Why former coach thinks Wichita State basketball fans will love OU transfer Bijan Cortes

Justin Mecklenburg has seen the basketball career arc of Bijan Cortes since he was in the second grade.

The AAU coach could tell Cortes was special on a basketball court from the first time he saw him play. Cortes could score, practically at will, but what made him stand out from his peers at a very young age was his ability to read the game.

Mecklenburg, the local summer basketball coach in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, coached Cortes for a decade and watched him develop into a Division I point guard. As Cortes progressed over the years, he always maintained that skill that first caught Mecklenburg’s eye.

“Bijan’s creativity with the basketball is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” Mecklenburg said. “He has an incredibly high basketball IQ and his passing skills are fantastic. He’s the kind of point guard who makes everybody around him better and he’s so fun to watch. I’m always real careful with comparing him (to an NBA player), but the name that always comes to mind is Jason Williams.”

After playing a reserve role for Oklahoma the past two seasons, Cortes hopes to showcase that playmaking ability in an expanded role for the Wichita State men’s basketball team this upcoming season. The 6-foot-3 point guard with two years of eligibility remaining officially completed his transfer to Wichita State on April 21.

“I just didn’t have the opportunity with (former Shocker) Grant Sherfield in front of me (at OU),” Cortes said. “Grant was a fifth-year, all-conference guy and such a great player, so I knew I had to wait my turn. I’m hoping at a new place I can get back to my high school ways. I had a great high school career and I’m trying to build my confidence back up and prove to people what I can do on the court.”

Cortes was the ultimate winner at Kingfisher, as he finished with a 107-4 overall record and won two Oklahoma high school state championships. He was named the 2021 Oklahoma MaxPreps Player of the Year and rated among the top-25 point guards nationally in the class of 2021 by 247Sports.

That’s the version of Cortes that first-year WSU coach Paul Mills will try to extract with the Shockers and the version that Mecklenburg believes will make Cortes a favorite at Koch Arena.

“He’s got the long hair, the cool name and the flashy plays,” Mecklenburg said. “He has always been a crowd favorite and he’s just a really good kid. He’s got a big smile and I have no doubt Wichita State fans are really going to love him.”

Cortes was the ultimate winner in high school

Cortes achieved stardom and success at Kingfisher not because he shot 20 times a game, but because he was always making the right basketball play.

In fact, in his final two years in high school, Kingfisher coach Jared Reese had to encourage him to be more aggressive looking for his own offense because Cortes was always trying to set his teammates up.

“For as long as I’ve known Bijan, he’s had an unselfish mentality, which is kind of rare with players that good,” Reese said. “We almost had to turn him into a more selfish player. The leading scorer role never really mattered to him. He just wanted to win.”

Teams with Cortes running the show have had a habit of exceeding expectations and winning big over the years.

The four-year record at Kingfisher and two state championships are often highlighted, but Cortes was also the point guard for Team Griffin during its run to an illustrious Peach Jam title on the Nike EYBL circuit in 2019. As a sixth-grader, he led a team from Kingfisher (population: 4,813) to the championship game in the State Games of America played in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“I think that was the moment when Bijan realized he could compete against anybody,” Mecklenburg said. “And even though he had the ability to take over the game, I always loved the fact that he always trusted his teammates. If they were more open, he would always pass them the ball. He never forced it.”

Cortes only lost four times in his high school career and Reese’s favorite memory came after the third one, which ended Kingfisher’s 47-game winning streak and put its chances of returning to the state tournament in peril. With the season on the line, Cortes scored close to 30 points in a dominant victory to send Kingfisher back to the state tournament, which was canceled the next day due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had all of the pressure on us after our winning streak was snapped and he probably went 12 of 13 from the field that game,” Reese said. “He was making sure we won that game. That’s probably the one I’ll always remember the most because when everything was on the line, he really left no doubt that night.”

What Cortes offers and must improve at Wichita State

Cortes verbally committed to Oklahoma during his junior year of high school when Lon Kruger was the OU coach.

When Kruger retired following the 2020-21 season, just before Cortes was set to begin his collegiate career, Cortes still followed through with his decision to play for the Sooners. The new coach, Porter Moser, had even recruited him out of high school when he was at Loyola Chicago.

Cortes had flashes during his two-year career at OU, like when he tallied 10 points, four rebounds and three assists against Iowa State this past season, but he never could crack the starting lineup with regularity. He averaged 3.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 17.2 minutes per game this past season for the Sooners.

“It was pretty clear from the beginning that there was some kind of disconnect between (Moser) and Bijan,” Mecklenburg said. “I’m biased of course, but I thought it was pretty clear that Bijan made them a better team when he was out on the floor. It was pretty perplexing to me because everybody loves playing with Bijan because he’s a pass-first guard. I don’t know what the issue was there, but I really think if Wichita State believes in him and turns him loose, people are going to see this kid has got some real talent.”

Cortes had moments operating out of the pick-and-roll where his playmaking stood out, although he did spend a good chunk of his minutes playing off ball alongside Sherfield. But Cortes has always been advanced in the pick-and-roll game, capable of making split-second reads on the first level of defense (his own defender), the second level (the screener’s defender) and the third level (the help defenders).

At 6-3 and possessing sneaky explosion, Cortes can see over most point guards defending him and has the height and leaping ability to make plays for himself and others. He also had great success spotting up without the ball and knocking down catch-and-shoot three-pointers, evident by his 48.1% accuracy beyond the arc this past season.

“His game is almost built for the next level because he’s so good in the pick and roll,” Reese said. “I think he surprises a lot of people with how athletic he is and then he’s just a big, strong point guard that has incredible vision. He’s a lot of fun to coach.”

But that creativity has a trade-off: high-risk passes that too often turned into turnovers while at OU. Cortes actually had more turnovers (50) than assists (42) as a freshman. He cut down on turnovers this past season, but his turnover rate of 33.5 was still extremely high.

Reese believes Cortes could improve in that area with the confidence of a coaching staff that believes in him.

“I’ve coached Bijan for years and he’s going to make some mistakes, but he’s going to make some really amazing plays on top of that,” Reese said. “But when you’re a role player in college, you’re not really allowed to make a lot of mistakes before you have to come out. Hopefully he gets a little bigger role (at WSU) and he can get back to playing with a little bit more freedom.”

Cortes hopes confidence returns with the Shockers

WSU head coach Paul Mills has displayed a high level of confidence already in Cortes, who is currently the only point guard on WSU’s roster with Division I experience.

The Shockers have three more scholarships remaining in their 2023 recruiting class, which could feature another point guard, but it’s clear that Mills is going to count on Cortes to be a contributor for the Shockers right away.

“He is a versatile guard and an elite shooter who does exceptional work running a team,” Mills said in a statement after Cortes signed. “I had the privilege of watching Bijan win multiple state championships during his high school career in Oklahoma and it was evident then that he is willing to do all that it takes to put his team in the best position to win championships. I’m confident that Bijan will be able to make an impact quickly due to his effectiveness on both ends of the court.”

Being a small-town Oklahoma kid, Cortes was familiar with the work Mills had done at Oral Roberts, where he had created an up-tempo, free-flowing style of offense that turned the Golden Eagles into a mid-major power.

It didn’t take long for the mutual interest to lead to an official visit, which ended with Cortes committing to the Shockers over interest from Nebraska, Loyola Marymount, Tulsa and Evansville. Cortes said he also checked in with other Shockers-turned-Sooners in Austin Reaves and Grant Sherfield before deciding to take the reverse path.

“I’ve always heard that Wichita has good culture and I heard nothing but great things when I talked to other people who used to be there,” Cortes said. “They told me how supportive the fans are and then I had built a relationship with coach Mills when he recruited me when I was in high school. So all of that just kind of reeled me in and I just trust coach Mills and I think it’s going to be a great thing.”

Cortes said he is focusing on improving his point-of-attack defense and off-the-dribble shooting this summer, as he will join WSU for workouts beginning in June.

But most importantly, he’s working on playing with the confidence and swagger that made him a winner at Kingfisher. He believes the right environment for him to do that will be in Wichita.

“I really think I have a PG game and I’m just ready to lead a team,” Cortes said. “I’m a really unselfish player and I love winning more than anything. I know coach Mills won a lot at his last stop and I want to help him do that for a new program in Wichita.”