Good morning! One of the best to do ever do it is hanging up their spikes. Shocker alumni and two-time Paralympic Gold Medalist Deja Young-Craddock is calling it a career, and her success at that level of her sport has been inspirational to watch.

What else are we tossing into today’s Brew?

🏀 Time To Ball
🧢 New Additions
​🌾 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Time To Ball. The Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. TBT, has released the bracket for this summer’s tournament and will take place from July 19th to July 23rd. The WSU alumni team will serve as one of two featured teams for the Wichita Super Regional, and will have the chance to return to Charles Koch Arena. The AfterShocks will compete for a winner-take-all prize of $1 million dollars, and will be rolling 10 deep for their final roster:

• Conner Frankamp (2015-2018)

• Markis McDuffie (2015-2019)

• Darral Willis (2016-2018)

• Samajae Haynes-Jones (2017-2019)

• Asbjorn Midtgaard (2017-2020)

• Trey Wade (2019-2021)

• Alterique Gilbert (2020-2021)

• Marcus Lee (Kentucky)

• Tyrus McGee (Iowa State)

• Jordan Parks (North Carolina Central)

Former Shockers ball player Zach Bush will serve as the team’s head coach as they take on the No. 8 seeded B1 Ballers in the first round of the tournament. For more info around the structure of TBT, and how to get tickets to see these guys play, read more here!

🔼 Fan Fare. Get ready to meet your 2023-2024 Men’s and Women’s Shocker basketball teams at Say Hey & Signatures coming up this Tuesday, June 27th at Charles Koch Arena. Snap photos and get autographs from some of your favorite Shockers players at this 100% free event. Plus, two lucky fans will walk away with a complimentary pair of season tickets!

Interested in attending? Let us know here.

🔼 Save the Date! The inaugural Black and Yellow Gala will be later this summer on August 19th at the Charles Koch Arena. The event will go directly toward the support of all Shocker student-athletes and teams. Join us for this fantastic fundraising event by purchasing tickets down below.

🤔 SHOCKER TRIVIA

Feeling The AfterShock. With TBT coming to Wichita later this summer, the Shockers have some serious scorers on their roster. However, during their time with WSU, one player could seemingly score at will.

Our question today — which player in this year’s AfterShocks team averaged the most amount of points while playing for Wichita State?

Think you got it? Scroll on down to the bottom of this email for the answer!

🌾 ONE BIG THING

As we have said before, new baseball head coach Brian Green is hard at work shaping the Shockers team of the future, and what better way to start forming the mold than with the coaches themselves.

🧤 Clay Overcash: Catching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator

Coach Overcash is joining the Shockers baseball program after six seasons with the Oklahoma Sooners. He assisted in their run to the CWS in 2021, as well as two other NCAA Tournament appearances. Since 2018, Overcash has been largely responsible for recruiting 31 MLB draft picks, with 11 players in last year’s draft class alone.

💪 Anthony Claggett: Pitching Coach

Coach Green and Coach Claggett have a history, as Claggett has served as his pitching coach at Green’s last two stops for the last six seasons. He helped his pitching staff establish a new program record for Washington State for strikeouts in each of the last two seasons, ending his tenure with 518 in 2023.

🦇 Anthony Miller: Hitting and Outfield Coach

Coach Miller has worked his way up the ranks, and joins the Shockers from the NJCAA level. Last season, he helped his team reach the NJCAA World Series with a record of 56-10. The team finished with a .364 cumulative batting average and ranked fifth in the nation in runs scored with 597.

🗣️ “The culture of a program’s coaching staff starts with cooperation, collaboration and communication; to couple those attributes with this group’s skill set and experience is exactly what we were looking for.” - Head Coach Brian Green

📬 STICK WITH US

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🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: Markis McDuffie!

In the 2018-2019 season, McDuffie was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 18.2 points per game. He was an all-around ball player that year, shooting 41% from the field, 34% from three-point territory, and hit 82% of his free throws.

Have a great weekend, y’all.