Shocker women’s basketball making Wichita native Tre’Zure Jobe a recruiting priority
Following an All-American career at Emporia State, Wichita native Tre’Zure Jobe is looking to finish her basketball career at the game’s highest level.
Since entering the transfer portal as a graduate transfer last month, the 5-foot-7 guard who tallied more than 2,000 career points at the NCAA Div. II level has received strong interest from power-conference programs from the Big 12 and SEC.
For a player who was overlooked by Div. I programs despite a standout high school career at Wichita South, Jobe said being recruited so heavily this time around has been a stressful but rewarding process.
“I feel like it’s every girls’ dream to play at the highest level in the best conference in the country,” said Jobe, who took her first official visit to Missouri last week. “For so many schools to reach out, that’s everything. It’s made me think, ‘Well, maybe going Division II was the best thing for me.’”
Jobe said she was disappointed to not be recruited by any of the in-state Div. I teams coming out of high school.
But with the Wichita State women’s basketball team under new leadership, first-year head coach Terry Nooner and top assistant Antwain Scales, who coached Jobe in high school and youth basketball, have made it a priority to convince Jobe to finish out her career in her hometown as a Shocker, according to sources close to the program.
“I’ve definitely thought about it a little bit, but there are schools from the SEC and Big 12 recruiting me and I’m heavily considering playing in one of those conferences,” Jobe said. “Wichita State is not out of the picture by no means, but I just have to weigh all of my options right now.”
Jobe is one of many Wichita natives in recent years who have left Wichita to go on and become a standout at the collegiate level.
That’s a trend that Nooner told The Eagle he wants to reverse during his time as WSU head coach. Coaches are not allowed to comment specifically on prospective recruits, but Nooner gave his general thoughts on how he was going to go about retaining hometown talent with the Shocker.
“I think that’s going to be part of making the crowds bigger is having hometown talent, people our fans can watch in high school and get behind,” Nooner said on the day he was publicly introduced as head coach. “That’s going to be a huge emphasis for me in recruiting is making sure we keep the hometown kids home.”
The addition of Scales, who has trained many of the top female players to come out of Wichita, should certainly help Nooner in that regard.
Scales led Wichita South to a Class 6A record four straight state championships from 2013-16, the last two of which featured Jobe on the team. Scales also coached and trained Jobe before she reached high school, a relationship that certainly helps the Shockers — but isn’t necessarily the end-all, be-all for Jobe.
“In high school, I didn’t have a lot of the individual accolades but we definitely had the team success,” Jobe said. “I was a role player and I knew what I had to do to help my team win and (Scales) really embedded that in me at an early age. Winning rings is something I want to get back to in college and get a ring to finish this off in the right way.”
The potential for team success appears to be high up on the wish list for Jobe in a new home. She averaged 22.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 3.2 steals this past season to earn honorable mention All-American honors as an individual, but Emporia State finished with a 14-15 record.
The 2021 MIAA Player of the Year hopes for that individual success to translate to team success in March.
“I feel like individually, I have achieved all of the accolades that I set out as a goal before I even got to college,” Jobe said. “This last year I definitely want to have something else to show for it. I want some team recognition so years later when I go back to wherever I decide to go, I can be like, ‘Hey, I was a part of that team.’ We won conference and we made it to the Sweet 16 or whatever the case might be. I definitely want to be a part of something special that’s bigger than just me.”
The decision to move on from Emporia State was an easy one for Jobe once her head coach, Toby Wynn, retired at the end of this past season.
The decision to pick where she concludes her decorated career won’t be as easy. It remains to be seen if WSU can convince her something special is attainable with the Shockers.
Regardless of where she ends up, Jobe will take with her the confidence gained from her time at Emporia State. It’s how she went from an under-recruited prospect coming out of high school to a deadly three-level scorer and a top point guard target for major women’s college basketball programs.
“I think I’ve always had this kind of player in me, but I knew I had to be patient and my time was going to come eventually,” Jobe said. “I came to Emporia State and my coach saw the potential in me and he threw me in the fire and I had to rise to the occasion. Now I’m a completely different player with confidence out of this world.”
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