How Wichita State basketball’s tight-knit bond is fueling NIT run in March
The suspense had long since vanished from the scoreboard by the time it resurfaced in Wichita State’s locker room late Sunday evening at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
That’s where the Shockers gathered around Paul Mills after a 96-70 dismantling of Oklahoma State, waiting to find out who would receive the victory chain after WSU had removed every bit of drama with a dominant finish to the game.
It was a team award, the coach said, but only one player would wear it. And when Mills draped it around Henry Thengvall’s neck after the Wichita native had scored his third career basket in the final minute of WSU’s largest win ever over the Cowboys, the room erupted. It was like watching a room of brothers lose their minds for one of their own.
It was this scene in Stillwater that helped explain why this Wichita State team is still playing.
More than the 14 made 3s. More than the 14 offensive rebounds. More than the 48-22 thrashing WSU handed down in the final 16 minutes after the game was tied early in the second half.
This is a group that genuinely likes each other. And because of that, the Shockers are squeezing every last drop out of this season.
“It’s just fun playing with these guys once again and keep fighting for a championship with these guys,” senior guard Kenyon Giles said. “A lot of teams don’t get this opportunity. So we’re just trying to take advantage of it. We love this team. We have fun playing with each other.”
Wichita State’s reward is at least one more game together and it’s against a familiar rival: a road game against Tulsa at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the regional championship round of the National Invitation Tournament. It’s the fourth meeting this season between the American Conference rivals and it will decide who punches a ticket to the NIT Final Four in Indianapolis on April 2.
This wasn’t exactly the March Madness seniors like Giles and Karon Boyd had envisioned. But that reality has not led to a half-hearted postseason. If anything, it has sharpened the team’s appreciation for the moment.
“Only three teams end up with a win and we’ve got an opportunity to do that,” Giles said. “We’re just blessed. We love playing as a team. We love surviving and advancing as a team.”
That joy is showing up everywhere in Wichita State’s game right now.
It shows in the way the Shockers celebrate every made shot. It shows in the way they crash the offensive glass possession after possession. It shows in the way they defend with urgency. And it showed Sunday when WSU turned one of the better home-court teams in the country into a bystander in its own building.
Oklahoma State had averaged 88.8 points per game at home this season and was 17-1 under first-year coach Steve Lutz at home against nonconference opponents. But Wichita State held the Cowboys to 41.5% shooting, forced 11 turnovers and limited them to 0.99 points per possession.
“Defense is what wins games,” Mills said. “Offense will tell you by how many.”
Wichita State shot 49.3% from the field and buried 14 of 26 from 3-point range, a blistering 53.8% clip that stood as its best 3-point shooting game of the season. The Shockers also continued one of the most remarkable habits in the country, extending the nation’s longest streak of games with at least 10 offensive rebounds to 29 straight. Their 14 offensive boards led to a crushing 23-4 advantage in second-chance points.
“I don’t want to short-change our guys,” Mills said. “We’re top-4 in the country for a reason. It’s our identity. It’s what we do.”
Five Shockers scored in double figures: Giles led the way with 28 points, while Boyd and Mike Gray Jr. each added 13, Dillon Battie had his second career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Dre Kindell chipped in 11.
But it was Giles who once again changed the trajectory of the game with his shot-making.
There is something different about a Giles 3. They count for only three points, but they hit with the force of a haymaker. Every time the senior rose up and connected Sunday, the small army of Wichita State fans exploded and the momentum seemed to swing even harder toward the Shockers.
Battie knows the feeling from the floor.
“When he comes down and he hits one of those insane 3s, it’s such a momentum swing,” Battie said. “And they can’t do anything about it.”
Giles knocked down eight 3s, including six after halftime as part of an 18-point second half that blew the game open. Two of them banked in, a rarity for a shooter who could probably count on one hand how many 3s he had banked in all season.
His eight makes pushed him to 124 3-pointers this season, now 25 more than the previous school record he broke on March 1 at UTSA. He has climbed to fourth nationally in made 3s this season. His 677 total points are now the third most in a single season in school history, trailing only Xavier McDaniel’s 844 in 1984-85 and Dave Stallworth’s 769 in 1963-64, two legends whose names hang from the rafters at Koch Arena.
Sunday also marked Giles’ 18th game with 20-plus points, tied for the second-most in a WSU season since 1980.
Still, the star guard insisted his own rhythm came from watching others get going first.
“Seeing my teammates hit shots,” Giles said of what sparked him after halftime. “(Battie) coming out early and being aggressive, getting layups. Michael Gray hitting shots. So I was just feeling like, ‘Hey, let me join the party.’”
This is not a team playing for individual numbers or trying to drag the season to the finish line. It is playing like a group that does not want the music to stop.
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had with a team,” Giles said. “When a teammate hits a 3, I just want to celebrate. I might not ever get an opportunity like this again where I can be with guys that love each other like this and want to see each other win and celebrate other people’s success.”
Battie echoed that sentiment.
“I feel like we’ve been playing connected, like brothers,” Battie said. “We just want to win together and we want to see each other succeed.”
Mills sees it, too, and he tends to look for it in moments during the game.
“What indicates fun is … are they celebrating each other’s successes?” Mills said. “That’s what good teammates do. You’ve heard me say it before, but good teammates make the tentative bold. And I thought that there was a lot of elevation in the room.”
While Oklahoma State fans headed for the exits with more than four minutes left, every last Wichita State fan who made the short drive to Stillwater stayed until the end, savoring the rout. The loudest roar may have been reserved for Thengvall’s late layup.
“It’s a blessing,” Giles said of the fan support. “This is my last year of college, so seeing a true fan base like this, I’m happy I could experience it.”
The Shockers have given their fans a lot to enjoy lately. After a 10-8 start to the season, WSU has won 14 of its last 17 games.
WSU is now 7-2 all-time in NIT games as an underdog and has reached at least the third round of the tournament for the fourth time in program history, joining the 2005, 2011 and 2019 teams. Mills also reached a milestone Sunday, as his 58 wins through three seasons moved him into sole possession of second place in program history behind only Eddie Fogler’s 61 from 1986-89.
And yet the numbers only tell part of the story.
The better explanation for WSU’s second-half surge is in the chemistry. In the bench reactions. In the joy after a reserve scores. In the way one player’s big shot feels shared by everyone wearing WSU colors.
“Good teams punch,” Giles said. “That’s what they did. They made their run, punched us in the mouth, so it was about how we responded. I feel like we responded the right way.”
The Shockers have kept responding and now they are one win away from Indianapolis.
Maybe that is the truest measure of this team: not that it is still playing in late March, but that nobody in that locker room is ready for it to end.
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 6:02 AM.
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