K-State WBB Addresses the Media on Wednesday
Oct 04, 2017 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – Kansas State women's basketball head coach Jeff Mittie and members of the 2017-18 roster spoke with the media on Wednesday at the Ice Family Basketball Center. The following are transcripts of the head coach and player quotes.
Women's Basketball Media Day Quotes
Kansas State Head Coach Quotes
Head Coach Jeff Mittie
Opening Statement…
"Well, it's here again, that's good. It's different in that we did have some practices this summer with the Europe trip and those things. It still felt like the first day to me yesterday, though. I think I'd probably be disappointed as a coach if I didn't. I saw some people tweet out in the coaching profession that we've been practicing since June, it's not the first day, and I thought, 'Glad you're not on my staff.' If you're not excited to get going when it gets going for real, you probably ought to find a different profession. But hey, that's just me. I was excited to go yesterday – we had a good one yesterday. I was excited to be out there. To me those little 40-minute things we do in the summer drive me crazy because it's just not long enough to get into the teeth of things, not long enough to see if anyone's going to push through fatigue. I can barely get mad enough to yell at them in practice in 40 minutes. My players wouldn't agree with that.
"It's a new group, that's been both challenging and fun to see how the pieces fit together.
"A couple things before we get going of note. Anastasia (Tsybaeva) will redshirt. That is our new player from California. She will redshirt and that was the plan bringing her in. She just got here, Kali Jones and her both got here for the start of school. Kali Jones will not redshirt, that's not the plan with her, unless something changes, but Anastasia will redshirt this year.
"We are dealing with a little bit of an injury situation, in that (Karyla) Middlebrook right now – you know I'm not allowed to talk about too much of those things – but she has had a few setbacks in coming back. I don't have a timeline, if you guys find one out let me know, you guys know as much as I do in that regard. We are dealing with sliding some people into that spot, (Cymone) Goodrich and both (Kayla) Goth and Alisa (Wiggins) are all three working at the point guard spot.
"(Eternati) Willock, coming off of spring was suspended indefinitely. She did complete the things necessary to get back to practice in July. She did participate in Europe. She has made good strides, however to finish up from her suspension, she will not play in the first regular season game nor will she play in the exhibition games. She has made good strides and has been doing some solid things, so hopefully she stays on that path.
"Other than that, we're good to go and ready to continue on and see if we can string together another good practice."
On the large number of newcomers affecting the approach early in the season…
"I don't think the standard changes, in terms of what we know we need to do well to be good and how we need to do that. The timeline certainly changes in terms of what's realistic with their growth. We were fortunate to have the summer practices – the advantage of the summer practice was really how do we coach them better. 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. I don't know that it's changed a whole lot, other than obviously we know coming out of there we're replacing a lot of points. Hopefully I have a better understanding of where we can go for some points."
On Shaeyln Martin and Kaylee Page stepping up as leaders…
"It's still a work in progress. I have been extremely pleased with – I think Shae Martin is playing as good of basketball as I've ever seen and she's as confident as I've ever seen her. She is playing as fast as I've ever seen her, she's much more decisive on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. Shae's leadership is that she's always where she's supposed to be, she's always excited about practice, she's always excited about being in the weight room, film session – she just loves playing the game.
"Kaylee Page, I think she had a good summer. We're trying to get her more aggressive offensively. Europe was a big step forward for her in that. That was a good opportunity, (Kayla) Goth and (Karyla) Middlebrook did not play in Europe and that was a good opportunity for others to really hunt some shots and Kaylee took advantage of that."
On Shaelyn Martin's energy and spark serving as a potential replacement for Kindred Wesemann…
"Shae is certainly not Kindred in that regard, but she can certainly fill that role for us in terms of toughness. Her experience as a teammate is critical to fight through adversity. Those things are similar, but Kindred was a unique person to be able to scream and yell and holler and get focused at the other end of the floor after a made three. Shae's energy generally comes from the defensive end of the floor. It'll be different. That doesn't mean it's bad, I think Shae is just different. We're going to need better collective leadership than we had a year ago. Kindred was the one everyone looked to. I think we're going to need more people to step into that role. I think Kayla Goth has to step into that role, I think Shae has got to do what she does, Kaylee Page. Peyton Williams, when we get her, she's a very intelligent player, became more of a leader late in the year last year, she's one that will be critical as well."
On the prospects of replacing Bre Lewis in the post…
"Shot blocking is going to be – we're not as far along there. You would not expect Mary Lakes or Ashley Ray to come in here and block shots the way Bre Lewis did as a senior, but I think both of them have a physical presence to them. They both come in very strong – the physical issue won't be there for them, they're both way ahead of the curve in that regard. Lateral movement, timing, discipline, angles, those will all be a factor for them. How quickly can they grow in that? Yeah, I'm curious to see that as well because that's a big part of our defense."
On the strategy shifting without an inside-out combo like Lewis and Wesemann…
"I think we'll be more balanced, we don't have two scorers developed like that right now, trying to work towards that. This is a team that could potentially have 3-4 players in double figures and I think 5-6 players with eight points or better wouldn't surprise me. We kind of saw that in Europe. Now Europe's not here, but Rachel Ranke led us in scoring. You had Cymone Goodrich put up three out of four games in double figures. Kaylee Page was in the 40s. Shae (Martin) had good games. (Kayla) Goth is probably the player that has the most upside to her scoring. If you look at the way she started last year, she then took the shoulder injury. That took a lot of her scoring out, but then as the shoulder healed at the end of the year she put up a huge game against Iowa State, she's the one that probably has the most upside to her scoring."
On the team's three-point threats…
"I mentioned (Rachel) Ranke, I think she's the most likely as a newcomer to fill that role. She really has a nice stroke, can shoot it deep. I think Kaylee Page, in terms of hunting more shots, we're going to ask her to hunt more plays that way. I think Shae (Martin) has continued to improve and then one of the goals this summer was to extend Peyton Williams and Eternati (Willock) to shoot the three. They spent a good portion of July shooting a bunch of threes, we'll see how that progresses. It's one thing to do it in a drill setting, then to put it into the game speed, but I liked what I saw this summer."
On last season's NCAA Tournament experience benefitting this year's squad…
"Those expectations of playing in the post season, those experiences are very valuable in terms of how you carry that over into your summer workouts, how you carry that over into newcomers coming into here. Playing against the best and competing against the best, if you handle it the right way, it's going to make you better.
"The injuries dinged us over the summer. It would've been nice to have (Karyla) Middlebrook and (Kayla) Goth both active in the summer for those young guards, but the positive of it was Cymone (Goodrich) and Rachel (Ranke) got every rep. There wasn't a situation where they were standing in line, they had to learn on the fly. They were thrown into some tough situations, the Europe trip I threw them in there without the lifejacket and said you're going to have to figure something out on your own here in a game setting. That's valuable.
"For the returners, they can step into that locker room and talk about what it takes to be in the NCAA Tournament, not just last year, multiple years. You have a player like Goth that's never not been in the NCAA Tournament. You have a player like Shae Martin that has never not played in the postseason. Kayle Page, she's been in the NCAA Tournament every single year. They have some credibility in that locker room that they've been on some teams that have been successful."
On losing a talented class of seniors changing how hard the staff pushes or gives slack to next team…
"It's a little of both. I was just having a conversation with (Kayla) Goth about that. I said it's pushing them to a standard that you know is the standard that we play to to be successful, but it's also being realistic about the timeline that they should be on. It's a little bit of both. From an effort standpoint, we try to push them as hard as we can and put them in tough situations. I've said this for many years now, every kid in that locker room that is new can call their parents and say they're working harder than they ever have, and it still probably isn't enough to win games right now – but they can do that now.
"This team is stronger physically, more athletic physically than previous teams in the past. They are not basketball-savvy enough. They do not have an understanding of what it takes to win as a team, as well, nor should they – they've played together for two and a half months. That's our job as coaches to get them to that level. We'll keep holding them to the standards and be as realistic as we can with the timeline for them. They will not be on the same timeline necessarily as last year's team. Last year's team came back, had a lot of veterans, we came into this and scrimmaged eight times before the first exhibition game with officials. We will not be able to do that this year, we'll have to do a lot more teaching, slow things down. I'll have to be way more patient than I was a year ago and I think our coaching staff recognizes that."
On Peyton Williams splitting time between volleyball and basketball as the seasons overlap…
"We don't get a lot of time, when we decided to do this – (K-State volleyball coach) Suzie (Fritz) has been great to work with and I hope she feels like we've been great to work with too – we sat down in three meetings just to make sure we allow Peyton (Williams) the opportunity to be successful at both. And to keep her fresh but also give her enough skill time. We're going to get her 8-10 times in the next month, that may not be exact – Peyton's going to have to talk to us about it and we're going to have to talk to her. If she's behind for us, we may have to add a 40-minute session. We still have to stay within the rules, in terms of 20 hours a week and a day off, all those things. That has been something both coaching staffs have had to communicate with. The advantage for Peyton is she is super intelligent, she picks things up very quickly. You don't have to show her things two and three and four times. You pretty much can show Peyton one time and she picks things up pretty well. I think she's probably the same way in volleyball.
"What she's doing is special. There's not a lot of players across the country – as a matter of fact I'll probably have (women's basketball communications assistant) Randy (Peterson) look up to see if there's another volleyball-basketball combo at this level, because I don't know that there is. She came in Tuesday and had a great workout, she looked great and I know she's playing awfully well for volleyball. It's very, very special what she's doing."
On the transition with changes on the women's basketball coaching staff…
"Coaches are a lot like players, you don't ever want to lose them, but happy that it's a step forward and growth in (Jacie Hoyt's) career. I wanted to keep things simple, I hired another Jayci so I could keep yelling the same thing down the hall. That was hard to do, although I got the same joke when I came from TCU because Jayci Stone worked for me at TCU. It was great for her (Hoyt) and obviously (Kindred) Wesemann gets started in her coaching career there. I talked to Jacie (Hoyt) about a week ago and text with Kindred occasionally here and there, so we've communicated. The coaching staff change, I reorganized it. Ebony Gilliam is now recruiting coordinator, so she's coordinated all the recruiting. Coach (Chris) Carr stepped onto the floor, he was student development. Then I hired Ebony Halliburton – so I hired another Ebony, I don't have a long list of names – to replace Coach Carr in the student development and I've been pleased with all of it. We haven't really missed a beat. Recruiting is going good, on the floor coaching has been fairly seamless. The Europe trip probably helped. If we were just getting into practices and I was just feeling that out. I feel like everything has been going very well."
On a future UMKC-K-State match-up…
"I think we play it in two years. I told her that when she took the job. We talked about how I'm glad to help UMKC out, anything I can do for that program. Obviously the way I feel about Kindred (Wesemann) and what she did here, and the work that Jacie (Hoyt) did as an assistant coach, yeah, I'll always be there to help them. Although if we play them, I'm not going to help them. I think we do have it on the schedule for two years, it might be three years, because we're trying to schedule far out but it is in the next couple of years."
Shaelyn Martin, Senior Guard
On overseas competition this summer…
"I think it was huge for us, being able to get four games and see where we were really at and where we needed to progress. Having those games and actual competition, other than going against ourselves, was huge to see, especially as the freshmen had only been here for two months. So seeing where they were game wise was really big for us, and for us upperclassmen to see how they play in the game situation."
On coming into a leadership role this season…
"I think it is more of all of us taking on that role. They [the seniors] were a big presence for us and its more than one person can handle, so I think all the seniors, plus Kayla [Goth] do a really great job of using our own leadership styles to fill those roles and spreading it out amongst the four of us."
On the hardest part of losing last year's senior class…
"They were impact players. We miss their presence in practice too, because they always brought that effort and enthusiasm to practice. It's hard to replace, but knowing that we have a great group coming in, and we have a lot of returners that have had playing time is huge for us."
Kayla Goth, Junior Guard
On how she will adjust to how teams play her this season…
"I think just taking it game by game. Each team is going to play me differently, just like they play us as a team differently. So just understanding how they're going to play me, and utilizing my abilities to the best that I can."
On strong points of the offense this season…
"We are still looking for it really. We are trying to do a lot of different things. We are trying a lot of different people in different places as well as a lot of different combinations."
On the freshmen and transfers…
"I think as a group they have made a lot of progress this summer. As a group from our starting point, our starting point this summer was a lot different than what it was last year. We had a lot more returners, this year we had two people that were healthy at the beginning of the summer. So that kind of changes the dynamic of everything. The freshman and transfers coming in here really had to learn a lot faster than what we would have had last summer."
On Shaelyn Martin's defensive presence…
"Everyone is looking for those offensive plays mainly, that really gets everyone going, but those defensive plays are some of the biggest one's last year that we jumped off of."
Kaylee Page, Senior Forward
On losing last year's senior class…
"I think we have done a really good job of knowing, 'this is what we have and this is what we are going to make of it.' Yes, I miss our seniors, they are all amazing people too, but I think we have done a good job of focusing on what we are doing this year with this team to be successful."
On her new role with the offense…
"They want me to shoot the ball more than I would normally be comfortable doing. But I am very excited to step into this new role. Europe helped a lot, in the sense of what they are expecting of me and the role they are pushing me towards. I think that has helped so much going forward."
On Shaelyn Martin's defensive boost…
"It really helps bring energy, because she will make a play and gets really excited and really helps bring energy to practice. Defense is not always fun, everyone likes to score the ball, but Shaelyn brings a new energy to defense that makes you want to be good at defense."
Ashley Ray, Freshman Center
On why she chose K-State…
"The hometown feel. You know when it is gameday in Manhattan it is gameday, everybody is wearing their purple. Even when it is not gameday everyone supports the school, it's just a great atmosphere. It was my perfect match."
On the transition to college athletics…
"From a high school standpoint, coming to play college sports could be nerve-racking, but the support here has been great, and the help of the upperclassmen has been phenomenal."
On her role in the offense this season…
"Get on the glass a lot more, rebounds are going to be very important this year. Rebounds and assists and helping my teammates the best I can."
Women's Basketball Media Day Quotes
Kansas State Head Coach Quotes
Head Coach Jeff Mittie
Opening Statement…
"Well, it's here again, that's good. It's different in that we did have some practices this summer with the Europe trip and those things. It still felt like the first day to me yesterday, though. I think I'd probably be disappointed as a coach if I didn't. I saw some people tweet out in the coaching profession that we've been practicing since June, it's not the first day, and I thought, 'Glad you're not on my staff.' If you're not excited to get going when it gets going for real, you probably ought to find a different profession. But hey, that's just me. I was excited to go yesterday – we had a good one yesterday. I was excited to be out there. To me those little 40-minute things we do in the summer drive me crazy because it's just not long enough to get into the teeth of things, not long enough to see if anyone's going to push through fatigue. I can barely get mad enough to yell at them in practice in 40 minutes. My players wouldn't agree with that.
"It's a new group, that's been both challenging and fun to see how the pieces fit together.
"A couple things before we get going of note. Anastasia (Tsybaeva) will redshirt. That is our new player from California. She will redshirt and that was the plan bringing her in. She just got here, Kali Jones and her both got here for the start of school. Kali Jones will not redshirt, that's not the plan with her, unless something changes, but Anastasia will redshirt this year.
"We are dealing with a little bit of an injury situation, in that (Karyla) Middlebrook right now – you know I'm not allowed to talk about too much of those things – but she has had a few setbacks in coming back. I don't have a timeline, if you guys find one out let me know, you guys know as much as I do in that regard. We are dealing with sliding some people into that spot, (Cymone) Goodrich and both (Kayla) Goth and Alisa (Wiggins) are all three working at the point guard spot.
"(Eternati) Willock, coming off of spring was suspended indefinitely. She did complete the things necessary to get back to practice in July. She did participate in Europe. She has made good strides, however to finish up from her suspension, she will not play in the first regular season game nor will she play in the exhibition games. She has made good strides and has been doing some solid things, so hopefully she stays on that path.
"Other than that, we're good to go and ready to continue on and see if we can string together another good practice."
On the large number of newcomers affecting the approach early in the season…
"I don't think the standard changes, in terms of what we know we need to do well to be good and how we need to do that. The timeline certainly changes in terms of what's realistic with their growth. We were fortunate to have the summer practices – the advantage of the summer practice was really how do we coach them better. 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. I don't know that it's changed a whole lot, other than obviously we know coming out of there we're replacing a lot of points. Hopefully I have a better understanding of where we can go for some points."
On Shaeyln Martin and Kaylee Page stepping up as leaders…
"It's still a work in progress. I have been extremely pleased with – I think Shae Martin is playing as good of basketball as I've ever seen and she's as confident as I've ever seen her. She is playing as fast as I've ever seen her, she's much more decisive on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. Shae's leadership is that she's always where she's supposed to be, she's always excited about practice, she's always excited about being in the weight room, film session – she just loves playing the game.
"Kaylee Page, I think she had a good summer. We're trying to get her more aggressive offensively. Europe was a big step forward for her in that. That was a good opportunity, (Kayla) Goth and (Karyla) Middlebrook did not play in Europe and that was a good opportunity for others to really hunt some shots and Kaylee took advantage of that."
On Shaelyn Martin's energy and spark serving as a potential replacement for Kindred Wesemann…
"Shae is certainly not Kindred in that regard, but she can certainly fill that role for us in terms of toughness. Her experience as a teammate is critical to fight through adversity. Those things are similar, but Kindred was a unique person to be able to scream and yell and holler and get focused at the other end of the floor after a made three. Shae's energy generally comes from the defensive end of the floor. It'll be different. That doesn't mean it's bad, I think Shae is just different. We're going to need better collective leadership than we had a year ago. Kindred was the one everyone looked to. I think we're going to need more people to step into that role. I think Kayla Goth has to step into that role, I think Shae has got to do what she does, Kaylee Page. Peyton Williams, when we get her, she's a very intelligent player, became more of a leader late in the year last year, she's one that will be critical as well."
On the prospects of replacing Bre Lewis in the post…
"Shot blocking is going to be – we're not as far along there. You would not expect Mary Lakes or Ashley Ray to come in here and block shots the way Bre Lewis did as a senior, but I think both of them have a physical presence to them. They both come in very strong – the physical issue won't be there for them, they're both way ahead of the curve in that regard. Lateral movement, timing, discipline, angles, those will all be a factor for them. How quickly can they grow in that? Yeah, I'm curious to see that as well because that's a big part of our defense."
On the strategy shifting without an inside-out combo like Lewis and Wesemann…
"I think we'll be more balanced, we don't have two scorers developed like that right now, trying to work towards that. This is a team that could potentially have 3-4 players in double figures and I think 5-6 players with eight points or better wouldn't surprise me. We kind of saw that in Europe. Now Europe's not here, but Rachel Ranke led us in scoring. You had Cymone Goodrich put up three out of four games in double figures. Kaylee Page was in the 40s. Shae (Martin) had good games. (Kayla) Goth is probably the player that has the most upside to her scoring. If you look at the way she started last year, she then took the shoulder injury. That took a lot of her scoring out, but then as the shoulder healed at the end of the year she put up a huge game against Iowa State, she's the one that probably has the most upside to her scoring."
On the team's three-point threats…
"I mentioned (Rachel) Ranke, I think she's the most likely as a newcomer to fill that role. She really has a nice stroke, can shoot it deep. I think Kaylee Page, in terms of hunting more shots, we're going to ask her to hunt more plays that way. I think Shae (Martin) has continued to improve and then one of the goals this summer was to extend Peyton Williams and Eternati (Willock) to shoot the three. They spent a good portion of July shooting a bunch of threes, we'll see how that progresses. It's one thing to do it in a drill setting, then to put it into the game speed, but I liked what I saw this summer."
On last season's NCAA Tournament experience benefitting this year's squad…
"Those expectations of playing in the post season, those experiences are very valuable in terms of how you carry that over into your summer workouts, how you carry that over into newcomers coming into here. Playing against the best and competing against the best, if you handle it the right way, it's going to make you better.
"The injuries dinged us over the summer. It would've been nice to have (Karyla) Middlebrook and (Kayla) Goth both active in the summer for those young guards, but the positive of it was Cymone (Goodrich) and Rachel (Ranke) got every rep. There wasn't a situation where they were standing in line, they had to learn on the fly. They were thrown into some tough situations, the Europe trip I threw them in there without the lifejacket and said you're going to have to figure something out on your own here in a game setting. That's valuable.
"For the returners, they can step into that locker room and talk about what it takes to be in the NCAA Tournament, not just last year, multiple years. You have a player like Goth that's never not been in the NCAA Tournament. You have a player like Shae Martin that has never not played in the postseason. Kayle Page, she's been in the NCAA Tournament every single year. They have some credibility in that locker room that they've been on some teams that have been successful."
On losing a talented class of seniors changing how hard the staff pushes or gives slack to next team…
"It's a little of both. I was just having a conversation with (Kayla) Goth about that. I said it's pushing them to a standard that you know is the standard that we play to to be successful, but it's also being realistic about the timeline that they should be on. It's a little bit of both. From an effort standpoint, we try to push them as hard as we can and put them in tough situations. I've said this for many years now, every kid in that locker room that is new can call their parents and say they're working harder than they ever have, and it still probably isn't enough to win games right now – but they can do that now.
"This team is stronger physically, more athletic physically than previous teams in the past. They are not basketball-savvy enough. They do not have an understanding of what it takes to win as a team, as well, nor should they – they've played together for two and a half months. That's our job as coaches to get them to that level. We'll keep holding them to the standards and be as realistic as we can with the timeline for them. They will not be on the same timeline necessarily as last year's team. Last year's team came back, had a lot of veterans, we came into this and scrimmaged eight times before the first exhibition game with officials. We will not be able to do that this year, we'll have to do a lot more teaching, slow things down. I'll have to be way more patient than I was a year ago and I think our coaching staff recognizes that."
On Peyton Williams splitting time between volleyball and basketball as the seasons overlap…
"We don't get a lot of time, when we decided to do this – (K-State volleyball coach) Suzie (Fritz) has been great to work with and I hope she feels like we've been great to work with too – we sat down in three meetings just to make sure we allow Peyton (Williams) the opportunity to be successful at both. And to keep her fresh but also give her enough skill time. We're going to get her 8-10 times in the next month, that may not be exact – Peyton's going to have to talk to us about it and we're going to have to talk to her. If she's behind for us, we may have to add a 40-minute session. We still have to stay within the rules, in terms of 20 hours a week and a day off, all those things. That has been something both coaching staffs have had to communicate with. The advantage for Peyton is she is super intelligent, she picks things up very quickly. You don't have to show her things two and three and four times. You pretty much can show Peyton one time and she picks things up pretty well. I think she's probably the same way in volleyball.
"What she's doing is special. There's not a lot of players across the country – as a matter of fact I'll probably have (women's basketball communications assistant) Randy (Peterson) look up to see if there's another volleyball-basketball combo at this level, because I don't know that there is. She came in Tuesday and had a great workout, she looked great and I know she's playing awfully well for volleyball. It's very, very special what she's doing."
On the transition with changes on the women's basketball coaching staff…
"Coaches are a lot like players, you don't ever want to lose them, but happy that it's a step forward and growth in (Jacie Hoyt's) career. I wanted to keep things simple, I hired another Jayci so I could keep yelling the same thing down the hall. That was hard to do, although I got the same joke when I came from TCU because Jayci Stone worked for me at TCU. It was great for her (Hoyt) and obviously (Kindred) Wesemann gets started in her coaching career there. I talked to Jacie (Hoyt) about a week ago and text with Kindred occasionally here and there, so we've communicated. The coaching staff change, I reorganized it. Ebony Gilliam is now recruiting coordinator, so she's coordinated all the recruiting. Coach (Chris) Carr stepped onto the floor, he was student development. Then I hired Ebony Halliburton – so I hired another Ebony, I don't have a long list of names – to replace Coach Carr in the student development and I've been pleased with all of it. We haven't really missed a beat. Recruiting is going good, on the floor coaching has been fairly seamless. The Europe trip probably helped. If we were just getting into practices and I was just feeling that out. I feel like everything has been going very well."
On a future UMKC-K-State match-up…
"I think we play it in two years. I told her that when she took the job. We talked about how I'm glad to help UMKC out, anything I can do for that program. Obviously the way I feel about Kindred (Wesemann) and what she did here, and the work that Jacie (Hoyt) did as an assistant coach, yeah, I'll always be there to help them. Although if we play them, I'm not going to help them. I think we do have it on the schedule for two years, it might be three years, because we're trying to schedule far out but it is in the next couple of years."
Shaelyn Martin, Senior Guard
On overseas competition this summer…
"I think it was huge for us, being able to get four games and see where we were really at and where we needed to progress. Having those games and actual competition, other than going against ourselves, was huge to see, especially as the freshmen had only been here for two months. So seeing where they were game wise was really big for us, and for us upperclassmen to see how they play in the game situation."
On coming into a leadership role this season…
"I think it is more of all of us taking on that role. They [the seniors] were a big presence for us and its more than one person can handle, so I think all the seniors, plus Kayla [Goth] do a really great job of using our own leadership styles to fill those roles and spreading it out amongst the four of us."
On the hardest part of losing last year's senior class…
"They were impact players. We miss their presence in practice too, because they always brought that effort and enthusiasm to practice. It's hard to replace, but knowing that we have a great group coming in, and we have a lot of returners that have had playing time is huge for us."
Kayla Goth, Junior Guard
On how she will adjust to how teams play her this season…
"I think just taking it game by game. Each team is going to play me differently, just like they play us as a team differently. So just understanding how they're going to play me, and utilizing my abilities to the best that I can."
On strong points of the offense this season…
"We are still looking for it really. We are trying to do a lot of different things. We are trying a lot of different people in different places as well as a lot of different combinations."
On the freshmen and transfers…
"I think as a group they have made a lot of progress this summer. As a group from our starting point, our starting point this summer was a lot different than what it was last year. We had a lot more returners, this year we had two people that were healthy at the beginning of the summer. So that kind of changes the dynamic of everything. The freshman and transfers coming in here really had to learn a lot faster than what we would have had last summer."
On Shaelyn Martin's defensive presence…
"Everyone is looking for those offensive plays mainly, that really gets everyone going, but those defensive plays are some of the biggest one's last year that we jumped off of."
Kaylee Page, Senior Forward
On losing last year's senior class…
"I think we have done a really good job of knowing, 'this is what we have and this is what we are going to make of it.' Yes, I miss our seniors, they are all amazing people too, but I think we have done a good job of focusing on what we are doing this year with this team to be successful."
On her new role with the offense…
"They want me to shoot the ball more than I would normally be comfortable doing. But I am very excited to step into this new role. Europe helped a lot, in the sense of what they are expecting of me and the role they are pushing me towards. I think that has helped so much going forward."
On Shaelyn Martin's defensive boost…
"It really helps bring energy, because she will make a play and gets really excited and really helps bring energy to practice. Defense is not always fun, everyone likes to score the ball, but Shaelyn brings a new energy to defense that makes you want to be good at defense."
Ashley Ray, Freshman Center
On why she chose K-State…
"The hometown feel. You know when it is gameday in Manhattan it is gameday, everybody is wearing their purple. Even when it is not gameday everyone supports the school, it's just a great atmosphere. It was my perfect match."
On the transition to college athletics…
"From a high school standpoint, coming to play college sports could be nerve-racking, but the support here has been great, and the help of the upperclassmen has been phenomenal."
On her role in the offense this season…
"Get on the glass a lot more, rebounds are going to be very important this year. Rebounds and assists and helping my teammates the best I can."
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's BasketballK-State Women's Basketball | Tess Heal Senior Video
Sunday, February 22
K-State Women's Basketball | Mikayla Parks Senior Video
Sunday, February 22
K-State Women's Basketball | Senior Night Ceremony 2025 - 2026 Season
Sunday, February 22
K-State Women's Basketball | Coach Mittie Press Conference vs Kansas
Sunday, February 22
