Kansas State University Athletics
Mittie Addresses Media on Tuesday
Oct 14, 2025 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas - K-State women's basketball head coach Jeff Mittie met with the media on Tuesday in advance of the 2025-26 season. Below is a transcript of the session.Â
K-State will open its 58th season on Monday, November 3, as the Wildcats host Omaha at 6:30 p.m., inside Bramlage Coliseum.
On being a mystery to other teams in the Big 12...
"We've got a lot of unknowns, starting off this year and we've graduated a lot of good players, but we found some awesome players in the portal to redo the roster. I like our group. I've said this numerous times to people. They have really worked hard in the offseason. They've gotten up more shots than any team we've had. But, you know, we're really inconsistent right now, which is to be expected. I'm still trying to figure out lineups. I'm trying to figure out who plays well together at times. And that's very different than a year ago, when we had such a veteran team. I don't really care where we're picked. Honestly, for our group right now, it's how much better can this team be from October, as we sit here today, to March, and I think the growth rate of this team could be really big."
On all the new faces at the first practices...
"I suppose maybe the initial workouts, because there was so much unknown for us of getting players out there, and we had so many veterans a year ago, that was the exact opposite. But there was an excitement to that. It's always exciting to get a group of players out there that you have watched work really hard in the weight room, watched put in work on their own, and then to see, how do we get that to translate? How can we put the pieces together? So there was a different level of excitement, and then a different level of concern, because where are points going to come from? How do we help them the best? All those things are still questions we're trying to figure out."
On what markers has this team hit so far...
"I think there are days when we really shoot the ball well. There are days when we can really move it and we have good shooters. There are days when you can really see a different attack offensively, be really successful. Defensively, there are moments where I see some athleticism that excites me, that we can create some problems for people there. There are moments where our point guard play is exciting because we've got two young ones there in (Izela) Arenas and Gina (Garcia) that are both doing some good things. But if you notice, I keep saying moments, there's not extended stretches of really good play, and that's just the inconsistency that I mentioned right away. So we've got to become more consistent there. And you know, for mid-October, we got a lot of things we got to get better at."
On lineups and combinations and how long will that process take...
"Now, I think it's going to go into the games. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be a longer process with this group. I mean, this is one of the youngest groups I've coached. It's a talented group, but this is one of the youngest groups I've coached. So I think it's just going to take some time."
On the new international players, Nastja Claessens and Gina Garcia...
"Both of them played at a high level. Gina won two gold medals with Spain in the U18s and U20s in Europe. Nastja won a gold medal this summer in the European Championships with Belgium. But both of them just got here, August 22 or something like that. They missed all summer. So when you talk about the adjustment, blending them in has been really good. You could see their talent, but it is also blending them in to everything that we do, the weight room, the demands of going to school, all the demands that are just new to them. Plus, you know, they're half a world away from their families. All those things take some time, but both are exciting players. Both do things well. They both have had, as you mentioned, really good experiences, really quality competition, and both are going to play a big part this year.
On Taryn Sides and her leadership with the new roster...
"We want Taryn to lead in a way she's comfortable. Taryn knows the program, she knows the standards. She's continued to grow in her voice over time but she's not a rah-rah leader. She's not someone that is going to, very often, get into a team or play that leadership role. It's one of the reasons why we recruited Tess Heal. We saw some leadership in her. Coming from Stanford. She had been a big player at Santa Clara her first two years, and was at Stanford a year ago. We saw that when we recruited her, and Tess has kind of filled that role of when she needs to jump the team a little bit. We've got to raise our standard up. We've got to raise our toughness up, but Taryn has been kind of the leader that you would expect when there's not many people on our roster that the group that doesn't know me very well can go to like when we have a tough practice. Not nine players are wondering, 'is this guy nuts, or what?' The answer is yes (laughs), but they don't know that from Taryn. Taryn is the only one that can really answer it. Mikayla Parks has been here a little bit. You know, in the past, when you had veteran groups, right? They would pass along to the freshmen, 'hey, it'll be all right. It'll be all right. Stay the course. He's on us right now about this, stay the course. We got to make some improvements here,' but right now, they're all wondering, when we have a tough practice where things don't go well, how's coach going to react and how's the staff? And so they're all finding that out. But Taryn plays a big role in that, and she's playing a big role right now because we, like I said, we've been so inconsistent right now. She's had to have those conversations with players."
On the youth of the roster and testing his patience...
"My patience is being tested only in the sense of effort and communication, the rest will take care of itself, but those are non-negotiables. Those are non-negotiables, and your efforts got to be consistent, and your communications got to be consistent. We'll work our way through our chemistry on the floor, offensively. We'll work our way through. We'll work our way through us as a staff, getting to know them better. Some of it's on me to figure this thing out, right? So we might be failing in some areas that I think we can be good at, and maybe we just can't. So I've got to figure those things out as fast as I can. But the one thing I'll just go back to with this group. They have worked so hard in the moments that we're not asking them. I come in here all the time, and they're in the gym, so it matters to them. It matters to them right now they're a little paralyzed by their overthinking, and I've got to probably simplify that, and I've got to make sure that I'm patient with them as they grow."
On Jordan Speiser...
"She's been the same way that all of them have been, really good moments and really rough moments at times. I think one of the first scrimmages that we had, she hit seven out of 10 threes, and then the guys guarded her a lot better, and the next time, it was one of seven. And so we've seen big moments, but we've also seen the struggles that you would expect from a freshman, that now she's being guarded differently than she's ever been guarded in her career. She's a heck of a player, heck of an opportunity to be an impact player right away."
On Kennedy Taylor's waiver status...
"The NCAA denied it two weeks ago. Kennedy and her family filed an appeal. That's where it sits, and I don't get it. I, for the life of me, can't understand the NCAA on some things. And what I mean by that is, they keep changing the goal post in that this is a case that would have been successful 95 percent of the time previously. And too often, in my opinion, they want to treat things the same. Let's keep in mind what this player is. This is a player that she either is out of eligibility, so she either needs to get a job, go play overseas, and you're asking me this question in October, this is not some appeal, or some case of a sophomore that, oh, they might not be eligible, but they'll be in school and they'll be eligible next year. I mean, this is not some case that you see. This is different. And I, for the life of me, can't figure out why you can't make this decision in June, not July, not August, not September, not October, in June, in fairness to her and in fairness to us, quite frankly, because it's a pretty good player that we're waiting on a decision about. Or you'd like to have the answer. In recruiting you either want a yes or no, maybe is the worst answer you can get. Just strings you along. And this, I think, is the same thing. I don't sit here and pretend to have all the answers. I just know there's a better way to do it for not just Kennedy, but for any player in these situations, and in our particular situation, it's been frustrating."
On Izela Arenas...
"Good, solid leadership skills. Has a scoring ability. Izela has an ability to get to the rim. Shoots the three really well. Been consistent there. Love her work ethic. She's a player that in the summer, was shooting shots every morning, at 5 a.m., coming back at night to get more shots. She was very routine. She would shoot twos in the morning, come back in shoot threes at night. She got more shots during a week than any player I've ever had, and we've had some good ones. I like her quickness with the ball. I like her ability to play the ball screen, and she's got some scoring ability that we're going to need."
On the guidance of Mikayla Parks and Alexis Hess...
"Mikayla certainly, Alexis is still trying to get herself on the floor right now. She started to do some light individual work. But yeah, Mikayla has been great. She knows the program standard, she's able to pull players aside. And you're right, she's been around, and she's been around winning teams. And she came from a great high school, played for her dad. I mean, there's some quality leadership there, and she has been able to help some players."
On the exhibition game at Tarleton State...
"We've got a scrimmage Saturday versus Minnesota, but it's one of those closed scrimmages, so, we've got that one. And then, you know, I like taking a team on the road. Two years ago, we went to Illinois for a closed scrimmage. Last year we went to Minnesota for a closed scrimmage. I think there's a lot of value in the eight-hour bus trip. My team sees very little value in it (laughs). I see a lot of value in it. They call it My Appreciation Tour, where we hop on a bus so we appreciate the charter flights later. And I go, 'Well, you call it whatever you want to call it.' But from my standpoint, what I like about it is you have them sequestered. I do think there's value in that bus trip of players spending extra time together, staff spending extra time. The Tarleton situation, though, was different. We were looking for another closed scrimmage, and Tarleton had not been able to find a name opponent to play in the regular season to open up their new arena, so they went to this and I just like the fact that we've got a brand new team. It's a road game. Be in front of a decent crowd. We'll be in front of an excited team, and I think we need to find some answers as quick as we can there. So this one's even better than those other ones, but to stick with our tradition, we will bus it, and we will enjoy that trip down there. I was excited to get that on the schedule, because you don't get that opportunity very often, and especially with a new group for us, being able to go through all those things that you go through on the road, film session, hotel, all those things. I mean, we're literally having to show them where the locker room was in Bramlege the other day. We hadn't practiced there all year. And, and we were like, 'Oh, crap, we haven't shown them the locker room. Some of them, I guess, saw it on the recruiting visit. But Gina and Nastja, they're like, 'we have a locker over there too?' Yeah, we got to get you over there. There's a lot of things that we're going through the first time with this team that we've got to make sure we eliminate as many of the unknowns outside of basketball, of how we do things, and we'll get that good opportunity. I think both Minnesota and Tarleton will be two really good tests for us just to see where we're at and we see what we need to improve on."
K-State Athletics has announced on-sale dates for women's basketball conference single-game tickets. The on-sale schedule is: Ahearn Fund Members (online only) begin on Tuesday, October 21, at 5 p.m. Ahearn Fund in-person and phone sales begin on Wednesday, October 22, at 8:30 a.m. Public (online only) begins on Thursday, October 23, at 5 p.m. Public in-person and phone sales begin on Friday, October 24, at 8:30 a.m.
Single-game tickets for all non-conference matchups and season tickets for women's basketball are currently available. Tickets can be purchased online at kstatesports.com/tickets, by visiting the K-State Athletics Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum or by calling 1-800-221-CATS. Single-game KU tickets for both men's and women's basketball will be available at a later date.
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K-State will open its 58th season on Monday, November 3, as the Wildcats host Omaha at 6:30 p.m., inside Bramlage Coliseum.
On being a mystery to other teams in the Big 12...
"We've got a lot of unknowns, starting off this year and we've graduated a lot of good players, but we found some awesome players in the portal to redo the roster. I like our group. I've said this numerous times to people. They have really worked hard in the offseason. They've gotten up more shots than any team we've had. But, you know, we're really inconsistent right now, which is to be expected. I'm still trying to figure out lineups. I'm trying to figure out who plays well together at times. And that's very different than a year ago, when we had such a veteran team. I don't really care where we're picked. Honestly, for our group right now, it's how much better can this team be from October, as we sit here today, to March, and I think the growth rate of this team could be really big."
On all the new faces at the first practices...
"I suppose maybe the initial workouts, because there was so much unknown for us of getting players out there, and we had so many veterans a year ago, that was the exact opposite. But there was an excitement to that. It's always exciting to get a group of players out there that you have watched work really hard in the weight room, watched put in work on their own, and then to see, how do we get that to translate? How can we put the pieces together? So there was a different level of excitement, and then a different level of concern, because where are points going to come from? How do we help them the best? All those things are still questions we're trying to figure out."
On what markers has this team hit so far...
"I think there are days when we really shoot the ball well. There are days when we can really move it and we have good shooters. There are days when you can really see a different attack offensively, be really successful. Defensively, there are moments where I see some athleticism that excites me, that we can create some problems for people there. There are moments where our point guard play is exciting because we've got two young ones there in (Izela) Arenas and Gina (Garcia) that are both doing some good things. But if you notice, I keep saying moments, there's not extended stretches of really good play, and that's just the inconsistency that I mentioned right away. So we've got to become more consistent there. And you know, for mid-October, we got a lot of things we got to get better at."
On lineups and combinations and how long will that process take...
"Now, I think it's going to go into the games. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be a longer process with this group. I mean, this is one of the youngest groups I've coached. It's a talented group, but this is one of the youngest groups I've coached. So I think it's just going to take some time."
On the new international players, Nastja Claessens and Gina Garcia...
"Both of them played at a high level. Gina won two gold medals with Spain in the U18s and U20s in Europe. Nastja won a gold medal this summer in the European Championships with Belgium. But both of them just got here, August 22 or something like that. They missed all summer. So when you talk about the adjustment, blending them in has been really good. You could see their talent, but it is also blending them in to everything that we do, the weight room, the demands of going to school, all the demands that are just new to them. Plus, you know, they're half a world away from their families. All those things take some time, but both are exciting players. Both do things well. They both have had, as you mentioned, really good experiences, really quality competition, and both are going to play a big part this year.
On Taryn Sides and her leadership with the new roster...
"We want Taryn to lead in a way she's comfortable. Taryn knows the program, she knows the standards. She's continued to grow in her voice over time but she's not a rah-rah leader. She's not someone that is going to, very often, get into a team or play that leadership role. It's one of the reasons why we recruited Tess Heal. We saw some leadership in her. Coming from Stanford. She had been a big player at Santa Clara her first two years, and was at Stanford a year ago. We saw that when we recruited her, and Tess has kind of filled that role of when she needs to jump the team a little bit. We've got to raise our standard up. We've got to raise our toughness up, but Taryn has been kind of the leader that you would expect when there's not many people on our roster that the group that doesn't know me very well can go to like when we have a tough practice. Not nine players are wondering, 'is this guy nuts, or what?' The answer is yes (laughs), but they don't know that from Taryn. Taryn is the only one that can really answer it. Mikayla Parks has been here a little bit. You know, in the past, when you had veteran groups, right? They would pass along to the freshmen, 'hey, it'll be all right. It'll be all right. Stay the course. He's on us right now about this, stay the course. We got to make some improvements here,' but right now, they're all wondering, when we have a tough practice where things don't go well, how's coach going to react and how's the staff? And so they're all finding that out. But Taryn plays a big role in that, and she's playing a big role right now because we, like I said, we've been so inconsistent right now. She's had to have those conversations with players."
On the youth of the roster and testing his patience...
"My patience is being tested only in the sense of effort and communication, the rest will take care of itself, but those are non-negotiables. Those are non-negotiables, and your efforts got to be consistent, and your communications got to be consistent. We'll work our way through our chemistry on the floor, offensively. We'll work our way through. We'll work our way through us as a staff, getting to know them better. Some of it's on me to figure this thing out, right? So we might be failing in some areas that I think we can be good at, and maybe we just can't. So I've got to figure those things out as fast as I can. But the one thing I'll just go back to with this group. They have worked so hard in the moments that we're not asking them. I come in here all the time, and they're in the gym, so it matters to them. It matters to them right now they're a little paralyzed by their overthinking, and I've got to probably simplify that, and I've got to make sure that I'm patient with them as they grow."
On Jordan Speiser...
"She's been the same way that all of them have been, really good moments and really rough moments at times. I think one of the first scrimmages that we had, she hit seven out of 10 threes, and then the guys guarded her a lot better, and the next time, it was one of seven. And so we've seen big moments, but we've also seen the struggles that you would expect from a freshman, that now she's being guarded differently than she's ever been guarded in her career. She's a heck of a player, heck of an opportunity to be an impact player right away."
On Kennedy Taylor's waiver status...
"The NCAA denied it two weeks ago. Kennedy and her family filed an appeal. That's where it sits, and I don't get it. I, for the life of me, can't understand the NCAA on some things. And what I mean by that is, they keep changing the goal post in that this is a case that would have been successful 95 percent of the time previously. And too often, in my opinion, they want to treat things the same. Let's keep in mind what this player is. This is a player that she either is out of eligibility, so she either needs to get a job, go play overseas, and you're asking me this question in October, this is not some appeal, or some case of a sophomore that, oh, they might not be eligible, but they'll be in school and they'll be eligible next year. I mean, this is not some case that you see. This is different. And I, for the life of me, can't figure out why you can't make this decision in June, not July, not August, not September, not October, in June, in fairness to her and in fairness to us, quite frankly, because it's a pretty good player that we're waiting on a decision about. Or you'd like to have the answer. In recruiting you either want a yes or no, maybe is the worst answer you can get. Just strings you along. And this, I think, is the same thing. I don't sit here and pretend to have all the answers. I just know there's a better way to do it for not just Kennedy, but for any player in these situations, and in our particular situation, it's been frustrating."
On Izela Arenas...
"Good, solid leadership skills. Has a scoring ability. Izela has an ability to get to the rim. Shoots the three really well. Been consistent there. Love her work ethic. She's a player that in the summer, was shooting shots every morning, at 5 a.m., coming back at night to get more shots. She was very routine. She would shoot twos in the morning, come back in shoot threes at night. She got more shots during a week than any player I've ever had, and we've had some good ones. I like her quickness with the ball. I like her ability to play the ball screen, and she's got some scoring ability that we're going to need."
On the guidance of Mikayla Parks and Alexis Hess...
"Mikayla certainly, Alexis is still trying to get herself on the floor right now. She started to do some light individual work. But yeah, Mikayla has been great. She knows the program standard, she's able to pull players aside. And you're right, she's been around, and she's been around winning teams. And she came from a great high school, played for her dad. I mean, there's some quality leadership there, and she has been able to help some players."
On the exhibition game at Tarleton State...
"We've got a scrimmage Saturday versus Minnesota, but it's one of those closed scrimmages, so, we've got that one. And then, you know, I like taking a team on the road. Two years ago, we went to Illinois for a closed scrimmage. Last year we went to Minnesota for a closed scrimmage. I think there's a lot of value in the eight-hour bus trip. My team sees very little value in it (laughs). I see a lot of value in it. They call it My Appreciation Tour, where we hop on a bus so we appreciate the charter flights later. And I go, 'Well, you call it whatever you want to call it.' But from my standpoint, what I like about it is you have them sequestered. I do think there's value in that bus trip of players spending extra time together, staff spending extra time. The Tarleton situation, though, was different. We were looking for another closed scrimmage, and Tarleton had not been able to find a name opponent to play in the regular season to open up their new arena, so they went to this and I just like the fact that we've got a brand new team. It's a road game. Be in front of a decent crowd. We'll be in front of an excited team, and I think we need to find some answers as quick as we can there. So this one's even better than those other ones, but to stick with our tradition, we will bus it, and we will enjoy that trip down there. I was excited to get that on the schedule, because you don't get that opportunity very often, and especially with a new group for us, being able to go through all those things that you go through on the road, film session, hotel, all those things. I mean, we're literally having to show them where the locker room was in Bramlege the other day. We hadn't practiced there all year. And, and we were like, 'Oh, crap, we haven't shown them the locker room. Some of them, I guess, saw it on the recruiting visit. But Gina and Nastja, they're like, 'we have a locker over there too?' Yeah, we got to get you over there. There's a lot of things that we're going through the first time with this team that we've got to make sure we eliminate as many of the unknowns outside of basketball, of how we do things, and we'll get that good opportunity. I think both Minnesota and Tarleton will be two really good tests for us just to see where we're at and we see what we need to improve on."
K-State Athletics has announced on-sale dates for women's basketball conference single-game tickets. The on-sale schedule is: Ahearn Fund Members (online only) begin on Tuesday, October 21, at 5 p.m. Ahearn Fund in-person and phone sales begin on Wednesday, October 22, at 8:30 a.m. Public (online only) begins on Thursday, October 23, at 5 p.m. Public in-person and phone sales begin on Friday, October 24, at 8:30 a.m.
Single-game tickets for all non-conference matchups and season tickets for women's basketball are currently available. Tickets can be purchased online at kstatesports.com/tickets, by visiting the K-State Athletics Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum or by calling 1-800-221-CATS. Single-game KU tickets for both men's and women's basketball will be available at a later date.
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How to follow the Cats: For complete information on K-State Women's Basketball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram.
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