Nov 03, 2026 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Her name is Shaila Nde, and she's an 18-year-old true freshman from Barcelona, Spain, and the 6-foot former standout in FIBA international basketball just played the first official game of her life on American soil, and she sits in the postgame interview room at Bramlage Coliseum in her white Kansas State women's basketball uniform with purple trim, and she smiles — and she smiles some more — after a season-opening 61-41 win over Wichita State on Monday night.
Nde, who arrived in Manhattan in July, and who has shown her versatility at the small forward, power forward and center positions, has been patiently waiting for this opportunity to play college basketball some 4,902 miles from home, where hoops dreams began long ago, and then blossomed into big things and big moments.
At the moment, she's smiling, and not because of her 12-point, 9-rebound effort, or the fact that she recorded the most rebounds by a K-State freshman in a debut performance since the 2016-17 season. No, there's a simple reason that her smile fills the Flint Hills.
"I just love being here," she says.
Sitting to the left of Nde in the postgame news conference is K-State sophomore guard Gina Garcia, another native of Spain who was teammates with Nde for four years, including the Spanish U20 National Team that captured the 2025 FIBA U20 Women's EuroBasket. Tonight, Garcia is serving as a translator for her friend during her first news conference.
"It's so exciting to play together again," Garcia says. "It's so much fun."
It isn't difficult to locate Nde in the world of FIBA basketball. A headline from one FIBA story in 2025 reads: "Who were the best players in each group?" while another FIBA story written that same year reads: "FIBA U19 MVP Ladder: Full of surprises!" and another FIBA story from August 10, 2026, reads: "10 players who shone brightest at FBA U18 Women's Eurobasket 2026."
Nde is mentioned predominately in each story.
"Perhaps reflecting Spain's team ethic without any marquee ballers to call upon, Nde has done a great job in helping her team to maintain their unbeaten status," the story from August reads. "Smart shot selection, hard work on the glass and nice defense have all combined to see her lead her country in efficiency after the first phase."
Deep in the race to be crowned the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 MVP, Nde was a top-10 candidate, and the story reads: "Emphasizing Spain's reliance on their collective teamwork, Nde has not put up huge numbers with just over 8 points and 5 boards per game, but she is steadily morphing into a key component as they chase down a medal. She's a relentless worker defensively and has shown great choice when it comes to making moves and taking shots."
Nde averaged 7.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in her three years representing Spain in the FIBA Women's EuroBasket. She averaged 8.0 points on 45.3% shooting from the floor and added 7.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals while helping Spain to the 2026 FIBA U18 Women's EuroBasket title in Sweden. The international names and events and games and statistics go on and on, but bottom line is that K-State head coach Jeff Mittie liked what he saw in observing Nde's performances online from Manhattan.
Mittie echoes much of what FIBA also admired about Nde's blend of talents.
"One of the things that you notice right away in watching Spain basketball is the team was always better with Shaila on the floor, and they were extremely talented and won gold," Mittie says. "But she looked to be one of those glue players where she might not have the stats each game, but they always needed her on the floor, and that helped her throughout the time of recruiting her and watching her play.
"That's held pretty true here in practice. She's a player you can plug in in moments and say, 'We need to go smaller here, so Shaila needs to play the five, but I can trust her to compete there, and I can trust her to run offense out of that.' I'm seeing the same things with us."
Nine rebounds are outstanding for a true freshman in her first game. Nde isn't satisfied.
"I want to increase my rebounds," Nde says. "We're doing a great job in practice in rebounding drills, and I want to improve every day. I just want to keep going and improving that. I just need to keep going. I know the rules in the U.S. are different. I just need to keep going.
"I'm a player who can play different positions, so I can help the team with whatever they need. If the team needs me to play the four or the five, I can play the four or the five."
Mittie simply says: "She's going to be fun to watch."
"She's one of the smarter players I've coached," Mittie says. "She really understands and you don't have to repeat it very often. We're asking a lot of her right now because she's having to play the three, four and five at times. There were moments in this game that she probably got more reps at the four and five coming into this game. I have to figure out how to do a better job of helping her."
This season is unlike any in the history of K-State women's basketball, as the roster features a program-record seven players from six different countries. That includes Nastja Claessens (Belgium), Tea Cleante (France), Gina Garcia and Shaila Nde (Spain), Cristina Osazuwa (Italy), Ivona Scekic (Slovenia) and Tzoana Tampakou (Greece).
The international flair meant that a majority of the players — 12 players total with five new faces including two freshmen (Sage Henry and Shaila Nde) and three transfers (Tea Cleante, Cristina Osazuwa and Tzoana Tampakou) — played in overseas leagues and or tournaments. The tour ended when Claessens competed on the Belgian Senior Women's National Team in September.
Nde arrived at K-State in July ready to get rolling and grateful for the kindness of her new K-State teammates along the way.
"I'm really happy that they're on my team," Nde says. "They're always helping me. It was difficult for me to play in the U.S. because everything is different, and they've helped me a lot, and with every question I have, they're always there for me.
"I'm happy to be here."
Exactly how did Nde end up at K-State?
"The world is a lot smaller place from a recruiting standpoint than it was 10 years ago," Mittie says. "There are so many avenues you can find players. The TV screens that I watched growing up, now you can get the online games and it's almost as good as the TVs I watched. You're watching pretty good basketball online overseas, and you can watch it all.
"The recruiting really comes through contacts, and now it's starting to come more through agents. Agents say, 'I have a player here.' Then Gina Garcia is here and helps Shaila. It's a very small niche in their countries. It's not like here where you have thousands of players playing. When it gets to the elite and you're talking about the 12 that are chosen for the U20 and U19 and U18, you're talking about 50 players, and they all know each other. The players from Spain know the players from Italy and the players from Italy know the players from Greece. They almost feel like they know each other already."
Garcia knows Nde pretty well. Garcia was ecstatic when she received the phone call.
"She did the visit in May and I was so happy," Garcia says. "I was telling her good things, and everything that was good here. When she decided to come here, she called me, and I was so excited."
The excitement ramped up as Nde tried to fall asleep on Sunday night.
"I was nervous but excited," she says. "When I was warming up on the court, I just wanted to play. I was excited. We did a great job in the first game. I'm happy because we won. I just want to keep playing together, doing what Coach Mittie says, and having fun on the court."
Nde smiles again. With her talents and abilities, it's apparent that she'll visit the postgame interview room many more times during her time at K-State. Who knows? She could stand a chance at evolving into one of the most entertaining true freshmen in school history as well.
"She's going to do some really good things," Mittie says.
Once in the conversation for MVP in an international women's basketball league more than 4,000 miles away, Nde is ready for the ups and downs and the learning moments and triumphs in America.
And she's happy to be a Wildcat.
"I just love being here," she says. "I love the people. The first game in Bramlage we had fun and played together. I had fun, and I love our fans and the way that we played today."
This might just be the start of something special.
Her name is Shaila Nde, and she's an 18-year-old true freshman from Barcelona, Spain, and the 6-foot former standout in FIBA international basketball just played the first official game of her life on American soil, and she sits in the postgame interview room at Bramlage Coliseum in her white Kansas State women's basketball uniform with purple trim, and she smiles — and she smiles some more — after a season-opening 61-41 win over Wichita State on Monday night.
Nde, who arrived in Manhattan in July, and who has shown her versatility at the small forward, power forward and center positions, has been patiently waiting for this opportunity to play college basketball some 4,902 miles from home, where hoops dreams began long ago, and then blossomed into big things and big moments.
At the moment, she's smiling, and not because of her 12-point, 9-rebound effort, or the fact that she recorded the most rebounds by a K-State freshman in a debut performance since the 2016-17 season. No, there's a simple reason that her smile fills the Flint Hills.
"I just love being here," she says.
Sitting to the left of Nde in the postgame news conference is K-State sophomore guard Gina Garcia, another native of Spain who was teammates with Nde for four years, including the Spanish U20 National Team that captured the 2025 FIBA U20 Women's EuroBasket. Tonight, Garcia is serving as a translator for her friend during her first news conference.
"It's so exciting to play together again," Garcia says. "It's so much fun."
It isn't difficult to locate Nde in the world of FIBA basketball. A headline from one FIBA story in 2025 reads: "Who were the best players in each group?" while another FIBA story written that same year reads: "FIBA U19 MVP Ladder: Full of surprises!" and another FIBA story from August 10, 2026, reads: "10 players who shone brightest at FBA U18 Women's Eurobasket 2026."
Nde is mentioned predominately in each story.
"Perhaps reflecting Spain's team ethic without any marquee ballers to call upon, Nde has done a great job in helping her team to maintain their unbeaten status," the story from August reads. "Smart shot selection, hard work on the glass and nice defense have all combined to see her lead her country in efficiency after the first phase."
Deep in the race to be crowned the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 MVP, Nde was a top-10 candidate, and the story reads: "Emphasizing Spain's reliance on their collective teamwork, Nde has not put up huge numbers with just over 8 points and 5 boards per game, but she is steadily morphing into a key component as they chase down a medal. She's a relentless worker defensively and has shown great choice when it comes to making moves and taking shots."
Nde averaged 7.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in her three years representing Spain in the FIBA Women's EuroBasket. She averaged 8.0 points on 45.3% shooting from the floor and added 7.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals while helping Spain to the 2026 FIBA U18 Women's EuroBasket title in Sweden. The international names and events and games and statistics go on and on, but bottom line is that K-State head coach Jeff Mittie liked what he saw in observing Nde's performances online from Manhattan.
Mittie echoes much of what FIBA also admired about Nde's blend of talents.
"One of the things that you notice right away in watching Spain basketball is the team was always better with Shaila on the floor, and they were extremely talented and won gold," Mittie says. "But she looked to be one of those glue players where she might not have the stats each game, but they always needed her on the floor, and that helped her throughout the time of recruiting her and watching her play.
"That's held pretty true here in practice. She's a player you can plug in in moments and say, 'We need to go smaller here, so Shaila needs to play the five, but I can trust her to compete there, and I can trust her to run offense out of that.' I'm seeing the same things with us."
Nine rebounds are outstanding for a true freshman in her first game. Nde isn't satisfied.
"I want to increase my rebounds," Nde says. "We're doing a great job in practice in rebounding drills, and I want to improve every day. I just want to keep going and improving that. I just need to keep going. I know the rules in the U.S. are different. I just need to keep going.
"I'm a player who can play different positions, so I can help the team with whatever they need. If the team needs me to play the four or the five, I can play the four or the five."
Mittie simply says: "She's going to be fun to watch."
"She's one of the smarter players I've coached," Mittie says. "She really understands and you don't have to repeat it very often. We're asking a lot of her right now because she's having to play the three, four and five at times. There were moments in this game that she probably got more reps at the four and five coming into this game. I have to figure out how to do a better job of helping her."
This season is unlike any in the history of K-State women's basketball, as the roster features a program-record seven players from six different countries. That includes Nastja Claessens (Belgium), Tea Cleante (France), Gina Garcia and Shaila Nde (Spain), Cristina Osazuwa (Italy), Ivona Scekic (Slovenia) and Tzoana Tampakou (Greece).
The international flair meant that a majority of the players — 12 players total with five new faces including two freshmen (Sage Henry and Shaila Nde) and three transfers (Tea Cleante, Cristina Osazuwa and Tzoana Tampakou) — played in overseas leagues and or tournaments. The tour ended when Claessens competed on the Belgian Senior Women's National Team in September.
Nde arrived at K-State in July ready to get rolling and grateful for the kindness of her new K-State teammates along the way.
"I'm really happy that they're on my team," Nde says. "They're always helping me. It was difficult for me to play in the U.S. because everything is different, and they've helped me a lot, and with every question I have, they're always there for me.
"I'm happy to be here."
Exactly how did Nde end up at K-State?
"The world is a lot smaller place from a recruiting standpoint than it was 10 years ago," Mittie says. "There are so many avenues you can find players. The TV screens that I watched growing up, now you can get the online games and it's almost as good as the TVs I watched. You're watching pretty good basketball online overseas, and you can watch it all.
"The recruiting really comes through contacts, and now it's starting to come more through agents. Agents say, 'I have a player here.' Then Gina Garcia is here and helps Shaila. It's a very small niche in their countries. It's not like here where you have thousands of players playing. When it gets to the elite and you're talking about the 12 that are chosen for the U20 and U19 and U18, you're talking about 50 players, and they all know each other. The players from Spain know the players from Italy and the players from Italy know the players from Greece. They almost feel like they know each other already."
Garcia knows Nde pretty well. Garcia was ecstatic when she received the phone call.
"She did the visit in May and I was so happy," Garcia says. "I was telling her good things, and everything that was good here. When she decided to come here, she called me, and I was so excited."
The excitement ramped up as Nde tried to fall asleep on Sunday night.
"I was nervous but excited," she says. "When I was warming up on the court, I just wanted to play. I was excited. We did a great job in the first game. I'm happy because we won. I just want to keep playing together, doing what Coach Mittie says, and having fun on the court."
Nde smiles again. With her talents and abilities, it's apparent that she'll visit the postgame interview room many more times during her time at K-State. Who knows? She could stand a chance at evolving into one of the most entertaining true freshmen in school history as well.
"She's going to do some really good things," Mittie says.
Once in the conversation for MVP in an international women's basketball league more than 4,000 miles away, Nde is ready for the ups and downs and the learning moments and triumphs in America.
And she's happy to be a Wildcat.
"I just love being here," she says. "I love the people. The first game in Bramlage we had fun and played together. I had fun, and I love our fans and the way that we played today."
This might just be the start of something special.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's BasketballWednesday, November 04
Wednesday, November 04
Wednesday, November 04
Wednesday, November 04
