How new Wichita State recruit Jahari Long could reshape the Shockers’ offense
Wichita State kept adding to its backcourt overhaul on Tuesday, this time landing a player who looks capable of changing the shape of its offense.
George Mason transfer Jahari Long, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound wing playmaker, committed to Paul Mills and the Shockers over a strong pursuit from USC, giving Wichita State a second proven guard out of the transfer portal and another major piece for a roster that is starting to come into focus.
Long is coming off the best season of his career for a George Mason team that won 23 games and finished among the top 100 nationally on KenPom. He averaged 12.2 points and 4.0 assists while starting all 33 games and playing 33.8 minutes per contest. He also did it with the kind of efficiency that jumps off the page: 45.4% shooting from the field, 37.7% from 3-point range and 82.6% at the free throw line.
For a program that badly needed more playmaking, ball-handling and shot creation, Long checks every box.
What stands out most on film is his feel. He is a big guard with a strong frame, but he plays with the patience and vision of a lead creator. He can run ball screens, keep defenders on his hip, manipulate help and spray passes to shooters or hit rollers and cutters in stride. He was one of George Mason’s best decision-makers all season, posting an impressive 23% assist rate and a 2.26 assist-to-turnover ratio. That kind of control should translate immediately to the American.
And it is not as if Long needs to dominate the ball to be effective.
His 19% usage rate last season shows he can thrive as a secondary playmaker, which is part of what makes this fit so appealing for Mills. Long can initiate offense, but he can also slide alongside other handlers and keep the floor balanced. WSU now has that option after also landing Chattanooga transfer Jordan Frison, who averaged 16.4 points and 4.0 assists last season. Put Frison, Long and returning guard Mike Gray Jr. on the floor together and the Shockers suddenly have three shooters and ball handlers that they lacked last season.
That appears to be the larger vision for Mills’ next iteration of the Shockers.
Last season, WSU rode a heliocentric offense built around Kenyon Giles’ shot-making brilliance and the program’s elite offensive rebounding. It worked for long stretches, but when teams were able to key on Giles and shrink the floor, the offense could bog down. This portal haul suggests Mills is trying to solve that problem by loading up on guards who can all handle it, pass it and shoot it. Instead of leaning so heavily on one perimeter creator, the Shockers look poised to spread the responsibility across multiple veterans who can score for themselves and others.
Long fits that blueprint.
According to Synergy data, he ranked in the 90th percentile as a scorer out of the pick-and-roll last season. George Mason scored 1.10 points per possession when possessions ended with Long as either the scorer or passer out of those actions. He was effective as both a catch-and-shoot threat and an off-the-dribble shooter, and he finished a solid 57.8% at the rim. Those are the traits of a combo guard, someone who can play on or off the ball without sacrificing efficiency.
The advanced metrics back up the eye test.
Bart Torvik’s PRPG! gave Long a 2.7 score, the 17th-highest mark in the Atlantic 10. Evan Miya’s Bayesian Performance Rating put him at 3.76, which ranked 21st in the league. For context, both numbers would have placed Long among WSU’s most valuable players last season.
He is not arriving as a speculative upside swing. He is arriving as a proven college guard who just produced for a winning team.
There is also an added layer of familiarity to how this came together.
Long is from Houston and played AAU ball for Cooz Elite, the program run by current WSU assistant P.J. Couisnard. That connection clearly mattered. Couisnard is already starting to tap into his Houston roots for the Shockers and Long now gets a chance to finish his career playing for his former high school coach’s program.
His path to Wichita State has been a winding one.
Long will be a sixth-year senior and has already received an NCAA waiver to play next season with an extra year of eligibility, according to sources within the program. He began at Seton Hall in 2020-21, the season covered by the NCAA’s blanket waiver. He then suffered a season-ending knee injury seven games into the 2021-22 season and recently received a retroactive medical hardship redshirt. He also missed the entire 2024-25 season with an injury. Long will turn 25 before the start of this upcoming season.
After 24 games at Seton Hall, he transferred to Maryland and spent two seasons there before dropping to George Mason for a bigger role. That move paid off in a major way. After playing just 1,090 total minutes over his first four seasons at the high-major level, he logged 1,116 minutes this past season alone at George Mason and finally showed what he could do with a full workload.
Now he brings that experience to Wichita.
And with it, he gives the Shockers something they did not always have last season: options.
Wichita State can go small and skilled with multiple handlers and shooters. It can still go big and physical with T.J. Williams, Dillon Battie and Will Berg crashing the offensive glass. It can play Frison as the table-setter, Gray more off the ball and Long as the oversized connector who ties everything together. However Mills chooses to arrange it, the early portal returns suggest he is building a roster with far more offensive variety.
That may be the biggest takeaway from Long’s commitment.
The Shockers did not just add another talented guard on Monday. They added another answer. Another creator. Another passer. Another shooter. Another player who should make it harder for defenses to load up on one option and dare Wichita State to improvise.
That was a problem at times last season.
It might not be one much longer.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 9:37 AM.
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