‘I’m nothing without God’: Qua Grant leaned on faith to help during Shocker struggles
The Bible studies are what kept Qua Grant going.
He knew he was going to have to prove himself all over again on the basketball court transitioning to the Division I level, but he has never struggled like he has this season on the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
This was someone who was the best player on one of the best teams in Division II, a two-time All-American who averaged more than 22 points per game last season. Since scoring 13 points against Arizona on Nov. 19 in his fourth game as a Shocker, Grant had averaged just 2.9 points in the 21 games since.
When the ball stopped going through the basket, Grant turned to his pregame Bible studies with teammates Joe Pleasant, Monzy Jackson and Steele Chapman helped restore his belief — in himself and in his faith.
“I’m nothing without God and in hard times, that’s who I lean on the most,” Grant said. “He gets me through every day. It’s hard not playing as well as you want and not playing much, but (the Bible studies) help keep me going and my teammates just really help.”
His faith was the bedrock that helped him maintain his confidence, despite going from a starter early in the season to essentially out of the playing rotation in February. And when Wichita State needed him in Wednesday’s must-win road game at Tulsa, Grant was prepared to deliver.
In a throwback performance that more closely resembled how he played at West Texas A&M, Grant diced up Tulsa’s match-up zone defense for a season-high 13 points in the Shockers’ 72-62 victory. In Grant’s 18 minutes on the floor, WSU outscored Tulsa by 16.
“I’m so happy for the kid,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “Every day in practice he comes in and works hard. He’s always coming in after practice and getting up shots. He’s always got a positive attitude, always wanting to get better. He played great tonight and that’s the Qua Grant we expected.”
Grant impressed coaches during the summer with his rare blend of quickness and strength in a 6-foot-1 guard. But the moves he was so used to scoring with in Division II didn’t work as well when American Athletic Conference play began. His shots at the rim were being blocked for the first time in his life; his jump shot was no longer falling as consistently.
He was also trying to learn the intricacies of being the point guard in WSU’s system, a position he wasn’t familiar with playing his first three years of college. For the first time in his career, Grant was thinking more than doing.
“It definitely took a toll on me, but I knew nothing like this was going to come easy or else everybody would do it,” Grant said. “There’s going to be trials and tribulations. I’m thankful to have Jesus Christ on my side and that’s helped me keep my faith and know that it’s all going to work out eventually.”
Grant didn’t always have such strong faith in his religion.
He was a casual churchgoer when he arrived at West Texas A&M, but when a family tragedy struck, he found comfort in scripture.
Grant became a regular at Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings on campus and began meeting with Aaron Hunt, a faculty member at West Texas A&M who runs the ministry, on a weekly basis.
“I think people can do one of two things when something bad happens: you can either reject God and walk away from it or you can lean in and that’s what Qua did,” Hunt said. “Now that doesn’t make your problems magically go away, but you’re able to communicate with God. As believers, that’s what we believe. God understands pain and suffering through his own son and he walks with us. Once Qua leaned in, he began to flourish here at WT.”
Grant’s breakout season directly correlated with West Texas A&M’s rise, as he averaged 20.7 points and 7.5 rebounds to earn All-American status as a sophomore and lead the team to a 32-1 record before the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the postseason. He followed that up by upping his averages to 22.4 points and 8.0 rebounds, scoring 40 points in the game to send his team to the Elite Eight and ultimately leading West Texas A&M to a national championship game last spring.
As his success grew, so did his faith. After playing in the national title game, Grant invited his team to witness him be baptized by Hunt.
“I was baptized as a child, but I didn’t really understand the meaning back then,” Grant said. “Once I fully understood the meaning, I wanted to give my life to Jesus Christ and thank him for the ultimate sacrifice he gave us.”
The ceremony deeply impacted him.
“After we did the baptism and went back and changed, right before we were about to walk back out, I asked him, ‘How do you feel?’” Hunt said. “I’ll never forget this, Qua looked at me and he said, ‘I feel so light.’
“And that’s just such a perfect way to describe the feeling of when you give that all up. I’m not going to carry this burden alone. I’m going to let Jesus take it, as well. It’s that feeling of a weight being lifted and it was so cool to hear him say that.”
Being an introvert, Grant needed some time to open up and openly share his faith around his teammates. The more the team learned about him, the more everyone found themselves rooting for his success.
Craig Porter, WSU’s starting point guard, took it upon himself to help out Grant, who he saw a lot of himself in.
“I talked to him a lot because I felt like I was in a similar position last year,” said Porter, who had an up-and-down first season at WSU but is now flourishing in his second year. “A lot of it is just trying to stay the course. He knows what he’s capable of doing and he shows it in practice all the time, so it’s kind of just be ready at any moment because you never know what can happen. I’m glad he stayed ready.”
In Wednesday’s win in Tulsa, Grant showed what he can do when he plays with confidence — perhaps gained when his first shot, a three-pointer, was a pure swish.
The rest of the game was exactly how Grant became a two-time All American at West Texas A&M. “Big-time finishes,” as Brown called them: a short floater in the lane, a steal and aggressive finish in transition, an acrobatic layup around a 7-footer, back-to-back twisting finishes attacking the big man out of the pick and roll.
“What makes Qua special is he’s super strong,” WSU star Tyson Etienne said. “When you’re playing someone low to the ground like that, if they’re skinny they’re kind of easy to guard, but when they’re strong like him you can’t knock them off course. He’s really good at getting under your hip. And if you take someone’s hip in basketball, it’s game over.”
There was an unmistakable sense of relief in Grant following the game, a player who had just proved to himself and his team that he can be effective at this level.
During the past three months, Grant has had his faith tested. He’s found encouragement in several different verses, but the book in the Bible he keeps finding himself returning to is Deuteronomy, Chapter 31.
He particularly likes Verse 8, which reads “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
It remains to be seen if his game in Tulsa is an outlier or the start of a late-season spark for Grant entering Saturday’s 2 p.m. game against East Carolina at Koch Arena.
Regardless of what happens, that verse gives him comfort for the challenges that lie ahead.
“I’m definitely thankful for my coaches and for my teammates,” Grant said. “But my faith is what keeps me going, keeps me confident.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 7:46 AM.
.jpg)