Shockers Coach Remains
Calm and Confident
Tight-Knit Women’s Team Plays Tough
If Terry Nooner could bottle up the off-season talk he gave Daniela Abies, there’s no telling where the Wichita State women’s basketball team might be headed.
As a freshman last season, Abies averaged about 3 points and 3 rebounds off the bench. Nooner, hired to take over the program last spring, met with Abies and other players before they headed home for summer (to Malaga, Spain, in Abies’ case).
“I gave her my goals,” Nooner recalled. “I said I felt like she’s good enough to average a double-double. Her eyes got real big.”
Through mid-February, Abies was leading the Shockers in scoring (12.7) and rebounds (8.3).
Despite solid contributions from Abies and others, WSU was 7–17 overall and 3–9 in American Athletic Conference play as of this writing. But for the ball bouncing the other way a couple times, though, that record might look a lot better.
“We’ve lost three games with a second to go — buzzer beaters,” Nooner said.
“It’s sad, and I know at some point we’re going to get over the hump. Our league is so jumbled up together, if we win three of those games, you’re talking being in fifth or sixth place instead of being at the bottom.”
As expected, Emporia State transfer Tre'Zure Jobe, who helped South High win a state championship, has proved a solid addition as guard, leading the team in minutes played, assists and steals, and ranking a close second in points scored. “Tre’Zure has been real good for us — she’s just been a senior for us,” Nooner said. “She’s like a hometown hero. To see her whole career come full circle and help us get a program established here, I think that’s a neat story.”
It might surprise some that freshman guard Salese Blow has been the team’s third best offensive option, but not Nooner. “She was one of the top high school scorers in the state of Texas,” he said. “In high school, she had three 50-point games. She’s big, strong and tough. She’s played better since she’s in conference (games), which is unusual for a freshman.”
As for Abies, who plays for Spain’s national team during summers, she’s had to adjust to getting double-teamed when she touches the ball for the Shockers. Her rebounding may be even more impressive than her scoring. She has a long reach for her 6-foot frame and is “super athletic and explosive,” in Nooner’s words. “She just has a nose for the ball.”
Seniors Sierra Morrow (who leads the team in blocks), D.J. McCarty, Aniya Bell and Jeniah Thompson have contributed significant minutes, as have underclassmen Jayla Murray, Ornella Niankan and Raissa Nsabua. Setting goals for the latter “will be in the conversations we have, for sure,” Nooner said.
Nooner said his first year as a head coach has involved “a lot of learning” in dealing with players’ injuries and academics, the media, donors and more. “But it’s been a great experience,” said the former KU Jayhawk point guard, who left that school’s coaching staff to join the Shockers.
One thing he’s learned is that his team “is resilient. They play tough, they’re a tight-knit group that gets along on and off the court.”
At some point, he said, “I think we’re going to be a team that other teams are not going to want to play.”
On a Friday morning in February, Wichita State basketball coach Paul Mills leans back in a seat at Koch Arena, talking to a player who’s just completed a not overly impressive individual shooting drill. It isn’t possible to hear what’s being said, but Mills is smiling and the exchange appears more of a two-way conversation than lecture or dressing down.
A challenging season is just about to get harder — No. 20 ranked Florida Atlantic visits in two days — but Mills shows no signs of panic.
According to starting guard and former Andover Central star Xavier Bell (not the player mentioned above), “No matter how many bumps in the road, he talks to us positively every day.”
And there have been bumps in the road. More like hills.
After getting off to a 7–1 start, the Shockers dropped 10 of their next 11 games. True, three losses were to major conference foes (Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri). But the run also included a 0–6 start in American Athletic Conference play, part of an eight-game losing streak that was the team’s longest since 2021.
Making the situation more agonizing for fans was the fact that the Shockers were competitive in most of the games and actually gave up big leads in two, against Tulsa and in their second contest against Memphis. Their aforementioned game against Florida Atlantic ended in an overtime loss. In many of the defeats, turnovers were to blame.
Mills, recruited to WSU after rebuilding Oral Roberts to a perfect regular season and the Sweet 16, interprets the close losses as showing just how close the Shockers are. “Sometimes it’s not X’s and O’s,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just we need to compete harder.”
Talking to reporters after the Shockers had climbed to 2–8 in conference play, he said he’d seen improvement in that area in the second win, over UTSA, when his players got to a majority of “50–50 balls.”
“That’s something that was a huge bright spot the other night, and that’s something that needs to continue.”
Mills operates on the belief that most players think they’re better than they really are. It’s only when they see themselves on game film that they get a clearer picture. And he cites a pretty good authority on the subject, recalling that he talked to Magic Johnson 20 years ago and the former Los Angeles Laker great told him watching film is “the most important thing players need to do.”
One player who’s raised his game this season is Quincy Ballard, the 6-11 center. Ballard played two seasons at Florida State before transferring to WSU last year. Ballard showed promise along the way, especially as a shot blocker, but missed the final 17 games last season due to injury. As of this writing, Ballard had 53 blocks this season (ranking 15th nationally), including seven in a loss to East Carolina, and has also become significantly better at finishing dunks because of better understanding where to space himself on the floor.
Mills credits assistant coach and former NBA player Quincy Acy with helping Ballard evolve. “I don’t think there’s been a day when Quincy hasn’t shared something with Quincy Ballard.”
Mills said the team’s leading scorer, junior guard Colby Rogers, who is playing his first season in Wichita, has also upped his game — and not just by averaging over 15 points a contest. “He’s better at decision-making with the ball in his hand and in transition,” Mills said. As the Shocker at the top of the opposing team’s scouting report, Rogers has figured out how to help when he’s covered by playing unselfishly.
“What I’ve seen is just a better basketball player,” Mills said.
Other statistical leaders for the team so far include forward Kenny Pohto (offensive rebounds), Dalen Ridgnal (defensive rebounds) and Harlond Beverly (assists and steals). Ridgnal also gets points for most on-court personality, once advising an opposing coach to call a timeout after a Shocker dunk. “He’s not shy,” Mills said, clarifying that he’d prefer Ridgnal not repeat the act.
Bell, who transferred home after two years at Drexel, didn’t play as much as hoped last season, his first in a Shocker uniform. This year, he’s second on the team in scoring and minutes played and relishes the “privilege” of playing for such a “prestigious program.”
The difference? “I would say confidence. Believing in myself more.”
It hasn’t added up to as many wins as he’d hoped, but don’t count the Shockers out in March, he said.
“We’re not ones to give up.”