by Kevin Burton
Tomorrow Mike Kennedy will call his final regular-season game after 46 years as the voice of Wichita State basketball.
This is one of those blog ideas that showed up on the spreadsheet long ago. But it keeps moving down the page. I’m having trouble delivering it.
I don’t want to write it, I don’t want to read it, I don’t want to hear it.
I don’t want to believe it.
But the man is 77. He does Shocker baseball too, so we’ll have him for that this year.
My original blog idea was “Mike Kennedy is retiring and I’m retiring with him,” meaning I would stop listening to Shocker basketball.
“When he signs off, I will tune out,” I wrote.
Well I am not sure I will stick to that. But with Kennedy leaving, the timing is right.
Shocker basketball, college basketball itself, just isn’t what it used to be, even a few years ago. What has changed?
For one thing, wildly successful but scandal plagued coach Gregg Marshall was forced out in 2020 and WSU stopped winning regularly. But even more than that, the sport itself changed – to the point that if Marshall were magically restored to the position, bygones be bygones, I’m not sure he could do what he did before.
Not that winning is everything. But it helps.
In this era of college sports, players are paid for their services. That is as it should be. But now players move from team to team just about every year chasing the highest NIL dollars.
Before you might have a player or two transfer from year to year. Many years no one would leave. Now almost everybody does.
So I tuned in to the new Shocker season having never heard of any of the principal players. It’s hard to care whether they win or lose when I don’t know who they are and can be pretty sure I never will.
Also, in January, The FBI charged multiple current and former college basketball players with point shaving – underperforming in order to fix games.
“The indictment states that more than 39 college basketball players on at least 17 Division I teams “fixed and attempted to fix” over 29 games.,” wrote Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.
“We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors who fixed gains across the country,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.
All the players listed were from mid-major or smaller schools. One school from Wichita State’s conference – Tulane – was included in the alleged point shaving.
So now I’m listening to games played by people I don’t know and I’m not sure the game outcomes are legitimate.
Shocker basketball has been the most fun sports ride I have ever had. When my Cincinnati Reds had a historically great team in the 70s, that was a blast. Ohio State football has been an obsession, especially the 2002 championship team.
I loved the 1995 “Refuse to Lose” Seattle Mariners, who authored my all-time favorite half inning of baseball in their Game 5 Division series win over the hated Yankees.
I loved the astroturf Royals and Cardinals of the 70s and 80s and stayed with them through the years.
I have even latched onto Manchester United to some degree, in English Premiership Soccer.
But for sustained intensity of devotion, there has been nothing approaching my fever for Shocker basketball. And it was all brought to me by Kennedy, via KEYN radio in Wichita.
Wichita State honored Kennedy during halftime of the Feb. 22 game vs. Temple. They unveiled a banner featuring his name and likeness which will forever hang from the rafters at Koch Arena.
The Shockers have been to the Sweet 16 three times since I moved back to Kansas, including one trip to the Final Four, an unbelievable achievement for the likes of Wichita State.
For years the Shockers were the fun team on your March bracket, because more than likely they were going to knock off one or two of the big boys (Arizona, Gonzaga….KANSAS?).
But times have changed. And this good thing, like all others, is coming to an end.
“This has not been an easy decision, as you can imagine, but after a great deal of thought and consideration, I know in my heart, it’s the right time to take this step,” Kennedy said of his retirement decision.
“At the forefront of my decision is a desire to be able to spend more time with my family. I have been truly blessed to do something I love for a university I love for 46 years now,” Kennedy said. “Over that time, there have been so many great moments and memories, but above all, has been the opportunity to develop so many longstanding relationships and friendships with coaches and administrators, student-athletes, fellow broadcasters, and the fans.”
“Shocker Nation, your support, encouragement, and kind words are a huge part of what’s made my work and my life so enjoyable and so gratifying, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. “
This year’s Shocker team is pretty good (20-10). If they win tomorrow the team will qualify for a triple-bye, into the semi-finals of the American Athletic Conference post-season tournament. That means just two tournament wins would send them to the NCAA tournament.
I always want that for WSU. This year I want it bad, for Mike Kennedy.
The team is plenty good enough that they should easily qualify for an NIT bid, should it fall short of the big dance.
So the basketball portion of Kennedy’s magnificent Hall-of-Fame career will almost certainly end in the post-season.
Wishing nothing but the best for Mike Kennedy the full-time family man.
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