Matt Braeuer, now North Texas coach, reflects on Wichita State basketball’s 2006 run

It will never not feel strange for Matt Braeuer to use the visiting locker room at Koch Arena.

But for the second time in his coaching career, the former Shocker star will do just that with North Texas for Saturday’s 3 p.m. game against the Wichita State men’s basketball team. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

After returning to WSU in 2017 as an assistant coach at College of Charleston, Braeuer has moved up in the coaching world to the same position at a North Texas program that has won two straight Conference USA championships and knocked off Purdue in the NCAA Tournament last season.

“You’re probably talking about 100 games where you’re on the home team if you count my time as a grad assistant, so walking out of the visiting locker room and getting booed is all very different,” Braeuer said. “But at the end of the day, that’s just how I feel. It’s not how our players will feel. To them, it’s just another road game they’re excited to play. So I’ll talk to them about the environment and what to expect and we’ll be ready to go.”

Unlike the last two opponents at Koch Arena, North Texas is no double-digit underdog. The Mean Green (6-3) have won four games in a row and have an expectation of winning from recent seasons. They are methodical on offense, playing at the third-slowest pace in the country, and play stingy defense.

In order to win its third straight game, WSU (8-2) will have to continue its improvements on offense to break down the North Texas defense.

“They’re a very good opponent, it’s probably just like playing another Power Five team, to be honest with you,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “They beat Purdue last year in the NCAA Tournament and that’s a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country this year. They beat Drake, which returned all five of its starters. They’re a tough, hard-nosed team with a lot of veteran guys and are well-coached. They’re going to be a big test for us.”

From the outside looking in, Braeuer says he sees many similarities in how the Shockers play under Brown as they did under former coach Gregg Marshall.

“They’re relatively similar in terms of running some of the same sets as Coach Marshall used to and running that same three-quarters court defense,” Braeuer said. “They have the same principles of being physical and being tough and crashing the glass. It’s very similar to what it looked like under Coach Marshall and now the talent level is extremely high. They’ve got a lot of good players and a lot of good scorers.”

Remembering Braeuer’s time with the Shockers

With the recent news that his former WSU coach Mark Turgeon had stepped down as head coach at the University of Maryland, Braeuer discussed his memorable time playing for the Shockers from 2004-08.

When told that WSU fans were still fond of Turgeon’s time in Wichita, most notably the 2006 Sweet Sixteen run that Braeuer was a part of, the former guard said that didn’t surprise him more than a decade later.

“I think the reason why a lot of people go back to that period is because before that the program was not in very good shape,” Braeuer said. “When Coach Marshall took over from Coach Turgeon, the foundation had been laid in terms of getting to the tournament and winning and then obviously (Marshall) took it to another level. But when Coach Turgeon got the job, the new arena wasn’t built yet. They were still playing out at the Kansas Coliseum. It was a totally different time and he turned it around and took us to a Sweet 16 and won the Missouri Valley when five teams made it to the NCAA Tournament.”

Braeuer’s run at WSU is most remembered by the 2005-06 season when he hit an overtime game-winner on Valentine’s Day to take down Creighton. The Shockers went on to win the Valley regular-season championship and earn an at-large bid to the 2006 NCAA Tournament, easily dispatching Seton Hall in the first round and pulling away from Tennessee down the stretch for an 80-73 win to punch WSU’s ticket to the Sweet 16.

But that season wasn’t all smooth sailing. Braeuer recalled a stretch in early January where WSU lost back-to-back games to Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa by a combined 23 points.

“We were in a weird place mentally, so Coach Turgeon took away our locker room privileges and put us back in the old locker room with the cockroaches,” Braeuer said. “We spent two days there where we couldn’t go back to our locker room. As a coach, you’d like to think that played a role (in the six-game winning streak that followed). I think it definitely woke us up and made us realize how good we had it and how bad it was when he took the job over. I think that probably hit home for us.”

There was no in-game memory that stood out to Braeuer from the Tennessee win, other than WSU making its shots down the stretch. The score was tied at 65 entering the final media timeout with less than three minutes remaining. The Shockers would score points on their final eight possessions of the game, including key shots from Karon Bradley and P.J. Couisnard with the exclamation point being delivered by a last-second dunk from Ryan Martin.

What stood out to Braeuer more was the reception the team received at what was then known as Mid-Continent Airport that evening on their way home from Greensboro, North Carolina.

“I don’t think we realized how big of a deal it really was to the community until we landed,” Braeuer said. “I was sitting next to Kyle Wilson and he turned his phone on when we landed and it just exploded with text messages. He got one from his family saying, ‘We’re all here at the airport.’ And we were like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. Some friends and family are here.’ And then he got another text and it was like, ‘No, we’re all here at the airport.’ We didn’t realize what they meant until we turned the corner and started walking down that long tunnel and it was unbelievable. It really was wall-to-wall and shoulder-to-shoulder. There were just so many people there in such a tight space. Man, it was awesome. That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Another thing Braeuer will never forget is how detailed Turgeon was as a coach, a reason why he believes the Shockers were able to reach their potential and play their best basketball in March that season.

“We may have won, but there were times where we won and didn’t play well,” Braeuer said. “The outcome is what everybody sees in the end, but to coach (Turgeon) that didn’t mean you were where you needed to be. He was always trying to make sure we kept getting better and learning from our mistakes. It’s always better when you can learn from your mistakes while winning, but he taught us that you can’t just take winning and think you’ve got it all figured out. There’s a lot more to it.”

In hindsight, Braeuer said it was a testament to how good of a recruiter Turgeon was that he convinced the point guard from Belton, Texas to come to WSU in the first place.

“When he first called me, I didn’t even know where Wichita, Kansas was on a map,” Braeuer said. “I had no idea, even though it was only seven hours from home. When I came up on my visit, I remember seeing the new arena being built and seeing fans stand in line for tickets and seeing the passion for coach Turgeon and where the program was headed. I remember he told me back then that he wanted Wichita State to be the next Gonzaga. I wanted to be a part of that.”

North Texas at Wichita State basketball preview

When: 3:02 p.m. Saturday

Where: Koch Arena (10,506)

Streaming: ESPN+

Radio: 103.7 FM (Mike Kennedy and Dave Dahl)

Series: WSU leads 26-11 (16-3 in Wichita)

Last meeting: WSU won 78-72 at Levitt Arena on Dec. 4, 1982

KenPom says: WSU 62, UNT 56

Projected starting lineups

North Texas (6-3)

Coach: Grant McCasland, fifth season, 85-54

Wichita State Shockers (8-2)

Coach: Isaac Brown, second season, 24-8