As summer workouts begin for Wichita State’s men’s basketball team, head coach Paul Mills said Thursday that he’s taking a more unorthodox approach to get his team ready for the 2025-26 season, entering his third year as head coach.
The Shockers are studying film and holding full-fledged, two-hour-long practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which isn’t typical of “what you do in the summer,” all while working out in the weight room and developing a team with 12 new players and three returners.
“I didn’t sleep much Monday night, just in anticipation of this,” said Mills through a raspy voice, indicating that basketball is slowly returning to the Roundhouse. “I feel like we’re jumping in quite a bit … It almost feels like a September practice while trying to get acclimated to new people.”
In May, Mills stressed the need to keep things simple at first without making them too “simplistic.” He said he’s emphasized that players use their voices effectively on the court thus far.
“That’s the only way we really know what’s going on, is if we can turn around and communicate,” Mills said. “I think communication is a big part of what you have to do — you have to get all five guys on the same page. The only way they know how to do that is via communication.”
The team ended practice on Thursday afternoon with a drill that epitomized that. The team made quick passes and put up shots while sprinting from baseline to baseline and shouting for the ball for three straight minutes. Mills said that the emphasis of this drill was to communicate clearly, while gauging where the team is at with shooting and shooting on the run.
“You’re running, you’re talking,” Mills said. “It is a drill that, over the course of my career, has been able to ascertain whether a team is good at shooting or not … that was more an introduction and just trying to see where we’re at from a shooting perspective.”
Mills said that sometimes, communication is simply a player pointing to where they want the ball to go or where they want another player to move on the court. For guard TJ Williams, a redshirt freshman and Wichita native who sat out all of last season with a knee injury, he made it a personal mission to have the loudest voice on the court.
“No coach told me to be a vocal leader,” Williams said, entering his second year at Wichita State. “I just went on myself to do that, that’s how I’ve always been. I am like that with my family, with my friends — with everybody.”
Williams said his newfound identity is a “big pledge” to Xavier Bell, who was described as the loudest player on last year’s team. Williams said that he and Bell connected early because they’re both from Wichita, and seeing what he did day in and day out helped lead Williams in the right direction.
Even though Williams was shown what to do and how to do it, in terms of leadership, he said it’s been a good challenge for him so far.
“I came in last year as a (rookie) and I came in this year as an ‘OG,’” Williams said. “So, it was a real time jump for me. But it was great, just knowing what he (coach Mills) wants, getting it done, being a role model, leading by example for the guys. And they just follow along and we’re getting things done.”
Not only has Williams been able to be that vocal presence on the court and in the locker room, but he’s also helped show the new players around Wichita, like where the best place to get a haircut is.
“He does his job as a returner, even though he’s like the younger guy,” Kenyon Giles, a transfer guard from UNC Greensboro, said. “But, you know, he helps us gel. Especially getting used to, you know, how people come from different schools — this is all different for all of us, especially for me. And he’s helped out a lot.”
While the team continues to mesh, their shooting touch has been displayed during workouts and practices. Giles, a senior, said that this team can be one of the best shooting teams he’s been on and turn out to be one of the best teams he’s been on — period.
“This is my type of team,” he said. “All these guys remind me of me when I was a freshman, sophomore. So I feel like I can teach them a lot … and they bring the competitiveness out of me.”
