Paul Mills chose connection over transactions to help revive Wichita State
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mills prioritized long-term buy-in over one-year roster transactions.
- Players credited Mills’ investment and development for team resilience.
- Season revived belief; Mills reiterated goal of an NCAA return.
Paul Mills didn’t try to sell Wichita State’s reconstructed roster on a one-year arrangement.
When the Shockers gathered for the first time in the summer, with college basketball drifting deeper into the era of NIL, revenue sharing and short-term roster marriages, Mills delivered a message that cut against the transactional nature of the sport.
“I didn’t hire you guys,” Mills told his players. “I choose you guys.”
That distinction mattered.
Mills wanted more than a collection of transfers and hired guns together for one season. He wanted buy-in. He wanted belief. He wanted players who felt chosen, not rented. And by the end of a 2025-26 season that began with a shaky 10-8 start and ended with Wichita State winning 14 of its final 18 — finishing second in the American, reaching the conference tournament championship game and advancing to the NIT regional final — it was clear that message had landed.
Even Tuesday’s 83-79 season-ending loss at Tulsa, when WSU fell behind by 24 points and still clawed all the way back to briefly take the lead in the closing minutes, felt like a window into what Mills had built. The Shockers were imperfect. They were not yet the finished product Mills envisions. But they were resilient, connected and utterly convinced in the man leading them.
That much was obvious when Mills tried to put this team into words after the season ended.
“Every coach in the world gives that crappy, end-of-the-season speech and it’s just not very good,” Mills said. “It would really be hard to say how much these guys have meant. In my opinion, they’ve revived a program. There’s enthusiasm on account of what these guys have done.”
For a program that desperately needed momentum after years of drift, that may be the most important accomplishment of Mills’ third season.
The final record will show the most wins in the program since 2018. But that only tells part of the story. The more revealing part is how Mills and his staff — Kenton Paulino, Josh Eilert, P.J. Couisnard, Iain Laymon and Xavier Holland — managed to extract so much out of a roster that looked uncertain in January and transformed into one of the best teams in the American by March.
One by one, players blossomed under Mills’ watch.
Dillon Battie barely played at Temple last season, averaging 7.9 minutes per game, and he began this season outside the rotation at WSU. By the end, he had developed into a key starter during the team’s turnaround and even authored a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double.
Will Berg arrived from Purdue as a little-used center and emerged as one of the most impactful reserves in the league, averaging 8.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks on his way to Sixth Man of the Year honors in the American. Karon Boyd posted a career-high 10.8 points per game, reinvented himself as a perimeter threat with 46 made 3s at a 35.1% clip and became a third-team all-conference selection.
Then there was Kenyon Giles, who delivered one of the great individual offensive seasons in recent Wichita State memory. The senior guard averaged 19.1 points, the most by a Shocker in 26 years, and shattered the school’s single-season 3-point record with 125 makes while earning first-team all-conference honors.
Emmanuel Okorafor found the first steady role of his college career after previous stops at Louisville and Seton Hall and responded with career-best averages of 6.4 points and 5.2 rebounds. T.J. Williams, after redshirting last season, steadily grew into a major piece as a freshman, averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds and flashing star potential with a 27-point outburst in a double-overtime win at East Carolina.
The easy explanation is opportunity. Many of these players were simply given more minutes and more responsibility than they’d received before.
But inside the locker room, the players pointed to something deeper than playing time. They pointed to belief.
“I feel like everybody on the team had a career year,” Giles said. “Portal Paul right here, if he has a vision for you, it’s going to happen. He’s not lying when he says that.”
That trust became one of the defining themes of the season. Players were allowed to grow into bigger roles without constantly looking over their shoulders. Mistakes were not treated like permanent stains. Mills remained demanding, but he also remained steady. He did not swing emotionally from win to loss or from one bad possession to the next. In a sport where confidence can vanish quickly, WSU’s players repeatedly described what it meant to play for a coach who refused to give up on them.
“It matters a lot because when you miss a shot or you turn the ball over, you’re already down on yourself and the crowd is down on you,” Boyd said. “So to have a head coach who is always encouraging you, it’s big for your mental. Basketball is such a mental game. So that helps a lot.”
That environment helped transform a team that could have splintered after its uneven start. Instead, the Shockers tightened. They found an identity. They became one of the nation’s best offensive rebounding teams, developed late-game toughness and began stacking wins. What initially looked like an incomplete roster began to resemble a genuine program foundation.
And the players insist that wasn’t accidental.
“I don’t think anybody came here and left the same as when they came in,” Boyd said. “Everybody came here and developed their game and became an all-around stronger player.”
That development extended beyond the court, too, which may explain why players spoke about this team with such unusual affection after the loss to Tulsa. Giles and Boyd, despite spending only one season at Wichita State, both described themselves as Shockers for life. The bond they formed did not sound like the temporary chemistry of a transfer-heavy team that happened to win together for a few months. It sounded lasting.
“I would feel some type of way if I would never see these guys again or talk to them, but we’re a brotherhood,” said Giles, who added every team member will be invited to his future wedding.
“Ten years from now, T.J. is going to call my phone and I’m going to answer. And I’m going to call T.J. and I know he’s going to answer.”
Okorafor echoed that sentiment.
“This is the best team I’ve ever been on,” Okorafor said and he wasn’t talking about talent or wins. “We are all brothers for life. I know that wherever I end up, outside of basketball, we are still all going to keep in touch.”
That kind of bond does not happen by accident either. It is usually built through shared struggle, mutual trust and consistent leadership. WSU players saw all of that in Mills, especially when he underwent heart surgery earlier in the season and returned to practice almost immediately.
To them, that was not just commitment. It was proof.
“We saw how invested he was in the program,” Boyd said. “I mean, he was in the hospital and came right back and gave everything he had for this team. He had our backs and he gave his blood, sweat and tears. So why not do the same for him?”
Okorafor was similarly emphatic.
“I just want to thank coach Paul Mills for this opportunity,” Okorafor said. “He’s a great human being and he’s a great coach. He guides me outside of basketball. Ever since I stepped foot here, I’ve gotten a lot better. He pushed me past my limit and he believed in me.”
Mills did not just coach them. He invested in them. He developed them. He stayed constant with his standards and his support. And in return, his players responded with their best basketball and, maybe more importantly, their full trust.
“I had a blast with these guys, honestly,” Boyd said. “This has probably been my favorite season of basketball I’ve ever played. Every time I stepped on the court, it was fun. Whether I was getting buckets or playing defense or watching my teammates score, I had so much fun this year.”
Mills made it clear that this season is in no way considered mission accomplished. WSU is not a program to measure itself by third-round NIT appearances or close calls after massive comebacks. The goal is bigger than that. The expectation is a return to national relevance, a return to the NCAA tournament and, in Mills’ mind, a return to the top 25.
But for a fan base searching for signs of life, this season offered something that had been missing: belief that Wichita State is climbing again.
Maybe in time, this group will be remembered as the one that helped reignite it all. Not the one that finished the job, but the one that revived the feeling that bigger things are possible.
“I got full belief when he says he’s going to make it happen,” Giles said. “This is a program that’s all about action. You’re going to see it soon.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 6:02 AM.
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