By returning, Ayoka Lee turns Kansas State women's basketball NCAA loss into a win

MANHATTAN — It appears the Kansas State women's basketball team's second-round NCAA Tournament loss came with a silver lining.

While it wasn't the only factor in star center Ayoka Lee's decision to return to Manhattan for a seventh year, and fifth season, it clearly turned into a major win for the Wildcats.

"There's a lot of goals we didn't accomplish this year that we wanted to," said Lee, the Wildcats' 6-foot-6 All-American from Byron, Minnesota, who made the announcement Sunday night and then met with reporters Tuesday to talk about the decision. "So just having the opportunity to come back and have another chance to do those was a big part of the decision, too."

Lee came back this past season after missing all of 2022-23 with a knee injury and helped lead the Wildcats to a 26-8 record, a third-place Big 12 finish (12-5) and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. As a result, the team served as host for the first two rounds, beating Portland before falling to No. 5 seed Colorado in the round of 32.

At one point, the Wildcats won 14 straight games and climbed to No. 2 in the national rankings. But early in the conference season Lee hurt her ankle, forcing her to miss seven games, and even thought she averaged 19.7 points and 8.6 rebounds, the team never quite recaptured the magic.

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Getting back to that level, given the team chemistry and the return of fourth-year starters Serena Sundell, Jaelyn Glenn and Brylee Glenn among other, also motivated Lee to give it another go.

"You're not going to go to every school and just have great relationships with all your teammates, so, I think that's really a big part of it," she said. "And then just coming off the year we had, we're capable of winning the conference title and things like. It was frustrating this year, so that's also (a factor)."

Lee already ranks third on K-State's career scoring list with 2,194 points and her 19.2-point average is No. 1 all time. And she ranks first all time in both rebounding with 1,118 (9.8 average) and blocked shots with 310.

K-State coach Jeff Mittie made sure to give Lee time and space to sort through the pros and cons when it came to next year.

"Yokie and I talked numerous times during the season just about (how) we wanted to put it on the backburner, and I think rightfully so," he said. "She needed some time after the season.

"Selfishly, I'm thrilled that she's back at Kansas State."

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Unlike many of her contemporaries, who are obsessed with basketball, Lee isn't even sure if she will go on to a professional career. In fact, the deadline to enter the upcoming WNBA draft came and went before she made her decision.

"There's deadlines for the draft and stuff, so not knowing once that deadline came up kind of eliminated that option," she said. "And it was between starting my career or maybe play overseas, but this was what ended up on top."

Lee graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2021 and will receiver her master's in couples and family therapy next month. She is a two-time Academic All-American, and in 2022 was named Big 12 women's basketball scholar-athlete of the year.

"It's always good to have options," Lee said. "So, I knew there wasn't really a bad decision, even though I was kind of going through on my options. I had to think of some just life and like adult things, as you do once you get to kind of your mid-20s."

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Lee may not know what the future holds, but Mittie for one is looking for big things in her final collegiate season.

"I think Yokie is one of those players that going into next year will have an opportunity to be the face of women's basketball," he said. "Certainly, you look at the (UConn's Paige) Bueckers, and you look at (USC freshman) JuJu Watkins, and I think that Yokie is certainly in that category of that next potential player."

For now, Lee just wants to enjoy her final year at K-State. She even brought her bernedoodle puppy, Bram, to Tuesday's news conference.

"That was also part of the agreement," Mittie said with a smile. "That Bram could attend all practices and press conferences."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Ayoka Lee's return a big win for Kansas State women's basketball