A Brand New Team

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Imagine the look upon the face of Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie when he took the court for the Wildcats' first practice. Gone were his two All-Americans — all-time scoring leader Ayoka Lee and all-time assist leader Serena Sundell — who helped the Wildcats to four postseason appearances capped by the Sweet Sixteen last season.

Now there were no returning starters, one returning scorer in junior guard Taryn Sides, and nine newcomers who carried potential but lacked consistency.

Mittie, who enters his 12^th season at K-State, calls this one of the youngest teams he's coached in Manhattan. He put the past couple months into honest perspective during his first news conference since the end of last season's run to the Sweet Sixteen.

"We've got a lot of unknowns starting out this year," he said. "We graduated a lot of good players, lost some players to the portal, and had to redo the roster. I like our group. They've really worked hard this offseason. They got up more shots than any team we've had, but 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."

K-State was picked seventh in the Preseason Big 12 Women's Basketball Poll. It received votes in the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll on Tuesday.

"I don't really care where we're picked," Mittie said. "Honestly, for our group right now, it's how much better this team can be from October to March, and I think the growth rate of this team could be really big."

But Mittie, in recalling that first practice, trails back to the initial questions that swept through his mind.

"There was a different level of excitement and a different level of concern," Mittie said. "Where are our points going to come from? Where do we help them the best? Those things are still questions we're trying to figure out."

As for what K-State is specifically doing well in practice?

"There are days when we really shoot the ball well and can really move it and have good shooters and can really see a different attack offensively and be really successful," he said. "Defensively, there are moments where I see athleticism that excites me, and we can create some problems for people. There are moments where our point guard play is exciting because we have two young ones there in Izela Arenas and Gina Garcia, and both are doing some good things.

"If you notice I keep saying, 'moments.' There aren't extended stretches of really good play. It's just the inconsistency. For mid-October, we have a lot of things we have to get better at."

There's consistency with Sides, the 5-foot-7 guard who averaged 9.2 points on 45.2% shooting and was 43.3% (84-of-194) on 3-pointers while coming off the bench in 35 games.

"We want Taryn to lead in a way she's comfortable," Mittie said. "She knows the program, the standards, and has continued to grow in her voice over time, but she's not a rah-rah leader or someone who is going to very often get into a team or play that leadership role."

Mittie deferred the vocal leadership to Tess Heal, a 5-foot-10 senior guard from Melbourne, Australia, who transferred to K-State after spending one season at Stanford and two seasons before that at Santa Clara.

Heal left Santa Clara after two seasons with 1,225 total points, an 18.6-point scoring average, and 296 assists. She joined Caitlin Clark in shooting at least 45.0% and averaging 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 2022-23 and 2023-24. She was named to the 2023 WCC All-Freshman Team and was a two-time All-WCC first team selection in 2023 and 2024.

At Stanford last season, Heal was the only player in Division I to shoot at least 50% from the floor and 45% from 3-point range.

"(Leadership is) one of the reasons we recruited Tess Heal," Mittie said. "We saw some leadership in her coming from Stanford. We saw that when we recruited her. Tess has filled that role of when she needs to jump the team a little bit to raise our standard up and raise our toughness up."

Another highlight of practice has been the play of 5-foot-8 sophomore guard Izela Arenas, a native of Los Angeles who began her career at Louisville. The daughter of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, Izela was a top-100 prospect who helped Sierra Canyon High School to a 62-4 record her final two seasons, including a 31-1 record and No. 1 national ranking her junior year.

Last season at Louisville, Arenas averaged 11.8 minutes in 29 games and averaged 4.2 points on 41.8% shooting, including 38.5% (20-of-52) on 3-pointers. She also averaged 1.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. She had a career-high 14 points against Clemson.

"She has good, solid leadership skills, and has scoring ability and an ability to get to the rim," Mittie said. "She hits the 3 really well and has been consistent there. I love her work ethic. She's a player that in the summer was shooting shots every morning at 5 a.m. then coming back at night to get more shots. She was very routine-oriented. She shot 2s in the morning and shot 3s at night. She got up more shots during a week than any players I've ever had, and we've had some good ones. I like her quickness with the ball and her ability to play the ball screen.

"She has some scoring ability that we're going to need."

Arenas and Heal headline a group of Division I transfers the Wildcats secured for the season — a list that also includes 6-foot-5 sophomore center Ramiya White (Virginia Tech) and sophomore forward Jenessa Cotton (Duke).

Heal is the only senior on the roster. There are two juniors in forward Nastja Claessens (from Belgium) and Sides. There are four sophomores in redshirt guard Mikayla Parks, White, Cotton and Arenas. There are also five freshmen in guard Brandie Harrod, guard Aniya Foy, guard Gina Garcia (from Spain), redshirt forward Alexis Hess, and guard Jordan Speiser, who perhaps carries the greatest following of any newcomer.

The 2023-24 Gatorade Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year, Speiser was a five-star prospect who was ranked as the 14^th overall player in the nation by ProspectsNation.com and as the fourth-best shooting guard by 247Sports. Speiser, who was rated as one of the top shooters in the nation in the Class of 2025 by ESPN, averaged 20.9 points on 42.8% shooting and made 102 3-pointers on 42.0% shooting from long range. She also averaged 7.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 27 games during her senior season at Lutheran High School in Warrenton, Missouri.

In April, Speiser competed in the McDonald's All-American Game, The Nike Hoops Summit and the Jordan Brand Classic in a span of three weeks.

In June, K-State's freshman class was ranked No. 8 by ESPN.

There's room to grow.

"(Speiser) has been the same way that all of them have been — really good moments and really rough moments, at times," Mittie said. "One of the first scrimmages she hit 7-of-10 3s. Then the guys guarded her a lot better and the next time it was 1-of-7. So, we've seen big moments, but we've also seen the struggles you'd expect from a freshman in being guarded differently than she has in her career.

"She's a heck of a player with a heck of an opportunity to be an impact player right away."

One player not on the K-State roster is 6-foot-2 senior forward Kennedy Taylor, a native of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, who averaged 7.1 points on 53.4% shooting and averaged 4.6 rebounds while playing in 36 games with 12 starts last season.

Mittie indicated that Taylor's absence was due to an NCAA ruling of her eligibility status.

"The NCAA denied it two weeks ago, and Kennedy and her family filed an appeal," Mittie said. "That's where it sits. It's a pretty good player that we're waiting on. You'd like to have the answer. In our situation, it's been frustrating."

As for K-State's presence in the paint in Taylor's absence?

"Thin — as thin as we've ever been," Mittie said. "It's a problem. It's a problem. We just have to figure out how to cover it up and how we're going to play that. We're not very deep there. We've looked for possible players that could be eligible, but there's just not very many out there. We're pretty thin."

While Mittie mentioned "inconsistency" several times in his news conference, he remains mindful of patience during these times as well while demanding consistency in two key areas.

"As I've told them, my patience is being tested only in the sense of effort and communication," Mittie said. "The rest will take care of itself. But those are non-negotiables. Your effort has to be consistent, and your communication has to be consistent. We'll work our way through our chemistry on the floor offensively, and through us as a staff getting to know them better. It's on me to figure this thing out. We might be failing in some areas that I think we can be good at, and maybe we just can't. I've got to figure those things out as fast as I can.

"What I go back to with this group is they've worked so hard in the moments that we're not asking of them. I come here all the time and they're in the gym, so it matters to them. Right now, they're a little paralyzed by their overthinking, and I probably have to simplify that and make sure I'm patient with them as they grow."

K-State will get its first official chance to show its progress in the coming weeks when it travels to play Tarleton State in the Wildcats' lone official exhibition game, which will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, October 27 in Stephenville, Texas. The game will stream on ESPN+.

"I like the fact we have a brand-new team, it's a road game, and it'll be in front of a decent crowd and an excited team," Mittie said. "I think we need to find some answers as quick as we can there."

K-State officially opens the 2025-26 women's basketball season against Omaha on November 3 at Bramlage Coliseum.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jenessa Cotton

Aniya Foy

Gina Garcia

Brandie Harrod

Alexis Hess

Ayoka Lee

Mikayla Parks

Taryn Sides

Jordan Speiser

Serena Sundell

Kennedy Taylor

Ramiya White

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