Wichita State has lost three of its past five basketball games. The Shockers have lost three conference games for the first time in five years with still a month to play in the regular season.
Dominance like the kind Wichita State achieved recently in the Missouri Valley was not expected to be a given this season in the American Athletic Conference, but the Shockers have underperformed relative to their lofty preseason ranking with three losses to unranked foes in conference play: Houston (17-5), SMU (15-8) and Temple (12-10).
Are these natural growing pains for a team in a new conference, playing better competition?