A Good Answer, But On To The Next One
Jan 10, 2025 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The head coach of a Kansas State team that is off to one of the best starts in school history has recently risen from his slumber, some seven hours since he finished dissecting BYU and some 10 hours since the 12th-ranked Wildcats celebrated a 71-47 stomping of No. 22 Utah. Jeff Mittie, who improved his record at K-State to 206-136 (.602) and is tied for second in school history with Judy Akers (1968-79), is hardly content after the Wildcats steamrolled their way to an 11th-straight win that improved their record to 16-1 heading to face the Cougars on Saturday.
"It was a good test for us," Mittie says from the team hotel. "We hadn't had a road test like that where both teams were ranked. It was a good answer by us."
K-State certainly took care of any questions in locking down on Utah, 12-3 and 3-1, which hadn't lost since Thanksgiving Day and hadn't suffered defeat all season at normally imposing Huntsman Center. The Wildcats entered the game leading Division I in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense and shot 49.2% from the floor with eight 3-pointers while Utah shot a season-low 30% from the floor and one of the nation's top 3-point shooting teams went just 3-of-19 from long range.
K-State outscored Utah 20-7 in the first quarter and 26-13 in the third quarter, and it led by as many as 30 points — a strikingly similar repeat performance by the Wildcats in Big 12 games against Cincinnati (76-59), at Houston (74-55) and against Texas Tech (77-57).
K-State is one of the most dangerous teams in the country. It currently ranks first in the nation in field goal percentage (50.8%), field goal percentage defense (31.6%), assists per game (22.9), ranks second in the nation in scoring defense (50.5), scoring margin (33.5), ranks third in assist/turnover margin (1.82), ranks fourth in 3-point percentage defense (23.4%) and defensive rebounds (31.7), and fifth in blocks (6.4), as it prepares to face BYU, 10-3 and 1-3, in Saturday's 5:00 p.m. tipoff at Marriott Center.
"We have to have a good practice today," Mittie says. "The one thing about winning is we're coaching young people, and this isn't just a young person thing, but they constantly have to be reminded, as does a staff, that there are things that we're doing well and there are things we need to do better."
Mittie returned to the team hotel after the win over Utah and met with his coaching staff in a meeting room. They talked about BYU while nibbling on food. They outlined the team schedule for Thursday during this prolonged road trip to Utah and discussed what the group needed to self-evaluate before practice. Then Mittie retreated to his hotel room and began watching BYU film at around 10:30 p.m. until after midnight.
Senior All-America candidate Serena Sundell remembers the postgame locker room scene at Utah.
"Whenever he doesn't have a lot of things to say, that's when you know you've done a good job," she says. "He was proud of us, but he still holds us to a high standard and says, 'Let's keep getting better. You did a good job tonight, guys. I'm proud of you.'"
Mittie is on the verge of taking K-State to at least 20 wins for a fifth time, while the Wildcats, projected as a No. 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, in March will hear their name called for a postseason tournament a ninth time under Mittie's guidance.
"When you look at the process of what it takes to be successful, you can define it in a lot of ways," he says. "You can define it by having good practices every day, you can define it from having a culture that comes in and works hard, you can define it from having good people that are committed to a common goal. The obvious is you keep score for a reason. We've got 35 to hopefully 40 test dates where there's a result tied to all those things that go into making a winning team."
Currently, only Ohio State (16-0), UCLA (16-0), Georgia Tech (16-0) and LSU (17-0) have a better season record than the Wildcats.
"I think it's really hard to win," Mittie says. "Fifty percent lose every night. It's one of those things that when you're in it, I think maybe you don't appreciate it enough like we should. I say that as coaches and as fans. So many times you get caught up in what you're not doing and in that search for doing things better you maybe don't appreciate just winning the day at practice or winning the day of competing and winning the day of the result of a game, maybe you don't appreciate that as much, because you go onto the next one. It's really hard at our level because you have a lot of people who are striving to do it."
Perhaps K-State in this recent era of women's basketball is best known for beating Caitlin Clark and No. 4 Iowa in November 2023. Since then, the Wildcats are 8-8 against AP Top 25 opponents, with wins against No. 12 Iowa State (78-77), No. 2 Iowa (65-58), No. 18 North Carolina (63-56), No. 10 Texas (61-58), No. 13 Baylor (58-55), and No. 22 West Virginia (73-64 OT).
"I think the feeling after a victory is different each time," Mittie says. "They're not all equal. Generally, my feeling of excitement or pride toward a team and a staff is watching the work you've put in during the week and watching a team grow through that and it result in a good night. After winning, how do I feel after a game? Usually, I feel pretty damn good, because I know — one of the things in my career that I've tried to get better at over time is just to enjoy the wins regardless of whether we played well or not and just go to that next phase of 'let's win tomorrow,' or as a staff, 'let's win the postgame analysis.' Let's do what we do to put ourselves into the best position to win tomorrow."
This is the second-straight season K-State has owned an 11-game winning streak.
"Not only does winning become contagious, but if you're doing it right, you're hungry and you want more," he says. "It becomes a desire. If winning breeds satisfaction, then you've got a problem. If you become complacent, then that's a problem. I said after the game, good teams have to handle both success and adversity in a game. If success in a game makes you relax at the other end, then you'd better quickly correct that, and if adversity makes you frustrated then you'd better correct that.
"Winning does become contagious and the more you win, the more you want to drive your team to do the things necessary to win again."
Led by All-America center Ayoka Lee and Sundell, K-State, the preseason favorite to win the Big 12, certainly seems to have the pieces to capture the league title. This could be the deepest K-State team in two decades.
"A Big 12 Championship is the goal," Sundell says. "We would love to get to a Final Four. This is a tight-knit group. We're so close. I feel this year more so than any, top to bottom, everybody gets along. Yokie is so much older than our youngest player, but you wouldn't have any idea because of the way we connect and relate to one another. We all can be silly, and as you can see, we can also get things done on the court. There's a balance between having fun and working hard. That's when we're at our best."
So far, so good for one of the top teams in the country.
"I think what makes this group a consistent group is that they have continued to grow, they've continued to respond when things haven't been well, and we've talked about the things that were in our way of being good, and they have responded the next couple practices," Mittie says. "Those are qualities of a group that is building toward something that could be special."
The head coach of a Kansas State team that is off to one of the best starts in school history has recently risen from his slumber, some seven hours since he finished dissecting BYU and some 10 hours since the 12th-ranked Wildcats celebrated a 71-47 stomping of No. 22 Utah. Jeff Mittie, who improved his record at K-State to 206-136 (.602) and is tied for second in school history with Judy Akers (1968-79), is hardly content after the Wildcats steamrolled their way to an 11th-straight win that improved their record to 16-1 heading to face the Cougars on Saturday.
"It was a good test for us," Mittie says from the team hotel. "We hadn't had a road test like that where both teams were ranked. It was a good answer by us."
K-State certainly took care of any questions in locking down on Utah, 12-3 and 3-1, which hadn't lost since Thanksgiving Day and hadn't suffered defeat all season at normally imposing Huntsman Center. The Wildcats entered the game leading Division I in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense and shot 49.2% from the floor with eight 3-pointers while Utah shot a season-low 30% from the floor and one of the nation's top 3-point shooting teams went just 3-of-19 from long range.
K-State outscored Utah 20-7 in the first quarter and 26-13 in the third quarter, and it led by as many as 30 points — a strikingly similar repeat performance by the Wildcats in Big 12 games against Cincinnati (76-59), at Houston (74-55) and against Texas Tech (77-57).
K-State is one of the most dangerous teams in the country. It currently ranks first in the nation in field goal percentage (50.8%), field goal percentage defense (31.6%), assists per game (22.9), ranks second in the nation in scoring defense (50.5), scoring margin (33.5), ranks third in assist/turnover margin (1.82), ranks fourth in 3-point percentage defense (23.4%) and defensive rebounds (31.7), and fifth in blocks (6.4), as it prepares to face BYU, 10-3 and 1-3, in Saturday's 5:00 p.m. tipoff at Marriott Center.
"We have to have a good practice today," Mittie says. "The one thing about winning is we're coaching young people, and this isn't just a young person thing, but they constantly have to be reminded, as does a staff, that there are things that we're doing well and there are things we need to do better."
Mittie returned to the team hotel after the win over Utah and met with his coaching staff in a meeting room. They talked about BYU while nibbling on food. They outlined the team schedule for Thursday during this prolonged road trip to Utah and discussed what the group needed to self-evaluate before practice. Then Mittie retreated to his hotel room and began watching BYU film at around 10:30 p.m. until after midnight.
Senior All-America candidate Serena Sundell remembers the postgame locker room scene at Utah.
"Whenever he doesn't have a lot of things to say, that's when you know you've done a good job," she says. "He was proud of us, but he still holds us to a high standard and says, 'Let's keep getting better. You did a good job tonight, guys. I'm proud of you.'"
Mittie is on the verge of taking K-State to at least 20 wins for a fifth time, while the Wildcats, projected as a No. 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, in March will hear their name called for a postseason tournament a ninth time under Mittie's guidance.
"When you look at the process of what it takes to be successful, you can define it in a lot of ways," he says. "You can define it by having good practices every day, you can define it from having a culture that comes in and works hard, you can define it from having good people that are committed to a common goal. The obvious is you keep score for a reason. We've got 35 to hopefully 40 test dates where there's a result tied to all those things that go into making a winning team."
Currently, only Ohio State (16-0), UCLA (16-0), Georgia Tech (16-0) and LSU (17-0) have a better season record than the Wildcats.
"I think it's really hard to win," Mittie says. "Fifty percent lose every night. It's one of those things that when you're in it, I think maybe you don't appreciate it enough like we should. I say that as coaches and as fans. So many times you get caught up in what you're not doing and in that search for doing things better you maybe don't appreciate just winning the day at practice or winning the day of competing and winning the day of the result of a game, maybe you don't appreciate that as much, because you go onto the next one. It's really hard at our level because you have a lot of people who are striving to do it."
Perhaps K-State in this recent era of women's basketball is best known for beating Caitlin Clark and No. 4 Iowa in November 2023. Since then, the Wildcats are 8-8 against AP Top 25 opponents, with wins against No. 12 Iowa State (78-77), No. 2 Iowa (65-58), No. 18 North Carolina (63-56), No. 10 Texas (61-58), No. 13 Baylor (58-55), and No. 22 West Virginia (73-64 OT).
"I think the feeling after a victory is different each time," Mittie says. "They're not all equal. Generally, my feeling of excitement or pride toward a team and a staff is watching the work you've put in during the week and watching a team grow through that and it result in a good night. After winning, how do I feel after a game? Usually, I feel pretty damn good, because I know — one of the things in my career that I've tried to get better at over time is just to enjoy the wins regardless of whether we played well or not and just go to that next phase of 'let's win tomorrow,' or as a staff, 'let's win the postgame analysis.' Let's do what we do to put ourselves into the best position to win tomorrow."
This is the second-straight season K-State has owned an 11-game winning streak.
"Not only does winning become contagious, but if you're doing it right, you're hungry and you want more," he says. "It becomes a desire. If winning breeds satisfaction, then you've got a problem. If you become complacent, then that's a problem. I said after the game, good teams have to handle both success and adversity in a game. If success in a game makes you relax at the other end, then you'd better quickly correct that, and if adversity makes you frustrated then you'd better correct that.
"Winning does become contagious and the more you win, the more you want to drive your team to do the things necessary to win again."
Led by All-America center Ayoka Lee and Sundell, K-State, the preseason favorite to win the Big 12, certainly seems to have the pieces to capture the league title. This could be the deepest K-State team in two decades.
"A Big 12 Championship is the goal," Sundell says. "We would love to get to a Final Four. This is a tight-knit group. We're so close. I feel this year more so than any, top to bottom, everybody gets along. Yokie is so much older than our youngest player, but you wouldn't have any idea because of the way we connect and relate to one another. We all can be silly, and as you can see, we can also get things done on the court. There's a balance between having fun and working hard. That's when we're at our best."
So far, so good for one of the top teams in the country.
"I think what makes this group a consistent group is that they have continued to grow, they've continued to respond when things haven't been well, and we've talked about the things that were in our way of being good, and they have responded the next couple practices," Mittie says. "Those are qualities of a group that is building toward something that could be special."
Players Mentioned
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