Good things, not finished

Wow! What a great time to be a Shocker! A historic win. Such joy in Shockerland! WSU, my alma mater, ranked no. 9 seed. What's that? They upset the top ranked team in the nation? Something not done in 50 years? http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/23/wichita-state-pulls-off-ultimate-shocker-knocking-off-no1-gonzaga/2014323/ http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/23/2729997/wichita-state-upsets-no-1-gonzaga.html http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/23/2730603/bob-lutz-shockers-are-some-tough.html

Facebook posts and tweets inundated me late Saturday night and into midnight. People I've known for years -- hung out with, worked on the campus paper with, gone to sports bars with and consumed the humiliating, heart attack wrenching "super slam breakfasts" with --- all over glass and plastic screens.

"Shox rock!" "Wu-hoo Shocks!" "So sweet!" "Sweet 16 here we come!"

If I have to go back to my job today, I'll get a boost, taking this with me. Twenty years ago when Wichita State basketball's glory days seemed finished, I didn't see this coming. Back then, WSU was solely a baseball powerhouse. The Shockers won the College World Series in 1989 and came close to repeating that before losing in a heartbreaker four years later.

The Shocker basketball team has had a resurgence within the past 10 years. It's something to be proud of, but the thing in all this, that gives me the most hope is knowing that all those great things your parents always told you about like the virtue of hard work, efforts paying off, showing confidence with humility -- they still exist.

A few years ago I read this article in the Wichita Eagle, quoting teachers, parents, high school and college students. The gist of the piece was how so many young men today lack ambition, motivation and a work ethic. It made me sad, reading Shocker baseball coach Gene Stephenson's quotes about how the young men he was coaching today didn't quite have that same inward desire as the guys he coached in '89.

Now I read quotes from Shocker basketball coach Greg Marshall, extolling his young men as tough, the type who go to class, contribute to their communities and don't embarrass their team and school with trash talk and getting in trouble with the law -- tough guys who have come from behind and seen it pay off.

"Nobody in our program came from basketball royalty," Marshall told a reporter anfter they beat the top ranked Gonzaga University. "We're all blue collar."

Reporters and headline writers characteristically went wild, running with the news gods present of a team called Shockers winning a shocking upset.

 I hope it's not a shock that the sweet virtues -- the things parents, teachers and coachers -- always preached haven't gone from this world. It helps me feel a little secure on this earth.