Why Tre’Zure Jobe picked Wichita State over major women’s basketball recruiting offers
Wichita native Tre’Zure Jobe was being pursued by teams in the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 following a Div. II All-American career at Emporia State.
In the end, Jobe’s loyalty and desire to help elevate her hometown program trumped the allure of playing women’s college basketball at the power-conference level.
Jobe officially signed with the Wichita State women’s basketball team on Tuesday, choosing the Shockers over Maryland, Oregon, Missouri and Oklahoma State and giving first-year head coach Terry Nooner a monumental start to his own 2023 recruiting class.
“This is bigger than me,” Jobe told The Eagle. “It’s going to mean a lot to me and my family, but I also want to show that local kids can hopefully turn this program around. I really hope this makes a statement and we start showing love to the inner-city kids and change the whole dynamic of this program.”
WSU assistant coach Antwain Scales, a Wichita native himself who coached Jobe from grade school to high school, spearheaded the recruitment to convince Jobe to finish her collegiate career in Wichita. Jobe was a first team all-state player at Wichita South, where she also won a Kansas high school state championship in 2016 under Scales.
After averaging 22.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 3.2 steals this past season to put the finishing touches on a career that saw her earn All-American recognition twice and score more than 2,000 career points, Jobe was heavily pursued once she entered the transfer portal. The combination of Nooner and Scales ultimately won the recruiting battle, as Jobe will be reunited with her former high school coach.
“Tre’Zure Jobe, one of the most highly coveted transfers in the country, is a coach’s dream and I am thrilled to add her as my first signee to our Wichita State program,” Nooner said in a statement. “Being a Wichita native and former state champion at Wichita South High School, we made her a top recruiting priority and wanted to bring her back home as we build something new.”
Jobe, a 5-foot-7 guard in her final year of eligibility, has the ability to play on or off the ball. At Emporia State, the ball was in her hands the majority of the time and she was given license to make decisions on whether to attack or create for others. With shooting percentages of 45.5% from the field, 36.9% on three-pointers and 76.9% on free throws, Jobe’s efficiency as a smaller guard was impressive at her volume of more than 18 shots per game.
Even though the American Athletic Conference will be a drastic increase in competition from the MIAA, Jobe believes she can replicate her standout scoring numbers as a Shocker.
“I’m planning on doing pretty much everything the same on the court as I did at Emporia State,” Jobe said. “Nothing is going to change. My game is going to stay the same. Hopefully with our player development, I can put up even better numbers than I did last year.”
The arrival of Jobe should give WSU one of the most talented backcourts in the conference, as she will join last year’s starting point guard D.J. McCarty, who averaged 10.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals last season, and incoming freshman Salese Blow, a 5-foot-11 scoring dynamo who averaged 32.8 points this past spring and scored 50 points twice in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
“Tre’Zure is a dynamic scorer and elite pick and roll player who can score in every area on the floor,” Nooner said in a statement. “She is a gym rat who is constantly putting in extra work on her own by studying film and putting in extra time in the gym to further develop her game. She is selfless and wants to do anything she can to help make the team great; she will make an immediate impact on the team and I know the fans are going to love her.”
While Jobe is the first player Nooner has signed in WSU’s 2023 recruiting class, the new staff already scored major recruiting wins in convincing McCarty, the lone starter back from last season, to remove her name from the transfer portal and retaining Blow, who signed with former head coach Keitha Adams.
Blow is the lone retention from WSU’s fall signing class, as international players Mariama Sow (Senegal), Luisa Vydrova (Czech Republic), Dunja Zecevic (Serbia) and Delma Zita (Mozambique) all followed Adams to UTEP.
Former WSU star forward Jane Asinde (13.1 points, 9.8 rebounds) also followed Adams to UTEP, while starting guard Shamaryah Duncan transferred to North Texas. Reserve point guard Nhug Bosch Duran, sophomore forward Carla Budane and sophomore guard Tanya Platonova remain uncommitted in the transfer portal.
WSU’s current roster features four returning seniors in McCarty, Aniyah Bell, Ambah Kowcun and Jeniah Thompson, a trio of juniors in Ella Anciaux, Raissa Nsabua and Ornella Niankan and sophomore Daniela Abies. Nooner has up to five scholarships remaining to fill out WSU’s roster for the 2023-24 season.
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