Gonzaga-McNeese State key matchup: Shahada Wells does it all for Cowboys

SALT LAKE CITY – McNeese State do-everything guard Shahada Wells, who likely occupies the first line on Gonzaga’s scouting report, has played a lot of college basketball at several stops.

In 2019, Wells averaged 16.4 points and earned second-team all-region honors at Tyler (Texas) Junior College. The next season, he posted eight 30-point games and was a first-team NJCAA All-American.

He began his Wells-traveled D-I career at UT-Arlington with a bang: 21 points, six rebounds and five steals against Oklahoma State in the 2021 season opener. The 6-foot, 185-pound guard averaged 16.8 points and made nearly 40% on 3-pointers en route to second-team All-Sun Belt honors.

Wells transferred to TCU but was limited to seven games by a knee injury in 2022. He was in and out of the starting lineup the following season but averaged just 5.9 points and 17.3 minutes. His season ended with a 5-minute, scoreless stint in an 84-81 loss to Gonzaga in the round of 32. That setback adds to Wells’ motivation for Thursday’s Gonzaga-McNeese State matchup.

“I want to show everybody, not just them,” said Wells, asked about showing GU more in his expanded role. “We want to win games here, not just to be here to be here.”

Wells has had a strong season, averaging 17.8 points, 4.8 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game. He collected Southland Conference Player and Newcomer of the Year awards, then added SLC Tournament MVP hardware after scoring 54 points in wins over Lamar and Nicholls.

Wells isn’t a volume shooter. The Amarillo, Texas, native connects on 50.3% of shots inside the arc, just over 40% on 3s and 78.6% at the free-throw line.

In the Cowboys’ three losses, Wells had 37 points against Western Carolina, 11 versus Louisiana Tech and 15 versus Southeastern Louisiana. So it appears that McNeese State has enough scoring options other than Wells to remain quite competitive with opponents.

Wells delivered big games in three of the Cowboys’ biggest nonconference wins. He had 23 points against VCU in the season opener, 36 versus NCAA Tournament qualifier UAB and 30 in a road victory over Michigan.

“I never seen nothing like it,” Cowboys forward Christian Shumate said of Wells. “He’s a scoring guard. He’s a defending guard. He does basically everything you want out of a guard. I’m glad to be his teammate and glad I don’t have to play against him.”

Nolan Hickman will likely be Gonzaga’s first option on defense, but backcourt running mate Ryan Nembhard could see time on Wells, too. GU could use a bigger player, perhaps 6-6 Dusty Stromer or even forwards Anton Watson or Ben Gregg at times.

“We watched a bunch of film on him,” Nembhard said. “He’s playing at a really high level right now, shoots the ball well, scores at the rim. He’ll be a tough cover for us. We are going to go in there confident like we always are. We played against good guards all year. We have a good bunch of guards over here. We’ll take our guards over theirs.”

The Cowboys figure to try to draw Graham Ike or Gregg into ball screens and allow Wells to use his dribble penetration ability.