Focused on the Task at Hand
Mar 27, 2025 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Here we are inside the team meeting room at the Ice Family Training Center less than 24 hours before the Kansas State women's basketball team departs for the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington, and Ayoka Lee, Serena Sundell, Temira Poindexter and Jaelyn Glenn are donned in their black practice jerseys, sitting and discussing the past, present and future as the fifth-seeded Wildcats prepare to face No. 1 seed USC on Saturday at 7 p.m. in what could go down as one of the biggest nights in program history.
Off the court, Lee has kept her mind occupied cleaning her house, Sundell has a fridge stuffed with wings from Buffalo Wild Wings left to be eaten, and head coach Jeff Mittie has spent part of Thursday locked in the transfer portal.
On the court, the Wildcats, 28-7, are scouting and practicing for the Trojans, 30-3, who are without injured All-American JuJu Watkins but who are armed with Kiki Iriafen, a Stanford graduate transfer who scored a season-high 36 points on 16-of-22 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in a 96-59 win over No. 9 seed Mississippi State on Monday.
As for K-State's mindset? The high from its incredible 80-79 overtime win against No. 4 seed Kentucky in Lexington on Sunday has slowly dissipated and settled the Wildcats back onto earth.
"I'm just glad that we were able to win that game and continue to keep dancing," says senior forward Temira Poindexter, who had a game-high 24 points, including eight 3-pointers, against Kentucky. "That's what we're going to try to do, is just keep dancing as long as we can."
Lee, sitting next to Poindexter, says, "It's an opportunity to continue playing and for us to continue to show that we can play at a high level. There's a lot of gratitude and a lot of joy. It's hard to get here. There are only 16 teams left playing in the NCAA Tournament. That's kind of a big deal. And we're one of them. That's crazy. A lot of gratitude."
K-State's win over Kentucky marked one of the most exciting games of the tournament so far and featured 20 lead changes before K-State advanced to its first Sweet 16 in 23 years.
"That game had so many back-and-forth moments," Mittie says. "It wasn't like that game where somebody had a 15-point lead, and somebody came roaring back. I had to keep checking the score. It was that kind of back-and-forth. We had to keep checking it."
Lee, the three-time All-American senior center who is the program's all-time leader in points, rebounds and blocks, has found it decidedly difficult to meander anywhere around Manhattan without a fan approaching her and saying, "You took 15 years off my life," or, "Oh, you guys almost gave me a heart attack."
"The game has sunk in, but I still feel a little bit like, yeah," Lee says. "It was a crazy game."
And hours afterward, the team arrived to a packed house at Manhattan Regional Airport. Upwards of 200 to 300 K-State fans waited and greeted the team with signs and cheers and applause, as their heroes entered the terminal.
"It's just crazy, especially that night," Lee says. "I was like, 'Man, I can't believe that just happened.' So, coming back and seeing everyone, it was just really cool. It was like while they weren't there, they experienced that. The way we won, they experienced that with us. It was just really cool to celebrate that coming home."
Then Monday night, the team watched the USC-Mississippi State game. A collective gasp filled the room in the first quarter as the Wildcats saw Watkins carried off the court. The star had suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
"As soon as we saw it, we were like, 'That's not good,'" Sundell says. "We would've loved to have played against her. As competitors, that's what you want, to play against the best. They're a really good team without her, and we can empathize with losing a really good player. We know they're a really good team and they're smart and well coached and have a good game plan."
K-State happens to be a really good team, too. In her first game back since missing 11 of 12 games with a fractured foot, Lee had 16 points and nine rebounds against Kentucky, showing no effects of a layoff.
Without Lee during those games, K-State battled. With Lee, the Wildcats appear to be one of the best teams in the country. K-State is 20-1 this season in games when Lee takes the court.
What's been the theme to this squad 35 games into the season?
"Grit," Glenn says. "How gritty our team has been in overcoming Yokie's injury and then coming back for a short period and then she's out again. Overcoming situations like that and still being able to win big games, and now here we are with her back again going to the Sweet 16. It's our grit and our effort, which is something you can't take away from us and everything we've accomplished."
Adds Sundell: "What we've talked about all year is playing to our standard and not letting opponents get us out of what we want to do and force opponents to take the shots we want them to take and making sure we make the game the way we want it to be and holding that standard for us, whether that's practice or warmups or timeouts or whatever the little details are, we're holding each other accountable regardless of circumstances."
The team got down to business on Tuesday.
"The last few days have been crazy and there's a lot of love in the community and a lot of things going on," Sundell says. "I came down off the high, I think, yesterday morning. I was like, 'OK, let's refocus, still try to take it all in, but move on.' We came in and had a team meeting and talked about the schedule and kind of looking forward.
"I think that's when we all turned our heads to our next opponent."
The top seed in the Spokane 4 Region, USC is led by fourth-year head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who is 92-35 (.724) at USC, and guided the program to the 2025 Big Ten regular season crown and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Aside from Iriafen's 36 points, freshman Avery Howell had 18 points, hitting four 3-pointers, in the Trojans' win against Mississippi State.
"I'm more excited," Sundell says. "I don't have too many nerves yet. We have a lot of experience in this group. We're playing with that underdog mentality. We're playing with nothing to lose, but we know we're very capable and confident and having a group with so much experience you can play with poise. We have a group that is mature. I right now just feel really confident."
A victory on Saturday would lift K-State to its second Elite Eight in history and its first since 1982.
For now, the Wildcats, who are making their first appearance in a regional semifinal since 2001-02, are preparing for a trip on Thursday to Spokane in hopes of replicating the feelings they felt during a magical Sunday night in Lexington.
"That emotion and the happiness that we saw on the floor afterward, in the locker room, on the plane ride home, I mean, those are moments they'll remember," Mittie says. "The opportunity to keep doing those moments — we have a great opportunity in front of us. We're not spending much time in the rearview mirror.
"It's onto that next one and that next opportunity."
Here we are inside the team meeting room at the Ice Family Training Center less than 24 hours before the Kansas State women's basketball team departs for the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington, and Ayoka Lee, Serena Sundell, Temira Poindexter and Jaelyn Glenn are donned in their black practice jerseys, sitting and discussing the past, present and future as the fifth-seeded Wildcats prepare to face No. 1 seed USC on Saturday at 7 p.m. in what could go down as one of the biggest nights in program history.
Off the court, Lee has kept her mind occupied cleaning her house, Sundell has a fridge stuffed with wings from Buffalo Wild Wings left to be eaten, and head coach Jeff Mittie has spent part of Thursday locked in the transfer portal.
On the court, the Wildcats, 28-7, are scouting and practicing for the Trojans, 30-3, who are without injured All-American JuJu Watkins but who are armed with Kiki Iriafen, a Stanford graduate transfer who scored a season-high 36 points on 16-of-22 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in a 96-59 win over No. 9 seed Mississippi State on Monday.
As for K-State's mindset? The high from its incredible 80-79 overtime win against No. 4 seed Kentucky in Lexington on Sunday has slowly dissipated and settled the Wildcats back onto earth.
"I'm just glad that we were able to win that game and continue to keep dancing," says senior forward Temira Poindexter, who had a game-high 24 points, including eight 3-pointers, against Kentucky. "That's what we're going to try to do, is just keep dancing as long as we can."
Lee, sitting next to Poindexter, says, "It's an opportunity to continue playing and for us to continue to show that we can play at a high level. There's a lot of gratitude and a lot of joy. It's hard to get here. There are only 16 teams left playing in the NCAA Tournament. That's kind of a big deal. And we're one of them. That's crazy. A lot of gratitude."
K-State's win over Kentucky marked one of the most exciting games of the tournament so far and featured 20 lead changes before K-State advanced to its first Sweet 16 in 23 years.
"That game had so many back-and-forth moments," Mittie says. "It wasn't like that game where somebody had a 15-point lead, and somebody came roaring back. I had to keep checking the score. It was that kind of back-and-forth. We had to keep checking it."
Lee, the three-time All-American senior center who is the program's all-time leader in points, rebounds and blocks, has found it decidedly difficult to meander anywhere around Manhattan without a fan approaching her and saying, "You took 15 years off my life," or, "Oh, you guys almost gave me a heart attack."
"The game has sunk in, but I still feel a little bit like, yeah," Lee says. "It was a crazy game."
And hours afterward, the team arrived to a packed house at Manhattan Regional Airport. Upwards of 200 to 300 K-State fans waited and greeted the team with signs and cheers and applause, as their heroes entered the terminal.
"It's just crazy, especially that night," Lee says. "I was like, 'Man, I can't believe that just happened.' So, coming back and seeing everyone, it was just really cool. It was like while they weren't there, they experienced that. The way we won, they experienced that with us. It was just really cool to celebrate that coming home."
Then Monday night, the team watched the USC-Mississippi State game. A collective gasp filled the room in the first quarter as the Wildcats saw Watkins carried off the court. The star had suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
"As soon as we saw it, we were like, 'That's not good,'" Sundell says. "We would've loved to have played against her. As competitors, that's what you want, to play against the best. They're a really good team without her, and we can empathize with losing a really good player. We know they're a really good team and they're smart and well coached and have a good game plan."
K-State happens to be a really good team, too. In her first game back since missing 11 of 12 games with a fractured foot, Lee had 16 points and nine rebounds against Kentucky, showing no effects of a layoff.
Without Lee during those games, K-State battled. With Lee, the Wildcats appear to be one of the best teams in the country. K-State is 20-1 this season in games when Lee takes the court.
What's been the theme to this squad 35 games into the season?
"Grit," Glenn says. "How gritty our team has been in overcoming Yokie's injury and then coming back for a short period and then she's out again. Overcoming situations like that and still being able to win big games, and now here we are with her back again going to the Sweet 16. It's our grit and our effort, which is something you can't take away from us and everything we've accomplished."
Adds Sundell: "What we've talked about all year is playing to our standard and not letting opponents get us out of what we want to do and force opponents to take the shots we want them to take and making sure we make the game the way we want it to be and holding that standard for us, whether that's practice or warmups or timeouts or whatever the little details are, we're holding each other accountable regardless of circumstances."
The team got down to business on Tuesday.
"The last few days have been crazy and there's a lot of love in the community and a lot of things going on," Sundell says. "I came down off the high, I think, yesterday morning. I was like, 'OK, let's refocus, still try to take it all in, but move on.' We came in and had a team meeting and talked about the schedule and kind of looking forward.
"I think that's when we all turned our heads to our next opponent."
The top seed in the Spokane 4 Region, USC is led by fourth-year head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who is 92-35 (.724) at USC, and guided the program to the 2025 Big Ten regular season crown and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Aside from Iriafen's 36 points, freshman Avery Howell had 18 points, hitting four 3-pointers, in the Trojans' win against Mississippi State.
"I'm more excited," Sundell says. "I don't have too many nerves yet. We have a lot of experience in this group. We're playing with that underdog mentality. We're playing with nothing to lose, but we know we're very capable and confident and having a group with so much experience you can play with poise. We have a group that is mature. I right now just feel really confident."
A victory on Saturday would lift K-State to its second Elite Eight in history and its first since 1982.
For now, the Wildcats, who are making their first appearance in a regional semifinal since 2001-02, are preparing for a trip on Thursday to Spokane in hopes of replicating the feelings they felt during a magical Sunday night in Lexington.
"That emotion and the happiness that we saw on the floor afterward, in the locker room, on the plane ride home, I mean, those are moments they'll remember," Mittie says. "The opportunity to keep doing those moments — we have a great opportunity in front of us. We're not spending much time in the rearview mirror.
"It's onto that next one and that next opportunity."
Players Mentioned
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