Former Shockers motivated to return to Wichita State for TBT, another championship run

Alterique Gilbert and Trey Wade helped write a unique chapter in Wichita State men’s basketball history but were never able to celebrate it properly.

Both were starters for the Shockers when the team overcame a mountain of adversity to win the 2021 American Athletic Conference championship, but it was a bizarre season that featured limited crowds at Koch Arena and fewer games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Two years later, Gilbert and Wade were both motivated to play for the AfterShocks, Wichita State’s alumni team in The Basketball Tournament, for a chance to fully experience Koch Arena in front of Shocker fans. The AfterShocks open TBT play against B1 Ballers at 8 p.m. Thursday with the game broadcast on ESPN2.

“Being here that covid year, I never really got to experience the full Koch Arena,” Gilbert said. “I did experience it once (playing for UConn), but I want to feel that same energy behind me. I really want to see it sold out to its highest capacity and have that same atmosphere to help us win.”

“I’m very proud of that (2020-21) team and winning that title is going to be something that is going to stick with me forever,” Wade said. “I can’t wait to get back to the locker room and see the trophy, see the banner. I didn’t really see that stuff before I left.”

Not only is it a homecoming for Gilbert and Wade, who arrived in Wichita and practiced with the team on Sunday, but the duo — Gilbert is 25, Wade is 24 — injects some much-needed youth into an AfterShocks squad that came two wins away from the $1 million prize last summer.

Gilbert, a 6-foot point guard, is coming off his second professional season in Estonia, where he averaged 12.2 points and 3.7 assists for Kalev/Cramo. Wade, a 6-6 forward, played his final year in college at Arkansas, then made his pro debut this past season, averaging 9.3 points and 8.9 rebounds for Arka Gdynia in Poland.

Both offer traits AfterShocks head coach Zach Bush was looking for in building a team — Gilbert is a shifty point guard who can create offense out of thin air, while Wade does so many of the little things that Rashard Kelly, who is sitting out this year’s tournament, did for the team to help them win.

“They’re not too far away from getting it done, so I just want to help is all,” Gilbert said.

“I graduated from Wichita, so it’s always family to me,” Wade added. “It’s good to come back and see some old faces.”

More than two years removed from their championship season together, Gilbert and Wade enjoyed reminiscing about the accomplishment on Sunday.

The team overcame the adversity of a coaching change less than two weeks before the start of the season, a program shutdown due to COVID-19 and games being added and removed from the schedule on a weekly basis amid the pandemic to win the program’s first conference championship in the American and receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“That conference championship means a lot to me because of how my career went at UConn, we never experienced anything like that at all,” Gilbert said. “Looking back on it with the coaching change and covid and all of the different things we had to get through that year, we did a great job of making that year special. I think we just had the right mix of guys on the team and we really had that camaraderie as a group and it was special.”

While that season ultimately ended in one-point losses for WSU in its final two games, Gilbert and Wade are motivated to erase that heartbreak with a run at Koch Arena over the next week.

“The biggest thing about that (championship) team was we just stuck together,” Wade said. “We understood that we had to play tough and we understood that we were counted out, but we just used that as motivation.”

The AfterShocks figure to lean more on their veteran Shockers this summer, as Conner Frankamp (2015-18), Darral Willis (2016-18) and Markis McDuffie (2015-19) all project to be top scorers. Samajae Haynes-Jones (2017-19) is back for another year with the team, while the three new WSU additions are 7-foot center Asbjorn Midtgaard (2017-20), Gilbert and Wade.

Tyrus McGee (Iowa State) returns for another stint with the AfterShocks to highlight the non-Shockers, a group that will also feature 6-11 center Marcus Lee (Kentucky), 6-7 forward Jordan Parks (North Carolina Central) and 6-5 guard Caleb Walker (Nebraska).