Wichita State basketball senior walk-ons find their own piece of Shocker success
Cutting down nets was something that Brycen Bush and Jacob Herrs were used to watching other Shockers do.
The pair of senior walk-ons, both Wichita natives and the only four-year seniors on the Wichita State men’s basketball team this season, have witnessed the recent string of championships closer than most because they are both legacy Shockers.
Brycen watched with envy as his older brother, Zach, also a walk-on with WSU from 2012-17, experienced everything from a Final Four to a 35-1 season, while Herrs watched WSU’s meteoric rise to a national power closely because his father, Ryan, was a former standout with the Shockers from 1992-96.
So when the duo agreed to walk on at WSU in 2017, they were seeking their own sliver of Shocker history. They wanted to be a part of something special and that moment arrived on Saturday, as Bush and Herrs were able to cut down nets in a championship celebration on their senior day after Wichita State wrapped up the American Athletic Conference title with an 80-63 win over South Florida at Koch Arena.
“It feels amazing. I’ve never had this feeling before,” Herrs said. “Never cut down a net. Never won a ring in anything. Had chances, had opportunities, but we actually capitalized on it and this is one of the best days I’ve been a part of.”
“It’s an awesome feeling and I’m so happy and proud of my guys,” Bush added. “It’s something I’ll definitely never forget. A bond with these guys that will last forever.”
‘He’s been a brother to me’
Bush, a sharpshooter at Eisenhower, and Herrs, a springy scorer at Andover, played against each other in high school, but did not know each other before they committed to WSU.
That’s hard to believe if you spend time around them now, as the last four years together have turned them into teammates, roommates and best friends.
“It’s been an amazing run, especially with Brycen always being there,” Herrs said. “We’ve pretty much done everything together.”
Zach Bush was relieved when he heard Herrs was joining the team because he knew firsthand how important it was in his walk-on experience to have a “partner in crime” in J.R. Simon. While he formed life-long bonds with other players, having a fellow walk-on to share experiences with is vital from his perspective.
After watching his brother and Simon form an unbreakable bond, Brycen felt like he had found something similar with Herrs.
“I remember thinking, ‘No way, this could be like Zach and J.R. 2.0,” Brycen said.
It also helped that Simon came back as a graduate assistant on WSU’s staff for the 2017-18 season, the first year with Brycen and Jacob on the team. After giving five years to the program, Zach was well-liked and well-respected and he felt comfortable for Brycen to walk into a situation with Simon on the staff and veterans like Shaquille Morris, Rashard Kelly, Markis McDuffie and Conner Frankamp on the roster.
“I know how it can be day-to-day mentally and physically with all of the demands,” Zach Bush said. “All of the guys who were like little brothers to me grew up in the program and now were the big brothers and I knew they were going to look out for (Brycen) because he hung out with us and they knew him. It wasn’t like he was going somewhere where no one knew him or no one was going to look out for him. That doesn’t happen very often. That’s something special.”
Now that Brycen can reflect back on his four years, he admitted that the friendship formed with Herrs helped him finish out his career at WSU.
“I don’t know if I could have done this and gone through all four years without him,” Brycen said. “He’s been a brother to me and helped me through so much and it’s been so much fun the last four years. I’m sad it’s coming to the end, but at least we got to go out (at home) in the coolest way.”
‘That’s what makes it all worth it’
Walk-ons at Wichita State are expected to work just as hard as scholarship players, yet are given no financial aid. They have to put in the same amount of practice time, do the same workout sessions, go to class and show up to the same team functions — without the carrot of playing time dangling out in front of them.
“That’s why you have to find value in other things,” Zach Bush said. “You find value in seeing your teammates start to succeed and helping them prepare and seeing their games grow. It can be a really satisfying thing.”
Brycen has appeared in 19 games and played in 32 total minutes in the past four years, while Herrs has appeared in 20 games and played in 36 total minutes.
But they didn’t sign-up to be a walk-on because they wanted to play serious minutes at WSU. They wanted to be a part of a winning program, something bigger than themselves, and they were willing to sacrifice their ego to make it happen.
“It’s actually kind of cool because I’m around these guys every day and it’s cool to watch your buddies grow and go out there and perform,” Brycen said. “I know I’m not going to play, but I’ve got a front row seat to watch my friends go out there and do what they love.”
Walk-ons only enter the minds of fans when they either do a memorable celebration on the bench or score a basket in the final minute of a blow-out game. What fans don’t see is the tireless work that goes into being a walk-on at Wichita State.
Walk-ons aren’t just warm bodies for WSU’s starters to plow over in practice. They are held to a high standard in practice and expected to make drills and scrimmages competitive for the scholarship players. Zach Bush and Simon were prime examples of walk-ons taking their job seriously and earning respect from their teammates. Brycen Bush and Herrs have followed suit.
“I think Wichita State is pretty unique because walk-ons here are expected to carry their weight,” Dave Bush said. “They’re not given any break. They have to work their tails off in practice to help the starters develop and keep them challenged and provide good practice time. It’s not for everybody. The mental grind of doing this for free is a lot.”
Holding their own wasn’t always the easiest thing for Brycen and Herrs, two skinny freshman who joined a loaded WSU team that had Final Four expectations for the 2017-18 season.
“The physicality of just practice was 10 times different than it was in high school,” Brycen said. “It was a completely different competition. It was intense and there were times where you go, ‘Holy crap, can I do this?’ You just have to put your head down and gut it out and remember this is what you signed up for.”
Soon enough, Brycen and Herrs both added weight to their frame and became stronger and bouncier. Once they got the physical part down, they had to also adjust their mental state of mind. They were now “the bottom of the food chain,” as Zach Bush phrased it, and they had to figure out how to be the best teammate possible.
That meant bringing positive energy on a daily basis to whatever activity they were in, whether it was a drill or a scrimmage or even a game. No matter how they were feeling, Brycen and Herrs always had to be the hype men for the team.
So why do they do it? Why do they put in so much work for so little recognition?
“It is a lot of hard work that maybe goes unnoticed to other people, but the people that matter the most are the ones who notice it and that’s all that matters,” Herrs said. “That’s what makes it all worth it.”
‘We’re not champions without them’
Ryan Herrs has enjoyed his time being back in the Roundhouse the last four years watching his son wear the same uniform he once did more than two decades ago.
“It’s been incredible to get back and to deeply follow the Shockers again and not just be a casual fan,” Ryan Herrs said. “Of course, I’m so proud of Jacob being as tough as he is and doing what he’s done with little glory.
“You can’t even compare Jacob from 2017 to 2021. The growth has been amazing, from the confidence in himself to his approach to school to his responsibilities in life. He’s just shown a ton of maturity and I’m incredibly proud of that.”
Both players plan to move on from the program after graduating with their degrees this spring from WSU. Speak to anybody in the basketball program and they will offer up praise for the thankless job Brycen and Herrs have done the past four years.
“Jacob and Brycen have meant so much to our program over the last four years,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “They’re always the first ones in the gym when practice starts and always involved in helping prepare our starting group with the scout team. They always have a great attitude and are always willing to help us out whatever way we need. They’re going to be very successful in life because they know what it takes to be a part of a team. I hate to see them leave, but of course we want to see them do what’s best for themselves and we’re going to help them out any way possible.”
Even WSU’s leading scorer Tyson Etienne took time out of his press conference after winning a conference championship to shower the two senior walk-ons with praise.
“They’re invaluable. We’re not conference champions without them,” Etienne said. “They come to practice every single day. They come to weights every single day. They come to the arena every single day with a great attitude and lively spirits and being able to call them my teammates will be something I’ll always cherish.
“Jacob probably has the most bounce of any walk-on in the country and Brycen can shoot it from the outside very well. They just happened to stay in Wichita because if they went to another school, they would do damage.”
Bush and Herrs didn’t come to WSU to score points. They came to forge life-long relationships with their teammates and to be a part of something special.
After watching the Shockers overcome more than their fair share of adversity this season to win the program’s first AAC championship, it’s safe to say that they found what they came looking for at WSU.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything,” Bush said. “I’ve had some of the best teammates since I’ve been here that I know will always have my back. I’ve had some awesome teammates who have made me feel every bit a part of the team. I’ve never felt like a walk-on. I’ve felt like I was a part of something special.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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