SE: Youth-Filled K-State WBB Further Ahead Because of Offseason Opportunities

By Corbin McGuire

The standards do not change, but the timeline certainly does.

The K-State women's basketball team graduated five players, including key pieces in Kindred Wesemann and Breanna Lewis, from last year's team that hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

In turn, K-State added seven newcomers to its roster for the 2017-18 season. This new crop includes five freshmen, rounding out the third-youngest roster in program history.

With two sophomores in Eternati Willock and Peyton Williams, K-State's underclassmen tally sits at seven, compared to six upperclassmen. For perspective, K-State's percentage of underclassmen (53.8) is the most in the Big 12 and fifth-most among all Power Five schools.

This surge of youth puts a slightly different frame around the Wildcats' first month of practices, which started last week.

"It's pushing them to a standard that you know is the standard that we play at to be successful, but it's also being realistic about the timeline that they should be on," said fourth-year head coach Jeff Mittie, coming off a second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. "We'll keep holding them to the same standards and trying to be as realistic as we can with the timeline for them. We will have to do a lot more teaching, slow things down. I'll have to be a lot more patient than I was a year ago, and I think our coaching staff recognizes that."

Fortunately, K-State advanced along this timeline throughout the summer. The Wildcats, including their five freshmen, were able to practice 10 times with coaches before a four-game European tour in August.

"It helped so much, just so we could build some chemistry, not only on the court but off the court as well," senior forward Kaylee Page said. "We got a lot of the teaching and that sort of stuff out of the way. I felt like we started a lot further ahead than we normally would have been with this young of a team."

With junior Kayla Goth and senior Karyla Middlebrook out this summer with injuries, freshmen guards Rachel Ranke and Cymone Goodrich were thrown into the fire, so to speak. Both freshmen showed growth and proved to be capable scorers, as each averaged in double figures to join Page and Williams as the top point contributors in Europe.

"They had to kind of learn on the fly and they were thrown into some tough situations," Mittie said. "In the Europe trip, I threw them in there without a life jacket and said, 'You're going to have to figure some things out on your own in a game setting.' That's valuable."

Goth, who's fully healed and practicing, said while there is still a long way to go, she saw this team turn a corner in Europe, specifically in terms of understanding one another on the court.

"It's trying to figure out who's going to do what and who's going to be where, which is kind of where the team is at in general right now. We're just kind of learning to play well together right now. That was one of the things that really helped out in Europe. They started to understand toward the end, like, 'Hey, she's probably going to shoot that so I need to go to the offensive boards,' or, 'She's going to pass that up so I need to go screen.'"

Mittie's roster was not the only part of his team to encounter some change during the offseason. His coaching staff also looks different. With the departure of Jacie Hoyt, who became the head coach at UMKC, Mittie promoted Chris Carr to an assistant role and added Jayci Stone as an assistant as well.

Like it did for the players, Mittie said Europe helped the transition with the coaching staff as well. It also allowed them to better understand their team's pieces and how to put them in the best position to win games.

"You get a better indication of how you can coach them better," Mittie said. "Coming out of there, I think we had a better indication of the strengths we need to play to, both individually and as a team."

After exhibitions against Emporia State on November 3 and Fort Hays State on November 6, the Wildcats begin the regular season against Stephen F. Austin on November 10 in Bramlage Coliseum.

Tickets for the program's 50th season are available now for purchase. For more information on season ticket packages for the Wildcats' 18-game home schedule, contact the K-State Athletics Ticket Office by calling 1-800-221-CATS or visit www.kstatesports.com/tickets. For the 50th season in program history, fans can purchase two general admission season tickets for only $50, a savings of more than $100.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Youth-Filled K-State WBB Further Ahead Because of Offseason Opportunities

Players Mentioned

Cymone Goodrich

Kayla Goth

Breanna Lewis

Kaylee Page

Rachel Ranke

Kindred Wesemann

Peyton Williams

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