How Wichita State conducted basketball coaching search that led to Paul Mills

Wichita State athletic director Kevin Saal says the national search that ended in Paul Mills being named head coach of the men’s basketball team drew considerable interest from elite coaches around the country.

“An overwhelming majority of the candidates that we talked to are in the NCAA Tournament and they’re highly interested in this place,” Saal said at a news conference Thursday.

He wouldn’t name any of the other contenders but said the search process engaged roughly a dozen active head coaches.

Saal said he’s confident WSU made the right choice in hiring Mills, who led Oral Roberts to a 30-5 record this season and is currently a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award.

“Paul represents everything that we value in our head men’s basketball coach,” Saal said. “We identified Paul early in the process as someone that we would have a high level of interest in, and he absolutely crushed it.

“He’s a highly respected evaluator of talent. He’s known for programs that produce highly efficient offenses (and) tough, gritty defenses.”

Saal said the profile WSU used to select Mills relied heavily on input from student-athletes, who contributed about three dozen attributes. He declined to share specifics about what players wanted to see in their next head coach.

“They want to develop and be the best that they can be, so it’s all the details that are about student-athlete development and student-athlete experience,” he said. The profile also included input from donors and season ticket-holders.

Saal said Mills’ emphasis on relationships with players on and off the court made him a particularly desirable candidate.

“He’s a builder, a gatherer, a motivator, and his ethics and moral compass are impeccable,” Saal said. “He treats people the right way on and off the floor.”

The search process also included a thorough look at contenders’ resumes and a “deep dive statistical analysis” of their coaching track record.

“We aspired for a coach that had demonstrated on multiple occasions the ability to consistently win and produce a top-25 program,” said Saal, who took over as WSU’s athletic director in July 2022.

Asked if naming a new head coach so early in his tenure was a high-pressure task, Saal didn’t mince words: “Certainly,” he responded.

“I’m a Kansan so I understand Wichita State basketball and I understand where we are and where we aspire to be. Certainly, you want to get it right, and I firmly believe that we have.”