Shockers’ newest recruit brings a much-needed skill to Wichita State basketball
The newest Shocker recruit brings a much-needed skill to the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
It’s been nearly a decade now — the 2017-18 season, to be exact — since the last time WSU was a good 3-point shooting team. In three of the last four seasons, the Shockers have charted as one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the entire country.
Monday’s addition of Brian Amuneke, a 6-foot-5 sophomore sharpshooter who played last season at Fresno State, should help an overhauled roster at least improve upon WSU’s previous effort of 30.2% accuracy beyond the arc.
That ranked No. 339 nationally, dipping to 27.9% in American Athletic Conference play.
Amuneke averaged 7.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.9 steals in 21.2 minutes per game. He shot 42.4% from the field and 40.7% on 3-pointers for a Fresno State team that finished with a 6-26 record, second-to-last in the Mountain West.
Finding a young (three years of eligibility remaining) sharpshooter this late in the transfer portal will work for WSU head coach Paul Mills. But the final six weeks of the 2024-25 season is what has the staff so excited about the potential of this newest recruit.
In his final 12 games of the season, Amuneke earned a larger role for the struggling Bulldogs and delivered impressive results in the sixth-toughest conference in the country: He averaged 13.1 points and shot 46.8% on 5.2 attempted 3s per game.
He also adds some much-needed size to a backcourt that currently includes 6-foot point guard Keandre Kindell, a signee from Barton Community College, and 5-foot-9 shooting guard Kenyon Giles, a high-octane scorer from UNC Greensboro.
Another trait that works favorably for WSU: Amuneke knocked down 42.5% of his 3-pointers on catch-and-shoot opportunities, per Synergy. The majority of his looks should come off screens and kick-out passes, which the Los Angeles native feasted on this past season as a true freshman.
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