Wichita native Steve Woodberry, former KU basketball star, enjoying life as NBA scout
A life in basketball was all Steve Woodberry ever wanted when he was growing up in Wichita.
Those in Wichita will remember Woodberry as a star player at South on two state championship teams from 1986-90. Those in Kansas will remember him as a standout scorer at KU, where he played on two Final Four teams in 1991 and 1993. Those in professional basketball might recall his 11-year international career, highlighted by winning the MVP of Australia’s top-tier league in 1999.
After he retired from playing the game, Woodberry made the transition to coaching. He spent 15 years as an NCAA Div. 1 assistant coach at Missouri State (2006-12), Tulsa (2012-14) and Wake Forest (2014-20).
The latest transition in his basketball life has been to working as an NBA scout for the Minnesota Timberwolves, which brought him back to his hometown on Thursday to attend Wichita State’s game against No. 3-ranked Houston at Koch Arena.
“I’ve got a great job,” Woodberry said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to be in basketball in some way. When I was growing up and I wasn’t playing, I always had basketball on the TV. I was always doing something basketball-related. So I absolutely love what I do now and eventually I would love to work my way up into the front office someday.”
Woodberry, 51, now lives in Olathe, where his son, Sherron, is a budding star on the Olathe West boys basketball team. He moved there after he was part of Danny Manning’s staff at Wake Forest that was fired and started independently scouting college basketball players and sending his evaluations to NBA front-office executives, which impressed and eventually led to his job with the Wolves, which began in 2021.
He now works full-time as a scout and estimates he is on the road for a total of 10-to-12 days every month scouting college basketball players all over the country and giving his opinions to the organization on their potential draft grades.
Scouts are not allowed to discuss individual players with media, but it was evident he was at Koch Arena to see Houston star Jarace Walker, a 6-foot-8 freshman projected to be a first-round pick by many analysts in the 2023 NBA Draft. In another coincidence, he wasn’t the only former KU star-turned-scout at Koch Arena on Thursday, as Nick Collison, who now works for the Oklahoma City Thunder scouting department, was also in attendance.
Woodberry says he brings an open mind to every college basketball game he attends.
“As a scout, you’re looking at everyone on the floor,” Woodberry said. “One player might stand out, but there might be somebody who isn’t on your radar and they might pop out. That’s why you can’t come in just assuming that this one guy is going to be the best player because you never know, there might be a guy who turns into something down the road.”
Woodberry enjoyed the trip down memory lane in his return to Wichita, where his 91-year-old mother still lives.
“She actually just got finished cooking right when I got here, so I came at the right time,” Woodberry said.
Being back in Wichita also gave him a chance to reflect on the glory days at South High under coach Steve Eck. Woodberry was a key part of the Titans’ back-to-back state titles in 1988 and 1989 and then was named the Kansas Naismith Player of the Year as a senior in 1990.
“I still talk to a lot of my former teammates about those times,” Woodberry said. “The best part about it is the guys who we played against can’t say anything to us because we dominated. We dominated that era and it was a lot of fun. But most importantly, I got better as a player and as a person and South High helped elevate me to go to KU. That’s why I love being back in Wichita.”
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