Kansas bound: Gonzaga players have varying memories of prior trips to site of NCAA opener
Members of Gonzaga’s backcourt had mixed results during prior trips to Wichita, Kansas, the site of the team’s first-round NCAA Tournament game on Thursday against No. 9 Georgia.
Nolan Hickman’s athletic career took him there at the ripe age of 8 years old, but not for basketball purposes. Hickman was a nationally acclaimed sprinter, traveling to southwestern Kansas for the 2011 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships.
“I’ve won in Kansas,” Hickman said. “I ran track, so 8 years old I won the Junior Olympics in that joint. I don’t mean to boast or nothing, but I was fast back in that day, I was fast. 100-meter, 200-meter. I won both, so I got two gold medals. I still have records of it. I’ve got the fastest 100 meter time at 8, so pretty cool.”
USATF archives still exist from the aforementioned junior track meet in 2011, when Hickman clocked 13.69 seconds in the 100-meter dash, claiming gold in the event. As of 2019, Hickman’s run was still an event record-holder for the “8 and under boys” age group.
“Something to throw out there for a flex,” Hickman quipped not long after learning the Zags would be headed to Wichita’s Intrust Bank Arena to open March Madness.
Fellow guard Khalif Battle doesn’t have the same fond memories from his first and only trip to Wichita.
During his first season at Temple, Battle and the Owls traveled to Wichita State and Intrust Bank Arena during American Athletic Conference play. Temple suffered a three-point loss in a game where Battle settled for just four points off the bench, making 2 of 14 shots from the field and 0 of 6 from the 3-point line.
The Owls and Shockers didn’t play the following season and Wichita State made the trip to Philadelphia during Battle’s junior year, winning 79-65 while holding the guard – then the AAC’s fourth-leading scorer – to zero points (0 for 4) in 17 minutes off the bench.
Fourth-year Gonzaga assistant Stephen Gentry is a native of Fort Scott, Kansas, located just 153 miles east of Wichita. Gentry, who came to Gonzaga as a walk-on and played four seasons for coach in the early 2000s, was a childhood Kansas Jayhawk fan and received his first recruiting letter from Wichita State during his standout prep career at Fort Scott High School.
“Never forget receiving my very first recruiting letter….from Wichita State,” Gentry posted on X last July after former Shockers coach Mark Turgeon was named to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. “Later learned so much from working under Turge at Texas A&M!”
The Zags have previously played at 25 NCAA Tournament sites, but Thursday will signify their first postseason game in Wichita. The program’s first trip to Wichita came under former coach Dan Fitzgerald in 1995, when Gonzaga lost 54-53 in overtime to Wichita State in the Cessna Classic. The Zags lost 76-70 to a Shockers team headlined by NBA standout Fred VanVleet during the second round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
In terms of proximity, the family of forward Graham Ike might have the easiest trip to Gonzaga’s opening game. Ike’s family resides in Aurora, Colorado, roughly a seven-hour drive to Wichita.
“We’re just ready to play more basketball,” Ike said. “It’s March and we just want to show our best right now.”