Kansas women hope to secure NCAA Tourney bid at Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Jayhawks women’s basketball team is potentially on the verge of a 2024 NCAA Tournament berth.
After winning the WNIT last season, the Jayhawks ended this season with three key Big 12 wins over Kansas State, UCF and Oklahoma to get to an 18-11 record and an 11-7 conference record.
Most outlets have the Jayhawks in the tournament; ESPN has them as a 9-seed.
Head coach Brandon Schneider believes his team has done enough to put themselves in the Big Dance but a few wins in the conference tournament will help their case.
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“Eleven wins in this conference. We’ve got 12 Top 100 wins, three Top 25 wins,” he said Thursday. “So I think that we’re probably in the tournament but what we don’t want to do is not play well here and drop a seed line. I think we have to look at this as an opportunity. To either hold the seed or even better, improve your seed.”
Kansas is a 7-seed in the conference tournament set to face 10-seed BYU on Friday at 5:30 p.m. with the winner en route to see the 2-seed Texas Longhorns.
The Jayhawks have a roster full of veterans like Holly Kersgieter, Zakiyah Franklin and Taiyanna Jackson but are led in points per game (15.1), assists per game (2.7) and steals per game (1.3) by Shawnee Mission West alum S’Mya Nichols.
Schneider lauds the two-time Big 12 Freshman of the Week for her poise in clutch moments along with her elite skillset from such a young player.
“We knew what we were getting from a skill level and versatility standpoint that I think until you you work with a player, you don’t know their moxie and their makeup, you know when the game’s on the line or it’s the last five minutes. And she’s just demonstrated again, a poise and and composure and a closer mentality. That I think is well beyond her years of experience.”
For Nichols, knowing who she is and being who she is helps her maintain her composure throughout her breakout freshman campaign.
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“I learned probably in high school, whenever you show that you’re stressed or panicking on the court, then they just attack you,” Nichols said. “I just genuinely was not stressed or panicked. Like, no matter the score, no matter we were down 10, we’re still winning. That’s my mindset.”
“I don’t feel like I’ve ever changed. My personality hasn’t changed. My game’s probably developed a [little] more from high school or AAU, but sticking out the grind, the process. It’s normal to have ups and downs. And I don’t think I ever looked past anything, I just kept going.”
BYU is a tall task as they are led by senior Lauren Gustin, who Schneider called “one of the best power forwards in the country”. Gustin is sixth in the Big 12 in points per game (17.6) and leads the conference in rebounding (15.3 per game).
KU feels that their defense has improved throughout the latter part of the season and will look to continue that trend with Gustin and the Cougars on Friday.
“We’ve been keeping teams under their average and playing really hard on the defensive end,” Kersgeiter said. “As long as we take care of that, I think internally that’s kind of our team identity that we always make a point to do and we’ve been great about it.
“We’ve talked less of offense even though our offense has been clicking really well. And we’ve been talking more defense. So we’re taking a lot of pride in that and it’s been a lot of fun. I mean, it makes games fun when you’re locked in like that and when you get wins.”
“Just being a lot more fundamentally sound,” Schneider said. “We’ve tried to simplify some things and you know, maybe free up our minds a little bit, but I think that’s been a big, big factor in us playing as well as we are.”
