“Gym rat” has become a cliché phrase in basketball circles, but it’s hard to find a more appropriate label for one of the newcomers to Creighton men’s basketball, Wes Enis.
The 6-foot-2 guard has spent so much time in the gym that his coaches have locked him out at every stop during his college career — from Lincoln Memorial to South Florida and now to Creighton.
“I actually started at Division II with my coach, Jeremiah Samarrippas,” Enis said. “He told me, ‘You need to get out of here; you’re in here too much,’ and then the same thing at South Florida. Then after the first two weeks here, the same thing here, Coach [Alan] Huss was trying to get me out of here. I’m just very big on my confidence comes from my work, so just trying to put in as much work as I can.”
That work ethic has resulted in 257 made 3-pointers at a 37.5% clip during his first three seasons of college basketball, despite switching his shooting hand in eighth grade. Enis is a natural righty, but he has a smooth left-handed shooting stroke on the court — one that made him a perfect fit for Creighton’s system as Huss has promised the “Let it Fly” mantra established under Greg McDermott isn’t going anywhere.
“I feel really good,” Enis said. “I feel real confident this year. I feel really, really comfortable in the system and especially with these coaches, they give me confidence … In the recruiting process, Coach Huss was talking about letting it fly, and I think I do that pretty well.”
Enis has certainly lit it up from deep throughout Creighton’s summer practices, but he’s also played with the ball in his hands as the primary initiator quite a bit as he seeks to show he’s more than just a shooter.
“I think I can read the game at a high level,” Enis said. “I think I can make plays for others and help distribute for my team. With teams keying on me scoring the ball, I think I can play off that and make plays for others.”
Wes Enis shoots the ball during a practice on July 7, 2026. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Attend a Creighton practice and you’ll see Enis’ sweet stroke and quick trigger. But before that, you’ll probably hear his voice. Outside of the coaches, nobody talks more than the senior from Conover, Ohio. You’ll hear him asking questions and offering advice during film review, you’ll hear him encouraging and directing his teammates through drill work and you’ll even hear a bit of trash talk. He hasn’t let his status as a newcomer deter him from saying what he feels need to be said — a trait last year’s roster was lacking.
“That’s what Coach Huss taught me,” Enis said. “He told me I needed to come in, be leader and be vocal, and that’s kind of my personality, so it wasn’t hard for me to do. It’s kind of like second nature … I think sometimes you get scared of stepping on people’s toes for sure, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning, so sometimes you’ve got to give that up in order to win basketball games.”
The work ethic and the willingness to speak up are both part of what his new head coach calls his “superpower.”
“His competitiveness, his leadership ability is a superpower,” Huss said. “I think the challenge for Wes more so than any other player I’ve ever coached is superpowers, we tell them, could be used for good or evil. He can be so competitive at times that you lose sight of the objective of a particular drill, and so having him keep proper perspective is a little bit more the order of business daily for him, which is very unique in 2026. Kids, they’re not as competitive as they used to be, because a lot of their time basketball-related time is more spent with trainers and individually than it is in competitive settings.
“But Wes is an elite competitor, he’s an elite leader. Like I said, we’ve just got to keep him focused on trying to get ready to compete in an actual game rather than wanting to win 3-2 in the in the drill that we’re in in that particular moment.”
The leap from the American Athletic Conference (KenPom’s 10th-rated conference last season with a 1.77 net rating) to the Big East (fifth, 13.90) is significant, but Enis has managed to scale up his game at every opportunity. After two seasons at the Division II level, the sharpshooter averaged 16.4 points on an NCAA Tournament team in his first season at the Division I level.
To prepare himself for the size and athleticism he’ll run into during Big East play — and well before it with Creighton’s challenging nonconference slate — he’s working on developing his in-between game to complement his perimeter shooting.
As a fourth-year senior, Enis is eligible to return for a fifth season under the new NCAA eligibility rules. He also enrolled in college early, making him the same age as most juniors. However, he’s focused on the present and continuing to prove who he is to his new coaches and teammates, even if he’s already garnered their respect.
“I’m still trying to prove it, just still trying to prove that I’m an everyday guy,” Enis said. “I’m going to bring it every day, I’m going to be a dog and I’m going to do whatever it takes to win the game.”
