The RoundHouse | 2/17/2019 9:37:00 AM

 
Trajata Colbert did not play in seven straight games, decisions on playing time she took as a challenge from coaches rather than a permanent demotion.
 
She turned to a post player's best friends – the Mikan layup drill, getting open near the basket, rebounding – in practice and coach Keitha Adams noticed.
 
 "(Adams) makes her decisions on what she feels like will give her team the best chances of winning," Colbert said. "If she felt like I wasn't in that equation, it means I had to work harder. I trust her. I'm positive she knows more than I do."
 
Colbert's work in practice paid off when she scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots in a 57-48 win at Memphis on Feb. 5 – her first action since Jan. 4 against Tulsa. She backed that with 11 points and three rebounds in a loss at Cincinnati. 
 
The Shockers (10-13, 3-7 American Athletic Conference) meet SMU (8-16, 2-9) at 2 p.m. Sunday at Koch Arena.
 
Adams told her team the Shockers needed scoring and rebounding during a stretch in which they lost five straight games. They have won three of the past five – two on the road – with performances such as Colbert's helping the upswing.
 
"With our team, we've struggled with our scoring and struggled with our rebounding," Adams said. "You come out here in practice and you show me that you're going to rebound and you show me some scoring, that's definitely going to get my attention."
 
Colbert, a 6-foot-2 freshman from Rochelle, Ga., did just that in practices during January and early February.
 
"She's had a great attitude, great work ethic," Adams said. "Struggled some in practices and hadn't been playing. But her mentality and her approach to everything was just great. That's not easy."
 
The Mikan drill trains of the game's most basic moves – layups off the backboard on both sides of the rim. It is name for DePaul and Minneapolis Lakers great George Mikan, one of the game's early dominant big men. Adams needed her posts to score in the lane and Colbert started to show that in practices.
 
"What she did in the game was what she was doing during the week," Adams said. "She's been working hard, posting hard and wanting the ball inside."
 
In the past two games, Colbert made 10 of 14 shots. She also made improvements in Wichita State's man-to-man defense after playing a lot of zone defense in high school.
 
"Finishing," Colbert said. "That was a big thing for her – finishing around the basket and hustling, talking, positive attitude."
 
Colbert said her teammates helped with their encouragement during January. Adams also encouraged her as her practice habits became more noticeable. She wanted to return those favors from the bench during games.
 
"Even though I'm not playing, motivating the ones who are playing," she said. "Being a positive role model."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.