A Winner From an Early Age

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The story starts at Dickey Nutt Gymnasium in the Parker Park Community Center on Church Street in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The walls are white and Razorback red. This is where the dream begins, with Desi Sills growing up inside the gym, seeking his own path. He yearns to be the first of his four siblings to earn a college degree. He believes that basketball can get him there.

Sills is determined not to get into drugs or wind up in jail. He is different. He wants to help his mother, Shawna Neal Henry, and not see her struggle. He dreams of providing her with a better life someday. He is a young boy with hoop dreams.

He lives and breathes basketball. He gets closer to reaching his goal with each shot on that court inside the community center. People tell him that he's good at basketball. He listens. He works on his game even more. He is the pride of Jonesboro. It is a small town. He wants to see the world. He thanks God for his blessings. And he shoots baskets. Again and again and again.

"I wanted to be different," he says. "I just picked up a basketball at a young age, and I kept going with it."

And oh, the places Sills will go, and, oh, the things he'll achieve along the way. He doesn't know it yet, of course, but one day he'll be the star at Jonesboro High School, and he'll help the Hurricanes to an 82-8 record with three consecutive Final Four appearances in the Class 6A State Championships, including back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.

He'll emerge as the No. 3-rated player in the state of Arkansas by 247Sports and ESPN. He'll be a consensus top-50 pick among the nation's top point guards. As a junior, he'll lead Jonesboro to a 32-0 record, the first undefeated season in the state since 1954. As a senior, he'll guide the Hurricanes to a 26-5 record and another state title.

Among the notable players to come out of Jonesboro, he is at the very top.

"I've said this from the very beginning," K-State head coach Jerome Tang says. "Desi Sills is a winner."

He has the word "HUNGRY" on the wall in his Manhattan apartment. And that's about all you need to know about Sills. He is in the Ice Family Basketball Center shooting hundreds of shots a day. Right now, at this moment, he's either getting up shots, or preparing to get up shots. That's Sills, one of the top playmakers for No. 5 Kansas State, which at 17-3 is off to one of its best starts in history.

Sills is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound point guard who very well could be the top sixth-man in the Big 12 Conference. The 23-year-old Sills arrived in Manhattan after three years at Arkansas and one year at Arkansas State. He arrived at K-State with a total of 1,100 points, 50 double-digit scoring games, eight 20-point games, 326 rebounds, 227 assists and 135 steals during 3,081 minutes of action over 126 games with 74 starts at the Division I level.

He is making the most of his final year of eligibility. He had a season-high 24-point performance in the Wildcats' 83-82 overtime victory against No. 2 Kansas.

He has scored in double figures eight times. He had a 16-point effort in a 61-59 win over LSU in the Cayman Islands Classic Championship game, and 17 points, all in the second half, at Butler. Although Sills went scoreless in a 55-50 win over Wichita State, he had the play of the game with his block of Shammah Scott's breakaway layup with 1 minute, 42 seconds to play and the Wildcats trailing, 50-49.

So far, he ranks fourth on the team with 8.6 points on 45.7% (63-of-138) shooting to go along with 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 28 minutes per game.

"He's not even a sixth-man," senior point guard Markquis Nowell says. "He's a starter who comes off the bench, really. He brings so much energy and passion to the game that we need. He brings that spark that we need.

"We are glad to have Des."

His first appearance comes with 17:29 remaining in the first half of a 76-49 win over Washburn in an exhibition game. Sills tucks in his purple No. 13 jersey at the scorer's table and jogs onto the hardwood with a whole season — his last season — of college basketball in front of him.

In his first 97 seconds of action, Sills steals a pass, grabs a defensive rebound, make his first shot, and dishes out to Nowell for an open 3-pointer. It quickly becomes apparent that Sills has skills — he can control the court and facilitate plays and shoot outside and drive to the hoop and help teammates and cast a wide net defensively.

"He's been so impressive," Tang says.

He's been on campus for nine days.

Sills' actual introduction to K-State officially arrived on June 14. That's when he announced his commitment to the Wildcats on Twitter. Associate head coach Ulric Maligi and assistant coach Jareem Dowling phoned Sills and offered him a scholarship. Sills instantly committed. He said, "I don't need to see Manhattan, I just want to come and help us win."

"It took a long journey to get here," he says. "I'm beyond blessed."

Sills was delayed getting to Manhattan. He graduated with a degree in recreation and sports management from Arkansas State. He is working toward a master's degree in conflict analysis and trauma studies. While Sills was completing his coursework, he was entrenched in meetings and workouts with the K-State coaching staff via Zoom. From 2-3 p.m., he lifted weights for strength coach Phil Baier on Zoom. From 5-6 p.m., he met with assistant coach Rodney Perry on the offensive schemes and learned the plays via Zoom. From 6-7 p.m., he met with Maligi on the defensive schemes.

"It's like I wasn't here, but I was here," Sills says. "I came in and guys were like, 'Dang Des, it looks like you haven't missed a beat."

Want to know why?

Because Sills is a winner.

We're sitting inside the Ice Family Basketball Center one day in early November. Desi Sills says the word "blessed" 11 times in 16 minutes.

"I'm blessed, and I keep saying I'm blessed," he says, "but it's for real."

Sills is one of the warmest and kindest and most humble guys you'll ever meet. That becomes apparent. It also becomes apparent that he's the consummate team player.

Fast-forward to the Kansas game. Sills was going off. He was scoring from all over. He drained one of the meanest step-back 3-pointers that you'll ever see. He was feeling it.

"He had 24 big points and that's what he does in big moments — he shows up," Nowell says. "You know you can always count on him to have your back in any situation."

"He was rolling," Tang says. "I asked him in a timeout, 'Des, what do you want me to run for you?' He said, 'Nothing. I'm going to defend and rebound.'"

Sills says, "I'm very unselfish and love to see my teammates succeed."

He continues.

"I just feel like I'm nothing without God, but my teammates found me early," Sills says. "They told me to believe in my work and trust my work and go out there and be the dog they know I am."

Sills recently had a meeting with Tang. He told Tang that he was like a father to him. And that's one of the highest compliments a coach can ever receive from a player. Sills says that his father was never really around. He found the perfect father figure in Tang, who aside from being a frontrunner for national coach of the year, is a man of faith and truly interested in turning young men into grown men.

"A man of faith, a leader, a father," Sills says. "Everything he does is amazing. He always prays before practice and after practice. When I wasn't here yet, he was praying for me, and I appreciate that a lot."

He loves Manhattan. And he loves Coach Tang.

"You get a feeling in your heart that it's genuine and real," Sills says. "You talk to Coach Tang and see how real he is, and he doesn't sugarcoat it. He's real with God and preaches about positivity and I don't know how he touched me, but he touched me, and it was really genuine."

The Sills story still has several more chapters to write before he plays his final game at Bramlage Coliseum on March 1. It's amazing, really, all the different ways he impacts the game. Each game spurs excitement. Each game is another step toward achieving more.

"To see my mother struggle and never give up," Sills says, "there's a reason I go hard each and every day."

We don't know how the Sills story will end. But we do know one thing about Sills.

"Desi Sills," Tang says, "is the ultimate winner."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Markquis Nowell

Desi Sills

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