Farewell Flourish: Wichita State Won MVC Tournament in Last Year as Member

April 26th, 2017 - 19:11

Wichita State, headed for the AAC as a new member next season, bowed out of the Missouri Valley Conference in style by capturing the league tournament championship. Amid all of the conference musical chairs, this feat has been achieved 14 times thus far in the 21st Century, including five years ago in the MVC by Creighton.

Four teams slammed the door shut on their way out of conferences in 2005 with success in this category. La Salle (1983 and 1992 and Louisville (2005 and 2014) did it twice in a 10-year span. Louisville's title in 2014 occurred in the Cardinals' lone campaign as an AAC member.

Following is a chronological look at league tournament champions in their final season as a member of a non-disbanding alliance before bidding adieu and promptly joining another league:

Year Conference Departing School Title Coach New League
1932 Southern Georgia Vernon Smith Southeastern
1953 Southern Wake Forest Murray Greason Atlantic Coast
1980 Eastern 8 Villanova Rollie Massimino Big East
1982 East Coast St. Joseph's Jim Boyle Atlantic 10
1982 Eastern 8 Pittsburgh Roy Chipman Big East
1982 Trans America Athletic Northeast Louisiana Mike Vining Southland
1983 East Coast La Salle Lefty Ervin Metro Atlantic
1987 Southland Louisiana Tech Tommy Joe Eagles American South
1989 ECAC North Atlantic Siena Mike Deane Metro Atlantic
1991 Atlantic 10 Penn State Bruce Parkhill Big Ten
1991 Metro Florida State Pat Kennedy Atlantic Coast
1991 Southwest Arkansas Nolan Richardson Southeastern
1992 Metro Atlantic Athletic La Salle Speedy Morris Midwestern Collegiate
1994 Mid-Continent Wisconsin-Green Bay Dick Bennett Midwestern Collegiate
1996 Big West San Jose State Stan Morrison Western Athletic
1998 Trans America Athletic College of Charleston John Kresse Southern
1999 Western Athletic Utah Rick Majerus Mountain West
2001 America East Hofstra Jay Wright Colonial Athletic Association
2001 Big Sky Cal State Northridge Bobby Braswell Big West
2005 Atlantic Sun Central Florida Kirk Speraw Conference USA
2005 Big West Utah State Stew Morrill Western Athletic
2005 Conference USA Louisville Rick Pitino Big East
2005 Western Athletic Texas-El Paso Doc Sadler Conference USA
2012 Atlantic Sun Belmont Rick Byrd Ohio Valley
2012 Big 12 Missouri Frank Haith Southeastern
2013 Big West Pacific Bob Thomason West Coast
2013 Missouri Valley Creighton Greg McDermott Big East
2014 AAC Louisville Rick Pitino Atlantic Coast
2014 Atlantic Sun Mercer Bob Hoffman Southern Conference
2014 Conference USA Tulsa Danny Manning AAC
2017 Missouri Valley Wichita State Gregg Marshall AAC

NOTE: South Carolina, coached by Frank McGuire, captured the 1971 ACC Tournament and Southwestern Louisiana, coached by Bobby Paschal, won the 1982 Southland Tournament before they left their leagues to become independents.