Playing Free

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The announcement came with 1 minute, 48 seconds remaining in a game that had long become merely an exhibition, a showcase of the depth of talent and execution unleashed by Serena Sundell, a Kansas State senior, and perhaps the least talked-about dominant point guard in women's college basketball. Sundell high-fived head coach Jeff Mittie, the assistant coaches, and her cheering teammates as she made her way down the bench, and as the crowd at Bramlage Coliseum gave the Preseason All-Big 12 selection hearty ovation for her seemingly effortless display in a runaway 110-24 victory over USC Upstate.

The occasion? Sundell had recorded a triple-double.

"That's just fun basketball," Sundell said, seated in the postgame interview room following her historic performance. "That feeling you get when everything is going well is the reason you play. Everything was flowing."

In 32 minutes, Sundell scored a season-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor. She had 10 rebounds. She tied the school record with 13 assists. She had two steals and a block. Sundell became the fifth K-State player to record a triple-double and the first since Shalee Lehning did so in 2009. Sundell's 26 points marked the most in a K-State triple-double as did her 13 assists.

"It's just pure joy," said sophomore guard Taryn Sides, who sank 7-of-12 3-pointers off Sundell passes. "I'm just so happy for her. She deserves it. She does everything the right way, plays the game the right way, finds her teammates and is aggressive for herself. She just makes everyone around her better. Not a lot of girls can do that. That's something special about her."

Less than 72 hours later, as No. 13 K-State (10-1) issued an 89-50 thumping of Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, Sundell proved indominable again with 16 points and five assists. While Sundell expertly found roommate Sides for 3-pointers in the pair of contests (Sides shot 5-of-7 from long range against the Aggies), Sundell, as she has done throughout her career, drove the lane for tough layups or spotted up and drained 3-pointers of her own. Yet it is her tenaciousness inside the paint for rebounds and jaw-dropping passes to teammates for baskets that most fully tell the tale of polished skills derived from four years of muscle-burning practices and crisp-concise contests from Manhattan to Waco to Morgantown and about everywhere in between.

Among the vast spectrum of stars in women's college basketball — including K-State All-American senior center Ayoka Lee — Sundell, a 6-foot-2 product of Maryville, Missouri, might be one that most outside of the Big 12 Conference footprint doesn't know much about. That is, until opponents turn on the tape and watch her many exploits.

"I think Serena nationally is very underrated," Mittie said. "When people see her, they really have a greater appreciation."

To those who have studied Sundell they are hardly surprised by the trajectory of her career. They saw it coming.

"Serena just such a hard worker," said Nancy Lieberman, member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Nancy Lieberman Award is given to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sundell is a nominee for the award for a second-straight year.

"She's tough and has every facet of the game," Lieberman continued. "She easily can have a triple-double because she's difficult to guard. She's big, tall, she can be a guard, and really, she can be anything. She's just a basketball player. She really fills up a stat sheet. Throughout her career, I've loved that about her. You have to have somebody like her on your basketball team."

The first player in K-State history with 1,000 points, 500 assists and 50 blocks, Sundell has 1,406 points (14^th in K-State history), 620 assists (second) and 81 blocks (most ever by a K-State guard). She is also the only player in school history to average 10 points and five assists in three seasons. She owns 50 games with 10 or more points and five or more assists. She came close to reaching a triple-double in a handful of games last season, creeping closest with a 15-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist effort at Oklahoma — the only player in the league to reach such numbers in a Big 12 game last season.

"She's fantastic," said Debbie Antonelli, a Women's Basketball Hall-of-Famer and college basketball analyst for ESPN, CBS and FOX. "Just knowing how skilled the rest of the perimeter is around Ayoka, I wouldn't call her under the radar, but I wouldn't say she's on the top of the scouting report. And that's OK."

No surprise, Sundell's numbers this season (13.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6.45 assists per game) have improved from a year ago (12.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.55 assists), yet it's the little things that she does for arguably the most talented K-State team in decades that is paying big dividends for a squad that features five double-digit scorers.

"Serena's value this year is not just in scoring but it's the things on the right side of the box score," Antonelli said. "Her value is more on the right side — rebounding, assists and steals. They have plenty of scoring. It doesn't mean that she doesn't score or doesn't look to score, but that's probably how her role has changed a little bit as they have other weapons and that makes them even more dangerous."

Sundell offers a simple explanation for her performance this season: She is playing free.

"I'm just playing free and letting the game come to me," she said. "One game I'll shoot the ball four times because my teammates were open. I'm just having an understanding of when I need to be aggressive and when I can pass and when I need to slow the team down and get everybody on the same page.

"I just have the understanding of the game and our opponent. There's a lot that goes into your mind as a point guard. I just continue to grow in that area and that's a big point for me."

Her improvement comes off the court as well. As a freshman, she bench-pressed 80 pounds, squatted 145 pounds, and couldn't do a single chin-up. She has added 20 pounds of muscle since then while also increasing her speed — her top speed was 17.12 miles-per-hour as a freshman and is now 18.76 miles-per-hour — which gives her an edge on the court.

She'll get a chance to showcase her skills close to home for a second-straight season as the Wildcats prepare to face Middle Tennessee State at 5 p.m. Saturday at Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri.

How far she has come since dribbling basketballs in her parents' garage at age 2, since passing the ball back and forth to her mother by age 4, since earning 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, and back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year honors, and since being rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri by Prep Girls Hoops.

"When she stepped onto campus, she was ready in a lot of ways," Mittie said. "She had a competitive nature. She was coachable. She obviously had the skill. She needed to get into the weight room and learn to play through contact and learn as a big guard how to play against pressure defense. You look at her freshman year, and obviously Lee was the leader, but if you're the point guard you have to lead, and she led that team to the NCAA Tournament, and we got a first-round victory. She did a lot of really good things that year.

"Where she's grown is in all the vocal areas, all the things you want a player to have. When they're younger, they only have an awareness of their surroundings. As they grow, they start to realize this impacts this. Serena is a great example of that. She's so coachable and such a great teammate and obviously has a lot of ability. You're seeing all that become better and better."

As for the next step for Sundell?

"To continue to handle pressure defense better and play through that," Mittie said. "We need the ball in her hands and to be able to punish the defense and stay composed. That's the next step for her. But I like the path she's on and she's made those improvements in practice all the time. I feel like she's doing the things necessary to do that."

Sundell's blend of talents have caught the eye of WNBA Draft experts. She is projected by one draft expert to be the 10^th overall pick to the Chicago Sky in the 2025 WNBA Draft in April.

"Sundell is an elite playmaker, excelling with quick reads, kickstarting transition, and using her unique blend of size and vision to create easy baskets," wrote Mark Schindler of They've Got Now.

There's so much to do before thinking about the WNBA. One key aspect that Sundell still works on nightly: Controlling her mind.

"What I'm still trying to learn is controlling the mental side of the game," she said. "My coaches, my teammates all tell me that I'm a great player and to be aggressive and take them one-on-one. I know I'm a good player, but it's just the ability to control my mind and have that confidence, and the power that does for me as a point guard, it's so powerful for me."

Sundell is blessed with power. She is blessed with a deft 3-point touch, slashing moves to the rim, an awareness and impressive vision. In the end, she is blessed with the tools that make her one of the premier point guards in women's college basketball. For as much as she fills a stat sheet, the highlights of her impressive outings still somehow get lost in the shuffle. And that's OK.

Soon, the women's basketball-watching nation will grasp the magnitude of her skills for one of the best teams in the country.

And what an announcement it will be.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ayoka Lee

Taryn Sides

Serena Sundell

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