Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications.
Thank you for listening. Our guest today is Wichita State basketball coach Paul Mills. Paul is here to wrap up summer workouts for us.
Five newcomers joined, 10 returners for the Shockers. I'll give you a brief reminder about last season. The Shockers went 24 12, finished tied for second in the American Conference. They advanced to the championship game of the conference tournament for the first time as an American Conference member. And then they defeated Wyoming and Oklahoma State in the NIT before ending the season in a loss at Tulsa. So, Paul, let's start a quick look back at last season. What's the moment or the game? What gave you some joy about last season when you reflect on it?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: One, thanks for having me.
Two, you know, going back to your question, what brings you joy? I think it's always watching your players grow, you know, and so to watch.
And it's hard just from my end, what you find out is people will approach you from the outside.
Some people, you know, some of them, you don't. A lot of times they're just friends who, you know, really keep up, who are in the profession and they'll say, you know, Wilbur got better like his, the growth that he's made during the course of the year. And I'm like, you think so? And because I feel like a parent sometimes when you go see somebody else and like so and so is getting taller and because you're around them every day, you don't necessarily, you know, see the growth in the same way that they do. They kind of see, you know, what it was and then the finished product. But because I see them every day, so I'm really just proud of the growth, you know, I think that Wilbur improved and I could honestly say that about every single person.
And I thought though, that even though there was individual growth, I thought there was corporate growth, you know, as a team. And you kind of go through some hiccups. You know, you handed me the stats from last year before we met here, and I seen neutral one and four and you know, immediately it goes in my mind, like the only one that we won on a neutral floor was a conference tournament game. And you think about, you know, what the Bahamas trip was and then the growth and just having that process and being growth minded during the course of the year. And so from an individual standpoint, you watch players grow and if a player gets better, the team gets better. And so we really focus in on that, especially during recruiting. Like it is our job to get you better. Because if we can get you better, we can get the team better. And so what brings me joy is watching those guys and their growth.
And I think that a lot of them returning is a testament to their growth. I don't think if they felt stagnant about it, if they didn't think that they were making strides as a player, you know, and it's, it's easy to see in hindsight, but I think when you're in the middle of it, it's one of those things that I really, really struggle with.
But I was really, as I look back, just take tremendous pride in our staff and their commitment to development of players. But there is a lot of joy when you watch players grow up.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: I think fans would point at Will Berg, as you, as you mentioned also Dylan Batee and TJ Williams as being really good examples of players progressing over a season.
So what have you learned? What's the key to developing those players? How do you really get them in the gym and get them better?
[00:03:53] Speaker B: I mean, you're not going to be impressed with this answer because there really isn't a secret sauce. I will say this. If there is a secret sauce with college basketball, it's your graduate assistants. You know, there's 168 hours in a week. We get to spend eight hours with them. The NCAA now allows us, you can split up the eight hours how you want. You can do all eight basketball zero in the weight room. And so we're four and four. We've just maintained the traditional approach that we always have in the past. So we're with them four hours a week. But you think about what are those other 160 hours a week like? And you can imagine 18 to 22 year olds as a coach, you sit around and worry with this much independence and freedom, but you also want to make sure that the character in your locker room is what it needs to be. And so the secret sauce is they spend a lot of time with our graduate assistants. A lot of players, especially the older ones, the Wilburgs of the world who've been around, they kind of know what they need to do. They know the things that they need to do in order to get better. And then some of them are, you know, I'm just going to go out here and make some, some personable number of shots for me, you know, from some place on the court that that represents where I shoot from. So I, I do think that there's just a commitment. We kind of preach it, you know, like I mean, can you work while you wait? And, and through that whole process of man, you're just not going to be able to show up, add water and this happens. And so understanding that that progress is made in steps and not leaps. And so you're going to have to wait, can you work during that time understanding that. I think all of us, once we get outside of college, once you get past the age of 23, 24, 23, 24, you think you're ready to conquer the world and you're wondering how come it's not given to you. And then I think as you look back on things as you get older and you know, Proverbs chapter 7 tells us that the youth are naive.
And they're not naive because they're silly, they're naive because they just lack experience.
And so you really just have to preach about just the whole idea of just man, let's just take steps, let's do the things that are required to take steps in order to grow as a player.
And that's kind of a culture that we want where there is a culture of guys committed to working and they've got the right attitude and they've got the right effort that they're putting in making sure they're appreciative of the people GA's I'm speaking of specifically here that are along the way, who helped them during this journey. But I would tell you that it's just their daily commitment.
And I was talking to Dylan Bati's dad, who was a phenomenal player, Derek Batee at temple and he said, what are y' all doing today? And I said, I give him a yearly journal today. And on the front of it it says plan your growth.
And we go through like every day how you, you just. This has to be intentional. Your growth has to be intentional. And if you think you're just going to wake up on a day with zero purpose to it and you don't have something that you're trying to get out of it, you're just going to end up wasting days. And wasting days I'm not into it means we're wasting talent. And so I just think that we're really, really intentional about this process. We talk about it quite a bit, but there's nothing magical other than we have to do the work. And it is something that we preach quite a bit.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: A shout out to the GA's that's good. They are a hard working group of young men. You know, if I come into work at 7:55 quite often they're out there rebounding for, for shooters, doing those kind of things. How much do you know? And these are people who often want to become a coach, want to get into basketball. How much are they kind of devising workouts on their own? How much are they working with the coaches? What's the blend there of kind of, you know, mentoring these young future coaches?
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, it's players knowing what they need to work on. So players come in and these are the things that they need to do. And so there's not much variance. They are basically telling the GA's this is what needs to get accomplished today. This is my focus coming into. They had better not show up without a plan. And so it's more player driven.
And then we're, you know, GA's are there to offer assistance. I think once we get involved, you know, GA's are, you know, they're, they're at every practice. But hey, you know what coach Mills is, is the focus this coming week because, you know, we educate those guys on the practice plans and the things that need to be done. We're going to do a lot of outer third dhos and so, you know, without getting technical about this stuff, like DHOs have to be inside the three point line and you know what, your DHOs, you're dribbling outside the three point line and it's pushing the guard further and further away from the basket and we're not getting an advantage. So it may be as simple as, you know, what Emmanuel Corafor comes to mind. We just need to tighten up our ball handling. Right. And do things necessary. Noah comes to mind. We need to do things that allow us will it maybe. I just don't think you're understanding the angles on the floor. Like we're getting way too wide and we're handing off a ball at 28ft and you know, these defenders are going under but our guys catching it at 32. And if we're handing it to anybody other than, you know, going back to last year's team not named Kenyon Giles, we really don't have much of the weigh in and advantage. So I do think there's some incorporation of it. Like the GA's are mindful of it and this is something that you need to think about, but it really is player driven and you have to get guys like that in the recruiting process like you, you have to, they have to know what they're walking into and what they're getting into. And again, having 10 guys back really, really helps. There's a fascinating article about the top offensive linemen who were drafted in the NFL and how they stayed at the same place.
Primarily it had to do with the strength coach because if you start changing strength coaches every year, it's just hard to stack weight because they all philosophically approach the weight room differently. And so you're inconsistency on how you approach work, especially during the summer months. If you have a new strength coach, you're just not going to make the strides that you need to. And it's one of those things where you just. That drives home the point that if you have stability and if you have consistency in what you're doing, there's going to be growth involved. And so I think now with 10 players back with the GA's, there's consistency and there's stability because we carried over. A lot of our GA's are usually here for two years. So all of that to say primarily player driven, but we have to get the right guys in the locker room to ensure that that's the case.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: So the journals. So each player has a journal. And this may be things like I need to be a 75% free throw shooter, I need to attack closeout better, all those kind of things. They'll have those goals in their journal.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: I don't go through it with them during the summer. We just provide the tool. And so there is a quarterly journal. These are the things I need to get accomplished these next three months.
And then these are the monthly things that I need to get. I show them mine. My goal was to run. I needed, after talking to my cardiologist said, you need to be able to run for 30 minutes straight.
I did that. And so July 1st, hey, your monthly goal. I need to be able to run for 30 straight minutes. And what's today? Today, Thursday the 30th that we're visiting. So Tuesday I ran my 30 straight minutes and I just go through like, hey, here's your monthly goal. And then it goes through daily, but quarterly, it's great for us because our season is basically six months, right? November, December, January, and then February, March, April, you want to be playing in April. But those other six months that are building up to it have a lot to do with the result of the latter half of the year that I just mentioned. So I don't go through it with them until somewhere around latter part of September right before we get started. I know this year will get started officially September 24th. And so I don't really get into it until about mid September. But we kind of share with them just based upon how we see this team playing, how it works. But there's constant, as you know, tweaking, changing and dissecting about is it the right way to go? And so. But it's player driven.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Who has been the player you've had? Who's been the best journaler and gotten the most out of it? Do you have an example that you will plan?
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah, Well, I will tell you, you know, the journals that we give them that say, plan your growth, you know, that's, that's this year.
But I will tell you, you know, I mentioned this story before. Last year, when we scrimmage Santa Clara, we went up to Denver, we scrimmage those guys. I walked out of there going, they're really good. Believe we lost. We lost. I want to say we played three 12 minute segments, maybe four 12 minute segments. That's what it was. It was four. It was an NBA game. Four 12 minute segments. We were on the wrong end on all of them. All four of them. Lost by one, lost by two, lost by one, lost by one. They were just really, really close. But I walked out of there going, santa Clara is pretty good. And the fact that they got in that large bid was a testament to the fact that, you know what, they are pretty good.
Dillon came in and Dylan Matie did not play much. And he came in the following. That was a Saturday. He texted me Sunday morning, said, can we meet? And I'm like, here we go again. I've done this with about a thousand players in my life and let's talk about why you didn't play. And he came in, I said, yeah, I'll see you this afternoon at 2:00'. Clock. And he shows up, he's got a pen and a pad with him, and he says, how can I be a better practice player? It wasn't, how come I didn't play?
It wasn't anything. He just said, how can I be a better practice player? And then he said, what can I do to help this team win? That was it. Those are the two questions. He is sitting. I thought he was, you know, he looked like somebody that you see in a courtroom that has to dictate every word that's being said by both attorneys and the judge. He's doing none of that.
He simply, he's going through and he, you can see him listening and writing down bullet points for himself. And I said, hey, at the end of it, I said, where'd you learn this from? And he said, My mom, she just told me about journaling and having notes and making sure that I put pen to paper in order to understand. And I've been really impressed by that. You know, I mentioned Dylan's dad, but Yanika, Dylan's mom, has passed along a skill to him that Dylan, to his credit, has actually utilized.
And I think through that process, I think that's one of the reasons you're able to stay locked in. Because again, I mean, in the Bahamas, he does not play like zero minutes. And we thought that TJ and Jarrett Valencia were ahead of him. And Jarrett Valencia gets hurt an opportunity. But I don't think if he's in the right frame of mind mentally, I don't think he emerges in the way that he does. And so I think there's tremendous value to it. I would tell you that I learned that lesson from Dylan.
I took quite a bit of that away and went watching him. We go through a thing with our players called the development square. And we talk about, you know, what you'll remember, guys, are things you're able to teach.
And I know people get into things you hear and things you write, but things that you're able to teach.
And I think that Dillon, because of his journaling ability and being intentional about his growth, I think that what allowed him the right headspace in order to capitalize upon the opportunity that he got.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Moms know best, definitely. Dylan's progress was one of the big stories of last season.
So last season, entering the season, WSU ranked number 342 in minutes, continuity from the previous season and Ken Pomeroy's statistics. Wichita State will be much, much higher than that this fall. What changes with 10 returners? Do you move more quickly? How's it different for you?
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great question. And to be honest with you, I don't have those answers right now.
You know, the good thing is that it is different just because of our reliance on Kenyon Giles. And I think, you know, Mike, Mike primarily being on ball now, he can be off ball, but we have a lot more in the way of passing ability and not. Not necessarily as much ability as.
That's just we have players who are wired that way. You know, you've heard me talk about how we need some. We needed some creators and just because we thought we could open up the floor and. And we really have a presence down low and will, I think he'll be considered a first team all league guy. And we just felt like we really needed creation and we were able to add it through a number of players in the portal, but I do think that this team will be different and then how we play. But defensively there's probably a lot more carryover than offensively.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: And you mentioned the creation a lot at the start of the summers. Johari Long and Jordan Frison, two guards that really passed the ball really well. How did that play out over the summer as you hoped?
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Oh, man. You gave me stats from last year prior to us meeting. I wish I'd have. I know the practice stats off the top of my head, but Johari right now is 26 to 6 assist to turnover ratio and Jordan Frison is 22 to 9.
And it's really impressive.
We do a lot of 5 on 5 basketball. So we tell them.
We don't tell you what shots to shoot. You tell us and you have to be able from an effective field goal percentage, you got to be able to make more than 50% of your shots.
So we go through the summer and shoot any shot you want. But at the end, you have to have an effective field goal percentage that is higher than 50% from wherever. So we keep track of it and we chart every five on five. We stat all the five on fives. And so to have, you know, those two being able to do that, you know, off the top of my head, what is that, 48 to 15, it's pretty impressive. So all of that to say there isn't much in the way of fluidity. Like we don't have sets in, we have some concepts in, but I mean, the five weeks that we spent on the floor together, there isn't.
There's a lot of let's dominate the simple. Because I don't think players can play hard unless they actually know what they're doing. So we need to make sure you know what you're doing. And then when they get back in the fall, we kind of ramp this up from a conditioning standpoint and being able to do this from an intensity standpoint. So it has translated in the little bit that we've seen in what we've stated.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: You mentioned Michael Gray Jr earlier. How does his life change with the arrival of Johari and Jordan?
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think primarily last year we relied, you know, there was Kenyon Giles, especially in the open court, as a ball handler. But I would tell you that from a secondary ball handler who could see the floor and help, it was TJ Williams. And so it was Michael Gray and then it was T.J. i think now we've doubled up. We still have T.J. we still have Michael. You know, D.B. dylan Bati is just wired to score.
And I think Will's a really good passer.
Noah, if he gets an assist, that'll be his first one.
He's just, he's wired. How do I rip the hinges off the backboard here as I attack this rim? And so that's okay, but I just feel like we've doubled and so it's going to allow Michael. Michael's actually shooting 44% from three, you know, during our five on five segments. And so he's actually been freed up to allow him to get more catch and shoot. You know, a lot of times when you're on the ball, your threes are going to come via the bounce. And we understand there's just very few players who can have a better than effective field goal percentage of 50% off the bounce. So I think it really is going to allow him to space the floor and stretch it, and it's going to allow driving angles and interior passing that. That, you know, KG could do it. But we were relying on Mike to set everything up. Whereas now we don't have to rely on Mike to set everything up.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: I think all of the newcomers that I talked to, or at least most of them, and this would go back even previous seasons, first thing they said is on their recruiting visit, they walked into the office and they had a video session with you and other coaches. And they were really impressed that you had a plan for how they would fit in at Wichita State, and you had a plan for how they needed to get better. Take us behind the scenes a little bit. How do you develop that? And apparently it really makes a good impression on these people.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Well, I don't let anybody else do the film. I do the film. You know, this isn't like somebody hands me the film and say, hey, here's Paul Mills. And there's transition clips in his pick and roll clips and then his defensive clips. And I got to sit here. I do the film. I cut up the film. Kenton Paulino told me, you know, earlier this summer, he said that, you know, it's rare for head coaches to do the film. And I said, I don't know that that's true. I think we all just love it, you know, wherever you are, whatever your title is, we all really enjoy it. But the reason that from a recruiting standpoint is when I come in here and you have a plan is because I've. I've cut it up. I haven't delegated this. We haven't farmed it out to some third party.
This is. I remember, you know, we had a coach here, Chris Hollander, when he was with us our first. He's like, you do all the film? And I was like, I do the film, Absolutely. And so I kind of started that way when I first started at Rice. Got to be familiar with it. So it's not a foreign concept to me. I'll hear coaches talk about how they watch the games on their iPad, and I'm like, I don't know how in the world to watch a game on my iPad. I just know how to code it when it's on my laptop. So I do it. And so I think I find myself really, really familiar with. With people's games. And then you call around, obviously, and you're talking to a number of people who have coached a kid, previously coached a kid, and from their high school coaches to whatever along the way that that's happened, wherever they've been.
So you're. You have an idea? Because my area of expertise is our team, and so when I get familiar with this, their game, I can get an idea about how it's going to plug into our group, simply because I'm consumed with our group.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Was there a big surprise, a pleasant development from the summer that pops to mind?
[00:23:55] Speaker B: You know, sometimes you go in and you say, he's exactly who we thought he was. You know, like, I mean, Dylan is really, really wired to score.
And I walked out of there after our first practice going, we're gonna be okay. You know, like, I know we got 10 guys and. And some of those guys, seven of them played.
But, you know, how do the new guys fit in? Because all you have done is see them on film. And we didn't have Bryce, who had twisted his ankle earlier, But I said, you know, I walked out of there going, I think we're going to be okay. You know, I think if you look at projection, people have us, on account of returning minutes up there, you know, first, second, somewhere, as it goes through projections of the league. But I do think that you're walking out here, and I will tell you, players are actually better than I anticipated, and not that I had low expectations, but Dylan has gotten better, TJ has gotten better, and it's a tribute to the work that they do behind the scenes.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Karon Boyd was such a brick wall at the point of attack for you last season.
Does one player take on that job, or is it a committee thing? How might that look for the Shockers?
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, because Karon is so good. I think what gets lost is how good Michael Gray was.
Michael Gray's ability to defend and, you know, specifically being able to take charges.
And I think Jordan Frison will add a level of quickness for us. And so if we need to eliminate a catch on a certain player, you know, sometimes you may not have the personnel who could really. Listen, we're going to play 4 on 4 basketball here because we need to take a certain guy out and not let him get touches over the course of these possessions. I think Jordan's ability, I think Johari at 6 foot 5, his ability to stay in front of the ball and provide length. But yeah, you're not, you're not replacing Caron Boyd with just one guy simply because of the physical nature at which Caron played with and his ability to offensive rebound. So it'll definitely be by committeeing corporately.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Yes, we love Mike Gray's ability to take charges. That was. It's always entertaining. Let's talk about some of the other newcomers. Bryce hurd is a 6 foot 6 guard, a transfer from Dayton. Tell us a little bit about how Bryce fits into the plans.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Has the ability to. Ability to stretch it, you know, down, down late.
You know, shot 42% there at Dayton. People raved about his approach to the game, his work ethic.
And he's been, again, he missed the first couple of weeks on account of had a, had an ankle sprain during an open gym, but came back, has done everything well, I think, I think the accountability for those guys is just new to them. And again, that's not an attack on where they were previously. I think if players think you can cut corners, they're going to cut corners. And so I just think that when he understood, like, man, you know what, like nothing is missed here on, from, from a detail standpoint, the things that I need to do, that there is a consequence if I don't put up the right stick hand.
And I think he settled in after a couple of weeks and became more and more comfortable and he got in better shape. Basketball is just one of those games where you just can't go weeks without playing because unless you're Kevin Durant, you just show up at the Olympics and go five for five when you haven't played in like six months, but that's rare.
So his approach has been great. He's in much better shape than what he was. You know, you've probably seen us on Friday mornings, we're out here running the mile and his conditioning time has gotten better and better, but he can stretch the Floor and he can also attack.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Explain stick hand for people who might not be familiar.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Yeah, you need to get your hand above the ball on a closeout. You know, if you close out as you, you've been to a lot of practices, Paul, so you've heard me say this. Your hands are in your pockets and like God gave you limbs for a reason and for whatever reason, I don't know why players don't use them, but I mean they'll close out with their arms by their side and they don't get their hand above the ball. So you have to stick a hand above the ball. We don't ask for it to be plural.
So we and we're kind of try to ensure that we're no middle. So on a certain side the stick hand differs. On the left side of the court it's your left hand. On the right side of the court, it's your right hand. So in the middle it's usually your left hand. Just because the shooting pocket for a shooter is usually on his right side. So you need to be able to match up and get on the shooting pocket side. But yeah, you do need to have your hand above the ball.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Nunu Jones, a 5 foot 11 sophomore guard from Blinn College in Texas.
Tell us about Nunu and plans for his development.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Yeah, just, I mean, what a privilege just to be around that young man. He comes from Lancaster, Texas, where won a state championship with Dylan Batee and played a year at Blinn in a really tough region 14 juco. And so we saw him at an event in Dallas and just really played well. Has a terrific head on his shoulders, tough as nails. You know, he looks like a, he's built like a fire hydrant and will go out there and, you know, watching the aftershock scrimmage. When we scrimmage the aftershocks, you know, Marcus Kean's not a small guy and to watch him chest him and not give up much in the way of feet once that initial hit happens, I was really impressed. And very quick, has the ability to get downhill, can really pass. He's kind of wired to score. As PJ Cuznard says, we have pick and roll demons and I would throw him in the mix. He's learned a lot from Jordan and Johari through this process, but he's going to be a heck of a player.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Cyr Malonga is an experienced big man, a 6 foot 11 center coming most recently from New Mexico State. We know Will Berg will play a lot of minutes. Noah Hill's Potential has everyone excited. How does Cyr fit into the big man rotation?
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Just one. He's just a remarkable young man. I mean, I don't know how many players that I've coached more than he, 500, 600 after doing this now for 32 years.
And I'm just telling you, he's got a magnetic personality. He doesn't get ruffled. You know, we talk a lot about emotional fragility that you cannot have. You have to have emotional stability.
And he has that and just he goes about it the right way. You know, he's from the Congo and he hasn't been home in six years and he's got a three year old brother who he's actually never been able to see simply because there's a war going on. You also have Ebola going on. You also have visa issues going on. So there are a variety of things that come into play and that kid shows up with a smile every single day and gets after it. I've been really, really impressed with his strides. You know, to be perfectly frank, there was one day where I just said Will doesn't have any competition. And that level of competition that day was Cyr. And it was a thorough butt kicking by Will versus Cyr. And Cyr showed up the next day. And I hope Will hears this Cyr was a better player the next day. And so you just realize like, man, this is, he just responded the right way. Just an incredible young man. And you know there's going to be days where Will wins versus when Cyr wins. But they're on the same page. They know they're on the same page, that they're teammates. And I just really been impressed with his progress. But his biggest attribute is he can go, he can go catch lobs. He's a top of the square guy, so we've seen a lot of that. But he can run and he can rebound, which are two things that we need from that position.
But his emotional stability is really impressive.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: You mentioned Jarrett Valencia and his Achilles injury earlier. Update us on Jarrett.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah, making strides. He's able to do on court stuff and able to get in the mix and do stationary shooting. He's not able to be cleared for 5 on 5 play, but he is able to get back on the court and be able to move and he's making progress. We actually expect him to be around. I know his injury happened in the latter part of December.
December 28th, I believe was the date that it happened. And usually that's, you know, really depends on the players. But Eight months you feel somewhat comfortable and then nine months you kind of just see where we're at. But we do expect to see him back at some point this year and he wants to get back, so he's doing the work and the things necessary as Todd allows him to.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: We'll wrap it up with getting back to Will Berg, who had a really nice season last season.
What's the next step for Will?
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean he needs to be able to. And you've probably seen this. We had an open practice and he ended up shooting six threes in a five on five segment. He was three for six going from threes and his three ball has done well. That's a, that's not the entree, right, that, that, that's a aspect of his game that he can add, but one he needs to. Let's keep our strength, our Strengths, right? You're 15th in the country at offensive rebound rate. You're one of the best in our league, if not the best, and we need to make sure that you're out there continuing to be one of the best offensive rebounders in the country. He's going to get a lot more in the way of touches and he can pass and he doesn't need to overthink this. He just needs to play instinctive because he has that ability. You know, I mentioned last year that I thought he was getting land legs just because he hadn't played for two years and just never got comfortable being on the floor. We began to bring him off the bench and he ends up being sixth man of the year simply because he would get in foul trouble too early.
So you need to be instinctive in your play. You don't need to, you know, you need to rely on your strength. And I'm glad there's elements to his game that he can expand, but that's not going to be the primary reason that he's an all conference player. And then he needs to stay out of foul trouble like we need him on the court. So he's going to play big minutes. He'll have a big role for us and you know, the expansion of his game is a plus. But we're going to stick to strengths and what we do best.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: Shockers have wrapped up their summer workouts. Classes start I think August 17th, so they'll start filtering back in and then start getting ready for the season. Paul Mills, thank you for your time.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast. Courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find more roundhouse content at goshockers. Com.
Cortez fires a three.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: We'll take a look at that in a second. I don't want to look at that one. I want to look at this one. Bichon Cortez. He gets the switch he sees, and it doesn't.
