When Wichita State takes the court for the NCAA First Four it will rekindle one of its oldest rivalries.
Thursday marks the first time since Feb. 1, 2017 that the Shockers have faced the Drake Bulldogs.
A four-year hiatus isn't all that long in the grand scheme of things, but consider the context.
WSU and Drake played a home-and-home series in all but two seasons during a 72-year stretch that began in 1945-46 when the Shockers joined the Missouri Valley Conference. The exceptions were 1972-73 and 1973-74 when the league temporarily shifted to an unbalanced format and the teams scaled back to a single matchup.