Depth wins basketball games in March — and last season, Wichita State was stretched at times.

A loss to Oklahoma State in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament exposed a key flaw for the Shockers during the 2024-25 season: limited bench production.

All five of Wichita State’s non-starters in that game finished negative in the offensive plus/minus. Earlier in the year, head coach Paul Mills had to rely heavily on a seven-man rotation while Ronnie DeGray III, who graduated last year, was out from mid-November to mid-January with an injury after the third game of the season.

This year, Mills said, will be different. Even though the Shockers are returning just three players — which accumulates to 1.39% of last year’s minutes and 0.91% of scoring — he’s confident that the team has a core group he can send onto the court at any given time.

“If you look at the opening game last year against Western Kentucky, we played eight guys,” Mills said. “… I would tell you that we have nine, if not 10 legit guys every day who’s been able to be competitive and been able to add value through this whole process.”

Despite the unknowns with a team of 12 newcomers, Mills said the team has something to prove.

“I think everybody has the same goal,” Mills said. “And it’s to win a championship, so there’s a bigger vision here. But at the same time, you’re anxious to get started on the execution and what the pieces look like in a real, live, competitive environment.”

Offseason improvements

Mills pointed to key areas of improvement at Wichita State’s media day Thursday afternoon. Guard transfers like Kenyon Giles (UNC Greensboro), Mike Gray Jr. (Nicholls State) and Brian Amuneke (Fresno State) should be able to stretch defenses with their shooting capabilities. Giles was named to the preseason All-American Conference team.

Shooting, especially around the 3-point arc, was one of the main emphases for Mills while recruiting. The Shockers finished the 2024 season ninth in the American Conference in points, averaging 74 per contest. The team also ranked last in the conference in 3-point shooting with an average of 30.5% from deep.

While perimeter shooting was a priority, Mills also addressed the team’s interior presence. 

Quincy Ballard — who transferred to Mississippi State — was one of the best rebounders and shot blockers on the team, but the offense never ran through him. His usage percentage — a metric that measures the percentage of team plays used by a player while they were on the floor — ranked fourth-to-last at 13.3%.

Will Berg and Emmanuel Okorafor are expected to find a larger role in the offense.

“They can be pressure releases,” Mills said. “Whereas in previous years, they (the big men) couldn’t be pressure releases. We couldn’t just throw to a (center) at the top of the key, and then have other action behind because that guy’s allowed to be a decision-maker. 

“Quincy was phenomenal at being able to go catch stuff at places very few players could catch, and great defensively. But we can play through Will. We can play through Emmanuel.”

Gray added that Noah Hill, a freshman from Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, could be a third option at center. He said Hill has grown exponentially throughout workouts and practices.

“Just competing. He’s been able to get every rebound,” Gray said about what has stood out from Hill. “He’s been getting a lot of offensive rebounds. So I think as the season goes along, everybody will see that as well.”

Jaret Valencia, a Monmouth transfer, and Karon Boyd — who was the Southern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 at East Tennessee State — are finding roles as defensive anchors.

With depth to go around, Mills is finding that he can run different combinations that he couldn’t in the past. 

“We were just looking as a staff at what’s the most efficient two-man group, three-man combos, four-man, five-man,” Mills said. “We’re north — which if you know anything about five-man combos, it’s really rare that you get 40 possessions by game five, game seven — and we have a lot more than 40 possessions of lineup combinations that we can kind of think through.”

Continuity on defense and in rebounding

Even though offensive output was at the forefront of recruiting, Mills said he still wants to keep the same defensive presence that led the Shockers to finish last season fourth in the American in scoring defense (73.09 allowed points per game), and first in defensive rebounds per game (26.88 average).

“The focus every day is, ‘Are we doing the things that I believe are going to win basketball games?’” Mills said. “Rebounding the ball, taking care of the ball, sharing the ball. And kind of doing that with people that are committed to doing the right things, just as a day-by-day issue. I think I’ve seen that.”

Gray agreed and said that’s an expectation the team wants to uphold.

“We want to be the best team in the country in rebounding,” he said. “Be the best team in the country in rebounding, you’re going to be the best in the league. That goes for sure.”

Despite the influx of fresh faces on the team, their commitment has fostered chemistry. Mills said the team is gelling quickly — through competition, communication and building trust on and off the court.

This year’s Shockers aren’t just deeper, they’re unified.

“I’m a big believer that good people make good basketball players,” Mills said. “They’ve done everything right, and we’ll see how it goes moving forward.”

Wichita State opens its season Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. against UNC Asheville.