Why Kenyon Giles’ record-breaking season at Wichita State is no solo act
Kenyon Giles’ record-breaking night looked, on the surface, like a solo act.
Six 3-pointers. A new Wichita State men’s basketball single-season record. Another scoring eruption from the Shocker guard who keeps stretching what feels possible from behind the arc.
But the deeper story from Wichita State’s 84-67 win at UTSA on Sunday night at the Convocation Center was this: Giles didn’t just shoot his way into the record book. He was guided there.
By a screen. By spacing. By timing. By teammates filling corners. By a center flattening defenders at midcourt. By a coach who has built an offense to give a star guard exactly what all elite scorers crave: space.
“A lot of people are going to see I broke the record and think it’s all about what I do,” Giles said. “I put a lot of work in, but I don’t get this record without my teammates and without my head coach. Coach Mills has given me so much confidence. That’s made a huge difference.”
That was the story told by all six 3s Giles made to push his season total to 102 and break the previous program record of 99 set by Colby Rogers in the 2023-24 season.
The senior guard arrived at WSU already established after averaging 14.3 points at Radford in 2023-24 and 15.3 points last season at UNC Greensboro. But under WSU coach Paul Mills, Giles has reached another tier — a career-best 19.5 points per game, 102 made 3s at a 38.1% clip, plus a highly efficient 47% mark on mid-range 2s.
Mills hasn’t just given Giles the ball and told him to go score. He’s helped build the ecosystem around him.
“You’ve got to be able to take quality shots and that’s what you’re more impressed with is that his shot quality is really good,” Mills said. “There are things that he can do, whether it’s off the catch or off the bounce, that put him in a stratosphere where you’re more surprised when he misses.”
Sunday’s first triple was the simplest version of that. An inbounds catch-and-shoot look. Quick release. Clean rhythm. Splash.
It was a reminder of one of Giles’ most lethal traits this season: He doesn’t need much. According to Synergy tracking data, Giles is 46-for-102 on catch-and-shoot 3s, a blistering 45.1%. Those shots make up a little more than one-third of his shot diet and they come in all forms — stationary spot-ups, movement into space, quick-trigger opportunities when a defense loses track of him for even a beat.
The second 3 was the better illustration of who Giles is as a scorer.
WSU tried to run an alley-oop play against UTSA’s zone, but the pass sailed off target and Dillon Battie had to come down with it. On most possessions, a broken play creates hesitation. For Giles, it was an opening.
As UTSA’s defenders turned their heads toward the ball, Giles darted into the left corner, made himself available, caught the pass on the move, set his feet and fired before the closeout could arrive. Swish.
That play wasn’t just about shooting. It was about feel. Giles has a scorer’s instinct for when a defense relaxes, when its eyes drift, when its shape gets distorted. He hunts those moments.
By the time Giles got to the record-tying 3, the game delivered the most fitting snapshot of WSU’s teamwork around him. With 13:16 left in the second half, Giles brought the ball up in semi-transition. The floor was spread wide. The other three perimeter players created width and depth, then Will Berg came up and planted a high ball screen on Giles’ defender.
It’s a staple that has become of WSU’s signature actions in American Conference play, as the Shockers (20-10, 12-5 American) have climbed to second place. It works because of the pressure it creates. Defenses are already scrambling to get organized in the first seven seconds of the shot clock. Then comes a massive 7-foot-2 screener, arriving high, forcing communication and precision before most defenses are fully set.
UTSA wasn’t ready. Its big man sat back near the free-throw line. Giles’ defender had to navigate Berg’s body. Giles walked into a wide-open 3 at the top of the key, the kind he’s drilled over and over this season.
The record-breaker came less than two minutes later, as UTSA extended into a half-court trap and in the process left Giles alone in the left corner. That’s a gamble defenses simply cannot make against him. The pass found him and Giles rose up to give WSU a 61-43 lead and himself the record.
The fifth 3 was another lesson in how Giles has wreaked havoc on defenses this season with his seemingly unlimited range. UTSA’s zone defense once again lost Giles in a simple exchange. And because he’s able to spot up so far behind the 3-point arc, the closeouts on him are longer than most. Giles buried the triple well beyond the arc, which has become one of his calling cards this season.
Then came the sixth, and the funniest, to Giles at least, because it was yet another entry in the growing catalog of Berg freeing Giles with a bone-rattling screen.
As defenses have pressured Giles more this season, Mills has countered by pushing Berg’s screening points higher and higher up the floor. So when UTSA tried to pester Giles full court, Berg went hunting and found his target.
Berg got his feet set and Giles led his defender straight into the screen. One second, UTSA’s Njie Baboucarr was running alongside Giles; the next, he was flat on the floor. Giles dribbled into an open 3 with no one near him and swished again.
“Next thing I know, I’m coming off the screen and I see the guy guarding me on the ground,” Giles said. “I’m just like, ‘Wow, Will Berg is a menace.’”
What has made Giles’ record-breaking season so impressive is the different ways he’s been able to get his 3s. CBB Analytics tracks 56% of Giles’ 3s this season as assisted, while his 1.6 unassisted 3s per game ranks in the 99th percentile nationally.
That combination is what makes him so difficult to guard. He can be deadly off the catch and he can create off the bounce at an elite rate. Even on the unassisted makes, WSU’s fingerprints are all over the shot.
The center, usually Berg or Emmanuel Okorafor, is doing the heavy lifting with screens that don’t show up as assists but function like them. The two forwards, typically Karon Boyd and Battie or T.J. Williams, are flattening to the corners and stretching the defense to its limits. The off guard, often Mike Gray Jr., is lifting to the wing at the free-throw-line extended to widen the floor and give Giles room to operate.
It is coordinated spacing. It is shared responsibility. It is everyone understanding their role in creating one clean window for the best shooter in the building.
Mills often says all good players want is space. WSU has given Giles that this season, even while the team’s 3-point percentage has dipped in conference play.
That’s why Giles’ record night at UTSA was bigger than six makes and one milestone.
Each 3-pointer told a different version of the same story: a star guard with elite shot-making, a coach who has helped elevate their strengths and four teammates on the floor helping carve out the room he needs to be special.
Giles holds the record by himself, but he needed a team around him to get there.
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 10:26 AM.
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