SE: K-State WBB Looks to Follow One Milestone Victory with Another
Dec 07, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Most of Jeff Mittie’s players weren’t immediately aware of the significance of Sunday’s win at Omaha, besides improving their K-State women’s basketball team to 8-0.
This should come as no surprise. Mittie’s uninterrupted in-season focus has rubbed off on his players, leaving them surprised when a postgame picture was organized after beating Omaha, 70-57, to commemorate his 500th career victory.
“I had no idea, and he played it off really well because he didn’t really want to take a picture or anything after the game,” senior Shaelyn Martin said. “So that was kind of funny.”
“I honestly didn’t know until after the game,” added fellow senior Kindred Wesemann. “I was excited for him and excited for our program. We have a great coach and I was really happy he got his 500th win.
“I’m sure he would’ve liked it to be a bigger win,” she added, “but I think he’ll take it.”
Wesemann was spot on. Mittie, the 29th active Division I head coach with 500 or more wins, was happy to be 8-0, but not about his team’s latest performance or to reach a career mark only one current Big 12 coach held before Sunday.
“It’s better than 499, right?” Mittie joked, at first, of reaching 500 wins. “Eight means more to me than 500. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean there’s a time to be reflective on things and that time may probably come on a beach sometime in June or July. Right now, I’m obviously focused on the other things.”
Mittie, in his 25th season as a head coach and third for the Wildcats, has recorded 23 winning seasons between stops at Division II Missouri Western (three seasons), Arkansas State (four), TCU (15) and K-State.
“There’s a lot of players, a lot of programs, a lot of people involved in this throughout the years, so I’m thankful for all of those things,” Mittie said. “I got some cool texts, and nowadays it’s Facebook, Twitter, the whole thing, but I was more interested in watching film (Sunday) night.”
Wesemann said Mittie’s obsession with preparation is a large reason why his teams have been so successful, with this K-State team being the latest example.
“His passion for the game and how hard he works… he loves the preparation, he loves practice, and you don’t get a lot of coaches that love practice as much as he does,” Wesemann said of Mittie, four wins away from becoming the fifth Wildcat coach to win 50 games at K-State. “Everyone loves games, those are fun, you get to show everybody what you’ve been doing, and he just absolutely loves preparing for teams. That’s what I like about him.”
His passion for preparing, Martin said, has also allowed this team to play without much in-game coaching.
“We’re just able to play our game. Against Auburn, he said the coaching was done before the game started. It was a players’ game, we just got to play basketball and we didn’t have to run one set play during that game,” she said. “I think him letting us have the opportunities to make plays is a huge thing.”
All season, Mittie has, more or less, allowed his team to work offensively without set plays. This freedom, and one of the nation’s stingiest defenses, has propelled K-State to its fourth 8-0 start in program history and first since 2008-09, setting up another milestone opportunity on Wednesday.
With a victory against UT Arlington (5-1) on Wednesday at 7 p.m., in Bramlage Coliseum, K-State will reach 900 wins in program history. Again, it’s a number the Wildcats were unaware of but agreed it speaks volumes to the program’s successful history.
“To be at 900, that’s saying a lot about this program and how each and every year, our team has come in day in and day out, put the work in and gotten the wins,” Martin said. “It’s an honor to be part of a program that has the focus and effort of every individual on the team.”
K-State is in its 49th season of women’s basketball and ranks 20th among Division I schools for all-time victories with a record of 899-556, which equals out to winning 62 percent of its games. The Wildcats, who recorded the program’s 300th win in Bramlage Coliseum history earlier this season, would become only the second Big 12 school (Texas) to reach 900.
“This is a great program. That’s why we’re all here,” Wesemann said. “The fans have kept this program going and we’ve had great coaches along the way. I’d love to get that 900th win. That’d be awesome.”
Look at UT Arlington
Conference: Sun Belt
Head Coach/Career Record: Krista Gerlich (209-107)
Current Record: 5-1
Series Record: K-State leads 3-0 (last Dec. 3, 2015, 61-41).
Key Players: Rebeka VanDijk (6-foot-5 junior): 17.3 PPG (season-high 34 vs. Seton Hall), 9.2 RPG, 58.7 FG%. Christina Devers (5-foot-6 junior): 16.5 PPG (season-high 22 vs. Wichita State). Cierra Johnson (5-foot-9 junior): 11.5 PPG (season-high 16 vs. UTSA), 24-of-54 from 3-point range, 6.8 RPG, 19 steals.
Mittie on UT Arlington: “The center is very good, and a lot of that roster I know, being from Texas, but the center is very good. They’ve got athletic guards. We saw that a year ago, that their guards had good athleticism to them, good activity to them. They’ll be a big challenge. Two years ago, it was a tremendous game (45-41 win). Last year, we kind of ran away from them, played one of our better early games, but they’re a much better team than they were a year ago.”
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