Returning players

It was expected that the Shockers would return all five starters and nearly all of their scholarship players from the prior season. The only two seniors on the prior season's roster, Zach Bush and John Robert Simon, were walk-ons. Two underclass players, rising junior Eric Hamilton^[2] and rising senior Daishon Smith,^[3] announced plans to transfer from Wichita State. Hamilton had been a little-used reserve;^[2] Smith had started at point guard at the beginning of the 2016–17 season, but lost his starting position to Landry Shamet and was seeing relatively little playing time by the end of the season.^[3]

Two other players, Markis McDuffie and Shaquille Morris, declared for the 2017 NBA draft, but neither hired an agent, allowing them to return to Wichita State if they withdrew from the draft within 10 days of the end of the mid-May NBA Draft Combine (specifically May 24).^[4][5] Both withdrew from the draft the day before the deadline.^[6]

Departures

2017 recruiting class

Source^[9][10]

Injuries

On July 21, 2017, point guard Landry Shamet, a potential All-American, suffered a stress fracture in his right foot and would need surgery.^[11] He was expected to miss 12–16 weeks to recover from the injury.^[12] Shamet was expected to be ready for the team's season opener on November 10,^[13] and that proved true, as he scored 17 points in only 17 minutes of action in the Shockers' 109–57 blowout of UMKC and, according to the Associated Press, "looked completely recovered".^[14]

Shortly before practices began on September 29, it was announced that Markis McDuffie would be sidelined with a stress fracture in his left foot.^[15] It was expected that he would miss a majority of the non-conference schedule, but would return some time in late December.^[16][17] McDuffie returned for the final non-conference game on December 22 game against Florida Gulf Coast.^[18][19]