Five reasons why Wichita State can contend for a national title

BELLER: Shockers are a solid top seed, but which team gets the final No. 1?

Thomas Lake | Mar 6, 2014

Five reasons why Wichita State can contend for a national title /

Point guard Fred VanFleet has led Wichita St. to a 31-0 record with 11.9 points and 5.3 assists a game. — Point guard Fred VanFleet has led Wichita St. to a 31-0 record with 11.9 points and 5.3 assists a game :: William Purnell/Icon SMI

BELLER: Shockers are a solid top seed, but which team gets the final No. 1?

Published Mar 6, 2014

THOMAS LAKE

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Thomas Lake is a senior writer for Sports Illustratedwho specializes in long-form storytelling. His first story for the magazine, "2 on 5," won the Henry Luce Award for most outstanding story published by Time Inc. in 2008. Four of his stories have been reprinted in the annual Best American Sports Writing collection, and another one, "The Boy Who Died of Football," was anthologized in the book Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. Lake also cites "Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?," about Jordan's forsaken high school coach; "The Legacy of Wes Leonard," about a high school basketball player who died from an undiagnosed heart condition minutes after making a game-winning shot; and "The Boy They Couldn't Kill," about the surviving son of former NFL player Rae Carruth—as among his most memorable SI pieces. Before SI, Lake covered six beats and photographed car wrecks for the The Press-Sentinel in Jesup, Ga.; worked on the education beat for The Salem News in Massachusetts; wrote features for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville; covered crime for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida; and served as a senior editor for Atlanta Magazine. He has an associate's degree in general studies from Herkimer County Community College in upstate New York and bachelor's degree in communication arts from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he ran cross-country and met his wife, Sara. They live in metro Atlanta with their two children.