How new Wichita State coach Paul Mills plans to win with details, character

WICHITA, Kan. — New Wichita State coach Paul Mills used to spend his summers working camps for Rick Majerus. He likes to tell the story of Majerus working out Chris Burgess, who had just transferred from Duke to Utah in 1999. Majerus had Burgess do the Mikan Drill, where a player continuously shoots layups — right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand … off the proper foot, keeping the ball high — for 75 straight minutes.

“Every detail, from the eyes to the shoulders to the knees to the feet, the ball to the release,” Mills says. “And I was just like, man, I’m in heaven. Like, all right, how do I learn from this guy? He knows things.”

Mills appreciates an obsession with the game. When asked by a visitor about the 3-point success of his previous program — Oral Roberts ranked in the top three nationally in made 3s each of the past three season — Mills launches into a 46-minute clinic on cutting. He plays video examples, from Oral Roberts to European teams and back to ORU. Mills finds every clip he wants quickly. The desktop on his laptop is like an old person’s worst nightmare. The icons are tiny, lined up in neat rows alongside the right half of the screen. Sixteen rows and 11 columns. Mills gives the play-by-play and never stops the video. He weaves it together like a story: The evolution of cutting in the Paul Mills offense. 

“The best storyteller you’ve ever been around,” says Kansas State coach Jerome Tang, who spent 14 years alongside Mills on Baylor’s bench. “When Mills tells a story, he sucks you in.”

It truly is captivating. You feel like an expert after just a few minutes in. You’re convinced he’s unlocked the key to pick-and-roll basketball.

Mills was brought to Wichita State this spring to resurrect what was one of the hottest programs in the country just a few years ago. He made sense as the replacement to Isaac Brown, because the Shockers had slipped on the offensive end and Mills coached one of the best and most aesthetically pleasing offenses in college basketball.

Mills guided Oral Roberts to a magical Sweet 16 run as a No. 15 seed two years ago and reached the NCAA Tournament again in 2023 after a perfect 18-0 run through the Summit League. He comes from the Scott Drew coaching tree, a distinguished designation these days. Tang just went to an Elite Eight in his first season at Kansas State, while Grant McCasland, starting his first year at Texas Tech, won the NIT at North Texas and also knocked off Purdue in the NCAA Tournament in 2021.

Work for Drew long enough, and it’s like you’ve been knighted. Funny, because the reason Mills is here is because he once thought he was basketball royalty, and it left him searching the want ads.

In 2002, Mills had just finished his third year as the head coach at Fort Bend Christian High School, and his team had made it to the Texas state semifinals. He was 28, making $12,000 a year to coach and teach calculus, and he felt like the…