3-point shooting help on the way for Wichita State basketball with first transfer recruit
A top priority for Paul Mills during this transfer portal season was to improve the shooting on the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
The Shockers certainly feel like they improved on Saturday night when they received a commitment from veteran sharpshooter AJ McGinnis, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who started all 32 games and averaged 13.2 points per game this past season at Lipscomb with 77 3-pointers made on 39.7% accuracy.
McGinnis, who has at least one season of eligibility remaining and possibly a second, is the first commitment for Mills this spring since the transfer portal opened. He committed while on his official visit in Wichita this weekend.
For a team that made just 33% of its 3-pointers last season and with its top shooter (Colby Rogers) transferring out, WSU desperately needed a shooter like McGinnis. The Huntsville, Ala. native has long held a reputation as a long-range sniper and has made 175 3-pointers in 101 career games on nearly 37% accuracy.
After serving primarily as a role player off the bench for his first three seasons in college, averaging a combined 6.1 points per game, McGinnis is coming off a breakthrough season at Lipscomb. His scoring average rose to 13.2 points, second on the team, while maintaining an efficient 110.2 offensive rating. He has never put up big statistics outside of scoring, as he averaged 2.3 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.5 steals and 1.3 turnovers in 29.9 minutes per game last season.
He actually played against the Shockers this past season, scoring a team-high 17 points with five 3-pointers in a 76-59 loss for Lipscomb at Koch Arena in the season-opener on Nov. 6.
Synergy reveals McGinnis was versatile in how he scored by his jump shot. He was effective both on catch-and-shoot attempts, where he could dart around a screen and launch from the outside, and off-the-dribble attempts, which shows he has enough juice on the ball to create for himself. Add it all up and he ranked in the 89th percentile nationally on jump-shot efficiency with a 56.2% effective field-goal percentage. He’s also more than just a 3-point shooter, as McGinnis shot 55% on 2-pointers on more than four attempts per game.
After beginning his collegiate career at UNC Greensboro, McGinnis transferred to Cincinnati for the 2021-22 season, but an ankle injury limited him to eight games. He spent the last two seasons at Lipscomb, where he progressed from a role player primarily off the bench to one of the team’s leading scorers on a 20-win team this past season.
Because the 2020-21 season (his first) did not count toward eligibility due to the pandemic, if McGinnis receives a redshirt for his year at Cincinnati, he would have two years remaining to play for the Shockers.
WSU currently has three scholarships remaining to complete its roster for the 2024-25 season, as McGinnis joins a pair of freshmen guards in Zion Pipkin and TJ Williams as newcomers to the roster. WSU graduated Dalen Ridgnal and Jacob Germany with Rogers, Kenny Pohto, Isaac Abidde and Jalen Ricks departing through the transfer portal.
The Shockers are still looking to add firepower to their backcourt, as Georgia point guard Justin Hill is also in Wichita this weekend with McGinnis on his official visit. WSU also brought in Oral Roberts scoring guard Issac McBride for an official visit and continue to be firmly in the mix for his recruitment.
