2019 MGM Resorts Main Event

McKinley Wright IV, The 'Walking Bucket,' Has Colorado Eyeing Pac-12 Title

McKinley Wright IV, The 'Walking Bucket,' Has Colorado Eyeing Pac-12 Title

Buffaloes guard McKinley Wright IV has played well above the three-star billing he arrived in Boulder, Colo., with.

Nov 23, 2019 by Kyle Kensing
McKinley Wright IV, The 'Walking Bucket,' Has Colorado Eyeing Pac-12 Title

Mining attracted settlers to the Rocky Mountains in the latter half of the 1880s. In that tradition, Colorado coach Tad Boyle has continued to unearth hidden gems in Boulder. 

Buffs guard McKinley Wright IV did not take a path to college basketball stardom quite as unlikely as his Colorado predecessor and current San Antonio Spurs standout Derrick White – who walked on from Div. II University of Colorado-Colorado Springs – but Wright’s played well above his 3-star recruiting billing. 

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Wright turned heads last season, emerging as the consummate combo-guard for the 23-game-winning Buffs. He averaged 13 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game – and he did it all with a season-long shoulder injury. 

Now playing at 100 percent, Wright leads Colorado into the MGM Main Event no longer college basketball’s hidden gem. He’s a 1st Team All-Pac-12 honoree and the face of a team projected to contend for the conference championship. 

“A lot of people expect big things out of us,” Wright said at last month’s Pac-12 media day. “We’re going to do our best to give these CU fans what they deserve.”

A season with big ambitions and plenty of promise isn’t just what CU fans deserve, but it’s what the program has been building to with a crop of veteran returners. 

Wright’s at the forefront of a group of third-year Buffs who came from all around. Part of finding hidden gems is going out to where they are, and Boyle’s staff has done that in bringing a local prospect, D’Shawn Schwartz; Wright’s fellow preseason 1st Team All-Pac-12 nominee, Tyler Bey, who will be playing in front of a hometown crowd at the MGM Main Event; and Wright, who came from Minnesota. 

Although somewhat under the radar, Wright garnered Big Ten interest in the recruiting process – including from the nearby Golden Gophers. To score that signing was a major coup of Colorado.

“It all starts with recruiting,” Boyle said at Pac-12 media day. “As I look at our junior class, we've got McKinley and Tyler here. We just talked about D'Shawn Schwartz, Evan Battey is only a sophomore but only because he redshirted, but those four guys, that nucleus of players, we've kind of added to that. 

“I hope before it's all said and done it could be one of the best in Colorado history,” Boyle added. “But we'll have to see how it all plays out.”

The MGM Main Event offers a preview of what Colorado hopes this outstanding junior class can produce later in the season. The Buffs will return to T-Mobile Arena in March for the Pac-12 Tournament, seeking to win their first conference championship since 2012. 

In the meantime, Wright leads a team seeking the first regular-season conference championship of any Colorado basketball team in almost 60 years. Spanning the Pac-12, Big 12 and Big 8, CU has rarely been a hoop hotbed. 

The more the program develops unheralded stars like White and Wright, the more likely that is to change. 

With his shoulder healed, Wright’s taken the responsibility of leading a contender head-on. He’s committed to developing his scoring punch, while maintaining the top-flight ball distribution that makes his team collectively better. 

“Working on floaters, finishes at the rim, threes, all that good stuff,” he said following Colorado’s 69-53 win over a UC Irvine team that reached the Round of 32 in last March’s NCAA Tournament. 

And the good stuff will keep coming for Colorado as Wright’s game continues to evolve – even if he’s no longer the hidden gem he once was. 

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