Wichita State basketball leading scorer Colby Rogers enters NCAA transfer portal
Wichita State leading scorer Colby Rogers has entered the NCAA transfer portal on Thursday, The Eagle has confirmed with a program spokesperson. The news was first reported by The Athletic.
Rogers, a 6-foot-4 sharpshooter, enjoyed the best statistical season of his career this past season with the Shockers, averaging 16.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 steals while shooting 40.9% on 3-pointers and breaking WSU’s single-season record with 99 triples.
Entering the portal does not necessarily end Rogers’ WSU career, although he will likely be one of the top shooters available in the country and attract interest from high-major programs. An hour after Rogers entered the portal, WSU athletic director Kevin Saal took to social media with a message to Shocker fans.
“Shocker Nation, it is recruiting/retention season,” Saal posted on X. “The influence and impact of NIL is real. We need 5,000 Shockers to consider an additional contribution of $500 per year to Wheat Shock Collective, positioning us to recruit and retain elite talent.”
With an additional season of eligibility available to him due to the pandemic, Rogers will take advantage of his sixth year of college basketball. He will look for the fourth school as a graduate transfer with one year left to play.
Rogers’ basketball journey began as an overlooked prospect from Covington, Georgia, and taking a scholarship offer from Cal Poly. After the pandemic hit, Rogers hit the transfer portal and played for Siena in the 2021-22 season, averaging 14.1 points and hitting 42.9% of his 3-pointers.
After that breakout season, Rogers again entered the portal and this time landed with WSU and former coach Isaac Brown. As a two-time undergraduate transfer, Rogers was forced to sit out the 2022-23 season and redshirt his first year on campus.
Rogers ultimately decided to stick with WSU following a coaching change and play for first-year head coach Paul Mills. The last three weeks of the season saw Rogers explode for a career-best 29 points twice in a four-game span where he averaged 26.3 points and connected on 23 3s on 80% accuracy.
“The trust he put in me to carry the offensive load and allow me to play through mistakes and just be who I am, it was a blessing,” Rogers told The Eagle following a season-ending loss to UAB in the conference tournament. “It was a pleasure to play for Paul Mills and I’m happy he put so much trust in me this season.”
Without a natural point guard or much shooting, WSU leaned heavily on Rogers to create offense for the team — often late in the shot clock and without much spacing. He was up for the challenge, posting a career-best 109.3 offensive rating that surely could have been even better under better circumstances.
He’s still a work in progress, but Rogers leveled up his off-the-bounce game during his two years at WSU. Finishing at the rim remains a challenge, but he showed tremendous growth in breaking down defenders, getting to his spots in the mid range and firing over them for jumpers. He was pressured into turnovers at times by defenders who pressed him, but he also showed the ability to make advanced reads in the pick-and-roll game and create for others.
If there’s a weakness to his game, it’s on the defensive end. But it’s also worth pointing out WSU asked him to play a team-high 35 minutes per game and shoulder a huge load on the offensive end.
Rogers joined Isaac Abidde, Jalen Ricks and Trevor McBride as players from WSU’s 2023-24 roster currently in the transfer portal. Ricks left the program before the start of the season, while McBride, a former Basehor-Linwood standout, was a walk-on with the team.
That currently leaves Mills and his staff with three scholarships to offer in WSU’s 2024 recruiting class, which features a pair of incoming guards in Wichita native TJ Williams and Texas product Zion Pipkin.
WSU fans are no strangers to seeing some of the team’s best talent leave in the transfer portal era. Dating back to the 2019-20 season, WSU has lost at least one key player every offseason: Grant Sherfield, Jamarius Burton and Erik Stevenson in 2020; Trey Wade in 2021; Ricky Council IV, Dexter Dennis and Morris Udeze in 2022; and Jaykwon Walton in 2023.
