SE: Sundell Learning to Lead Early in Career
Dec 03, 2021 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The first thing you notice about Serena Sundell is her eyes. They are wide open. You can tell that the Kansas State true freshman point guard is computing and digesting dozens of pieces of information in a single blink. This is still all so new. She absorbs something new with every trip down the basketball court. Files it away. She rarely makes the same mistake twice.
And that's important when you're an emerging leader.
"She's getting better every day and learning every day," K-State head coach Jeff Mittie says. "She's done a great job. She's reliable and that's the one thing any point guard has to be — reliable. She has the team's trust."
It's still early, but in eight short games, the 6-foot-1 Sundell, a native of Maryville, Missouri, is operating at a high level for K-State, 7-1, as it heads to face No. 1 South Carolina in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 6 p.m. Friday in Columbia, South Carolina.
She basically ranks near the top of her team in nearly every major statistical category and is shooting 44.8% (26 of 58) from the floor, including a team-high 35.7% (15 of 42) on 3-pointers. In the Big 12 Conference, she ranks 25th in scoring (10.4), 11th in 3-pointers per game (1.9), third in assists per game (4.6), fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5), and 25th in minutes played (27.4).
Her 37 total assists rank third nationally among freshmen behind Notre Dame's Olivia Miles (48) and Duquesne's Megan McConnell (41).
"So far I feel like I've gotten better," Sundell says. "During the summer, the coaches did a really nice job helping me to adjust to the next level. Nothing is going to prepare you more than games. Each game I'm trying to improve from the game before. So far, I'm pretty proud of myself, but I still have a lot of room to grow, for sure."
She performed impressively during her first taste of major-college basketball when she scored 21 points on 6 of 14 shooting from the floor, including 5 of 11 on 3-pointers to go along with six assists at North Carolina State on November 19.
Her early-season growth already has manifested itself in one accolade. Sundell was named Big 12 Freshman of the Week on Monday after impressive outings against Abilene Christian and Northwestern State.
Sundell scored a career-high 25 points on 9 of 11 shooting, including 5 of 7 on 3-pointers to go along with 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists against Abilene Christian. Her performance included a 14-point effort in the first quarter, including 4 3-pointers, which set the school record for first-quarter points and first-quarter 3-pointers.
"She came out hitting 3s and I just wanted to get her the ball — "Here make another one, another one, make all of them!" — said freshman Jaelyn Glenn, who has played basketball with Sundell since the sixth grade. "Seeing her hit all those shots was super exciting."
Sundell became the first K-State freshman to make at least 5 3-pointers in back-to-back games since Rachel Ranke in the 2017-18 season.
Sundell then had 4 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block against Northwestern State.
For the week, she averaged 14.5 points on 61.1% shooting, including 41.7% shooting on 3-pointers, and 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks in 25.5 minutes per game.
"I'm trying to keep my confidence level high," she says. "There are times in games when it might come down and Coach will get on me. I feel like my teammates can see that. That's something I've tried to grow in is staying level-headed and consistent. That's been a big thing for me, trying to stay consistent. Having high confidence will help that. That's something I'm working on."
As for when everything started clicking?
"Well, I don't know if I have it all clicking right now," she said, chuckling. "I just feel like I've continued to grow my game. High School was definitely different than college basketball in so many ways. I'm still trying to grow as a player overall."
Sundell arrived at K-State after a monster high school career at Maryville High School, where she was named 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year, and was rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri by Prep Girls Hoops. She averaged 25.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.1 steals and 1.0 blocks her senior season.
She set the single-game school scoring record over and over again. During one game early in her junior season, she made 21 of 25 shot attempts for a school-record 52 points. She finished her career with a school-record 2,358 points.
"If you like basketball, what you'll really like about Serena is she'll dazzle you with the ball in her hand," Maryville High head coach Quentin Albrecht told the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, "but watch her on offense when she doesn't have the ball in her hand, watch how she plays defense and watch how she goes for the boards. She's a complete player."
Her mother, Korena, was a track and basketball standout at Missouri S&T. Her father, Bob, was such a fine high-jumper and basketball player that he ended up in the Northwest Missouri State Hall of Fame. Bob competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials. Her brother, Jalen, is an offensive lineman at North Dakota State.
"I've been playing basketball my whole life," Sundell says. "That's been a part of me ever since I could walk. Mom took me to the gym, and I worked on dribbling. There were a lot of different sports I played as a young kid. I played volleyball all four years of high school and we won a state championship. I was really big into volleyball, softball, I competed in the high jump, kind of after my dad, and did a little bit of everything.
"I knew basketball was what I wanted to do."
Sundell played with fellow K-State freshmen Brylee Glenn and Jaelyn Glenn for Run GMC, which went 25-2 and won the Prague 17-and-under division of the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions in Chicago.
Sundell received more than a dozen scholarship offers, according to the News-Press, and K-State offered her a scholarship the winter of her high school junior year.
"I was really happy with the recruiting process with K-State," she says. "They came to a lot of games. They saw my potential in how I could help out this program. They saw me on the court playing for their team. It made me feel very comfortable. I was a little thrown off not being able to officially visit due to COVID, but I came on some unofficial visits and got a feel for the campus. Manhattan kind of reminds me of Maryville, home of Northwest Missouri State, just a little bit bigger."
Now Sundell is stepping out of her comfort zone in leading a major Division I women's basketball team despite her limited experience. Her eyes remain wide open as she adapts daily to the enormity of her responsibility.
"As a point guard, I knew I was going to have to step up and use my voice and run the show," she says. "Coach has gotten on me. There's been times and days that I've come in and haven't been mentally in that position. I've just been continuing to grow in that spot in leading my team."
Mittie says, "She's still finding her voice."
"She's really intelligent," Mittie continues. "There are still lapses in that process. For example, the last game I was trying to get her attention, and I couldn't get her attention. She'd bring the ball up the floor and I still couldn't get her attention. I called a timeout and said, 'Hey, you need to learn my voice really quick.' She had no idea. Part of the process, right?
"When they become veterans at that they give you a glance and they know and when things are going great, they don't need to look over. That's just a part of the learning process, her getting used to me. Every game is a little bit different."
Did Mittie expect Sundell to be this good this early?
"The one thing about players is you're either ready or you're not," Mittie says. "Serena was ready coming in. What you don't know is how hard they work, how quickly they pick things up, if too much information paralyzes them. She has a good balance of all those things. I love the way she competes.
"I love the way she's handled the information so far."
It starts with the eyes, wide open, and absorbing everything.
It could end with one special career.
The first thing you notice about Serena Sundell is her eyes. They are wide open. You can tell that the Kansas State true freshman point guard is computing and digesting dozens of pieces of information in a single blink. This is still all so new. She absorbs something new with every trip down the basketball court. Files it away. She rarely makes the same mistake twice.
And that's important when you're an emerging leader.
"She's getting better every day and learning every day," K-State head coach Jeff Mittie says. "She's done a great job. She's reliable and that's the one thing any point guard has to be — reliable. She has the team's trust."
It's still early, but in eight short games, the 6-foot-1 Sundell, a native of Maryville, Missouri, is operating at a high level for K-State, 7-1, as it heads to face No. 1 South Carolina in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 6 p.m. Friday in Columbia, South Carolina.
She basically ranks near the top of her team in nearly every major statistical category and is shooting 44.8% (26 of 58) from the floor, including a team-high 35.7% (15 of 42) on 3-pointers. In the Big 12 Conference, she ranks 25th in scoring (10.4), 11th in 3-pointers per game (1.9), third in assists per game (4.6), fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5), and 25th in minutes played (27.4).
Her 37 total assists rank third nationally among freshmen behind Notre Dame's Olivia Miles (48) and Duquesne's Megan McConnell (41).
"So far I feel like I've gotten better," Sundell says. "During the summer, the coaches did a really nice job helping me to adjust to the next level. Nothing is going to prepare you more than games. Each game I'm trying to improve from the game before. So far, I'm pretty proud of myself, but I still have a lot of room to grow, for sure."
She performed impressively during her first taste of major-college basketball when she scored 21 points on 6 of 14 shooting from the floor, including 5 of 11 on 3-pointers to go along with six assists at North Carolina State on November 19.
Her early-season growth already has manifested itself in one accolade. Sundell was named Big 12 Freshman of the Week on Monday after impressive outings against Abilene Christian and Northwestern State.
Sundell scored a career-high 25 points on 9 of 11 shooting, including 5 of 7 on 3-pointers to go along with 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists against Abilene Christian. Her performance included a 14-point effort in the first quarter, including 4 3-pointers, which set the school record for first-quarter points and first-quarter 3-pointers.
"She came out hitting 3s and I just wanted to get her the ball — "Here make another one, another one, make all of them!" — said freshman Jaelyn Glenn, who has played basketball with Sundell since the sixth grade. "Seeing her hit all those shots was super exciting."
Sundell became the first K-State freshman to make at least 5 3-pointers in back-to-back games since Rachel Ranke in the 2017-18 season.
Sundell then had 4 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block against Northwestern State.
For the week, she averaged 14.5 points on 61.1% shooting, including 41.7% shooting on 3-pointers, and 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks in 25.5 minutes per game.
"I'm trying to keep my confidence level high," she says. "There are times in games when it might come down and Coach will get on me. I feel like my teammates can see that. That's something I've tried to grow in is staying level-headed and consistent. That's been a big thing for me, trying to stay consistent. Having high confidence will help that. That's something I'm working on."
As for when everything started clicking?
"Well, I don't know if I have it all clicking right now," she said, chuckling. "I just feel like I've continued to grow my game. High School was definitely different than college basketball in so many ways. I'm still trying to grow as a player overall."
Sundell arrived at K-State after a monster high school career at Maryville High School, where she was named 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year, and was rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri by Prep Girls Hoops. She averaged 25.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.1 steals and 1.0 blocks her senior season.
She set the single-game school scoring record over and over again. During one game early in her junior season, she made 21 of 25 shot attempts for a school-record 52 points. She finished her career with a school-record 2,358 points.
"If you like basketball, what you'll really like about Serena is she'll dazzle you with the ball in her hand," Maryville High head coach Quentin Albrecht told the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, "but watch her on offense when she doesn't have the ball in her hand, watch how she plays defense and watch how she goes for the boards. She's a complete player."
Her mother, Korena, was a track and basketball standout at Missouri S&T. Her father, Bob, was such a fine high-jumper and basketball player that he ended up in the Northwest Missouri State Hall of Fame. Bob competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials. Her brother, Jalen, is an offensive lineman at North Dakota State.
"I've been playing basketball my whole life," Sundell says. "That's been a part of me ever since I could walk. Mom took me to the gym, and I worked on dribbling. There were a lot of different sports I played as a young kid. I played volleyball all four years of high school and we won a state championship. I was really big into volleyball, softball, I competed in the high jump, kind of after my dad, and did a little bit of everything.
"I knew basketball was what I wanted to do."
Sundell played with fellow K-State freshmen Brylee Glenn and Jaelyn Glenn for Run GMC, which went 25-2 and won the Prague 17-and-under division of the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions in Chicago.
Sundell received more than a dozen scholarship offers, according to the News-Press, and K-State offered her a scholarship the winter of her high school junior year.
"I was really happy with the recruiting process with K-State," she says. "They came to a lot of games. They saw my potential in how I could help out this program. They saw me on the court playing for their team. It made me feel very comfortable. I was a little thrown off not being able to officially visit due to COVID, but I came on some unofficial visits and got a feel for the campus. Manhattan kind of reminds me of Maryville, home of Northwest Missouri State, just a little bit bigger."
Now Sundell is stepping out of her comfort zone in leading a major Division I women's basketball team despite her limited experience. Her eyes remain wide open as she adapts daily to the enormity of her responsibility.
"As a point guard, I knew I was going to have to step up and use my voice and run the show," she says. "Coach has gotten on me. There's been times and days that I've come in and haven't been mentally in that position. I've just been continuing to grow in that spot in leading my team."
Mittie says, "She's still finding her voice."
"She's really intelligent," Mittie continues. "There are still lapses in that process. For example, the last game I was trying to get her attention, and I couldn't get her attention. She'd bring the ball up the floor and I still couldn't get her attention. I called a timeout and said, 'Hey, you need to learn my voice really quick.' She had no idea. Part of the process, right?
"When they become veterans at that they give you a glance and they know and when things are going great, they don't need to look over. That's just a part of the learning process, her getting used to me. Every game is a little bit different."
Did Mittie expect Sundell to be this good this early?
"The one thing about players is you're either ready or you're not," Mittie says. "Serena was ready coming in. What you don't know is how hard they work, how quickly they pick things up, if too much information paralyzes them. She has a good balance of all those things. I love the way she competes.
"I love the way she's handled the information so far."
It starts with the eyes, wide open, and absorbing everything.
It could end with one special career.
Players Mentioned
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