[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thank you very much for listening. Our guest today is Wichita State men's basketball assistant coach PJ Cusnard. PJ is entering his second season as an assistant coach at WSU. He played for the Shockers from 2004 to 2008. PJ is here to update us on the roster summer plans as we Prepare for the 2026-27 basketball season. The Shockers new and returners start coming back into town on Friday. They'll be taking classes, getting their workouts in and starting practices in early June. So PJ let's start with a brief return to last season. I think the final six weeks really set the stage for this summer. Shockers went 8 and 2, finished the reg season that put them in a tie for second place in the American.
The Shockers defeated Wyoming and Oklahoma State in the NIT before losing at Tulsa. How did that success help both in retaining guys from the team and recruiting new ones?
[00:01:18] Speaker B: It helped a lot. I think by the end of the year the guys was just competing at a high level and you know, them not winning the championships or winning the games that they wanted to win put a little hunger into the guys to return and finish, kind of finish what they started and what they wanted to accomplish. So I think it helped us, you know, even in the loss it helped us, you know, gave us a great motivation and a great chip on the returning guys shoulder that they wanted to come and complete the mission.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: It seems like that will be important in this new era that players on the roster can see success is not far away, but that this team got into the nit, played well in beating Wyoming, played really well to go down and win at Oklahoma State and played well just a thrilling game at Tulsa. Is that important that they can see all right, Our goal, the NCAA tournament, winning conference titles, those kind of things.
It's right there for us.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Oh yeah, definitely. When you're a step away, you feel like you're close and you know, things that could help you get over that hump or improve.
It definitely helps a lot, you know, with the guys like Will Berg now he knows the physicality that he has to have and he's been around it. So now he's working hard, body changing already and stuff like that. So it definitely gives you a good measuring stick. But it definitely helps us, you know, in returning and trying to get back to that NCAA tournament.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Ten Shockers are back from last season, seven who played in games three who redshirted. You mentioned center Will Berg earlier. He is joined as a returner who put up statistics by Dylan bati, Henry Thangvall, TJ Williams, Noah Hill, Jarrett Valencia and Michael Gray Jr. That number will be envied around college basketball. PJ why did so many choose to stay?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Because, like we mentioned, just the chance of winning and almost getting the title and almost winning the conference, it set a sour taste in their mouth. And I know a lot of them, you know, they didn't they competitors, they don't like losing. So coming back to, like I say, kind of finish the job and complete the mission is one of the main reasons, like one of the main things we use to, you know, retain the guys. Like, hey, we didn't finish the job last year. Like, you want to be in a position where you could compete for a championship and have a chance to finish the job this year, or you want to go somewhere and have to basically start over and don't know what's your outcome going to be. So, you know, just the guys being competitive and want to compete, you know, is everything for that.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: We would be negligent not to shout out the fans. That became more and more of a story as the season progressed. They really seemed to respond to this team over the final weeks of the season. Really good crowd down in Stillwater for that game. Really good crowd at Tulsa and the nit.
Were you encouraged by fans filling more and more seats as we got into February and March?
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Definitely we appreciate the fans. Since I got here day one, the goal was to try to get the fans in the stands and we can't win without them. They're so important to us. Home games and away games, Seeing them in Tulsa, seeing them at Oklahoma State, seeing them at a conference tournament, just making a trip and supporting us, it does give the team an extra boost and it does make the guys feel like, oh man, we really playing for our city and stuff like that. So definitely appreciate the fans for coming out. I have no doubt that it'll be even crazier this year with the fans coming back and having full support of the fans.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: We could talk a lot about the Shockers who improved or blossomed over last season. I'm going to pick one just for the time constraints because it seems like Dylan Batie really excited fans with the way he played in January, February and March. He moved into the starting lineup early in conference play. Just seemed to keep getting better and better. Describe Dillon's improvement.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Man, he works at it every day. He works at it and He's a gym rat and he really pays attention to details and he wants to get better and that's easy. It's easy for coaches to work with guys like that, that you could coach him up hard. And he wants to get better, he wants to improve. He has big goals, big aspirations in his basketball world and he works to them. So when the kid work ethic meets their dreams and expectations, it's easy for us to just give him a nudge here and there, but he's definitely got a chance to have a breakout season for sure.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Let's go through the newcomers. Fans will be excited to start hearing and seeing about the additions to the roster. Let's start with Jordan Friesen. He is a 6 foot senior transfer from Tennessee Chattanooga where he averaged 16.7 points and 4.1 assists last season. He also played two seasons at Pittsburgh State. Tell us about Jordan, man.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Jordan is a great kid. On his visit, me and him had all type of basketball debates.
Funny guy, definitely just want to win, man. That was the biggest thing to him. He was like, we could win, you know, and seeing the guys and he was like, man, that's the first thing the guys said to me on my visit was like, hey, we gonna win, we wanna win. So he fell in love with that and he, another kid that's a gym rat fell in love with the process of improving and getting better every year and always answering the bell. And then he's small, so he got a chip on his shoulder.
We love that about him. He's going to be a great, great kid for us. Great, great player for us for sure.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Which of the returners are particularly good at the recruiting, at selling the program?
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Oh, T.J. williams for sure.
Our young guys are great. Tyrese, Lil P. Noah, they're great with it. And of course Dylan, you know, he's a social media guy. He got followers and all that type of stuff. So the kids do a great job of helping on these visits and stuff like that. They're great, they're great kids around. So who wouldn't want to be, you know, around a bunch of good guys
[00:07:18] Speaker A: that want to win Basketball debates with Jordan was this like Kobe vs. LeBron, Michael vs. LeBron.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: The biggest one, me and him and his pops is Draymond Green, the first ballot hall of Famer. So we was going back and forth about that, you know, over dinners and stuff like that. Even on the phone to this day, me and his pops, every time an article comes out about Draymond, we texting each other and stuff like that so? And we casually asked about hall of Fame. Hall of Fame conversation.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Who would not think Draymond Green is
[00:07:50] Speaker B: a first ballot hall of Famer?
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Is that you?
[00:07:52] Speaker B: No, I think he is. They don't, you know, his game doesn't appeal to the younger guys, so they don't think he's a first ballot hall of Fame. So we go back and forth about that.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I would think with his combination of championships, what he did defensively, I would think there is no doubt. I mean, I'm kind of tired of his act as well. Some of the.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah, his antics is crazy.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I get that part of it. But yeah, that doesn't seem like much of a debate to me. Interesting.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah, we definitely go back and forth about that.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm glad you're on the right side of that.
Johari Long a 6 foot 5 graduate transfer from George Mason where he averaged 12.2 points and 4.0 assists last season. Johari is from Houston. You brought him to WSU on a recruiting trip in 2017 when he played for Coos Elite, your AAU team. Taylor Eldridge of the Wichita Eagle unearthed that little nugget. Really interesting. Tell us about Johari.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Man, he's another kid that's going to fit in with our culture. Great kid, six five, big body and could play, could defend one through three, could play one through three. Very versatile and he know how to pick his spots. You know, you won't ever see him get sped up or anything like that, but just another gym rat, another work ethic, work hard guy, and he's going to help us for sure.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Bryce Hurd, a 6 foot 6 junior transfer from Dayton. He started his career at North Carolina State.
Last year for the flyers, he averaged 6.6 points. He made 37% of his threes. Really played well in the NIT. Dayton made the NIT as well. Tell us about Bryce.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Bryce is another kid, man. Like the thing that all these guys want to do is win. And so it's easy that you get a bunch of good kids that want to win and he's ready to step up and take that next step in his collegiate career. And he got all the intangibles. Could defend, shoot the ball like he was very excited to see Bryce out there.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: The last addition that is, that is official as of this point is Cyr Malonga. He is a 6 foot 11 senior center. Played last season at New Mexico State where he averaged 3.7 points and 2.5 rebounds over 24 games. He also played two seasons at East Carolina. So Shocker fans may be a little bit familiar with his game. Tell us about the addition to the center room.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Oh yeah, it definitely helps. Like last year we had three, three guys that we kind of rotated between Will, Noah and Eman. And losing E man, we had to kind of get a replacement. And so Sierra gonna step in fine and help us any way he can. You know, long body, athletic catch and finish at the rim. So very excited to see Cyr as well.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: So the latest addition to the Wichita state basketball roster, 6 foot 1 guard, Nunu Jones. He will come to Wichita State after playing junior college at Blinn, Texas as a freshman. P.J. give us the scout report on Nunu.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Strong guard, very, very tough guard, hard working guard and could really facilitate, really defend and make shots. So we're excited about him. Funny story about him is I played against him his sophomore year in high school when he played against my school and I think he had like 17 or something at halftime, so. So when he came on his visit, we definitely left and talked about that for sure.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: So those things stick with you when
[00:11:21] Speaker B: you see him all the time. All the time. So it was good to see him again and good to see that he was doing well and stuff like that. Now I say now I know you want to get your lick back, so go ahead and commit.
So it was a fun time with a man on his visit. Great, great family and his good kid. Another kid that's a hard worker that's gonna fit in with the team and the culture that we have here of just being in the gym. Gym rat and working hard.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Noah Hill, I think will be one of the interesting shockers to watch because his role will increase.
Super talented kid, really fun to be around, very athletic. What's his summer going to look like? How do you get him ready for a bigger role?
[00:12:04] Speaker B: It's just excitement, man. Just excitement about Noah, excitement about, you know, him having an opportunity or a chance to have an opportunity. Just everybody excited to see what he gonna do, man. I mean, he's a human. Everybody know he's a human highlight for him as soon as he touches the court. And a kid like that last season that was all the way bought in even though he wasn't playing that much. He came in a couple games and helped us win a couple games just in seven seconds of playing time. But you know, it takes a different type of kid to stay locked in and stay positive when you're not playing like that and fully about the team and so has to Noah for Being that way. So him getting a chance this year is going to be, I mean, I think he's going to take full advantage of it.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: That'll be interesting to see. You were talking about, I think, the most famous deflection in recent Wichita State history.
Wichita State. I don't. I don't think he had played at all in the game up until the last few seconds at East Carolina. They put him in. The coaches put him in to.
To guard the inbound passer. He's got super long arms, very bouncy and athletic. Deflected a pass. I think Michael Gray Jr. Also gets credit. He got on the floor from the loose ball, if I'm remembering all this correctly. Ended up in Kenyon Giles hand and he hit one of two shots he hit in that game. That just kind of really made it quite the memorable moment.
Paul Mills, when he talked about the four newcomers a week or so ago, he kept mentioning the word creation that you had signed, especially with Johari and Jordan. People who can really be threats in a lot of different ways. Passing, getting the most out of Wichita State's big man shooting, all those kind of things. How do those two, specifically, how do they change how Wichita State's offense will look?
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Oh, man, when you add two guys that both have over 10 assists in a game with nine assists in a game with no turnovers, it's. It helps everybody. Like our guys, TJ could get out in the wings and. And DB could get some lobs and all that type of stuff. When you have elite passes, two elite passes on the floor at the same time, and they also could score. You know, Jordan averages 16, Jahari averaging 12.
It just gives you a dynamic kind of like last year where everybody was just so locked in on KG that, you know, it made it kind of hard for our offense to move and stuff like that. But now when you have two legit threats out there, that's not only legit in scoring, they legit and they're threats in passing first. So that just helps Will, it helps db, it helps tj, it helps Tyrus, it helps Bryce, it helps everybody else become better. Because now you're going to get more opportunities.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: Okay, year one as Wichita State assistant coach, what did you learn?
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Man, I learned a lot, man.
Coach Mills basically put me in the fire, you know, having to do scouting reports and stuff, you know, he did back in high school. But it's so detailed now and I learned a lot with the numbers and stuff that Coach Mills is into, a lot of the analytics stuff and seeing it actually work. And a couple things that he suggested through the numbers during the season, like to see it play out in the game. You was like, man, this is insane.
But I had a blast, man, like you working for a great guy and, you know, at a great, great school like that. So it's been fun. I learned a lot.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: What was the biggest adjustment?
[00:15:34] Speaker B: That's a good question. I would say the biggest adjustment is probably just being on Go at all times. You know, it didn't bother me. You know, I kind of like that. I don't like sitting around and. And waiting on stuff. So just being on Go at all times, which kind of. I like.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: I like that you mentioned the analytics. And I think that's something that. As Paul has progressed through his time here, fans have become well aware of the importance of shooting free throws, the importance of offensive rebounding. He will talk about that a lot, how important those things are, winning that kind of numbers game, math game. Is there a part of the game, a number, a statistic that really opened your eyes that you've seen how it has become really important through his use of numbers.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Man, it's so much.
It's hard to particularly one of them, but I just know, like, it was teams like they shoot 9% or something in the paint and then we force them to shoot in the paint, you know what I'm saying? So it was just stuff like that that you were like, oh, man, they really work.
And even on great players, it really worked. You are, your numbers, however you want to shake it, you are going to be your number. So. So I learned that really much this year, for sure.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: That's been an interesting part of the last three years with Paul Mills, is the way he talks about numbers and the way he can kind of put that into action on the basketball court. Okay. Your basketball career, I guess, is not totally over. You occasionally will show up at which ymca? West side ymca. I guess we don't want a lot of people showing up there to watch PJ and Clevin Hanna play. But there's a basketball game.
West side ymca. Taylor Eldridge, we mentioned him earlier. The Wichita Eagle. He plays in that game. Cleven Hanna, former Shocker assistant coach to Zach Bush at Mays High, will play in that. Taylor's posted some video.
Big part of Taylor's job at the Eagle is breaking down the Shockers, X's and O's. Now here's your chance. Does Taylor Eldridge play any defense at all?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: He's great in his own defense, great in the zone. Great in the zone.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Okay. Kind of a one man zone.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, one man zone. But nah, he's actually a great, good basketball player.
Very high iq.
He plays with his. He got a team. They come in and he kind of runs the show for him below the rim. Definitely below. We both are below the rim guys now.
But if he's open, he's shooting it. It's.
It's going in. If he let it go, it's going in.
So he was very impressed. I was actually shocked that he was as good as he was. I was like, oh, you might be taking some lessons somewhere else, you know, while you're doing this critiquing on the basketball side. But he was a pretty decent basketball player.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Okay, so you can't go under screens against Taylor.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: You can't go under screens versus Taylor. You cannot go under screens. He will shoot it with a little range too. So, yeah, you can't go under screenshots.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Okay, good. Good scouting report on Taylor Eldridge. P.J. kuznard, Wichita State men's basketball assistant coach. Shockers are getting ready to start summer workouts here within the next week or so. PJ thank you very much for your time.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yep. Thank you.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: 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
[email protected] Bradshaw into Wingate.
[00:19:26] Speaker D: Wingate's gonna dribble it a couple of times and throws it in the hands of Kuznard. Threw it away. Kuznard to Ryan Martin for the dunk. The Shockers are going to the sweet 16.
It's all over. The shockers up seven, three seconds.
Jeffer by Smith is no good. Wichita State to the sweet 16.
