How Wichita State basketball newcomer Colby Rogers became an elite three-point threat

The story of how new Wichita State sharpshooter Colby Rogers acquired his sweet shooting stroke begins with a bored sixth-grader growing up in Covington, Georgia.

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks were just 40 minutes away, but Rogers fell in love with the game of basketball playing in a town with a population roughly the same size as Andover.

Rogers and his friend, Tyrease Brown, caught the eye of a coach in town and the duo was invited to start training with the coach in a nearby gym. Free access to a gym in the summer to a pair of sixth-graders was enticing and they were eager to show what they could do 1-on-1.

“I showed up expecting to play, run up and down, and dribble, dribble, dribble,” Rogers said. “Instead, we did these boring, old-school shooting form drills every day. There were definitely some days I hated it because it was so boring.”

Rogers didn’t know it at the time, but he was building the groundwork for what would become the greatest strength to his game.

“I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I see why,” Rogers said. “I repped it so much that it became second nature. I had to fine-tune it as I got stronger, but it’s the same shot as back then. I don’t even remember how I used to shoot before.”

In three seasons at the Division I level, Rogers has made a combined 147 three-pointers at Cal Poly and Siena. He drilled 42.9% from long range last season and earned second team all-conference honors, averaging a career-high 14.1 points and 2.6 triples per game for Siena.

For a program like Wichita State, which hasn’t shot better than the national average on three-pointers for four straight seasons, a sharpshooter like Rogers can be even more valuable.

Since he has already transferred from a Division I university, the 6-foot-5 wing will have to apply for a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately this season for the Shockers. If he’s eligible, Rogers figures to be one of the more impactful Wichita State newcomers to the 2022-23 roster.

“Shooting is a premium in the NBA right now and I feel like if you can shoot, then you will always have a chance to get on the court,” Rogers said.

Rogers certainly proved he could shoot last season at Siena, where he made 48.5% of his guarded catch-and-shoot attempts, which ranked in the 97th percentile nationally, per Synergy, and knocked down 42.4% of his dribble jumpers, which ranked in the 85th percentile.

He was inspired by the shooting of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for the Golden State Warriors in their recent NBA Finals victory.

“The biggest thing for a shooter is having confidence in your shot,” Rogers said. “If I’m 0 for 10, I have to take that 11th shot like I haven’t missed. You see Steph and Klay miss a few in a row, but they take that next shot with the same confidence, which is the difference-maker. The way you do that is by staying in the gym and getting shots up. It’s all about repetition.”

The challenge for Rogers is maintaining his consistency against elevated competition in the American Athletic Conference. He’s proven he can torch Monmouth, Quinnipiac and Rider, but he has yet to play against the athleticism and length of hard-nosed defenses like Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati consistently.

He’s eager to prove himself on a new level and is working this summer at Koch Arena to prepare for the new challenge.

“This is the highest level I’ve played at, but college basketball is still college basketball however you want to put it at the end of the day,” Rogers said. “I know we’re a mostly-new team, so a lot of people probably won’t have the biggest expectations for us. But all that matters is we set expectations for ourselves and we commit to them.”

Rogers’ value to Wichita State won’t only be the three-point shots he makes, but the potential threat he poses whenever he’s on the perimeter, which should stretch defenses and open up driving lanes for teammates.

He figures to spend the majority of his time playing either shooting guard or small forward in three-guard lineups for the Shockers, but don’t expect Rogers to just camp out in a corner and wait for a kick-out pass to launch a three. He wants to show he can initiate offense for himself and others and he’s training this summer to be ready to play on the ball for the Shockers.

“I don’t want to stay one-dimensional,” Rogers said. “I know shooting has gotten me this far and it’s my staple, but I want to keep expanding my game. I think it will be effective not just for me, but for the team overall if I can diversify my game. I’m working on shooting off the bounce and shooting off ball screens. I’m working on a lot of stuff off the bounce, just repping those drills that will eventually become second nature and that’s when you’ll see it work in a game.”