Wichita State basketball adds last-minute transfer, and he’s going to Greece with team
On the same day when the Wichita State men’s basketball team departed for Greece, head coach Paul Mills found the 13th and final scholarship player for this upcoming season.
It must have been quite the introduction on Tuesday morning for Missouri State graduate transfer Dalen Ridgnal to meet his new teammates right before they took a 13-hour plane ride to Greece together.
In the 72 hours since Ridgnal entered the transfer portal this past Friday, he was recruited by Mills, swayed to join the Shockers and then added to the itinerary to join the team’s overseas exhibition tour, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Ryan Hillard, Mills’ chief of staff, and WSU’s admissions department both worked overtime to make the logistics work and ensure the proper paperwork was on hand to pull off the speedy turnaround. Luckily, Ridgnal already had a passport.
Ridgnal (pronounced like “original” without the ‘O’) arrived in Wichita over the weekend and hopped on a plane with the Shockers on Tuesday. The program is hopeful he will be cleared in time to play in the team’s three exhibition games, beginning with Friday’s 10 a.m. Central time game against the Thessaloniki All-Stars.
According to Tommy DeSalme, who coached Ridgnal to two All-American seasons at Cowley College, Ridgnal wasn’t even considering the Shockers initially. The current Hutchinson Community College coach has no past relationship with Mills, but has watched his teams at Oral Roberts play and planted the bug in his former player’s ear that his playing style would fit perfectly for Mills at Wichita State.
Next thing DeSalme heard, Ridgnal was joining the Shockers.
“It’s amazing how fast it worked out, but that means they wanted him,” DeSalme said. “When I talked to (Ridgnal), he was leaning toward some other places and I just said it would be really neat, I don’t know coach Mills at all, but I love his style and how he spreads the floor and I thought Dalen could be a great weapon in that kind of system.”
The Kansas City, Mo. native, who played for Rockhurst in high school, was a standout player for DeSalme at Cowley College, becoming the program’s first freshman All-American in more than six decades. The next season, the 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward was even better, averaging 21.1 points, 12.8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 2.2 blocks while knocking down 2.1 3-pointers per game on 38.7% accuracy.
In his two seasons at the Div. I level, Ridgnal has yet to find a consistent role. He averaged 2.7 points and 2.9 rebounds at Georgia in the 2021-22 season, then averaged 5.0 points and 4.3 rebounds while hitting 37.3% of his 3-pointers and posting impressive per-minute rebounding numbers in a mostly reserve role this past season at Missouri State.
DeSalme believes Ridgnal has finally found the right fit for his game.
“For so many players at any level, it’s about fit,” DeSalme said. “I think the best comes out of Dalen when he knows he has the freedom to shoot the ball. He was a really high-percentage shooter for us and he can do so many things on a basketball floor. Wichita State is a perfect fit for him and the Roundhouse is going to love him because he’s a high-energy player. I’m so happy for him because he’s finally got a fit that is close to what he had at the junior-college level.”
It was believed Mills was in search of a point guard for the final scholarship slot for the 2023-24 season, a position that became more up in the air with Oklahoma transfer Bijan Cortes needing to clear hurdles to become academically eligible.
But Mills is confident Cortes will be good to go for the season and it’s possible he was satisfied with the ball-handling of guards like Xavier Bell, Colby Rogers and Harlond Beverly in summer workouts. So the Shockers will go forward with Cortes as the lone natural point guard.
Ridgnal, a graduate transfer with immediate eligibility, brings a veteran presence to the power forward position and provides insurance to WSU if Missouri transfer Ronnie DeGray III, a 6-6 forward and second-time transfer, is unable to receive a waiver to play immediately from the NCAA. Redshirt sophomore Isaac Abidde is the other natural power forward on the roster.
Ridgnal also was a high-efficiency player, thanks to his 3-point shooting ability, and provides the kind of positional flexibility that Mills craves. Ridgnal can space the floor when playing alongside two bigs, but also has the size and tenacity for grabbing rebounds at both ends to hold his own when matched up against other power forwards.
“He’s an incredible kid and he does a lot of unique things,” DeSalme said. “He plays a lot bigger than his size because he’s got a long wingspan. He can really, really shoot the ball and he can block shots because he has great timing and that leads to a lot of rebounds and tip dunks and things like that. I really think this is a great fit and it’s just pretty special timing.”
