Former Shocker Colby Rogers ‘grateful’ for Wichita State ahead of return with Memphis
Suiting up in the visitor’s locker room at Koch Arena will be a strange feeling on Sunday for Colby Rogers.
After spending two years in the Wichita State men’s basketball program, notably breaking the single-season school record with 99 made 3-pointers last season, Rogers hit the transfer portal and picked Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers.
On paper, the move made sense: Memphis and its NIL-rich program gave Rogers a better chance to finally experience March Madness in his final year of college basketball. But in the hearts of some Shocker fans, they were vexed their best player chose to play for another team in the American Athletic Conference.
Rogers understands why some might feel that way, but hopes they understand his decision when his No. 14-ranked Tigers take on Wichita State in a nationally-televised ESPN tip-off at 11 a.m.
“I’m extremely grateful to Wichita State and everything they did for me,” Rogers told The Eagle. “At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to reach our goals. I hope everybody understands it wasn’t anything personal. I’m just trying to get to my goal the same way as everybody else.”
This won’t be the first time the Shockers have squared off against a former high-profile player in recent history. In 2019, WSU beat an Oklahoma team led by Austin Reaves, 80-75, two seasons after he had exited the program. Other examples include Trevin Wade scoring 14 points to lead Alcorn State to a 66-57 upset over WSU in 2023 and former walk-on Kaelen Malone scoring 12 points for Oral Roberts in a blowout loss to the Shockers at Koch Arena in 2019.
It remains to be seen what kind of reception Rogers receives from WSU fans on Sunday, but his interactions with his former teammates were unanimously positive following Memphis’ 61-53 win on its home court last month. Many of his former WSU teammates and staff members who worked with him gave Rogers a hug in the post-game handshake line.
That meant a lot to Rogers.
“That’s why you go to college is to make life-long friendships and life-long bonds with people we wouldn’t have met if we didn’t go to college,” Rogers said. “I look at those guys as my life-long teammates, whether we’re on the same team right now or going against each other. Whenever I see them, it’s always love and I think it’s the same vice versa.”
Rogers’ time with the Shockers became something of a saga.
He had hopes of playing immediately for WSU, but was forced to sit out the 2022-23 season after losing a contentious redshirt appeal with his former school, Siena, not signing off after transferring out. It was a major blow to then-head coach Isaac Brown, who was fired following a 17-15 season where the team lost seven games by six points or fewer. Rogers decided to stick with WSU through the coaching change and averaged a career-best 16.4 points and made 40.9% of his 3-pointers for head coach Paul Mills last season.
It’s quite the sliding-door moment to imagine the difference Rogers could have made on the 2022-23 team that featured a future NBA point guard in Craig Porter, a talented wing scorer in Jaykwon Walton, a microwave scorer in Jaron Pierre Jr. and a front-line of James Rojas and Kenny Pohto.
“I’ve always had those thoughts when I was sitting court-side and watching the games,” Rogers said. “There were times where I was like, ‘Man, I wish I was out there and I could help.’ But I never wanted to take anything away from the guys who were out there. But I look back to those practices where I would practice with the starters and Craig and Jaykwon and yeah, we would have been really good. But obviously that’s neither here nor there because it didn’t happen. It’s just a hypothetical.”
There’s no wondering about his choice to come to Memphis, as the season has played out — Rogers points out there is still a lot of work left to do — so far as well as he could have hoped.
Rogers hasn’t minded going from a primary scoring option, which is what he was used to, to a secondary option because he’s contributing to a nationally-ranked team for the first time in his career. His scoring average has decreased to 10.8 points at Memphis, but he’s still hitting 38.7% of his 3-pointers and more importantly, the Tigers are viewed as a lock to make the NCAA Tournament this season.
Memphis (21-4, 11-1 AAC) is also poised to win the first regular-season conference title in Hardaway’s tenure, as the Tigers are two games up on the field with six games remaining.
“This season has been everything I’ve envisioned for myself and a big reason why I came here, just to have the opportunity to win a lot of games and play in the postseason and play on the big stage,” Rogers said. “It’s almost been like a movie. To play in these big-time games, it’s everything I’ve worked so hard for and sacrificed for. It took longer to get here than I envisioned in the beginning, but it’s a blessing to be playing in meaningful games and be impactful in those games. This is my first time ever on a ranked team, so it’s been a new experience for me and I’m enjoying it every day with the ups and the downs. It’s all been really cool.”
Rogers will try to treat Sunday’s game like any other on the schedule, but a return to Koch Arena is sure to bring up some memories. And he’s fully aware of how badly the Shockers will want to knock off Memphis, as he led the charge for a WSU upset in last year’s conference tournament to end Memphis’ season.
While he is still focused on his goal of helping Memphis advance deep in the NCAA Tournament, he acknowledged how his two years in Wichita played a part in his journey.
“I learned a lot, I grew a lot, as a person and as a player in those two years in Wichita,” Rogers said. “Even that year I set out, it was good for me to focus on me and work on the things that I knew that I needed to work on to be able to play at a certain level that I wanted to play at. And then the next year to be able to have the year I had, to break records, to beat Memphis, that was special to me. I’m just really grateful for both of those experiences because they have shaped me to who I am today.”
Wichita State vs. No. 14 Memphis basketball preview
Records: Memphis 21-4, 11-1 AAC; WSU 14-10, 4-7 AAC
When: 11 a.m. Sunday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita
How to watch: ESPN
Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Mike Kennedy with Dave Dahl)
Series history: Memphis leads 21-13 (WSU leads 8-7 in Wichita)
Betting line: No odds yet
KenPom says: Memphis 80, WSU 72
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 6:02 AM.
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