Men's Basketball | 3/13/2026 1:51:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
On Nov. 30, 2018, a reporter from recruit757.com watched Kenyon Giles' first game for Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, Virginia. Giles, a freshman, scored 11 points and landed the post-game interview.
 
"What can we expect from you going forward?" the interviewer asked.
 
Giles responded, "Me just stepping up when I need to. And winning."
 
That YouTube introduction to the basketball world holds up eight years later. Plenty of step-ups and step-backs. Plenty of winning at Wichita State. Enough confidence to move up in the college basketball world, delight fans and help revive the Shockers.
 
"My first shot was an airball," Giles said, remembering that debut. "Then I went on to hit three threes in a row. Resilience."
 
As the second seed in the American Championship, the Shockers (21-10) play at 4 p.m., Saturday (ESPN2) in a semifinal game. They face either third-seeded Tulsa (25-6) or sixth-seeded North Texas (19-13), who play at 2 p.m. today (Friday, ESPN2).
 
Giles earned All-American Conference honors this week after averaging 19.4 points and setting WSU's season record with 105 three-pointers made.
 
"He's a big-time shot-maker," coach Paul Mills said earlier this season. "He plays with a lot of confidence."
 

 

Beyond those stats – and two 30-point games, 38-percent accuracy from three-point range, much more – Giles' spirit and experience boost the Shockers.
 
"Having a leader that's both confident in himself, but also in the team, obviously helps everybody to be more confident in themselves," center Will Berg said. "The way he's humble and grounded just makes it easier for everybody else."
 
A few missed shots don't alter Giles' plan. A defense designed to blanket him doesn't get in his head. Down four in the closing seconds at ECU? That situation is made for a confident shooter. Up one at Memphis? The perfect opportunity for Giles to close out the Tigers with a three-pointer.
 
Wichita State won 20-plus games for the first time since 2020. Its second-place finish in the American is its best since a 2021 title.
 
 

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Forever Shockers 💛🖤 pic.twitter.com/GnUeCZSA5U

— Wichita State Men's Basketball (@GoShockersMBB) March 9, 2026

 

"Good teammates make the tentative bold," Mills said.
 
"Confident" describes almost everything about Giles, a 5-foot-10 senior, as that video from 2018 demonstrates. Curtis Giles, his father, calls that game, a 73-60 win over Western Branch, the moment he saw his son's game in a new light.
 
"It was a big rivalry in Virginia," he said. "He hit like three threes back to back. That was the one. I like was 'Oh, wow.'"
 
Giles' resume is stocked with "Oh, wow," moments. Sharonda Street, his mother, saw it in her son's earliest days with a basketball. Wichita State fans quickly learned Giles came to Koch Arena to score and he could do it any number of ways – three-pointers, fading jumpers over defenders, crafty ball-handling and slick drives down the lane.
 
Mom saw it all in the small gyms and youth leagues around Virginia.
 
"He always had that (shooting) form," she said. "Me being a basketball mom . . . I just saw it in him."
 
His older brothers also played basketball, and they prepared Kenyon by developing his skills and teaching him the mindset to overcome disappointment.
 
"I've seen the worst," he said. "I've been on teams where I didn't play at all. When that airball happened, I was at a school where the coach believed in me enough to know later in the game I was going to come through."
 
Mills also believed in him. He recruited Giles with the plan of putting the ball in his hands and making him to focus of the offense in ways previous coaches did not. While Street accompanied her son on the visit to WSU, she left all the decision-making to Giles.
 
"(Mills) sat down 30, 45 minutes going through of all Kenyon's film," she said. "He was showing us why he wanted him, showing us plays. (Kenyon) knew he wanted to be on the ball and do certain things."
 
Mills sold his father immediately on the plan for his son.
 
"From the first time I talked to him on the phone – Kenyon didn't make his decision – but I was like, 'I hope goes there,'" Curtis Giles said.
 
The transfer portal, for all teams, gives and takes. It's a one-year bet, in many cases, on a microwaved relationship. Giles told people he was here to score in the summer and never wavered. He scored 20 points in his first game. In his third game, he made 7 of 8 threes and scored 24 points in a win over Loyola (Chicago).
 
Shocker fans unsure of his game learned over time and fell in love with his skills. On senior day, the applause, autograph requests and pictures signed off on his popularity.
 
"The love is genuine – you can tell," his mother said. "As a mom, if Kenyon is not good, I know. I know he feels great about it."
 
 

The level of difficulty on this shot is off the charts@Kengocrzzy | @ESPNU pic.twitter.com/Co0OpVb5xK

— Wichita State Men's Basketball (@GoShockersMBB) March 7, 2026

Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.