Wichita State’s Kenny Pohto named MVP, leads Sweden to U-20 tournament championship
Incoming Wichita State men’s basketball freshman Kenny Pohto made the most of his international experience this summer playing on Sweden’s under-20 national team.
Pohto has not yet practiced with his Shocker teammates at Koch Arena this summer because the Sweden native has been training in his home country for the youth national team playing in the U-20 Nordic Cup, a four-team tournament in Estonia.
The 6-foot-11 big man capitalized on the opportunity, spearheading Sweden’s championship run in the Nordic Cup following a 79-73 victory over Estonia last Friday. Pohto was named the tournament’s best player after scoring a game-high 21 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 effort on three-pointers, to go along with eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
Pohto was Sweden’s top player in the four games played in the tournament. He saved his best performance for the championship game, but Pohto also registered 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead a come-from-behind 80-76 victory over Iceland. He also added 13 points in Sweden’s first game against Estonia, which was an 80-59 loss.
Highlights captured from the performance are encouraging for Shocker fans: Pohto shows an array of skills that could earn him playing time right away as a backup center for WSU.
In the first clip, he smoothly takes his defender off the dribble from the perimeter and finishes with a dunk. Three times he sets a screen, then pops out to the three-point line to swish a triple — something that would make him valuable to the Shockers right away if he can replicate at the college level. In other clips, he shows he can finish through contact with post moves down low and also find cutters with slick passes.
Granted, the U-20 Nordic Cup is a lower-level international competition, but Pohto is showing flashes of what he could potentially do for the Shockers — as soon as this season.
Pohto is no stranger to international success playing for Sweden, as he averaged 13.1 points and 11.6 rebounds for the U16 Sweden team in the 2018 U16 European Championships.
With the conclusion of the Nordic Cup, Pohto is expected to return to the United States and join the WSU team sometime during the week of August 9 when the full roster for the 2021-22 season is expected to be together for the first time this summer.
Pohto was considered a three-star, top-200 recruit in the class of 2021, as he picked the Shockers over finalists Utah and SMU. He is coming to WSU not far away from his prep career, where he was a starter for a nationally-ranked Sunrise Christian Academy team.
“Kenny is a very skilled and strong 6-foot-11 kid that’s extremely versatile on both sides of the ball,” Sunrise coach Luke Barnwell told The Eagle. “For us, he played more on the perimeter and shot threes and opened up the lane for us. He could really pass and was a very good screener. And then defensively, he can guard multiple positions and at times we could switch him onto point guards because he moves laterally so well.
“It’s always great to see one of our kids become a Shocker because this city loves basketball. We’re all excited to be able to watch him as he begins his college career.”
Pair of baseball Shockers sign pro contracts
The Wichita State baseball team will have to replace the production of two of its best underclassmen from the 2021 season.
After being drafted in the 17th round of the MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers, junior reliever Aaron Haase agreed to terms with the club for $125,000, per MLB.com.
Haase’s pro stock took off after this past season when he excelled as WSU’s closer, recording a 1.78 earned run average with eight saves and 24 strikeouts to just two walks.
Infielder Paxton Wallace, another standout junior, also decided to leave WSU early when an opportunity arose with the Los Angeles Angels to join the club as an undrafted free agent earlier this week.
Wallace earned first team all-American Athletic Conference honors and was one of WSU’s most reliable hitters from the 2021 season, as he finished with a .322 batting average, 11 home runs and 49 runs batted in.
Softball star invited to play with some of nation’s best
Wichita State sophomore shortstop Sydney McKinney showed what she could do at the collegiate level this past season with the Shockers, ultimately earning AAC Player of the Year and third team All-American status.
This week McKinney was able to show what she could do against and with some of the top fast-pitch softball players in the country.
McKinney was a late invite to play for Team Alliance in a 2-1 victory over the USSSA Pride in an all-star exhibition game played on Tuesday at Shawnee Mission School District Complex.
Stats were unavailable from the game, but McKinney wrote on Twitter that she was “very grateful that I was given the opportunity to play with and against some of the best names in the game.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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