ranked 10th in the Associated Press's preseason poll, but their season never went as planned. During a late November tournament in Orlando, the Shockers lost three games in four days while VanVleet sat out with a hamstring injury. VanVleet didn't miss a game the rest of the season, but he took it easy in practices as he fought through hamstring pain. "The doctors told me it was like a 12-month rehab for it to fully heal," Van Vleet said after Saturday's game. "I'm still working on that. It's been tough for me, but nothing's going to stop me from getting out here and playing with my guys."

With VanVleet back on the court, Wichita State won its third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular season title. Still, after losing in the semifinals of the conference tournament, the Shockers weren't a lock to be invited to the NCAA tournament even they though they were 12th in the KenPom.com ratings and had the best defense in the country. On Selection Sunday, they gathered in their team dining facility and found out they would have to play Vanderbilt in the First Four, with the winner getting an 11 seed and a date with Arizona.

After defeating the Commodores, Wichita State arrived in Providence after 5 a.m. on Wednesday, around 40 hours before they'd face the Wildcats. The Shockers didn't show any fatigue on Thursday night, holding Arizona to its lowest point total of the season with the suffocating defense that has become the team's signature, and cruising to a 65-55 victory. With 13:38 remaining, Wichita State sophomore center Shaquille Morris dunked to give the Shockers a 45-27 lead. He then put his hands together next to his ear and mugged for the cameras. "I was just trying to state that they were sleeping on us a little bit," Morris said in the locker room after that game. "I was trying to basically make a statement and tell people to wake up."

Morris credited VanVleet and Baker for giving him and his teammates so much confidence and believing they could win it all. He spoke in terms usually reserved for heroes and inspirational figures.

"You can definitely step back and look at them and be like, 'Wow, I hope to be that,'" Morris said. "They're definitely living legends. I feel like we're in the moment right now playing with legends. It's definitely humbling, but you just want to do your best to make sure they go out the right way."

College basketball is cruel like that, though, and the Shockers got off to a terrible start on Saturday. They committed nine turnovers in the first 11 minutes, fell behind third-seeded Miami 27-6 and trailed 32-19 at halftime.

"There were a couple times where I was thinking, 'Man, this is my last game,'" Baker said. "I tried to block it out and say, 'No, no, no, we've got to fight.' That's what we did all game."

Wichita State was still behind by 17 points early in the second half, but a vintage Shockers surge put them up 43-42 on a Baker three-pointer with 10:26 remaining. "When we took that one-point lead, it felt like we were about to win by 20," VanVleet said. "That's just the vibe that we have. Anytime when things are going good, we're confident, ultra confident."

Still, Miami kept its composure, took the lead back, and clinched a berth in the Sweet 16 thanks to an experienced backcourt of its own. Miami senior guards Angel Rodriguez (28 points) and Sheldon McClellan (18) outplayed VanVleet and Baker, each of whom scored 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting.

Afterward, Marshall stood outside Wichita State's locker room, an orange soda in his right hand, wishing he had another game to prepare for instead of beginning his goodbye to a group that meant so much to him and the program he's built. "I just hate that it's the last time I'm going to be able to coach these seniors," he said. "They've taken us all on a magic carpet ride. It's been fun. It's been exhilarating. It's been new. We're all deeply indebted."

VanVleet and Baker played in more NCAA tournament games than anyone else in Wichita State history. VanVleet, the two-time conference player of the year, is first in career assists and steals. Baker leaves as a three-time first-team all-conference choice, and ranks among the school's top 10 in points, assists, steals, and three-pointers despite missing 20 games as a freshman with a stress fracture injury. Both could play in the NBA next season, but they'll leave a sterling legacy behind wherever they go from here.

"It's gonna be hard to judge these four years right away," Baker said. "I think in a couple years, when Fred and I are hopefully out on the beach hanging out and we've seen college basketball through the years, we can compare four-year guys to what we did. I think that's when it'll hit us, down the road."

In time, when the sting of their last tournament ends and the game takes them wherever it will take them, perhaps the pair will realize what people around Wichita State already know: the program will likely never see a pair like VanVleet and Baker again.