Doubted and inspired Southeast basketball reaches state tournament, makes history
Almost every person in the Wichita Southeast basketball program has been doubted, but for a moment they were silenced on Friday.
The Golden Buffaloes clinched their first sub-state championship in three years Friday night with an emphatic 78-56 win over Campus. The last time they won it, first-year coach Joe Mitchell was a player on the 2008 team.
He got his hands on another trophy and said it felt different.
“I have no kids,” Mitchell said. “I look at all these boys as my children. To see your son or daughter succeed in something we’ve been going through for three months of hard work, practice and preaching, to see us reach one of our goals, it feels really good.”
Mitchell, a Southeast great, took over the program a couple of weeks ahead of the season opener. Players had moved in and out, including Israel Barnes who graduated and sophomore Shawn Warrior who lined up against his former team, wearing a Campus uniform.
Sophomore Jackie Johnson III arrived at Southeast ahead of the end of last year’s basketball season after a falling out at North. And junior Micah Jacques, though he was named to the City League’s first team, hadn’t been the No. 1 option on a title-contending team.
Southeast lost its regular-season finale to Wichita South, the same team that beat the Buffaloes on its home floor in the sub-state championship last year. Friday, they proved this group is different, Johnson said.
“They had a special group when (Mitchell) won it,” he said. “And I feel like we have a special group right now. He coaches us and tells us he believes in us. We just try to go out and execute.”
Johnson finished with a game-high 30 points on Friday, and Jacques took over in the first half and finished with 22. Together, they almost outscored Campus by themselves.
Jacques said the Buffaloes have heard all the doubters. It hasn’t held them down, he said.
“Like I was telling them in the locker room, ‘We’re a 20-headed beast,’ ” he said. “Everybody from the bench players, starters, coaches and managers, we all come together to get the wins.”
With Mitchell taking over with such short time and so many moving pieces around the program, the Eagle predicted Southeast to finish fourth in the City League. The Buffaloes lost one game in league play and will be one of the top four seeds in the Class 6A state tournament.
Mitchell played under late, legendary City League coach Carl Taylor while he was at Southeast. He said the past 12 months have been a wild ride. Mitchell said things were rough at first, getting guys to be accountable and helping them adjust to his system and culture, but they have stuck with him and come through.
“I think (Taylor) would tell me to keep going,” Mitchell said. “I feel that I’m going in the right direction. A lot of the things in our program, I took from coach Taylor.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 10:59 PM.