The Sunflower v. 125 i. 18

AAC CHAMPS What’s next for the Shockers: • AAC Tournament: March 11-14 • Selection Sunday: March 14 For full coverage and the tournament preview, flip to pages 5-8.

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

Volume 125 / Issue 18

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How the pandemic has affected the Student Wellness Center

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

BY ELENA KUCKELMAN @ElenaKuckelman

Throughout the pandemic, Wichita State’s Student Wellness Center has been proactive in keeping campus’ health its priority.

Their services may look a bit different this year, but they are still open and providing support for the health of students and staff.

As the Director for Student Health Services at WSU, Camille Childers has been in charge of providing overall supervision and overseeing operations for the center during the pandemic.

Childers said the Health Center has taken many precautions to ensure the safety of the staff and visitors.

Not only does the Wellness Center follow the health and safety guidelines for campus, Childers said they have also created an extensive set of rules to be more prepared.

Some of these rules include asking students to call ahead to make appointments, limiting visitors for appointments in the clinic, and transferring the majority of health education to a virtual medium.

“We also were one of the only departments that started providing virtual content last March through our Tuesday Talks,” said Heather Stafford, Associate Director of Student Health Services. “[Tuesday Talks] continues to this day so that students are still receiving good, quality health education and interesting topics.”

In addition, the Wellness Center has started offering curbside pickup for medication refills and tuberculosis test reads.

Compared to last year, Childers said the number of in-person students they see in the clinic has decreased, but other forms of contact have done the opposite.

“The number of contacts with students through secure messaging and phone calls has increased dramatically,” said Childers.

Stafford says the move to virtual health advice has had some positive impacts.

“We have a much higher engagement with students through social media health education information than we ever did through planned on-campus events,” Stafford said.

Childers and Stafford both agree that the virtual format has increased the busyness of the center.

“The case management work with students in isolation and SEE WELLNESS PAGE 2

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Wichita State student on path to create a sustainable clothing business

Student taking steps to create a 360 dash cam

BY JULIA NIGHTENGALE

@julianightengale / arts@thesunflower.com

BY TABITHA BARR

@julianightengale / copyeditor@thesunflower.com

Women’s Innovation Award winner Angelique Banh said that the secret to her success was taking advantage of multiple different opportunities college has provided her.

“I think it just starts with being aware of what is going on throughout the campus, because that’s how I hear about different opportunities,” Banh said. “Look into the club and join if you are interested and be engaged and committed to completing it, and that will help you on your way to being successful.”

As an undergraduate student, Banh obtained a degree in Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, Management, & Human Resource Management. She also completed the Cohen Honors College Leadership Track.

“Originally, I was a biology major but I switched at the end of my freshman year,” Banh said. “Switching majors can be pretty nerve wracking, especially when you’re moving to a completely different college ... Through that uncertainty, I was able to grow and navigate and honestly discover myself and what I really wanted to do.”

Banh said that she is proud of her commitment to earning scholarships through her college career. Some of these SEE ANGELIQUE PAGE 2

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Wichita State student Michele Valadez’s passion for entrepreneurship started when she was just 15 after taking a Youth Entrepreneurs class. Now, a college senior, Valadez was one of the two recipients to receive the Women’s Innovation Award.

The Women’s Innovation Award was created in 2020 to help and inspire female students in their path to success.

The award comes with a grant from the university so the recipients can dig deeper in their craft.

At the Youth Entrepreneurs Regional Competition Valadez won first place, securing her a spot at state, where she won money there too for her ideas.

She took it to DECA, an Entrepreneurship business starter company and worked with them.

She said she has a passion for creating, problem solving, and helping herself and others.

“I want to make life as efficient as possible,” she said. “We have only a limited amount of time and we can find a way to make things a little easier; that’s what I want to do.”

The Women for Women’s Innovation Award was presented to Valadez by two people she trusted.

“I hoped on it. I applied, and I’m really SEE MICHELE PAGE 3

Student fees hearings begin today

BY LINDSAY SMITH @Lindsau_KSmith / editor@thesunflower. com

Student fees hearings begin tomorrow, March 8, and deliberations will begin Wednesday afternoon.

The Student Fees Committee is responsible for hearing budget recommendations from organizations funded by student fees each spring, as well as making its own recommendations to the Student Senate. If passed by the senate, recommendations are then sent to the university president for final approval.

Hearings and deliberations will be held in-person this year with limited attendance. Only one individual from each entity requesting fees can be there for their hearing and the rest can attend over Zoom.

All meetings will be livestreamed on SGA’s Youtube channel.

This year, the committee will be allocating roughly $10.3 million of student fees money to different organizations.

Organizations requesting student fees money this year include Student involvement, the Student Government Association, The Sunflower, among others.

A breakdown of the committee’s schedule is below: Hearings: March 8-11 Submission to speaker: March 12 Budget and Finance Committee: March 16 First read to the Student Senate: March 24 Second read: March 31 Final read and vote: April 7 President review: April 9 Formal submission to university: April 12

Governor Laura Kelly to give keynote address at Diverse Women’s Summit

BY LINDSAY SMITH @Lindsay_KSmith / editor@thesunflower.com

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Wichita State’s annual Diverse Women’s Summit on International Women’s Day. The theme is “Women and Leadership in the time of COVID19” and will focus on “women’s roles, their implications for different women, the future of women and gender in their intersection with challenges from class/poverty, race/ethnicity, sexuality, disability, religion and other pyramids of SEE GOVERNOR PAGE 2

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This week’s weather in brief

FROM GOVERNOR PAGE 1

power”, according to the Facebook event page.

The summit is sponsored by the Department of Women’s Studies, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the League of Women Voters in Kansas.

The event will be held via youtube livestream this year due to COVID-19. It is free and open to the public.

FROM WELLNESS PAGE 1

ILLUSTRATION BY THY VO

Source: iPhone weather app

FROM ANGELIQUE PAGE 1

her college career. Some of these scholarships include the Wichita State Merit Scholarship, the Cohen Honors College Merit Scholarship, and the John and Elizabeth Weatherby Fellowship recipient.

She is also proud of her movement to leadership positions in organizations, such as the Community Service Board president and the Love Your Melon campus crew president.

“I am proud of what I accomplished in my leadership positions, with the help of my team members,” Banh said. “Planning and executing a variety of events and getting students excited about being involved on campus.”

Through looking at opportunities on the Shocker Career Accelerator, Banh was able to get internships including a digital marketing intern at Bella Bonita Designs, a business operations intern at Airbus, and a management intern at Nothing Bundt Cakes.

“I feel like WSU prepared me in terms of curriculum but I also feel like their applied learning department is really growing and that really pushed me and prepared me and helped me network with different employees in Wichita,” Banh said. “At Airbus, I got to be on the senior leadership teams and most people don’t really get that chance as a young student.

It was really priceless for me.”

Banh’s plans for the future include opening up a retail fashion boutique that sells clothes that were made sustainably and ethically.

With the award of $1,500, Banh plans to use that to purchase equipment, products, digital and print advertising, and pay legal fees. She also hopes to eventually find other sources of funding.

“Along with the monetary portion of the reward, the Center for Entrepreneurship is also mentoring me, so they are always open

to emailing or setting up further meetings,” Banh said. “They also have connected me with people who have experience in the fashion industry. I am grateful for both aspects of that.”

Banh’s interest in the fashion industry has grown after seeing that consumers are becoming more aware of unethical practices in fashion, such as exploiting workers in third world countries and the pollution that they create.

“That kind of planted a seed,” she said. “If we want to live on this earth and have future generations enjoy it, we need to take care of it and be responsible. A big part of that is that it is possible to be more sustainable in practices, but companies don’t do it because it affects their profits. I know it’s possible, they aren’t doing it.

“If we make enough of a stir, changes will eventually be made. It starts with the consumers and business leaders to change the minds of big companies,” Banh said.

Some of the ideas that Banh is considering for her business include having a donation box that she takes to different non-profits in the city of Wichita, in order to take out the work of sorting it on their own.

“Another idea that I had to extend the length of apparel items is a renting service, because I know it exists for tuxedo rentals, but I haven’t seen it with regular clothes for rent in Wichita,” Banh said. “Rental subscription boxes are pretty popular, and I think it’s a growing area. A rental closet where people can try on could be beneficial.”

Banh’s advice for students wanting to get the most out of their college experience is to absorb information about what is happening on campus, by reading signs and emails from Shocker Blast.

“When I transferred to the business school, the director of the Professional Edge program

came and talked about how it would improve your soft skills alongside curriculum, and it was a commitment of about five hours of semester … If you like what you are doing, be consistent and follow through with it because those experiences can be put on resumes or talked about in future interviews, and it can set you apart from other candidates,” Banh said.

Networking has also been a valuable tool for Banh. By working at fashion boutiques in different positions, reaching out to friends in K-State’s fashion program, and asking professors and advisors to connect her with people in the fashion industry, she has gained knowledge that will help her with her business.

“My network grows and I learn about the industry; it’s a slow process but I feel like it’s riveting and exhilarating to see who I am connected to next, what valuable info will they have for me,” Banh said. “It’s a lot of work but it is worth it in the end ... You have to be proactive in reaching out to people and checking out the opportunities they tell you about.”

Banh’s advice to young girls who want to follow in her footsteps is just because you want to do something that not many people have done before, it shouldn’t be an obstacle.

Instead of running away from uncertainty, run towards it because you might become successful in your aspirations and become a trailblazer and mentor for other young girls to help them on their journey.

“WSU doesn’t have a fashion program, Wichita doesn’t have a fashion week, it’s not a fashion hub,” Banh said. “I considered not following this path because it would be hard and challenging because I might have people to ask for help, and then I was like, ‘You know what, I’ll work with what I have and do know and ask for help and find a way if there isn’t a way. It might not be pretty, but I’m gonna do it.”

“The case management work with students in isolation and quarantine adds to the busyness,” Childers said. “Case management is done over the phone, so we spend a lot of time talking with students.”

“As the campus health center, we also respond to questions from students, parents, staff and the general public related to COVID-19 or other health related concerns.”

For Childers, the pandemic has increased her workload in terms of staying updated on the most recent information.

“Keeping up to date with the latest, best practices and guidelines and then collaborating with campus partners on applying new or updated information at WSU takes time,” said Childers.

Stafford said the staff has also seen an increased workload over the course of the pandemic.

“Along with the addition of offering free COVID testing and eventually vaccinations it’s just a different type of busy that still supports students but is demanding on staff time,” Stafford said.

Preparing to be a COVID-19 distribution site has also been added to the Health Center’s to-do list.

“Discussions on planning, logistics, and operations for a vaccination clinic are occurring both internally and with relevant campus partners,” Childers said.

Although COVID-19 guidelines advise people to stay home as much as possible, Childers wants students and staff to remember that it is still safe to seek medical care.

“It is important to not be afraid to seek medical care during this time,” Childers said. “We are seeing students for routine health visits as well as illness care visits.”

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The Sunflower, founded in 1896, is the student-run newspaper covering Wichita State University. The print edition is published Monday during the fall and spring semesters. The staff publishes daily online at www.thesunflower.com.

MISSION The Sunflower — both in print and online — will be a timely resource of information about the Wichita State University community. It will report on news, issues, activities, academics and athletics, in addition to offering a forum for discussion, reviews and commentary. It will also be an effective learning experience for students, who will have the final authority over what is published.

LEGAL One free copy of The Sunflower is available to members of the WSU community. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 in the newsroom, Elliott Hall 019. The Sunflower is private property and unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable. The Sunflower is funded by a combination of print and online advertisment sales and student fees allocated by the Student Government Association.

The Sunflower is a member of Kansas Collegiate Media, the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association.

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Detective Timothy Relph teaches his class on serial killers inside of the Law Enforcement Training Center on Tuesday, March 3.

Detective who worked on BTK case passes lessons he learned onto students

BY LINDSAY SMITH @Lindsay_KSmith / editor@thesunflower.com

As a child, Timothy Relph heard about the notorious Bind, Torture, Kill serial killer and feared for him and his family’s safety.

As an adult, Relph was dedicated to catching the killer.

“I just knew that the most infamous killer had given me a chance to be a part of getting him,” Relph said.

The BTK killer is a known part of Wichita’s history. The first murder was reported in January of 1974 when a couple and their two children were strangled in their home. In April of 1974, a 21-year-old woman was found in her home stabbed to death. Five other murders were reported from 1977-1991.

13 years later, in 2004, a letter was sent to the Wichita Eagle containing a copy of a victim’s drivers license and pictures taken by the killer.

BTK had returned, but Relph wasn’t worried.

“During the investigation I knew we had him,” he said. “Between the people, we had worked together quite a bit beforehand, we were a pretty successful homicide unit.

“During it, I had to kind of temper myself from being overconfident because I always thought we were going to catch him.”

Dennis Rader was identified as the murderer after investigators tracked down the location of his church through a computer disk. After that, Rader pled guilty to 10 counts of first degree murder.

Relph didn’t fully comprehend the significance of being involved in the case while it was unfolding. Now, years later, he understands just how much the case had reached a world-wide audience. Popular shows like Criminal Minds often mention the notorious case, but Relph tries to not take it seriously.

“One of the shows I was a woman, I don’t get that,” Relph laughed.

“You got to spice things up because number one you don’t have 31 years to tell the story, and number two on film you don’t have eleven months to solve the case,” Relph said. “I understand condensing things a bit. There’s a lot of police work that’s kind of tedious. Police Work is seven and a half hours of ordinary time with thirty minutes of extraordinary time.”

Relph said that technology has changed

drastically since the initial BTK case. That is a concept he touches on in his classes.

“From taking the class I’m hoping that people have an appreciation for first of all, the generations of men and women who worked so hard on it but it’s also a neat class because it shows the transition of technology,” he said.

Relph teaches two classes at Wichita State.

One covers the entire BTK case from beginning to end, and another focuses on serial killers in general.

Relph said a common question he gets in his class is, “Why do serial killers kill?” Relph said that is a tricky question. Relph was a part of the interviewing stages of Rader, and said everything Rader said had to be taken with a grain of salt.

“He gave reasons for why he did what he did, but those reasons were, even a serial killer admitting to what he’s doing, even a serial killer wants to present himself in a more positive than negative light,” Relph said. “They want to provide a bit of justification. You know that they are what they are, they’re some kind of genetic mix up or something like that.”

Student Government Association passes resolution opposing the lowering of concealed carry age, citing financial and safety concerns

BY LINDSAY SMITH @Lindsay_KSmith / editor@thesunflower. com

The Kansas House is moving forward with a bill that would lower the concealed carry age from 21 to 18, days after the Student Government Association passed a resolution discouraging the passing of the bill.

The resolution, which passed with a 26-11-0 vote, stated that the lowering of the concealed carry age would financially affect the university.

“This change would cause a significant financial burden on the university because this would require significant safety infrastructure, especially in our housing,” Senator Ella Perkins, who was one of the authors of the resolution, said. “That might mean metal detectors, that might mean armed security personnel 24 hours a day, that might mean gun safes.”

“With the current concealed carry age requirement at 21, the majority of our campus is not allowed to carry concealed weapons … by changing this to 18, the chance or some sort of safety incident occurring exponentially increases.”

The resolution passed with a significant amount of debate time between the senators.

Senator Calvin Pomeroy said that the passing of the resolution would cause harm to minority populations.

“Gun control legislation has roots that started with the formation of the KKK with their attempt

to disarm free slaves and Jim Crow laws criminalized black people to defend themselves,” he said. “Gun control laws have been used to further exploit people of color.”

“There is statistically no conclusive results that show concealed carry increase violence of crime, and the assertion that made in the resolution as it puts students in further danger is not based in statistics and it’s not necessarily made in good faith,” Pomeroy said.

“The push for gun control completely ignores the necessity for exploited communities to practice self defense.”

In response to the funding issue, Pomeroy argued that the university could find that money elsewhere.

“I understand completely the justification to potentially shift that burden of cost to the students … but I would rather spend time lobbying on the backend to find that money elsewhere and protect the student rather than not push for this because we’re worried about finding ways of finding money,” Pomeroy said. “We spent the last year in a pandemic undergoing mass protests against police brutality, and to act like that’s not a real issue and that we’re not literally protecting people with this is acting like money is more important than black lives.

Senator Crystal Zacarias Wilson argued that the resolution would not only affect the university population, but the state of Kansas as a whole— Including adult campus visitors.

“Just because we have a lot of

“This change could cause a significant financial burden on the university because this would require significant safety infrastructure, especially in our housing” ELLA PERKINS Student Senator

police presence on campus doesn’t mean that some individuals don’t feel the need to carry in general,” Zacarias Wilson said. “This law isn’t just about universities in Kansas, I think it’s important to remember this is about all adults in Kansas.”

Freshman Senator Emily Smith said she believes that more concealed carrying on campus could lead to safety incidents.

“I think people should be allowed to carry on campus, however, I do not think that anyone should be allowed to concealed carry,” Smith said. “I believe it’s unnecessary, I believe it’s a great way for people to enter buildings without metal detectors and cause harm to other people.”

Senator Grant Day said that even though he is not a gun owner, he believes that young college students should have a means to protect themselves on campus.

“The fact that an 18 year old cannot bring a gun on campus is really an assault on our most vulnerable populations here,”

Day said. “If you’re walking across campus alone, and you’re not allowed to have a weapon, you’re more vulnerable, which is a fact.

You can’t consider yourself safe without being comfortable with a weapon sometimes … I just strongly feel people should have the right to defend themselves if need be.”

Senator Perkins argued that there are other ways of self-defense women could utilize that wouldn’t require guns.

“As a woman, I have other means of protecting myself,” Perkins said. “There’s tasers, there’s pepper spray, there’s countless things you can have …

I would personally feel exponentially more safe if in fact I knew that there could be hundreds if not thousands of people around me who had weapons.

“I’ve talked to dozens and dozens and dozens of women on our campus in anticipation of this bill and they’ve all expressed the lack of safety they would feel.”

Senator Naramore-Winfery cited suicide as another reason why the bill was alarming.

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for the age 15-24 age group, and another statistic … is that the most common method of suicide in Kansas is by firearm,” she said. “My experience living on campus last year is that suicide was an issue … I believe having firearms being available in housing and residence life is another safety issue with the person themself.”

FROM MICHELE PAGE 1

grateful for it now,” she said.

Valadez’s idea rose from personal experience.

“In my first year of college, I got into three different collisions, none of which were my fault,” Valadez said.

This led to Valadez creating a solution to the problem that arose.

“There has to be something I can do to capture what’s going on,” she said. “I started looking up dash cameras and what I noticed, the problem with all the cameras, even if they claimed they were 360 (degrees), they all had blind spots . . . If you can’t tell the full story, insurance and police reports won’t do you much justice. And that’s why I came up with the 360 (degree) dash camera.”

Right now, the invention is in the development and prototype stage and should be ready in April.

Then they can present it to WSU and take it to new heights.

Once they have it built, they will move on to the selling stage.

“The goal with this is to hopefully end up going nationwide one day, but establishing the right partners,” she said. “Eventually the ultimate goal is to bring it into Canada or potentially selling the idea off.”

Valadez worked hard to create something that’s going to help others.

With March being Women’s History Month, Valadez said that she is reminded of the power women hold.

“Women are awesome,” she said. “And to have a whole month to showcase what we do, what we’re capable of, we need it, we deserve it. That’s why we have it.”

Valdez is looking at the future with her eyes wide open.

“Be ready,” she said.

“We’re excited to be breaking barriers.”

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Sports

HAVE A STORY IDEA? contact The Sunflower’s sports editor, Sean Marty sports@thesunflower.com

PHOTO BY KHANH NGUYEN/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State players celebrate a home-run during the game against Dixie State at Eck Stadium on Mar. 3, 2021.

Shockers sweep Dixie State in weekend series

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

Wichita State picked up its first three-game sweep of the season, this weekend, winning all three games against Dixie State this weekend.

The Shockers defeated the Trailblazers 2-1 in game one of the series on Friday. Senior Corrigan Bartlett provided the game-winning home run in bottom of the sventh inning to lead WSU to the victory. Junior Liam Eddy turned in a solid start with 6 1/3 innings pitched while allowing one unearned run. Eddy also collected eight strikeouts and a pair of walks.

WSU beat Dixie State in dominate fashion, as Garrett Kocis lead the charge offensively in the in the victory. Kocis hit two homers and drove in a career-best seven runs in the win. On the pitching side, Spencer Hynes tallied a careerhigh 11 strikes and also earned his first win as a Shockers. In 6 1/3 innings abd allowed three earned runs on four hits.

In the final game the Shockers won again in blowout fashion by a score of 15-7, completing the threegame series. Kocis once again hit two home runs in the victory for the second straight game. Those home runs gave Kocis four homers in the series and an American Athletic Conference best seven

“Obviously we’ve got great challenges ahead of us but I think what we’ve done up to this point has been a great challenge also.

ERIC WEDGE Head Coach

home runs on the seasons. Senior Preston Snavely earned his first win of the season after allowing three earned runs along with two strikeouts and two walks in five innings pitched.

Head Coach Eric Wedge said he has been pleased with the team in the early going with how they’ve responded to some challenges.

“Obviously we’ve got great challenges ahead of us but I think what we’ve done up to this point has been a great challenge also,” Wedge said. “Ultimately when it comes to coming out here and competing every day, how you approach that is very important to me and I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that.”

Wedge said he has been impressed with how this time has responded to the early season adversity.

“They’ve always been hard

workers but I think they’re starting to find themselves. We need to do better with adversity, whenyou get in those tough innings, whether you’re on the offensive side or the defensive side, we need to do a better job of that. I think we’re doing a better job of finishing off innings or at-bats ow whatever.”

Last weekend, Wallace led the charge for the offense as he went 8-13 (.615 batting average) at the plate while also driving in 11 runs. This series, Kocis was able to led the charge with four home runs along with 12 runs driven in.

Wedge said that the pair have been catalysts to the offense in the early going.

“They’ve really worked hard at their crafts,” Wedge said. “They’ve done the work in BP, they’ve made some adjustments and they’ve bought into it. That’s a big thing and they’re both very strong and they’re both capable of missing hitting balls and getting hits and hitting it out of the ballpark. I think Garrett’s probably the strongest example of that.”

The Shockers will start an eight-game road trip, beginning next week with games coming against the Univeristy of Arizona and Air Force. The series against the Wildcats will begin on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field in Tuscon, Arizona.

PHOTO BY KHANH NGUYEN/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State redshirt junior Sencer Hynes cathces the ball during the game against Dixie State at Eck Stadium on Mar. 3, 2021.

Volleyball drops a pair of matches against Memphis

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

PHOTO BY LENA ALHALLAQ/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State sophomore Sophia Rohling prepares to serve the ball during the game against the Memphis Tigers at Charles Kock Arena on Mar. 5.

After an 8-0 start to the season, the Wichita State volleyball team has dropped three straight matches to fall to an 8-3 record on the season. This week, the program dropped a pair of matches against Memphis.

In the first match on Thursday, the Shockers took a two-set advantage but were unable to close out the match as the Tigers won the final three sets. The set scores were 25-18, 26-24, 23-25, 25-27 and 12-15.

In the loss, sophomore Sophia Rohling posted a career-high 27 kills and hit .328 for the match.

Sophomore Kayce Litzau also set a career-high with 36 assists in the loss.

Wichita State outhit Memphis even in the loss, .168 to .098 but struggled offensively in the decisive set. In that final set, Memphis outhit the Shockers .259 to .111 as they completed the comeback.

In the second match of the

week between the two teams Memphis was able to defeat the Shockers in four sets, completing a two-game sweep. The set scores were 21-25, 23-25, 26-24 and 24-26.

Rohling once again led the way offensively in the loss, this time posting 16 kills which was good enough for a .406 hitting percentage. Rohling combined for 43 kills in the two matches against the Tigers.

Rohling said thst some of the aspects of her game she’s been working on in practice has started to translate into games.

“It’s just all the drills we’ve been doing. As my teammates get better, it’s letting me get better. Just learning to keep swinging through errors and that my teammates got me, my coaches have my back and just to keep going.”

Litzau once again the Shockers in the setting department with a team-best 28 assists. Brylee Kelly also added 11 kills in the loss.

Defensively, freshman Lauren McMahon added a career-high

eight block assists while sophomore libero Sina Uluave added a team-high 19 digs.

For Memphis, Sam Drewry led the team with 17 kills while setter Sabrina Bianco added in a matchhigh 54 assists.

Rohling said the mood in the locker room is typically different after a loss but they are still trying to stay positive moving forward.

“After a loss, it’s always quiet, it’s always we could’ve done this but we could’ve done this, we’ve got the next game,” Rohling said after a loss to SMU. “Everything I’ve been saying is we’ve got the next one.”

The Shockers are next slated to face off against Tulane for a twogame series as they will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana for a pair of matches later this week. The series will begin on Friday with the game scheduled to start at 6 p.m. inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena.

Saturday’s game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021 | 5

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What experts say about WSU’s NCAA Tournament chances

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

With just nine days until Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament, Wichita State stands squarely in the tournament field as they look to earn an at-large bid. WSU is looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm is a bracketologist — someone who predicts the NCAA Tournament field — that has WSU in the field of 68. Palm projects the Shockers as a 10-seed in his latest bracket.

Palm said that in order for WSU to keep their spot in the field, they need to avoid bad losses in the final week of games.

“Wichita State’s task is simple,” Palm said. “Beat everybody not named Houston. That’s the only team Wichita State can afford to lose to and still have a chance to make the tournament.”

If WSU can pick up a victory on Saturday, the Shockers will clinch their first American Athletic Conference regular season championship since joining the conference in 2017.

Palm said that regular season championships will not impact the committee’s decision making for at-large teams.

“Conference standings don’t matter to the committee, they do care about the actual conference champion in the sense that they need to know who

the automatic qualifier is,” Palm said.

“But how you perform in the league, how you finish in the league, doesn’t matter. If it did matter to them in other years, it wouldn’t matter to them this year because you have not only unbalanced conference schedules but an unbalanced number of games being played by teams in the conference.”

Palm said that WSU will be a difficult team for the committee to judge because of how few games they have played this season.

“They’ll be comparing a Wichita State team that played 16 games with teams in this part of the bracket that have more wins than that,” Palm said.

“When I talk about their resume being thin, it’s thin the sense of the actual accomplishment but it’s also thin in the sense that they haven’t had much of a chance to show.”

Currently, the metrics aren’t in favor of WSU as their NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) currently stands at No. 63 in the country. The Shockers are 2-3 in quadrant one games and 2-1 in quadrant two games.

Palm said that those metrics shouldn’t impact WSU’s chances of returning to the tournament.

“The metrics don’t matter and Wichita State people should know that,” he said. “In 2017, Wichita State fans and Gregg Marshall were killing me because I said they had to win the conference tournament to get in even though they were top-ten in KenPom SEE EXPERTS PAGE 7

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Shockers win first AAC Title

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

The Wichita State men’s basketball program has won it’s fair share of conference championships over the years, but the one that was clinched inside Charles Koch Arena on Saturday was unlike any other. With an 80-63 win against South Florida in their regular season finale, the Shockers won their first ever American Athletic Conference championship.

The team faced adversity throughout the year with six players transferring this offseason, an investigation into their former head coach and complications that came with the COVID-19 virus.But on Saturday, this year’s team became the first to win an AAC title since joining the conference in 2017.

“I’m so happy for the guys because they came here because of the winning basketball tradition, the tradition that all those former Shockers set by going to the NCAA Tournament, winning basketball games and that’s the reason they came here,” Interim Head Coach Isaac Brown said. “Those guys had a chip on their shoulder all year long when they got picked seventh. They wanted to compete and they wanted to battle and they stayed together through all that adversity and we were able to pull out

a championship this year.”

Out the gates this season, the Shockers dealt with complications from COVID-19 and started out the season 1-2 with losses coming to Missouri and Oklahoma State after being limited to eight players.

Brown said that the leadership shown was critical in the conference championship becoming a reality.

“The leadership and staying together after losses, I think that was huge,” Brown said. “Nobody pointed fingers going back to the Mizzou game, the Oklahoma State game.

Those guys came back in the next day ready to work and we kept learning from our mistakes.”

Since joining the conference in 2017, the Shockers had some talented teams including the 2017-18 that made the NCAA Tournament as a four-seed but none were able to complete the championship.

Brown said that it was special for this group to become the first to achieve this feat.

“I think this team is really special.

It’s the first team that we’ve had here that’s won an AAC Championship,” he said. “We’ve had some good teams over the years, we didn’t win it. This team, the way they stayed together, the leadership. I’m just so proud of those SEE CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE 6

6 | MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

SENIOR DAY

PHOTO BY KAYLEE STOUT/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State seniors pose with their framed jerseys after a game against South Florida during senior night at Charles Koch Arena on March 6.

WSU honors its four seniors following Conference Championship

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

A

s Wichita State hosted its final home game of the season on Saturday and wrapped up a conference championship, it also gave the team the opportunity to honor its seniors.

WSU had four seniors on its roster this season which included Alterique Gilbert, Trey Wade, Brycen Bush and Jacob Herrs. All four seniors will have the option to return next season as the NCAA is giving them an extra year of eligibility but Herrs and Bush have already announced they will be moving on after the season.

Here is what each of the four seniors had to say about playing their (possible) final game inside Charles Koch Arena:

ALTERIQUE GILBERT Gilbert spent the least amount of time at WSU amongst the group but his impact was felt immediately this season. Gilbert››› arrived at WSU through the graduate transfer route after playing the last four seasons at Connecticut.

“It’s just a blessing for me to wake up and play the sport of basketball,” Gilbert said. “Let alone

what I’m doing with this great group of guys, great coaching staff and I’m in a place I feel comfortable. That helps a lot. Now we’re just going to take it day by day, still focusing on everything we need to focus on and just enjoy this moment and then look forward to the conference tournament.”

Gilbert had his most healthy season of his career yet, playing in all 17 games this year. At the start of his college basketball career, Gilbert suffered a torn labrum and a shoulder injury that limited him to nine games in his first two seasons.

As a result, next week will be the first that he plays in a conference tournament.

“It was a great time for God to show his presence in my life,” Gilbert said. “For me, this is big, just to come here and win a conference championship. Now we’re on our way to the conference tournament, I’ll be playing my first conference (tournament) game. So, I’m just excited. Everyday for me it gets better.”

Gilbert said he has not made a decision for next year and is just trying to take things day-by-day.

“When I was younger, I used to worry about the future a lot,” Gilbert said. “It gave me a type of anxiety that I didn’t like. So I

always try to think in the moment.

When that time comes then I’ll make that decision.”

TREY WADE Wade spent the past two seasons with the Shockers after arriving as a junior college transfer.

Wade was joined by his younger brother, Trevin, on this year’s team.

Wade said that with all the adversity this year’s team faced it was nice to wrap it up with a conference tournament.

“Just all the adversity that we’ve been through and seeing how things turned out and still being on top. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’ve been through so much and we just stuck to the process. We stuck to it and believed in each other and just ran with it.”

On Thursday, Wade scored a career-high 23 points against Tulane. Head Coach Isaac Brown said Wade’s performance was a credit due to the hard work he puts in off the court.

“Even when he wasn’t shooting the ball well, he put in the work after practice, he would stay and shoot 200-300 jumpers,” Brown said. “I’m just so happy for him that he was able to put in the work and go out there and make some

shots tonight.”

Wade also is yet to announce his decision for next season but teammate Dexter Dennis said he’ll support each of the seniors no matter what decision they make.

“That would be special but I think it’d be special either way for me because whatever they choose to do is fine with me,” Dennis said.

“They’re just great people, great players. If they decide it’s their time then it’s their time. Either way I’m going to support them.”

BRYCEN BUSH Bush spent the past four season as a walk-on for the program after graduating from nearby Eisenhower High School. Like his older brother Zach, Bus also decided to become a walk-on at WSU. Bush said it was a great feeling to win a conference title in his final game as a Shocker.

“It’s an awesome feeling. I’m so happy and proud of my guys just everything we’ve been through this year, nobody thought we could do it. I think proving everybody wrong is something special.”

With the adversity that this year’s team has faced, Bush said this title will be something that’ll last a lifetime.

“It’s something I’ll definitely never forget and a bond with these guys that’ll last forever.”

JACOB HERRS Like Bush, Herrs spent the four years with the program as a walk-on after growing up in Andover. He said it was amazing to wrap up his career with a conference championhip.

“It feels amazing. I’ve never cut down a net, I’ve never won a ring in anything. We’ve had chances but we actually capitalized on it and this is one of the best days I’ve been a part of for sure.”

Sophomore Tyson Etienne said that the impact that Bush and Herrs left on this year’s team is invaluable.

“They’re invaluable,” he said.

“You can’t take away their value from our team. We aren’t conference champions without them because at the end of the day, they come to practice every day, they come to weights every single day, they come to the arena every single day with a great attitude, with lively spirits. Just to have the ability to call them teammates is something I’ll always cherish.I know that they’re going to be successful in whatever they do just on the way they carried themselves.”

PHOTO BY KAYLEE STOUT/ THE SUNFLOWER

Left: Wichita State senior, Trey Wade poses with his jersey after a game against South Florida on senior night at Charles Koch Arena on March 6.

Top: Wichita State seniors, Jacob Herrs and Brycen Bush hold their framed jerseys while they watch family videos on the big screen after a game against South Florida at Charles Koch Arena on March 6.

Right: Wichita State senior, Alterique Gilbert cuts the basketball net during senior night at Charles Koch Arena on March 6.

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

THURSDAY, MARCH 11

FRIDAY, MARCH 12

SATURDAY, MARCH 13

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021 | 7

SUNDAY, MARCH 14

Shockers await quarterfinals opponent in the AAC Tournament

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

With Wichita State sitting on the NCAA Tournament, a week before Selection Sunday, the AAC Tournament proves vital in the Shockers’ chances of returning to the big dance.

WSU is set to face off against the winner of Temple and South Florida, with the Shockers going a combined 3-0 against those teams in the regular season.

The Shockers swept a pair of matchups against USF but both games were much different. WSU

outlasted USF in a close overtime on the road. But in their regular season finale, WSU defeated the Bulls handily by 17 points.

WSU only matched up with Temple once this season as the Owls’ COVID-19 issues caused the second matchup to be canceled.

Head Coach Isaac Brown said that the team is getting healthy as they look to secure the automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.

“They’ve got an opportunity to do some great stuff heading into the conference tournament,” Brown said. “We’ll have Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler back, we’ve

got some guys healthy. So we’ll go down there and try to win that tournament.”

Even with the team collecting the regular season title, the team has remained focused on the next task.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet because there’s a lot more than needs to be done,” junior Dexter Dennis said. “It’s hard to celebrate when we have more games to play.

I think we’ll smell the roses for today and tomorrow and then it’s right back to work for us.”

Early on in the preseason, the Shockers were picked to finish

seventh in the conference but with the regular season title, they secured the one-seed for the conference tournament.

Dennis said that even with the championship, they are still looking to prove people wrong in the tournament.

“It’s tough because people get complacent. We’ve still got a lot of people to prove wrong. We’ve been proving people wrong since the beginning of this year. With this group, whether we win or lose, it’s on to the next task.”

In Saturday’s game against the Bulls the three-pointer was a huge

catalyst to the victory as the team went 11-27 from beyond the arc.

Brown said that the threepointer can be a game changer, especially heading into the conference tournament.

“Anytime you can make two or three in a row, the lead can go from zero to nine pretty quick,” Brown said. “Our guys have put in the work. They come in after practice and get up shots and it’s paying off.”

The conference tournament will be held in Fort Worth Texas at the Dickies Arena.

FROM EXPERTS PAGE 5

you’re counting on that good luck.”

The general consensus around the Shockers’ tournament chances is that WSU is in the field at the moment. According to BracketMatrix, WSU is a 12-seed in the tournament with the Shockers appearing in 90 of the 107 brackets.

John Gasaway, a college basketball insider for ESPN, said that number for WSU can be a scary one.

“It’s a solid 12 and this is true to a lot of teams, most teams this year,” Gasaway said. “There’s not a lot of disagreement of people trying really hard to get this right, not a lot of disagreement that Wichita State is one of the last teams in the field. There is the danger in other conference tournaments taking at-large bids off the table. It certainly looks a world better and more solid than it did before the Houston win.”

In the Shockers’ first two losses against Missouri and Oklahoma State, they were held to only eight players due to COVID-19 issues.

The losses won’t be viewed as “bad losses” by the committee but would’ve been helpful in building their resume.

Gasaway said that WSU’s limited number of players for its first two losses will be something the committee factors in when comparing other at-large teams.

“The thing about the committee is they are people and if you go through the mock selection exercise and to the best of my knowledge, they still do it this way,” Gasaway said. “If you know the team only had eight players for the three games or you know Illinois didn’t have Ayo Dosunmu or VCU doesn’t have their leading scorer then that drives how you rank those four or eight teams.

It drives it more than any official policies or procedures than the NCAA might have.”

With the AAC having a down season this year, the tournament provides chances for WSU to suffer a bad loss on their resume.

“The danger with the American, especially with a No. 1 seed is that it can expose you to bad losses. It is bad loss avoidance at the American tournament or conversely winning the tournament is the task at hand and then you don’t sweat this whole at-large discussion at all. You just go.”

FILE PHOTO BY MORGAN ANDERSON/ THE SUNFLOWER

The exterior of the Dickies Arena in Forth Worth, Texas.

COVID-19 precautions for the AAC Tournament

BY JOE BAKER joebakerwsu@gmail.com

The 2021 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference tournament takes place in Fort Worth, Texas this upcoming week.

Both the men’s and women’s basketball tournament will take place at Dickies Arena The women’s basketball tournament will take place on March 8-11. The men’s basketball tournament will take place on March 11-14.

Face coverings will be required by all guests to watch the tournament’s games. Fans will be expected to maintain social distancing throughout Dickies Arena.

Hand sanitizer dispensers will be available at Dickies Arena for all fans and employees.

In a Mar. 4 press release, the American Athletic Conference announced plans to provide a select amount of tickets to vaccinated frontline health care workers to attend both the women’s and men’s tournaments.

For the team, they are having to take specific precautions to limit the impact that COVID-19 could have on their tournament, One of the precautions they will be taking is that each players will get their own roommate.

“I’m not really sure about that.,” Head Coach Isaac Brown said before the Tulane game. “I know Todd, our trainer, told us that if one kid test positive and that’s your roommate, you are not allowed to play in the tournament, even if you don’t have COVID. So we’re putting

our guys in their own separate rooms. Normally they double up on the road.”

Earlier this season, the Shockers had some positive tests which caused WSU to be limited to eight players. For the players that were out they were not being tested within a 120 day time period.

“We’re starting that COVID test starting on Thursday and we’ll be testing every day,” Brown said.

“So we had like seven guys that wouldn’t have taken COVID tests because they were within the 120 days. Now all of those guys, every guy on the team, will be getting tested every day. So it’s kind of hyping it up a little bit for everybody now.”

25% capacity is the expected attendance limit for the 2021 Air

Force Reserve American Athletic Conference tournament.

Brown said earlier this season that one positive test could disqualify a team from the tournament.

“In the conference tournament, if you have one kid get COVID you’re not able to play. Any staff member, any walk-on, any player, if anybody involved with the basketball program has COVID you can’t go to the conference tournament. You’ve just got to get lucky and make sure nobody has it and everybody is taking care of the stuff off the court.”

The Shockers will kick off AAC Tournament play on Friday as the Shockers still await their quarterfinals opponent.

8 | MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

How Ricky Council IV has made an instant impact in his freshman season

BY JOE BAKER joebakerwsu@gmail.com/ @JoeBakerWSU

PHOTO BY KAYLEE STOUT/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State’s men’s basketball coach, Isaac Brown poses with athletic director, Darron Boatright during Brown’s coaching inauguration at Charles Koch Arena on March 1.

‘I’m going to give 110%’

Isaac Brown officially introduced as WSU’s next head coach

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com/@TheSeanMarty

Wichita State officially announced Isaac Brown as the team’s next head basketball coach during a press conference on Monday inside Charles Koch Arena.

Brown received the Interim Head Coach job following Gregg Marshall’s resignation. Since then, Brown has maneuvered the Shockers through a difficult season where they now sit atop of the American Athletic Conference standings with a 13-4 record.

“He was prepared for the moment,” Athletic Director Darron Boatright said. “Then you start to watch the success and prepare for conference games, it became clear. I spoke with Isaac several weeks ago and told him that not one game will get him this job and not one game will cost him this job. It’s too important to let something that is that vulnerable make the decision.”

Brown and WSU have agreed to an unofficial five-year contract but Boatright said they are still working on the details and are yet to make the contract official.

Originally, the plan was for the program to announce Brown’s promotion next week but with a pair of postponements, they decided to move it up a week.

“We planned on making this announcement early next week between the end of the regular season and the conference tournament, but to be honest with you, we moved it up a week because we lost a week of games and with the conversations going on nationally about us getting into the NCAA tournament, I didn’t want another weekend cycle to go by without our being in the conversation in some form or fashion,” Boatright said.

As he now shifts into the head coaching role, Brown said that he wants to continue the successful tradition in the years to come.

“I want to just be a good coach for this university,” Brown said.

“We have such a rich basketball tradition When I came here as an assistant, my ultimate goal was to be a head coach somewhere someday. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be the head

FROM CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE 5

guys and I’ll never forget about this.”

Sophomore Tyson Etienne led way for the Shockers in the victory with a game-high 21 points while going 6-15 from the field.

Etienne said he hopes this year’s team can become trendsetters for the program in future years.

“It feels great,” Etienne said while holding the trophy. “There’s been a lot of historical events happening for us this season and for us to raise the first banner in this conference at Wichita State after the lineage they had in the Missouri Valley. It’s definitely

PHOTO BY KAYLEE STOUT/ THE SUNFLOWER

Isaac Brown speaks to the press during the inauguration of his WSU men’s basketball coaching career at Koch Arena on March 1.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be the head coach at Wichita State. I’m going to give 100% every day.”

ISAAC BROWN Head Coach

coach at Wichita State. I’m going to give 110% every day.”

Brown said he is hopeful to turn the Shockers into a players-first program.

“In our first team meeting, we talked about those guys taking ownership of the team. I want it to be a players-first program.

They’re the reason we win.

They’re taking the shots, running up and down the floor, executing.

The coaching staff tries to make sure those guys are organized and set for every game. This is a players-first program and I just want to do a good job with those guys.”

Since taking over in November, Brown and the Shockers have endured some adversity this season. The team has only been limited to 11 conference games due to COVID-19 postponements and missed out on their opening tournament, as a result.

Brown said that he’s been focused on making sure the players were organized and prepared to compete throughout

something that’s beautiful. We hope to set the trend for many years down the line for this school in the AAC.” The Shockers were picked to finish seventh in the league’s preseason poll which helped give them some added motivation.

Etienne said that despite people doubting the team, winning a championship remained the goal.

“The goal is to win championships. It’s not to be No. 1 in January, it’s not to be No. 1 in December. I believe that the leaders and the coaching staff continue to harp on that every single day, not being complacent, not taking a shortcut.

I think that’s what paid dividends

this season.

“I was just enjoying the challenge with it being my first time as a head coach,” Brown said. “I just wanted to make sure I was prepared and doing everything possible to have these guys ready to play. I give it up to the players because they have executed and have done everything they needed to do on the court and off the court, taking care of themselves and the community. I’m just excited about the opportunity.”

Brown has spent the last six years as an assistant coach on WSU’s coaching staff before receiving his promotion. On Monday, Brown credited his coaching staff in helping him throughout this transition.

“Those guys give 110 percent every day,” he said. “With a staff, you want guys you can trust, and those guys are like brothers to me. It’s exciting these guys have an opportunity to win a championship.”

for us to stay locked in, especially dealing with all the cancellations we had to deal with during the last stretch in the season. For us to be able to do that was big.”

Junior Dexter Dennis along with Etienne were two of the six players that ended up returning this year, after the mass exodus in the offseason. In total, six players transferred out of the program along with the graduation of Jaime Echenique.

Dennis said the close relationships he’s made will be what he remembers the most from this year’s team.

“After last year we had four or five scholarship players left, a new

Despite his inexperience Wichita State guard Ricky Council IV has made a strong impact in his freshman campaign.

Ricky is the son to Rick and Ruth Council and has three older siblings who have experience playing basketball at the collegiate level.

Ricky Council II, his oldest brother, played his college basketball career at Providence and UMBC. His middle brother, Ricky Council III played his college basketball career at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M junior college.

His sister, Rhianna, is a redshirt senior guard at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Council said he received good advice from his siblings on what the collegiate basketball lifestyle is like, before stepping foot onto Wichita State’s campus.

“You have resources as far as the gym, trainers and weight training, all of that,” Council said. “Just use your resources that was the main thing I used to hear.”

Council, a North Carolina native, played his high school basketball career at Northern High School in Durham, N.C. Council was a 1,000 point scorer in his high school career and was a first team all-district and all-conference player, averaging nearly a double-double as a senior with 23 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

Council said the basketball talent in North Carolina is very impressive and the talent he played against had an impact on his improvements as a basketball player.

“We are known as one of the best basketball states in the country,” Council said. “Just playing there helped me get better.

(I) played against some pros and college stars, I played against a little bit of everybody and it just helped me to get better.”

Council was rated as a threestar prospect according to Rivals and 247 Sports. Council was sought after by many other Division-I schools and received many offers outside of Wichita State.

“University of North Carolina Greensboro, Old Dominion, UMBC, Elon,” Council said. “Some schools on the east coast pretty much, not really the bigger ones, they were contacting me, but never gave me an official offer.”

Ultimately, Council elected to take his talents to Wichita State and believes the combination of the situation, coaching staff and the American Athletic Conference is what swayed him to be a Shocker.

“I felt like it would be a good situation, good league,” Council said. “I like the league . . . I felt like it would give me a lot of exposure if I played well and the coaching. I trust the staff.”

In his first year in a Shocker uniform, Council said he has relied on his teammates for advice on and off the court.

“Dexter, Alterique, Tyson, Morris,” Council said. “They’ve all been a freshman and they’ve been through what I’m going through.

When I’m having a bad game or I’m not feeling too good, they’ll just be like stick with it, you got a bright future.”

group that came together so fast, a lot was riding on this year. IB got the coaching job, COVID, COVID cancellations. I think through all of that we just bonded a little bit better and faster than normal.

I think I’ll just remember the relationships the most.”

Even with the turnover in the roster this offseason, the Shockers were able to quickly form a tight bond and brotherhood within the group.

“I believe it’s a genuine brotherhood, genuine friendships that we have on this team,” Etienne said. “We all know that we had one goal and that goal was to win.

Everybody supported each other,

PHOTO BY KHANH NGUYEN/ THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State freshman Ricky Council IV looks to shoot during the game against ESU at Charles Koch Arena on Dec. 18.

On Feb. 26, Isaac Brown was officially announced as the Head Coach of Wichita State men’s basketball. Council believes that Brown has made a major impact on the freshman’s confidence and his game.

“He just pushes me and trust, that’s one thing I’m a freshman, to even put me out there is a big decision,” Council said. “The fact that he’s giving me the opportunity to play. I’m just happy about that.”

Council is averaging 7.5 pointsper-game along with 4.1 rebounds per game. The freshman guard has scored double-digit points in six games, including a career-high 23 points against Cincinnati on Jan. 10. Council is having a great start to his Shocker career and he isn’t surprised to how quickly his game has translated to the Division-I level.

“Confidence is key and I’ve had that from the jump, my whole life really,” Council said. “I felt like I’ve put the work in for sure. I’m just glad that I was given the opportunity, because if I wasn’t given the opportunity then nothing would be happening.”

Council had many goals he set prior to stepping foot on the hardwood floor at Charles Koch Arena. The six-foot-six guard had high expectations for himself and his team.

“I just wanted to be productive, I feel like I’m doing that,” Council said. “I wanted to just help my team go the furthest that we can in the NCAA tournament, that’s coming up and I’m really excited for that.”

Next up for the Shockers is the American Athletic Conference Tournament on Mar. 11-14 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Wichita State is the tournament’s number one seed and will play Friday March 12 at 11 a.m.

even when stuff was going a little bit left, we stayed together and knew you had to go through hard times to get to better spots.”

With the conference championship, WSU has earned the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament. The Shockers opponent is yet to be determined but there game is slated for 11 a.m. on Friday.

The AAC Tournament will take place in Forth Worth, Texas at Dickies Arena. The tournament will last from March 12-15 with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2020 | 9

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Opinion

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contact The Sunflower’s opinion editor, Audrey Korte opinion@thesunflower.com

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ILLUSTRATION BY KAYLEE STOUT / THE SUNFLOWER

Why Kansas should legalize marijuana Tabitha Barr A&E Editor arts@thesunflower.com

Spring is almost here which means the leaves will start to grow in plentiful amounts. So why not let marijuana be one of those leaves, Kansas.

Recently, Kansas lawmakers are having conversations about making medicinal and recreational marijuana legal. Some are open to the idea because of the positive effects it has for some people. However, there are others that don’t think it’s necessary.

As a person who suffers from anxiety and depression, I think making medicinal and recreational marijuana legal for Kansas would help a lot of problems that aren’t being solved right now.

Thirty-five states have made medical use of cannabis is legal and 14 states have made recreational use of cannabis is legal.

It also needs to be stated that 16 states have decriminalized its use.

Why is it that Kansas still hasn’t joined the others?

Marijuana can help so many through life and Kansans don’t seem to understand that. I think they still see it as a hardcore drug,

and not something that helps. It can relieve pain, physically and mentally for many people and it can treat certain symptoms of diseases. It can also be safer to treat sickness instead of other medications.

The money that is gained from legalizing it, it can then fund the areas that need help.

Education, roads, buildings, etc can all benefit from this.

I don’t understand why it has such a bad name tied to it. I’ve met so many people that feel better because of medicinal and recreational marijuana. They are more like themselves and they have a more positive outlook on life.

I think what people need to understand is that marijuana is not “the devil’s lettuce”, but something that aids a person through life. Whether that is through medicine or recreation, I think people need to realize that it’s just another tool. If people use it safely, then what’s the problem. There are always going to be those who abuse it, but that happens with everything.

I just hope that soon, Kansas recognises that making medicinal and recreational marijuana legal can help way more than it would hurt.

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One year ago today, we were unknowingly enjoying our last sense of normality.

One year ago this time, The Sunflower staff had a meeting where we brainstormed ideas and questions we had about the coronavirus.

Most of us thought that it was an overreaction.

We talked about student health, classes, foreign exchange students, international students, and more.

Now, one year later, the coronavirus is a part of our daily life.

One year ago, we could relax in the Rhatigan Student Center with friends, without masks, not worrying about a virus.

Just a few days later, we got an announcement that we were moving online for two weeks. A couple days later, it was changed to the entire semester.

Even now, as you walk around campus, you are reminded of the series of events that striked us a year ago. The once alive and bustling campus has been replaced with a much quieter and social distanced atmosphere.

The Rhatigan Student

STAFF

EDITORIAL Center— which was once the main hangout spot for students— has become a

“Even now, as you walk around campus, you are reminded of the series of events that striked us a year ago.” much less congregated place.

All tables are distanced— with many only allowing one chair.

The majority of students we have talked to hardly ever come to campus, a huge chunk of them only have online classes. What started as an extended spring break turned into a year of mask-wearing, keeping six feet apart from our neighbors, and waking up to new COVID case numbers every day.

Since that pivotal week when our world got turned upside down, nothing has

been the same especially within the Wichita State community.

In September, our president resigned. In November, our long-term head basketball coach resigned after allegations of abuse.

We have a different president, a new coach, and an entire new sense of normal.

We’ve lasted a year. For some, it’s been a year of growth and personal reflection. For others, it has been the worst year of their lives.

But just like when we went online unexpectedly last March— Many of us still have a lot of questions.

When will the university go completely in-person again?

When will it be safe to attend a party? When can we hug our loved ones safely?

Remember this time last year. Remember how fast things can change, and just how much we don’t realize that we sometimes want things to stay the same.

Let’s go into the next year with a new sense of hope, reality, and wide eyes for the future.

SUNFLOWER HOT TAKES The Sunflower editorial board gives their one-sentence opinions.

Lindsay Smith: Don’t put off your assignments til the last minute.

Sean Marty: Flat tires are dumb.

10 | MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2020

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Arts & Entertainment

HAVE A STORY IDEA? contact The Sunflower’s A&E editor, Tabitha Barr arts@thesunflower.com

Magician performs impossible tricks through a computer screen JULIA NIGHTENGALE copyeditor@thesunflower.com

The Student Activities Council hosted a virtual livestream on Friday, March 5, with the host Ran’d Shine, a world-renowned magician who has performed at colleges as well as at the 44th Presidential Inauguration Banquet and Ball.

Shine performed a variety of tricks, and started out the live show by performing some warm up exercises. By expertly moving a thimble from one finger to another on different hands, the audience was quickly drawn into the show to see the rest of his skills.

Shine also demonstrated his hypnotizing skills, by controlling the audience’s fingers to move closer and closer together just with the sound of his voice. Even though the event was not in-person, he was still able to connect with the audience throughout the entire show. Many tricks involved having audience members participate, such as when he asked an audience member to pick his favorite card out of a deck.

“I don’t want you to guess what my favorite card is. I want you to use logic. I want you to use your instinct; trust your instinct,” Shine said.

Shine also took some time to tell the audience how he got into magic. Shine got interested in magic when he was in college at Penn State University. He was in the graduate program studying health education research, and every Tuesday he and his friends would meet in the Student Union and do card tricks, just for fun in

“In the early formation of this performance we call magic, magic and science coexisted. It was over the years they seperated, during the dark ages.”

RAN’D SHINE Magician

between classes.

After he received his Master’s Degree in health education research, he moved to South Africa and worked doing research. After a year, he came back to the United States and started working for the University of Pennsylvania doing behavioral intervention research on drug inheritance. At the same time, he was also working on his PhD at Drexel University.

“Many people ask me, how did I get started with magic . . . After a year and a half of doing all that I said, ‘I want to do card tricks for a living,’ and I quit my job, left the PhD program, and for the past sixteen years I have been performing card tricks. Twenty-seven different countries, three TV shows and more importantly I paid off all of my student loans doing card tricks,” Shine said.

Shine said he has been living by the same three principles ever since he became a magician; luck, faith, and skill. He represented those principles with three quarters, which he then made disappear and reappear with the snap of

SCREENSHOT

Magician Ran’D Shine performs a card magic trick during his virtual show Friday.

his finger.

As a magician, he also took the time to perform tricks that are mathematically impossible, without being able to predict the future. He had the audience pick numbers on a grid and then count them all up, and then impossibly pulled out the same number from an envelope that had been sitting on the table the entire show.

Shine took some time to talk about the history of magic, and incorporate it into his trick of moving holes on a card around just with his two fingers, with no possible explanation of the process.

“In the early, early, early formation of this performance we call magic, magic and science coexisted. It was over the years that they separated, during the dark ages. It’s a real fascinating history . . . This is the science part. Simply by rubbing my fingers together, that creates friction. Friction creates heat. Heat creates energy.

Basic science,” Shine said.

One of his best tricks was when he was able to guess the exact birthday of one of the audience members, as well as pulling out the exact same card of one of the audience member’s decks at home.

He saved one of his most suspenseful tricks for last, and effectively caught the attention of the audience for a grand finale.

“I’m about to perform, or attempt, something that isn’t a magic trick. It’s not a slight of hand, it’s not an illusion. What I am about to perform is quite dangerous . . . I have to stress that this is a skill that I am about to do, and it is a dangerous skill,” Shine said.

Shine put an unsolved miniature Rubik’s cube in his mouth, and had the audience count down from five and pulled it out completely solved. Just like magic.

Three alternatives Virtual career fair convenient to Dr. Suess for kids for students and employers

BY RACHEL LYONS @RAYLYONES

Read Across America was popular in elementary schools around the nation, and there was an intense focus on Dr. Seuss. Today, some of the images in those Dr. Seuss books are being considered ‘racist’ or ‘insensitive’. This revelation comes after America exploded with the Black Lives Matter movement. These criticisms of Dr.Seuss date back to 2017 according to EBSCOhost article dates.

The 2017 dates relate to a Librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts rejecting Former First Lady Melania Trump’s donation of Doctor Seuss books, with the claim that they were racist and starting the whirlwind we are experiencing today.

A good portion of the population has made the decision to ‘cancel’ Dr.Seuss books based on what Theodore Geisel did, and how characters of color are portrayed within the books.

Alternatives to Dr. Suess can be found all around.

“S IS FOR SUNFLOWER: A KANSAS ALPHABET” BY DEVIN AND COREY SCILLIAN

Rather than teaching the alphabet through the traditional approach of ‘A is for Apple, B is for Ball’, this book puts a Kansas spin on each letter. For example, ‘D is for Dodge City’ and “C is a colossal combine”. While the

sidebar information might be more appropriate for older kids seeking information about the state, the main portion of text on each page has an upbeat, vibrant feel that keeps the book moving along.

“ENEMY PIE” BY DEREK MUNSON This book is designed to teach children kindness, courtesy, respect and friendship.

It follows Jeremy Ross, a new child to the neighborhood, his father and how to deal with “enemies”. The importance of compassion and understanding can be applied to all children and adults.

“A BAD CASE OF STRIPES” BY DAVID SHANNON This book encourages kids to not only enjoy what makes them unique, but also to avoid peer pressure.

They might find themselves in a position like Camilla Cream where the only way to treat the stripes might be to partake in something that makes them feel like themselves again.

Overall, these recommendations are meant to be a starting place for finding alternatives to Dr.Seuss. While the characters may not include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) characters, they are books that everyone can learn from and gain character values by reading.

BY EMMIE BOESE @Emmie

Career fairs are an opportunity for college students to connect with future employers and even land a job in the future.

This year, Wichita State University held the Cooperative Education and Internship Fair on Wednesday, March 3.

Some of the benefits to having the career fair as a virtual event include no travel time or expenses for employers, and there is no limit on the amount of employers that can attend the fair. Some of the past employers that have attended this fair include AmeriCrops, Contec Americas, Datapath, U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and several others.

Sarah Muzzy, Shocker Career Accelerator Director said students will need to take several steps in order to prepare for the event. These steps include researching the companies attending, having a short

introduction ready, highlighting strengths with examples, and having questions ready to ask employers. Muzzy encourages students to attend these events.

“We would always like to see all students take advantage of our virtual career fairs. Career fairs are an excellent way to network with employers from all over the country,” Muzzy said.

Muzzy suggested additional tips in order for students to get ready for career fairs. She suggested that students sign up early, and go for a resume check-up.

Muzzy also said how the event is different and similar in a virtual versus in-person platform.

Virtual and traditional fairs are similar,” Muzzy said. “The main difference between the two is the virtual fair is held on an interactive platform in an online format using a computer. Each virtual fair requires students to RSVP and sign up for group sessions and one-on-one sessions with an employer.”

Students can view the event page on the Wichita State website or look on the Handshake guide.