The RoundHouse | 3/12/2021 7:03:00 AM
Alterique Gilbert has been through so much in college basketball without ever participating in the best part.
That changes on Friday with a quarterfinal game in the American Athletic Conference Championship. For most, it is a modest start to March Madness with hopes for much more to come. For Gilbert, the game is his first in a post-season college basketball tournament after five years and 83 games.
"It's going to be a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life," he said. "A lot of people don't get that opportunity in their careers. We just have to take advantage of the opportunity."
In 2016, Gilbert had every reason to expect his time in the March spotlight. He earned McDonald's All-American honors and a Class 5A title at Miller Grove High School in Georgia. He headed to UConn, which won the NCAA title in 2014.
Injuries to his left shoulder, however, derailed his career. He played three games as a freshman in 2016-17 and six the next season. He started 23 games in 2018-19 before a concussion and eye injury on March 7 ended his season, seven days before the conference tournament.
Last season, he played in 30 games and started 20 before COVID-19 ended the season one day before the Huskies were scheduled to play Tulane in the conference tournament.
After the 2019-2020 season, he transferred to Wichita State.
Between the pandemic and the coaching change, things didn't go smoothly at Wichita State. Gilbert will get his chance to play in the conference tournament and every win the Shockers grab solidifies their spot in the NCAA Tournament.
"It's been a long process," Gilbert said. "I'm just happy to have made the right decision to come here and get to know the guys around me."
Gilbert's quickness, defense and ball-handling helped the Shockers from the start of the season. A team that needed a pure point guard found its leader. He earned third-team all-conference honors after averaging 10.1 points and 4.2 assists. He is the conference's career active assists leader with 307.
After a cold-shooting January, he elevated his play over the past six games to help the Shockers clinch the conference title. Along with junior
Dexter Dennis, Gilbert's strong play in February elevated the Shockers from challenger to champion and into serious NCAA Tournament at-large consideration.
Like Dennis, he credits hundreds of shots before and after practice and coaches who allowed him to work through a shooting slump and kept faith in his abilities.
"It's really a mind-set, confidence," he said last month. "Then it's having your teammates and coaching staff believe in you, to really make that next shot, make that next play."
In those six games, Gilbert averages 11.3 points and 4.8 assists. He handed out 12 assists in a win over Tulane, most by a Shocker since 1991. He made 10 of 25 three-pointers (40 percent) to raise his season percentage to 30.4.
"I felt like Alterique was playing good, but I felt like he still could give us more," coach
Isaac Brown said in February. "Now, he's making shots. The good thing about a guy like Alterique – he thinks he can make every shot. He thinks he can break anybody down off the bounce. That's a good thing to have that type of confidence and it showed last night."
Gilbert's growing confidence showed up in bright lights during Wichita State's 68-63 win over then-No. 6 Houston on Feb. 18. He scored 16 points, making 6 of 11 shots and 3 of 4 three-pointers. He scored 10 of those points in the second half – six during an early stretch that gave the Shockers a 10-point lead. Late in the game, he slithered through the Houston defense to create a dunk for
Trey Wade and his own layup at a time the Shockers desperately needed points.
Before that game, teammate
Tyson Etienne told him to remember his roots as a McDonald's All-American.
"'You're still that guy, you're still a McDonald's All-American, you're still a five-star recruit,'" Etienne said. "Obviously, he's done his own internal work, but sometimes you need to know your teammates are rocking with you. It's been a joy to play with him."
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
