Fed up with life as an ‘almost’ team, Wichita State searches for its edge
A trip to the Bahamas offered Wichita State a chance to define who it could become.
Instead, the Shockers left their second straight loss in Battle 4 Atlantis on Thursday night confronting who they are — a team that’s proven it can fight back and a team increasingly frustrated that it keeps digging holes in the first place.
What stung most after a 76-70 loss to Colorado State wasn’t the 21-point deficit or the comeback that came up short. It was the growing realization that the Shockers have seen this movie before and they’re tired of being cast in the same role.
“There’s a standard here,” head coach Paul Mills said. “It’s a precedent that’s been set long before any of us ever got here. We need to be ready from the jump.”
Through seven games, WSU has proven its resilience. What it hasn’t proven — at least not yet — is that it can play with the urgency and force required to win from the opening tip, not just the final 10 minutes.
Wichita State basketball tired of playing from behind
The Shockers’ 4-3 record isn’t alarming by itself. They’ve beaten the teams they were favored to beat and lost competitive games away from home to three top-100 opponents.
For a roster put together in a single offseason, it’s a respectable foundation. But the bar is higher than that at WSU.
WSU trailed by 15 in the second half at Boise State, fought back and had a potential game-tying shot in the air at the buzzer. They trailed by 10 in the second half against Saint Mary’s, took the lead late but came up just short. And on Thursday, they fell behind by 21 points in the first half to Colorado State before showing the toughness that keeps surfacing in these losses.
“We know what we’ve got in our locker room,” freshman T.J. Williams said. “We’ve just got to come out and display it.”
Instead, the Shockers are displaying resilience in response to crisis rather than urgency from the start.
“You’re either giving the hit or getting hit,” Williams said. “Right now we’re getting hit. We’ve got to come out and be the one to deliver the blow.”
Two of WSU’s double-digit wins before traveling (UNC Asheville and Milwaukee) were four-point games inside the final six minutes before the Shockers ultimately pulled away. The final margins said blowout, but the underlying habits — waiting until the second half to turn it on — were unmistakably the same.
That’s why the frustration is real. And why it matters.
“That’s on me. It is 100% on me,” Mills said of the team’s slow starts. “We have to do a better. There’s got to be an edge to us. There was an edge to us in the second half. But there’s got to be an edge to us the entire game.”
Shockers aren’t setting the tone early enough in losses
Colorado State’s first-half clinic was the harshest example yet of WSU’s problem. The Rams made 15 straight shots, many uncontested, in building a 21-point first-half lead.
“Our resistance was minimal,” Mills said. “They were driving through us and they were playing through us. We were too casual in our approach.”
The players know that has to change.
“If we start off strong, who knows, we might win those games,” senior guard Kenyon Giles said. “But it shouldn’t be ‘who knows.’ We’re playing good teams, but we’re a good team too.”
Senior forward Karon Boyd sees the same problem.
“We can’t wait until we’re down a lot and coach has to chew us out for us to go out there and say we want it,” Boyd said. “We have to come out and bring that same mentality.
“A lot of times we come out in cruise control,” Boyd continued. “We need to come out and start attacking way more, put our foot on their necks.”
The Shockers don’t want to be defined by how they respond to being hit. They want to be defined by the blows they deliver first.
Where does the missing edge begin for WSU basketball?
What’s become clear in the Bahamas is that the issue isn’t limited to game time. It’s everything leading up to it.
The Shockers believe they need more energy before the ball even goes up. More edge in warmups. More chatter in walkthroughs. More talking at team meals. In short: a more intentional daily approach.
“That chip has to be established long before a game ever gets tipped off,” Mills said. “Being a good basketball player is a lifestyle. It starts in your recovery. It starts in your mental approach. It starts during the day. You don’t just show up at 8 p.m. and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to play basketball.’”
Mills hammered home the idea that WSU can’t wait until its back is against the wall until the team plays with an edge. That was once again the case after halftime against Colorado State.
“Our care factor jumped. It became more important to our guys,” Mills said. “There’s too many times that we take the temperature of the other team. Let’s see what you’re like and then we’ll adjust. You have to play at a level that the other team is unwilling or unable to compete with.”
When asked what needs to change, Giles paused for a second before answering with authority.
“There’s too much talking going on,” he said. “We’ve got to go do it. We just (gave) away two opportunities. I believe we’re going to go do it, but no more talking. We’ve got to go out there and do it.”
Why the frustration is a sign of belief for the Shockers
Being upset about three losses away from home to good teams isn’t a sign the season is sliding.
It’s a sign that the Shockers believe they should be winning those games. In the past five seasons, WSU is just 5-21 against KenPom top-100 teams away from home — a trend that this team wants to change.
“We only get a guaranteed 31 of these,” Mills said. “If we aren’t approaching every half like this is important to everybody in the room, then we are sabotaging not only ourselves, but we’re sabotaging other people. I do believe you’ll see a different team moving forward.”
Mills didn’t elaborate if that meant changes to the starting lineup or even to the playing rotation. The answer will be revealed at 6 p.m. Central Friday when the Shockers look to salvage the trip with a seventh-place game against Western Kentucky.
It’s clear that the challenge is less about the opponent and more about themselves. Can the Shockers prove they can set the tone, dictate the physicality, control the energy and honor the standard for the program?
Can WSU prove it is tired of being an almost team.
“We can’t keep talking about it,” Giles said. “We just gotta go out there and do it now.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 8:14 AM.
.jpg)