March 21, 2016

the

SUN FLOWER MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

VOLUME 120, ISSUE 51

THESUNFLOWER.COM

Two students report attack by alleged Trump supporter ANDREW LINNABARY

Fashion show raises money for Flint water crisis | PAGE 3

End of an era 65 | 57

REPORTER

@linnabary

Two Wichita State students allege that a man shouting racial insults physically attacked them early on the morning of March 12 near the WSU campus.

“It was a gut-wrenching scene that I will never forget. I’ve never felt that helpless or faced that kind of humiliation,” Khondoker Usama said.

Usama — Wichita State’s student body vice president, who is Muslim — said he and his Hispanic friend, who would like to remain anonymous, stopped at the Kwik Shop at 21st and Oliver streets for gasoline and snacks.

Usama spoke about the incident during a news conference last week at the Kwik Shop.

As they were coming back to their car, they saw a white man on a motorcycle shouting at an African American man who had asked for money, Usama said.

The man then started using other racial slurs, Usama said, and then turned his attention to Usama and his friend. Usama said the man drove up and stopped in front of them.

“He pushed my friend and yelled at him, calling him brown trash and telling him you have to leave this country,” he said.

Usama said his friend then told the man: “This is my country.

Who are you to tell me that?”

Tension escalated quickly, Usama said.

“I was just watching. I tried to defuse the situation, but in vain.

The attacker started punching my friend’s face. My friend dodged a few punches, but one connected, and he took my friend to the ground,” Usama said.

Usama said he then tried to restrain the man, but couldn’t.

He said after seeing the man reach into his pocket he took out his phone and called 911.

“While I was waiting for dispatch the person kept kicking my friend,” Usama said.

He said the attacker shouted, “Trump, Trump, Trump,” and, “We’ll make America great again.

We’ll throw you over the wall.”

The attacker left as they waited for police to arrive, he said.

Upon arrival, the police took reports from Usama and his friend. Wichita Police released surveillance video last week of the altercation. Visit thesunflower.com to watch the footage.

SEE ATTACK • PAGE 2 WATCH IT ONLINE Visit thesunflower.com to view surveillance video of the altercation.

Photo by Manny De Los Santos

Shocker players get emotional after a 65-57 loss against Miami in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

Miami steals second half comeback, Shockers fall in Round of 32 EVAN PFLUGRADT SPORTS EDITOR @evpflu

P

rovidence, Rhode Island — Fred VanVleet likes to steal a lot of things.

In the first half of Saturday’s second-round game, he stole two possessions away from Miami’s fifth-year veteran backcourt of Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan — doing so, he surpassed Jason Perez as the school’s all-time steals leader.

But on Saturday, there was one thing he couldn’t steal — a Sweet 16 appearance.

A first half of uncharacteristic offense, Wichita State fell into a 21-point deficit — an eventual 65-57 loss. Miami’s fifth-year senior point guard, Rodriguez, picked off back-to-back steals and raced down the court for uncontested layups, he finished with four steals and a game-high 28 points.

He scored the last 10 points of the game. WSU found ways to pressure Miami — improving on their 1-10 shooting performance to start the game and forcing 16 turnovers — narrowly trimming the lead again and again.

VanVleet collected four steals and used crafty offense to toss in a challenged layup. Full court pressure prompted a Shaq Morris fast break dunk, and a Baker three gave Wichita State a brief 57 second advantage — as close as VanVleet and Baker could get to extending their history-making four and five-year careers.

The center of debate for much of the NCAA Tournament talk has been about experience, and for

Photos by Manny De Los Santos

(LEFT) Senior Ron Baker gets set against the Miami offense Saturday. Baker finished the game with 11 points, two assists and two steals. (RIGHT) Senior Fred VanVleet drives to the paint against Miami on Saturday. At the end of the game, VanVleet had 12 points, five assists, five rebounds and four steals.

the first time all season, veteran seniors Ron Baker and VanVleet stepped onto the court with a backcourt equally as experienced.

After 40 minutes, fifth-year seniors Rodriguez and McClellan extended their season another week, and the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 and 2 scoring and assist leaders, Ron Baker and VanVleet, walked off the court for their 13th (tournament record) and final NCAA Tournament games.

“A couple of years ago, I told Fred that we would be back in the Final Four after we lost to

Louisville walking down the tunnel, and I wasn’t able to keep that promise to him,” Baker said.

“The feeling right now, it’s not fun. I feel disappointed. I feel like I disappointed my teammates, my family.”

Baker, eyes red and cloudy, showed expressions of sentiment, memories of his five-years experience racing through his head one by one. Next to him, VanVleet sat in disbelief. He had yet to be fazed by the end of his career.

“It’s all good when it’s all good,

and when you lose, you’ve got to wear it,” VanVleet said. “It’s been a hell of a ride, I’m not looking forward in my future to anything else, just want to appreciate these guys, our fans and the program.

I’m going to be enjoying this moment.”

VanVleet finished as the program’s career assist and steals leader — named a two-time Missouri Valley Player of the Year, he finished with 120 career wins in a Shocker jersey, tied with Tekele Cotton as the program’s all-time winningest. And as determined as the program’s all-time win leader would be, VanVleet said the one thing on his mind was planning to watch film on Saturday’s game and prepare for the next round, an opportunity that will never be.

“We did it together, we fought back together,” VanVleet said.

“We had each others’ backs throughout the whole experience, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I want to thank everyone I’ve ever played with in my four years, and thank all the coaches and especially Shocker Nation.”

Gregg Marshall took his time leaving the locker room. He wiped tears from his face before gingerly walking to a post-game press conference. At the presser he looked at VanVleet, then to Baker, and back again — concerning himself with memories, and painfully noting his final moments with each one of his seniors, he fought to hold back tears once again.

SEE ERA • PAGE 4

Digital caliper levels playing field for blind pre-med student CHANDLER OCHOA

REPORTER

@chandlerwilli11

Senior computer science major Daryl Claassen thought building a digital caliper for a blind student was going to be a weekend project.

“It’s never as easy as it looks, but also there are a lot of things you actually don’t know until you start getting your hands dirty with a project,” said Claassen, an Army infantry veteran and Airborne soldier.

After almost a month, Claassen and engineering students Richard St Aubin and Vlad Holovan finished the caliper and created a level playing field for pre-medical student Emily Schlenker. A caliper is a device that measures the distance between two opposite sides of an object.

“This gives me the opportunity to systematically take data and do it independently,” Schlenker said.

Schlenker was born blind. Many of her science classes require the device, which made classes difficult or impossible for her to

take because it required being able to read the devices measurements.

“I don’t want to feel like other students are doing the bulk of the hands-on work for me,” Schlenker said.

Schlenker now uses the caliper in her physics laboratory, and plans to take an anthropology class next semester because of her new device.

The caliper is “game-changing” for Schlenker, who wants to be an osteopathic doctor in a rural or underserved setting.

The digital caliper is one less barrier for Schlenker as she pursues a higher education as a mother and neuromuscular massage therapist. Finding textbooks in braille and the low expectations people have for blind students are other obstacles she faces daily.

The closest replica of the device on the market is about $900.

Claassen and his team made their caliper for less than $50.

SEE CALIPER • PAGE 2

Photo by Jessica Green

Senior Emily Schlenker, a blind pre-medical student, demonstrates how her new digital caliper takes measurements for her and sends them to an audio program on her iPad.

PAGE 2 | OPINION THE STAFF:

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief Shelby Reynolds

New York City is not a place

Managing Editor Danielle Prewitt Multimedia Editor Jessica Green Sports Editor Evan Pflugradt Opinion Editor Alex Perry Special Sections Editor Chandler Ochoa Production Editor Jillian Clough Social Media Manager Chelsea Moore

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MONDAY, MARCH 21

COLUMN BY

CHANCE SWAIM

I never thought I would go to New York City — I’ve never had a reason, and I’ve never had

the money.

Over spring break, The Sunflower gave me the opportunity.

My official business in New York was a collegiate media conference. Jessica Green, Evan Pflugradt, Emily Maslow, and I, all members of The Sunflower staff, and Jessica Bertapelle, our faculty advisor, spent part of our spring break together at the Sheraton Hotel in Times Square for the College Media Association’s National College Media Convention.

After a three-hour drive to Kansas City and an almost three-hour flight, we finally touched down at LaGuardia airport in New York City. I began seizing mental images and stowing them away for later use.

I could fill notebooks with the descriptions I gathered: the sheer scale of the city, its looming skyscrapers, the glaring glass and steel goliaths, taxi-cars pulsing through midday Manhattan shadows, business-clad pedestrians pausing for crosswalks, steam rising from manhole covers, street venders, meats on sticks and the subway vibrating the sidewalk, a city below a city.

We spent our mornings and afternoons in informational sessions and spent our evenings roaming.

Our first night in the city, we walked Times Square. Costumed Disney characters accosted small children for photos, a crowd of hundreds surrounded a fullgrown man in a man-sized diaper with an oversized baby head mask, billboards dazzled across skyscrapers, and a band of men in kilts filled the square with music from their bagpipes.

We ate fold-in-half, brick oven

Photos by Jessica Green

(TOP) Times Square is crowded with college students in attendance for the Collegiate Media Conference in. (ABOVE) From left to right, Sunflower staff members Chance Swaim, Emily Maslow, Jessica Green and faculty adviser Jessica Bertapelle prepare for a boat tour of New York City. Before the tour, they attended informational sessions at the Collegiate Media Conference to enhance their journalism skills.

pizza with wafer-thin crust and juicy strands of mozzarella cheese, and followed it up with hulking slices of New York cheesecake. By the end of the night, I drank four cups of coffee. (Sidenote for coffee

drinkers: if you visit Times Square, know that it has only one public restroom, which is in the back of the biggest McDonald I’ve ever seen. And there’s a line.)

Our second day in New York

we made time to visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum, located at Ground Zero. I remember watching the World Trade Center buildings fall in real-time at school, but when something is on TV, it’s never entirely real.

Standing on the bedrock in the shadow of where the towers fell, for the first time the terrorist attacks of 15 years ago felt entirely real and immediate.

That night, we caught a ride to Chinatown. We walked past sacks of salted fish on the sidewalks and roasted chickens hanging in shop windows. We ate an assortment of appetizers and entrées at a Chinese restaurant called Mission. The menu was vague and our meals were expensive but delicious.

Our last night there, we took a boat cruise around the city, but it was raining. The boat had a buffet and a dancefloor, so it all worked out and added a dimension of beauty seeing the Statue of Liberty and the lights of the city out of a rain-streaked window.

I’ve been back in Wichita since Wednesday. I’m still affected. The food, the buildings, the museum, the traffic — you’re there and then you’re gone and it seems like make believe.

Since I’ve been back, I keep getting the same questions from people who have never been: How was New York? What was it like?

To a writer, the word ‘indescribable’ is an affront, especially when the thing you’re trying to describe is the most famous city in the world. But I’ve been having a hard time coming up with a description to fill in the blanks of such an emblematic city.

New York City is not a place but an experience. Sure, it’s glitz and it’s hustle, but it’s also something else entirely.

What did I learn? I’m not sure. But I felt a lot of things.

Feelings, I think, that are reason enough to go back.

International Women’s Day shows there is still a long way to go to reach equality International Women’s Day, recognized March 8 each year, is a day in which COLUMN BY we are VICTORIA encouraged to HENDRICKS celebrate women in all their glory — their contributions and rights as members of the human race.

The United States observes many rights of women. We (if we are lucky) don’t have to ask our husband’s permission to leave the home, we can drive and we may play sports. We can also embrace our bodies however we choose.

However, despite these advances, we still have a long way to go.

According to CNN, 84 percent of countries, including Afghani-

CALIPER

stan, have clear stipulations and guidelines in their constitutions promoting and ensuring gender equality. The U.S., alarmingly, does not. Haven’t we learned anything? The fact that this principle is absent from the basic text, which we look to as a country, is scary. If we ignore women’s right in the constitution, where else do we overlook women?

The answer? Almost everywhere.

One of these is in the issue of maternity leave. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. At the same time that we are ridiculed and criticized for going to work immediately after delivering a baby, we are also ridiculed and criticized for staying at home, unable to make any money.

Unlike the United States, France

guarantees 16 weeks of maternity leave and 26 weeks if the woman is giving birth to her third child.

Estonia gives two years. America is the one of four high-income countries in the world without this.

That’s embarrassing.

Speaking of income, the U.S. ranks 65 out of 142 in wage equality. The top countries that practice this are Egypt, Russia, Thailand, Honduras and Ethiopia. Women only make 78 cents to the dollar in 2013 compared to men in almost every occupation.

This is disturbing and unfair, especially for women of color, where the margin is even larger — 68 cents to the dollar compared to men for working Hispanic females.

And speaking of jobs, in terms of leadership, women hold only

20 percent of seats in Congress, and four men to every one woman is on a board in the 500 biggest corporations in the U.S. versus Norway, where they have taken measures to instill quotas for corporate board seats (40 percent must be filled by women).

Norway inspired Spain and the Netherlands to follow suit.

Women in Norway also make up 40 percent of Parliament.

And don’t even get me started on healthcare and reproductive health, in which simply being a woman is a pre-existing condition, and the “Pink Tax” is a tax on luxury items such as tampons because, you know, that’s a luxury for women.

While we have made some strides, we have a significant way to go before we become a truly gender-balanced world.

ATTACK

FROM PAGE 1

FROM PAGE 1

“This device is super cheap so if you want to streamline it, it’s pretty easy,” Holovan said.

Claassen and his team created the digital caliper by connecting its LCD display to a Bluetooth device on an iPad or iPhone.

Schlenker can turn on voiceover and the accessibility features to read the measurement aloud to her.

Other than getting reimbursed for the parts to make the caliper from the WSU Foundation, Claassen has not received any academic credit or financial reimbursement for his time and effort.

“I strongly believe that they need to have college credit for this kind of work because this thing is going to change so many classes for me,” Schlenker said.

Claassen spent nearly 80 hours working on the caliper, and he still hopes to make some improvements.

“We are not necessarily finished at this point,” Claassen said. “We want to make it better.”

WSU President John Bardo released a statement about the attack to students, faculty and staff March 14 by email.

“Wichita State University stands with the majority of Kansans in condemning all acts of anger and violence motivated by racism and intolerance,” the statement read.

“At WSU, we constantly strive to build an environment where a diversity of culture, thought, experience and opinion can coexist in harmony. This core value is vital to the success of the university and to the nation as a whole.

“We would ask that the community keep this in mind as debate and discussion continue during a heated presidential election season.”

In his statement, Bardo encouraged students, faculty and staff to make use of the Counseling and Testing Center in Grace Wilkie Hall, 316-978-3440, if they have experienced violence. He also welcomed ideas and comments about diversity on campus on the Web page of the university’s newly formed Diversity Council.

Moussa Elbayoumy, Kansas

Photo by Jessica Green

Two Wichita State students were attacked by an alleged Trumpt supporter at a Kwik Shop on 21st and Oliver on March 12.

chair of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said this was clearly an unprovoked act of hate and that the police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

“We have seen people seeking office using this rhetoric of hate to get cheap votes. We are calling upon all politicians, in particular Trump, to deplore this and any similar instance,” Elbayoumy said.

Rabbi Michael Davis, a Global Faith in Action board member, said all words and actions have consequences.

“Racism, hatred and bigotry lead

to lynching, the Holocaust, bombings, destruction and death,” Davis said.

Usama also commented about how the incident affects not only him, but also the country.

“In this great nation we talk about freedom of speech and religion, but if we allow this kind of hatred toward each other then we can’t make America great again,” Usama said. “America is great when our civil rights are protected, not when people are verbally or physically abused because they’re different.”

MONDAY, MARCH 21

www.thesunflower.com

PAGE 3 | NEWS

Engineering professor receives grant for research on invasive species

CHANDLER WILLIAMS

REPORTER

@chandlerwilli11

Esra Buyuktahtakin Toy attributes her success to her parents.

While in elementary school, her parents got rid of the TV, and her dad, who was an engineer, always helped her with her homework.

“We used to work on problems together, and in that way I started to love mathematics, which brought me to the engineering area,” Toy said.

Last month, Toy received the

National Science Foundation Career Award, a $500,000 grant given to junior faculty to help them develop Esra Buyuktahtakin Toy their research and educational goals.

Since 2011, Toy has been an assistant professor at Wichita State in industrial and manufacturing engineering, teaching

optimizations courses and running the Systems Optimization and Analytics Lab. The five-year grant will help Toy support her students, purchase equipment and attract more women to engineering.

“The funding is an important aspect, but the prestige of the award is more than the funding itself,” Toy said.

To apply for the grant, Toy spent a majority of the summer filling out the application and a 15-page proposal that includes a budget, bio-sketch, bibliography and a letter from the department

chair. Of the 81 institutions across 36 states that entered the competition, only 146 engineering faculty across the nation received the grant.

Toy’s research — titled “CAREER: Dynamic Invasive Species Control Optimization Via Integrated Education and Research” — focuses on designing optimal resource allocation strategies for controlling invasive species with limited resources. Toy said species brought from outside a habitat kills natural species and can take over lands, which can

be a threat to humans.

An example is buffalo grass in Arizona, which is flammable and grows fast.

“So, I am trying to achieve to design optimal intervention strategies to control these invasive species with limited resources,” Toy said.

Toy also plans to use the grant to visit high schools and talk about engineering to women and minorities.

“It always feels impossible until you get it,” Toy said.

“Once you get it, I felt very happy, very excited.”

Students collect donations for Flint water crisis with fashion show

Photo by Manny De Los Santos

Senior psychology major Kerri LaMarche views projects March 10 by junior social work students Christine Wagner, center, and Rick Ringel, right. Wagner and Ringel created posters about the Flint, Michigan water crisis for their Intro to LGBT Studies course.

Class project highlights issues students feel passionate about ANDREW LINNABARY

REPORTER

@linnabary

Sarah Newcomer encourages her students to take action for their beliefs.

“I want my students to harness their passion and funnel it toward positive change,” she said.

Newcomer, a Friends University graduate and first-time teacher at Wichita State, said her course, Intro to LGBT, is as much a lesson in advocacy as it is a history lesson.

She teaches in the women’s studies and religion department.

“There’s a lot of students who have never done advocacy,” Newcomer said. “They’ve got a lot of passionate ideas but they’ve never had an opportunity to voice them.

The way we’re going to make changes is if students are affected emotionally.”

Newcomer asked her 36 students to choose a societal issue and to create a poster detailing the issue for a midterm advocacy project. The class presented their posters March 10 in Lindquist Hall.

The guidelines required focusing on a marginalized population, Newcomer said.

“I think in general, people don’t think about these issues. It’s out of sight, out of mind, especially when it comes to marginalized populations,” Newcomer said.

She said she was thrilled with the extent her students took the project.

Junior social work majors Rick Rangel, Sharon Troutman and Christine Wagner advocated for the Flint, Michigan water crisis for their project. They illustrated Flint’s lead poisoned water with brown-tinted water bottles taped to their poster.

“As the water comes from the river, it’s clean until it gets to the plant,” Rangel said.

“It’s when it goes from the plants to the homes that the lead contaminates the water. The sad part is the city still requires people to pay their water bill when they’re getting water like this.”

Rangel said his group will be involved in an on-campus rally for Flint in April.

Junior musical theater majors Hannah Fernandez and Caleb Reich advocated for

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the Wichita Women’s Crisis Center, which provides help for abused or exploited women, for their project. In addition to their poster, Fernandez and Reich are putting on a cabaret show of the musical “Chicago” to raise money and awareness for the Crisis Center.

“April is sexual assault awareness month,” Fernandez said. “‘Chicago’ is all about women who have been mistreated and who stand up and get their independence. We decided it was a good opportunity to benefit the community.”

The cabaret will be at 7:30 p.m. on April 2 at the Heskett Center.

Leeah Webb, a sophomore studying integrated marketing communications, and Courtney Galliher, a senior women studies major, focused their project on gender language.

“You always assume a doctor or a professor is a male. Male is always the default. But a lot of times it’s a female and I think it really discredits women,” Webb said.

Their poster displayed phrases such as ‘hey man’ and ‘hey guys,’ which Webb said can be off-putting to people unsure about their gender identity.

“This is something I’ve been continuing trying to work on. Nobody really realizes it could be offensive. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing, but I think learning and trying to change your habits can help,” Webb said.

Some of the other topics included gender-neutral bathrooms, LGBT police officers and the wage gap for women.

“It really blows my mind how far some of these students took this,” Newcomer said. “It just shows how passionate they are and that they have it in them. They just need to be nudged a little bit. This project allowed them to do that. I’m so proud of my students. I’m really blown away.”

Newcomer said these issues need unity, and that the country can’t be divided.

“Division just hurts things in general,” she said. “I don’t think there will ever be any real solutions until we learn to love each other.”

Photos by Manny De Los Santos

A fashion model poses for the audience March 10 night at the “My Black is Beautiful” fashion show at Beggs Ballroom inside the RSC. The fashion show was hosted by the Wichita State Black Student Union in an effort to raise money for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

* Excludes Holidays. $10 for 3D. Does not include Directors Suite.

353 North Mead Street • WarrenOldTown.com

** $8 for 3D. Does not include Directors Suite.

PAGE 4 | SPORTS

MONDAY, MARCH 21

www.thesunflower.com

1

4

2

Photos by Manny De Los Santos

1. An emotional Shocker fan watches WSU fall to the Miami Hurricanes, 65-57. 2. Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker sit in a press conference after the Round of 32 loss. 3. Redshirt sophomore Conner Frankamp attempts to block a shot against Miami’s Angel Rodriguez. 4. Redshirt sophomore Shaq Morris attempts a contested lay-up Saturday.

3

ERA

FROM PAGE 1 “They’ve taken us on — I call it a magic carpet ride,” he said. “They’re tremendous professionals on and off the court. They handle their business like pros, and I’m deeply indebted to them, as we all are.”

Behind a closed locker room was silence, faces staring at the floor, players drooped back in their lockers. Senior Evan Wessel sat on a fold-out chair ahead of the group, choking on tears he thought of five-year segment of his life coming to a close.

“All the adversity we dealt with this year, and the last five years, to come up short of our expectations, it’s tough,” he said.

“When you give your life to the game of basketball, you put all your energy and passion into it, you put your life on the line every night, it’s tough to see it end like this.”

Wessel dodged questions about his future, and remembed the brotherhood that has taken him in since he stepped into a two-room dorm with Baker five years ago.

“It’s been a hell of a run, a lot of memories, great moments, moments I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Wessel said.

“This game has brought my family closer together, it has brought the whole community together, it’s an amazing thing what basketball can do for you. This last game won’t change anything. I love these guys for life.

“It means everything to play for Wichita State. I’m a Shocker for life.”

Senior Anton Grady tried to look up, but he couldn’t. His eyes hung, fixated with the tile. He couldn’t decipher whether or not he was taken in by the loss, or astonished at the experience.

“I’m appreciative of everything about this year, I appreciate these guys for giving me the experience to play in this tournament, this is all I ever wanted,” he said.

“I’m thankful to have worn the same jersey with every player on this team, to be able to play next to every last one of these guys I’m so grateful.”

Grady played for his first time in March since a single NIT Tournament bid at Cleveland State. He played in three NCAA Tournament games before ending his five-year college career.

“It’s great for these guys to carry me

along with them. I enjoyed this more than anything,” he said. “I am also thankful for the support the fans gave me, when I was injured, when I was on the court. All the support and the way they embraced me, I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Underclassmen forwards Morris and Rashard Kelly looked over at Grady teary-eyed and regretful. Morris said his focus game by game was to continue extending Grady’s lifelong dreams of NCAA Tournament success.

“It’s more than a tournament for him,” Morris said. “He’s worked his whole life for this.”

Grady was recognized by his teammates as a leader, one who educated others on how to play with passion. A fifth-year senior, Grady faced countless marks of adversity. In November he was temporarily parilyzed with a spinal concussion. In four years at Cleveland State, he battled injuries to his knees, ones that never gave him the chance to build a lengthy string of success.

At Wichita State he preached to cherish the moment, knowing those moments could go away in a brief second.

“Day in and day out you always see a lot of passion out of Anton,” Kelly said. “He’s been through a lot of adversity in his life. If you don’t have basketball going perfect for you, it’s the end of the world. He taught you that if that’s not going good for you, it doesn’t mean your life isn’t perfect.

“That’s my big brother, he helped me grow up a lot on and off the court, and I couldn’t appreciate him more for that. It hurt to see him go down like this.”

Morris looked up at the name plates hanging on the lockers in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. He said it would be weird for him to think about a locker room where the names Baker, Wessel and VanVleet aren’t hanging up next to his own.

“I’m thinking about taking their nameplates,” he said. “It’s nothing we can hold onto forever — we know that, but it’s hard for me to let go.”

Their name plates will be gone; the only remains of No. 23, 31 and 3 in Koch Arena will be fans who sport old jerseys and T-shirts — no easy dose of reality WSU fans or players want to swallow.

“I love these guys,” Morris said. “They’ve been great to play with. Their legacy is still going to live on, their leadership has already passed on. We’re still going to be Wichita State.”