Bob Lutz: Shockers’ Evan Wessel is the definition of a winner

High-profile college coaches used to flock into the Heights High gym for open workouts and they were there to see and talk to Perry Ellis.

Understandable, of course. Ellis was a four-time All-State player and state champion at Heights. His resume speaks for himself and he’s about to start his senior season of an illustrious career at Kansas.

Bill Self, Roy Williams, Johnny Dawkins, Frank Martin and others lined up to make their recruiting pitches to Ellis.

Meanwhile, off in a corner, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall conversed with Evan Wessel.

“It’d be like a receiving line after a wedding for Perry,” said Marshall, who of course joined in. “But when nobody else was talking to Evan, I’d go over and we’d visit.”

Wessel was a big part of four state championship teams at Heights, three in basketball and one in football. He wasn’t as smooth or skilled as Ellis on the basketball floor, but Marshall likes toughness. And Wessel is rawhide.

Those talks paid off. Wessel decided to play basketball at Wichita State and the Shockers took off on their best stretch in history. Coincidence? Marshall thinks not.

“I’m glad we were able to see Evan’s value and he has had tremendous value for our program in many, many ways,” Marshall said. “And not just in ways that you can quantify with scoring and rebounding stats.”

No, those numbers — 2.7 points and 2.4 rebounds during his career — are not indicators of Wessel’s worth. Other coaches might have stuck him at the end of the bench as his shooting percentage plummeted during his sophomore season in 2013-14, when he couldn’t make a three-pointer.

Marshall, though, was not fazed. And the following numbers will tell you why.

During Wessel’s three years as a starting safety at Heights, the football team was 30-7. During his three years as a starting guard for the basketball team, Heights was 68-1. And in 88 career games as a Shocker, WSU is 83-5. Add it up and it comes to 181-13.

“It’s sick,” Marshall said.

Wessel is a winner. He’s a winner because he sacrifices in ways most athletes won’t. He relishes playing defense and if there’s a basketball loose on the floor he becomes a pit bull chasing a bone. He sets crushing screens and late last season started to show signs of becoming a more consistent offensive players. He had 12 points and nine rebounds in the Shockers’ 78-65 win over Kansas in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in Omaha.

“I think I’ve had a pretty good career here and the team has done well so that kind of speaks for itself,” Wessel said.

Throw in his undefeated eighth-grade team at Brooks and the Wessel record glistens even more.

Marshall, who is careful to correct anyone who gloats about seniors Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet without mentioning Wessel, also loves the heritage Wessel brings to the program.

Ev Wessel, Evan’s grandfather, played basketball for the Shockers during the late 1950s. Evan grew up next door to his grandparents and Phyllis, his grandmother, remains one of his biggest fans. Ev Wessel died in 2007. He met Phyllis when he was playing basketball at the University of Wichita and she was a twirler.

“We were married for 47 years and I really do miss him,” Phyllis said. “I know he’s up there keeping tabs on Evan.”

Phyllis has six grandchildren and dotes on them all. But Evan and his brother, Trevor, were always so nearby.

“I have a picture of Evan sitting underneath the hood of one of Ev’s trucks and he would tell me that Grandpa is supposed to be working on this truck but he’s telling me about basketball,” Phyllis said. “He was always so close to Everett and he could name all the tools in the shop when he was just 2 or 3 years old.”

Evan was quite a bit older when Phyllis went to Las Vegas with other family members to watch him play in an AAU summer tournament with college prospects from around the country.

She ran into North Carolina’s Williams, whom someone confused as her husband.

“He just laughed,” Phyllis said.

Later, she approached Marshall, even though NCAA rules prohibit coaches from having contact with players or family members at such tournaments. He was there to watch, not speak.

But Phyllis was persistent.

“She introduces herself and starts to tell me about her husband and I’m going, ‘Ma’am, I cannot talk to you,’ ” Marshall said. “But she keeps walking with me so I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to run and I didn’t want to be rude, but I had to try and get away from her as quickly as I could.”

Marshall since developed a close relationship with Phyllis and the rest of Evan’s family.

“I love the fact that there are generations of Shockers in that family,” Marshall said. “And I’ve always liked Evan. He’s not an All-American or a player of the year in the conference or even a first- or second-team all-conference player. But as a coach, you try to see the value in guys and what they can do to help you win.

“When we put Evan on the court, more often than not and more times than the great majority of college basketball teams, we win. To me that has value. He knows how to play. He knows how to win.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Shockers’ Evan Wessel is the definition of a winner."