A Special Homecoming
Dec 11, 2023 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Of course, she was a little nervous, as you might be, too, if you were headed so close to home that you could smell the familiar smells, see so many familiar faces, and were called into action to play a college basketball game in a familiar arena and under familiar lights while facing off against an opposing team with familiar players.
The build-up for the inaugural Bill Snyder Classic at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri? More than 100 tickets sold, and probably more, solely because of Serena Sundell, the Kansas State junior point guard, and the native of Maryville, Missouri, just 45 minutes north of St. Joseph. Sundell gathered up 30 tickets from her teammates, and more than 70 other people purchased tickets, too, to support the return of the most dominant Missouri women's high school basketball player in 2021. The only thing missing? Bob and Korena, her parents, had journeyed north to watch their oldest son, Jalen, a sixth-year offensive lineman at North Dakota State, play in the FCS quarterfinals (North Dakota State beat South Dakota 45-16) on Saturday.
Sundell did interviews before the game, she did interviews after the game, and she was even late to the postgame interview because her fans and friends and family, each and every one of them, wanted a second of her time after her big homecoming.
In between, the pregame and postgame interviews, Sundell shined in St. Joseph — 11 points, eight assists, two rebounds and two steals in 23 minutes — as No. 13 Kansas State thumped Missouri, 84-56, to capture the first-ever Bill Snyder Classic title in front of 3,500 at Civic Arena.
"I was a little nervous," she finally admits while heading to the locker room. "It was a little bit crazy."
On the postgame interview stage, she shined as well.
"It was so fun having fans here and hearing them when I ran out," she says. "I was like, 'This is going to be fun.' It's special to come back to this town and have so many people from Maryville and St. Joe, and there were girls here from small towns who are looking up to me and this team. So, just to come to St. Joe and play for them was really special.
"I'll never forget this game."
The game, so close to home, was the latest installment of the 6-foot-1 Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention pick, who continues to mature before our eyes, and who has spent three years now emerging as a key consistent presence for the Wildcats — from 2022 Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors to being a 2022-23 Preseason All-Big 12 selection, to being a 2023-24 All-American candidate and a honoree on the 2023-24 Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List.
The first player in K-State history with 750 points and 325 assists by the end of her sophomore season, Sundell was also the only player in the country with 500 points, 180 assists and 60 steals last season. She currently has 952 points, 409 assists, 333 rebounds, 111 steals and 57 blocks in her career. She creeps closer toward becoming just the fifth player in school history to reach 1,000 points and 400 assists in a career.
Against Missouri, she recorded her 50th career game scoring in double figures and her 48th game with at least five assists.
"When I think of Serena, the first thing I think about is how much she's grown as a point guard from her freshman year to now," says 2022 All-American senior center Ayoka Lee, who had 28 points and nine rebounds against Missouri. "Just seeing how the game has slowed down for her and how she's able to facilitate the ball and make it happen when we need to score the ball. When she drives, she's so smart."
Meanwhile, Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton also sees what we all see: "She's a glue player for them."
"Serena plays at her pace and doesn't get sped up," Pingeton says. "She doesn't get real high or real low. It's the next-play mentality. She's a veteran, a great floor general."
How far she's come, indeed, since dribbling basketballs in her parents' garage at age 2, since passing the ball back and forth to her mother by age 4, since playing club basketball under her father starting in the third grade, and since playing with Brylee Glenn and Jaelyn Glenn on Run GMC team in 2018 and winning the Prague 17-and-under division of the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions in Chicago.
Truth be told, she was likely born into the most athletic family in the history of Maryville, a city with a population of 12,000, which is home to Northwest Missouri State University. Bob was such a fine high-jumper and basketball player that he is in the Northwest Missouri State Hall of Fame and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Hall of Fame. Bob competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials. Korena was a track and basketball standout at Missouri-Rolla.
Jalen was the 2017 Class 3 Offensive Player of the Year and helped Maryville High School to the state championship title. He also played basketball.
Serena was named 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, earned back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year honors, and was rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri by Prep Girls Hoops. She won a volleyball state championship. She also played softball and competed in the high jump.
"Serena was a kid who at age 4, if my wife and I were going on a 5-mile run, she wanted to ride her bike, and she'd pedal uphill," Bob says. "She's always been very athletic."
Serena received 13 women's basketball scholarship offers, and North Dakota State was on her shortlist.
"To K-State's credit, they were the first Power 5 school that jumped in there and really took a look," Sundell says. "Being a small world (former K-State assistant coach) Brian Ostermann actually started his coaching career in Maryville. I knew him. He knew us from years back, so there was a connection there. Coach Jeff Mittie drove to Maryville, and I had a good game, and it just kind of snowballed from there."
And now she possesses the keys to a mighty dangerous K-State offense.
"(Sundell) is playing more aggressive," Mittie says. "She was doing a great job trying to get everybody involved offensively early, but her being more aggressive in the open floor and putting pressure on the defense is really what we saw last year. I've liked the mentality.
"In running the team, she's much better in knowing the 'why.' She's much more poised under pressure. These are things that we worked hard on in practice. Then I think (she has) the overall leadership that you'd expect from a veteran. She knows the program and my expectations.
"She's just way more comfortable in that role."
She continues to flourish in various ways in her third season in the system. She ranks second all-time at K-State with 5.17 assists per game in her career.
"Talking to my mom the other day, she was like, 'K-State has really worked out for you,'" Sundell says. "I'm very fortunate and so happy I chose to come to K-State and be a Wildcat."
Early on against Missouri, she might've shown a little bit of nerves. After picking up three personal fouls, including an offensive charge, Sundell went to the bench. She sprang to life with some Serena-type moves in the third quarter, stealing a ball in the open floor and driving the distance for a layup. A few moments later, she stole an inbounds pass and handed off to Gabby Gregory for an easy bucket. In the fourth quarter, she split two defenders and flipped the ball into the basket. With 40.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Sundell came out of the game for the final time to a standing ovation.
She received the loudest cheers of the game. And it wasn't even close.
"Just seeing this game was going to be in St. Joe was exciting because I knew people would be around and able to come see me and my team play," Sundell says. "I was super excited. All the fans, I got to talk to, and I was late to media (interviews). St. Joe is a special town for me and a lot of memories. It was so exciting to see so many people come and support me, so that was super special."
And the beat goes on for Sundell and one of the nation's top teams.
Sitting in the lobby of the Stoney Creek Hotel prior to lunch and hours before tipoff, Sundell ponders how good this team could be in March. She grins.
"That question excites me," she says. "Just looking at our team from June to now, it's really grown, and that's something we're focusing on every practice, our habits and our standard. The standard of a week ago cannot be the same this practice as it was a week ago. It has to be higher or we're going to be left behind."
With Sundell running the show for a determined and talented group, that isn't likely.
Hours after lunch, the cheers begin for Sundell and the Wildcats as they feast on the Tigers. Cheers echo throughout the gym every time Sundell touches the basketball.
"It's weird to see my worlds collide a little bit," she says.
And for a moment, underneath the lights, it feels like home.
Of course, she was a little nervous, as you might be, too, if you were headed so close to home that you could smell the familiar smells, see so many familiar faces, and were called into action to play a college basketball game in a familiar arena and under familiar lights while facing off against an opposing team with familiar players.
The build-up for the inaugural Bill Snyder Classic at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri? More than 100 tickets sold, and probably more, solely because of Serena Sundell, the Kansas State junior point guard, and the native of Maryville, Missouri, just 45 minutes north of St. Joseph. Sundell gathered up 30 tickets from her teammates, and more than 70 other people purchased tickets, too, to support the return of the most dominant Missouri women's high school basketball player in 2021. The only thing missing? Bob and Korena, her parents, had journeyed north to watch their oldest son, Jalen, a sixth-year offensive lineman at North Dakota State, play in the FCS quarterfinals (North Dakota State beat South Dakota 45-16) on Saturday.
Sundell did interviews before the game, she did interviews after the game, and she was even late to the postgame interview because her fans and friends and family, each and every one of them, wanted a second of her time after her big homecoming.
In between, the pregame and postgame interviews, Sundell shined in St. Joseph — 11 points, eight assists, two rebounds and two steals in 23 minutes — as No. 13 Kansas State thumped Missouri, 84-56, to capture the first-ever Bill Snyder Classic title in front of 3,500 at Civic Arena.
"I was a little nervous," she finally admits while heading to the locker room. "It was a little bit crazy."
On the postgame interview stage, she shined as well.
"It was so fun having fans here and hearing them when I ran out," she says. "I was like, 'This is going to be fun.' It's special to come back to this town and have so many people from Maryville and St. Joe, and there were girls here from small towns who are looking up to me and this team. So, just to come to St. Joe and play for them was really special.
"I'll never forget this game."
The game, so close to home, was the latest installment of the 6-foot-1 Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention pick, who continues to mature before our eyes, and who has spent three years now emerging as a key consistent presence for the Wildcats — from 2022 Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors to being a 2022-23 Preseason All-Big 12 selection, to being a 2023-24 All-American candidate and a honoree on the 2023-24 Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List.
The first player in K-State history with 750 points and 325 assists by the end of her sophomore season, Sundell was also the only player in the country with 500 points, 180 assists and 60 steals last season. She currently has 952 points, 409 assists, 333 rebounds, 111 steals and 57 blocks in her career. She creeps closer toward becoming just the fifth player in school history to reach 1,000 points and 400 assists in a career.
Against Missouri, she recorded her 50th career game scoring in double figures and her 48th game with at least five assists.
"When I think of Serena, the first thing I think about is how much she's grown as a point guard from her freshman year to now," says 2022 All-American senior center Ayoka Lee, who had 28 points and nine rebounds against Missouri. "Just seeing how the game has slowed down for her and how she's able to facilitate the ball and make it happen when we need to score the ball. When she drives, she's so smart."
Meanwhile, Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton also sees what we all see: "She's a glue player for them."
"Serena plays at her pace and doesn't get sped up," Pingeton says. "She doesn't get real high or real low. It's the next-play mentality. She's a veteran, a great floor general."
How far she's come, indeed, since dribbling basketballs in her parents' garage at age 2, since passing the ball back and forth to her mother by age 4, since playing club basketball under her father starting in the third grade, and since playing with Brylee Glenn and Jaelyn Glenn on Run GMC team in 2018 and winning the Prague 17-and-under division of the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions in Chicago.
Truth be told, she was likely born into the most athletic family in the history of Maryville, a city with a population of 12,000, which is home to Northwest Missouri State University. Bob was such a fine high-jumper and basketball player that he is in the Northwest Missouri State Hall of Fame and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Hall of Fame. Bob competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials. Korena was a track and basketball standout at Missouri-Rolla.
Jalen was the 2017 Class 3 Offensive Player of the Year and helped Maryville High School to the state championship title. He also played basketball.
Serena was named 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, earned back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year honors, and was rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri by Prep Girls Hoops. She won a volleyball state championship. She also played softball and competed in the high jump.
"Serena was a kid who at age 4, if my wife and I were going on a 5-mile run, she wanted to ride her bike, and she'd pedal uphill," Bob says. "She's always been very athletic."
Serena received 13 women's basketball scholarship offers, and North Dakota State was on her shortlist.
"To K-State's credit, they were the first Power 5 school that jumped in there and really took a look," Sundell says. "Being a small world (former K-State assistant coach) Brian Ostermann actually started his coaching career in Maryville. I knew him. He knew us from years back, so there was a connection there. Coach Jeff Mittie drove to Maryville, and I had a good game, and it just kind of snowballed from there."
And now she possesses the keys to a mighty dangerous K-State offense.
"(Sundell) is playing more aggressive," Mittie says. "She was doing a great job trying to get everybody involved offensively early, but her being more aggressive in the open floor and putting pressure on the defense is really what we saw last year. I've liked the mentality.
"In running the team, she's much better in knowing the 'why.' She's much more poised under pressure. These are things that we worked hard on in practice. Then I think (she has) the overall leadership that you'd expect from a veteran. She knows the program and my expectations.
"She's just way more comfortable in that role."
She continues to flourish in various ways in her third season in the system. She ranks second all-time at K-State with 5.17 assists per game in her career.
"Talking to my mom the other day, she was like, 'K-State has really worked out for you,'" Sundell says. "I'm very fortunate and so happy I chose to come to K-State and be a Wildcat."
Early on against Missouri, she might've shown a little bit of nerves. After picking up three personal fouls, including an offensive charge, Sundell went to the bench. She sprang to life with some Serena-type moves in the third quarter, stealing a ball in the open floor and driving the distance for a layup. A few moments later, she stole an inbounds pass and handed off to Gabby Gregory for an easy bucket. In the fourth quarter, she split two defenders and flipped the ball into the basket. With 40.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Sundell came out of the game for the final time to a standing ovation.
She received the loudest cheers of the game. And it wasn't even close.
"Just seeing this game was going to be in St. Joe was exciting because I knew people would be around and able to come see me and my team play," Sundell says. "I was super excited. All the fans, I got to talk to, and I was late to media (interviews). St. Joe is a special town for me and a lot of memories. It was so exciting to see so many people come and support me, so that was super special."
And the beat goes on for Sundell and one of the nation's top teams.
Sitting in the lobby of the Stoney Creek Hotel prior to lunch and hours before tipoff, Sundell ponders how good this team could be in March. She grins.
"That question excites me," she says. "Just looking at our team from June to now, it's really grown, and that's something we're focusing on every practice, our habits and our standard. The standard of a week ago cannot be the same this practice as it was a week ago. It has to be higher or we're going to be left behind."
With Sundell running the show for a determined and talented group, that isn't likely.
Hours after lunch, the cheers begin for Sundell and the Wildcats as they feast on the Tigers. Cheers echo throughout the gym every time Sundell touches the basketball.
"It's weird to see my worlds collide a little bit," she says.
And for a moment, underneath the lights, it feels like home.
Players Mentioned
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