WSU basketball player Rashard Kelly focuses on details | Wichita Eagle

The next time you’re watching a basketball game, notice how much time you spend watching the ball.

It’s hard to watch a game without doing it, right? After all, the ball is how a player scores points, therefore is the most valuable commodity. But how often does any one player have the ball in his hands?

Billy Donovan, who won two national titles at Florida and is currently coaching the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, believes that for most players the number is five percent, which leaves 95 percent of the time without the ball.

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“There are so many other things that go into impacting the outcome of the game,” Donovan has said. “But so many guys are unable to play their 95 percent because they’re so consumed with their five percent.”

The 95 percent is where Wichita State senior Rashard Kelly thrives.

The 95 percent includes things such as blocking out, rebounding, setting screens, diving for loose balls, spacing the floor, helping teammates on defense and taking charges.

Accolades so often go to players who thrive in the five percent. That doesn’t bother Kelly, who enters Thursday’s game for No. 5 WSU (13-2, 3-0 American) at East Carolina (7-8, 1-3) averaging less than six points per game.

“Everybody wants to score, but that’s not my bread and butter,” Kelly said. “I’m not a pretty player. I don’t have a pretty jump shot. But I like that other stuff. I like rebounding. I like being physical. When I get to do that kind of stuff, I feel more alive.”

“Find another way”

Scoring came easily for Kelly, who was always the biggest kid on his team, until he reached high school in Fredericksburg, Va.

He played with McDonald’s All-American Melo Trimble (Maryland) at Bishop O’Connell, then with three future Division I players at Massanutten Military Academy, including former Kansas star and current NBA player Frank Mason. The talent was similar on his AAU team, D.C. Assault.

“Sometimes my teammates don’t pass me the ball, so I figure the best way I can get the ball is if I just go get it off the rim,” Kelly said. “I just had to find another way to help my team win.”

It was in those formative years, when many players are worried about trying to score in front of scouts, when Kelly began to embrace the other 95 percent.

“I knew that I was going to be successful rebounding and defending,” Kelly said. “And once you find success, you want it more and more. The more rebounds I get, the harder I go for them. I’m not the biggest guy out there, but I’m relentless and I go hard every time.”

But that didn’t mean Kelly wasn’t frustrated with a limited scoring role. He always felt like he could be doing more; his mother, Tammy Kelly, had to be there to remind Rashard the value of the work he was doing.

“We used to always tell him all the time, ‘They write checks for rebounders, too,’ ” Tammy Kelly said. “I know he wished he could score a little more, but that’s not his role. He had to be reminded of what he was great at.”

When Kelly arrived at WSU in 2014, he became an understudy to Evan Wessel, another player who thrived in the 95 percent. He saw how Wessel made himself valuable on a team with future NBA players Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker, and took note.

Then Wessel, VanVleet, and Baker graduated after the 2015-16 season, leaving WSU in an identity crisis. Kelly scheduled a meeting with Gregg Marshall to discuss what he could do to have a larger role on the team.

“Well, you need to be in better shape than everybody else,” Marshall remembers telling him. “You need to be stronger, cut your body up. You need to be able to run forever, have great energy, bring toughness and passion. Rebound every possession, defend and communicate … all of the things I’ve told him a hundred times.”

A week later, Kelly was back in Marshall’s office – asking the same question.

“Is this Groundhog’s Day?” Marshall said. “What are we doing here? You’re asking the same exact question you asked me a week ago. So I just said to him exactly the same thing and my answer was as close to verbatim as I could possibly make it. I think it was more about him digesting it, accepting it.”

That meeting was the start of Kelly fully embracing his “dirty work” role with WSU.

“I was always the player (Marshall) needed me to be, I just had to do more of what I was good at,” Kelly said. “He didn’t want me to get caught up in trying to be a 20-point, first-team kind of guy. Those guys come by rare. If I did the little things with my gifts, then he said my name is going to carry weight from doing that alone.”

“Whenever I wanted to give up, he wouldn’t let me”

Kelly has always been mature for his age.

His family believes it’s because for two years in high school, Kelly woke up before dawn each day and made a two-hour commute from Fredericksburg to Arlington. It wasn’t a typical teenage lifestyle.

“He was working those government hours,” Tammy Kelly said. “He just wasn’t getting a paycheck for it.”

Those long car rides changed Kelly’s worldview.

“It just helped me realize what’s actually important and how to limit distractions,” Kelly said. “I had to grow up when I was 14 years old. I had a job, but I wasn’t getting paid for it. I had to do all of these things other kids didn’t have to do just to play on a legit basketball team.”

It’s this maturity that defines Kelly on and off the basketball court.

On the court, it allows Kelly to put aside his ego and do whatever his team needs to win. It’s a trait Marshall adores.

“Rashard Kelly is a guy who you want 13 guys just like him in your program,” Marshall said.

Away from basketball, Kelly is the go-to friend for advice and encouragement.

No one knows that better than Cyntila Nixon, a WSU student who met Kelly when he was on his recruiting visit and she was a fan in the student section. A friendship quickly formed.

When Nixon was struggling to find motivation to complete her bachelor’s degree, she went to Kelly. He always knew the right thing to say.

“Whenever I wanted to give up, he wouldn’t let me,” Nixon said. “He would tell me I got this and everything would be all right. I needed to hear that. He’s the only friend I have like that, where I can just text whenever and he’s always there for advice.”

Nixon graduated in December with a degree in sports management. On her graduation party invitations, she made sure to include a picture of her and Kelly.

“He was my motivation,” Nixon said. “I wanted to put people on there that motivated me and inspired me and he was the first person that came to my mind.”

Tammy Kelly sometimes wonders about the job she did raising Rashard. Hearing stories like that let her know she did her job well.

“It makes me smile because I know he’s really grown up now,” Tammy Kelly said. “He’s a man. He has a lot of people that look up to him and respect him. It just makes me very proud.”

“An everyday guy who makes winning plays”

Some think being great at the 95 percent doesn’t require talent, just effort.

But staying mentally locked-in each game to do all of the little things away from the ball is considered a talent in Marshall’s program.

WSU assistant coach Donnie Jones was with Donovan at Florida, so he understands the importance of the 95 percent.

“Coach Marshall does an outstanding job of selling and rewarding that role as a coach,” Jones said. “Some coaches are just going to play guys who score, but (Marshall) understands the value to his culture and how big that is.”

Kelly averages the ninth-most points on WSU this season, but the third-most minutes. He has already started a career-high 12 games. He would have likely been the MVP of the Maui Invitational if WSU had hung on in the closing seconds against Notre Dame.

And it’s not because of scoring points.

“He’s an everyday guy who makes winning plays,” WSU assistant Isaac Brown said. “Like diving on the floor for loose balls, setting good screens, getting tough rebounds, being the energy guy in the locker room. He’s at the front of our press. He’s just everywhere for us.”

Doing the dirty work has given Kelly a prominent leadership role on the team. He is disciplined and consistent, two things Marshall loves, and his sacrifices do not go unnoticed by teammates.

“People really want to listen to a guy like that,” WSU senior Shaquille Morris said. “We see him diving on the floor, doing all of the little things to help us win. Not a lot of guys want to do that role, but he’s completely bought in and become that dog-slash-hyena for us. You look up to him for it.”

Kelly’s biggest statistical contribution this season has been rebounding — he leads WSU in with 7.4 rebounds per game. But his offensive rebounding stands out.

His 3.5 offensive rebounds per game average ranks 18th nationally.

It’s not by coincidence. Kelly studies his teammates’ misses.

“But more importantly, I go every time,” Kelly said. “I crash the boards every time and honestly I think that’s the difference.”

That mentality has made Kelly a crucial piece for the No. 5 team in the country.

“Every kid wants to score, every kid wants to see their name in the headlines,” Marshall said. “But sometimes what you want and reality are different. Rashard has found his niche and I think he picked the right program. I’m glad he chose us.”

Kelly never became a superstar scorer at Wichita State. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t succeed.

“I do think everything paid off,” Kelly said. “Looking back on it, I never needed to be in the spotlight. As long as my team got the victory, that feeling after the game is more rewarding than scoring any bucket could be.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 4:27 PM.