Good morning! Did anything big happen with Shocker baseball since we’ve last met? While we search the newswires, they did have a new hire join the team, but we’ll let you know if we find anything.

What else are we tossing into today’s Brew?

📝 Here To Stay
⚾️ One Big Thing
​🌾 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Here To Stay. The Shockers have secured their softball coach of the future after extending head coach Kristi Bredbenner’s contract through 2028. After completing her 12th season with the team, Coach Bredbenner has notched:

• Five total, three consecutive NCAA Regional appearances

• Two of three 40-win seasons in WSU history

• Shocker softball’s second-ever American Conference regular season title

• Three All-American selections

• A career record of 364-264-1 a.k.a. the winningest Shocker softball coach of all-time

The next five years will be about maintaining the success of the softball program, and bolstering up the roster for the years to come. “I look forward to getting back to work this fall to defend our 2023 AAC Championship,” said Coach Bredbenner. You heard coach, it’s time to get to work!

🔼 By The Books. WSU’s student-athletes showed out this semester in the classroom with 198 of them named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. Not to mention, as a collective, Shocker student-athletes put in the work, and came away with a school-record 3.41 cumulative GPA for the Spring 2023 semester.

This semester’s GPA marked the 36th consecutive semester above a 3.0 GPA across all athletic programs. 45 different Shocker athletes finished the semester with a perfect GPA. There’s no better way to finish off the 2022-2023 season strong.

🤔 SHOCKER TRIVIA

Shocker Great. On June 4th, we celebrated the 60th birthday of WSU basketball legend Xavier McDaniel. The two-time NCAA scoring and rebounding leader, and College Basketball HOF’er, helped lead the Shockers to some great moments before heading off to the NBA.

The question today—do you know how many NBA teams Xavier ‘X-Man’ McDaniel played for during his pro career?

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

🌾 ONE BIG THING

A new chapter begins for Wichita State baseball as it was announced earlier this week that Brian Green will take the reigns of the program for the foreseeable future.

Green, who spent the past five seasons in Pullman, WA with Washington State, helped turn the program around. He took on a team that had won just 11 games before he arrived and turned the next four seasons into above .500 teams, including a 29-win season in 2023. It was the Cougars most successful stretch of baseball since 2010.

“Sharing the same dugout Gene Stephenson built is the honor of all honors. What a monumental opportunity to lead Shocker Baseball,” commented the new head coach. “Our signature focus, attention and objective is to represent you in Omaha, making that dream a reality once again!”

Later today, WSU will introduce Coach Green as its newest baseball coach at a press conference at 4:30pm. Tune in to watch the introduction live from Eck Stadium. Read here for more info on the newest Shocker hire.

📬 STICK WITH US

Did someone send you the Shocker Brew? Well, the first thing you should do is thank them. The next thing you should do is subscribe here and get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning just in time for your first cup of coffee!

📅 THE DAYS AHEAD

Wednesday 6/7

👟 Track and Field @ NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, TX | Follow | Watch on ESPN2

Thursday 6/8

👟 Track and Field @ NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, TX | Follow | Watch on ESPN2

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: 5!

In his 13 seasons in the NBA, McDaniel had himself quite the career. He played for the Seattle Supersonics, Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, and Phoenix Suns and averaged 15.6 points per game in his time in the NBA with six rebounds and two assists.

Have a great Wednesday, y’all.