LaMyah Ricks was not ready to call it a career. She had completed her senior season but didn't like the way it ended.
"It just didn't feel like my final year even if it was my senior year," said Ricks, the starting point guard for the Kansas Wesleyan women's team. "I just didn't feel like that chapter of my life was closed yet."
Fortunately, the opportunity to return was on the table - remain at KWU while pursuing a master's degree and play for a fifth season.
In the end the stars aligned perfectly. Ricks was accepted into graduate school and was back on the court for the 2024-25 season. She was not alone. Classmate Jill Stephens followed the same path and setting into motion what has been a special season for the Coyotes.
KWU won the Kansas Conference regular season title, is the top seed in the conference tournament and plays eighth-seeded Saint Mary in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Thursday inside Mabee Arena. The winner advances to Saturday's semifinals with the championship game scheduled for March 4. The Coyotes will play each game at home if they continue to win.
Ricks is thrilled she came back, for obvious reasons. Despite being picked fifth in the coaches' preseason poll KWU won the title with an 18-4 record (22-6 overall). The Coyotes will play in the first round of the NAIA Women's Championship next month after securing the conference's automatic berth.
"I just felt like it was right and kind of needed to be done," Ricks said of her return. "With the group that is with me I think it was pretty obvious that this was bound to happen."
She has played a key role, as usual, averaging 12.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists. On Tuesday she was named First Team All-KCAC and was chosen for the All-Defensive Team. Stephens was named Honorable Mention.
"It was a big reason why we're able to have success," coach Ryan Showman said of Ricks' and Stephens. "They were two very important pieces of our team, and we knew that we'd be better with them coming back. They could do anything after graduation and if they wanted to come back, we would absolutely welcome them back.
"But I wanted them to come back for the right reasons and they both wanted to come back and win a championship. They wanted to be a part of that group that got us back to the national tournament."
Ricks said the preseason poll was motivation for her and her teammates.
"We've always had a lot of doubters and a lot of us have just taken that to heart and been more driven knowing that a lot of people didn't expect this from us," she said. "We all knew we're way better than that."
Showman, now in his 13th season as head coach, was named the Lonnie Kruse KCAC Women's Coach of the Year on Tuesday. He said the retooling process for '24-25 began last summer.
"I thought we had a championship team last year, and I knew we had a championship this year," he said, "but we had to change some things - our approach and how we did things, our mindset, our work ethic, everything needed an overhaul. And we needed to raise the standard."
It started at the offensive end. Last season the Coyotes averaged 67.8 points and shot 38 percent overall, 32 percent from 3-point range. This year they're averaging 75.8 points and shooting 44 percent overall including a KCAC-best 34.5 percent from deep.
"We made shots. That's kind of the easy answer, but it was one of the things we had to be better at," Showman said. "One of the challenges that I issued was everyone needed to make 20,000 shots between March and when we got back in the fall. We switched our offense a little bit to put some people in better positions to be successful, fit their skill sets better."
Ricks and Showman said they knew something was special brewing as the Christmas arrived.
"I think it's when we closed out the first semester 7-0 in conference, 11-2 overall," Showman said. "We were 5-7 a year prior. We went on the road to Friends who absolutely smoked us a couple of games last year, we went on the road at Saint Mary, we beat an NCAA Division II team (Northeastern Oklahoma), we beat Tabor who beat us by 100 points in three games last year. Even though we followed with a loss to Bethel, it showed us we can be that team.'"
"I think it was probably after beating Friends (in Wichita) because we'd seen what they had done in the years before," Ricks said. "We'd seen their group this year and how good they were, set up to be successful, and beating them just showed us who we are. We are the best team in the conference."
KWU and Saint Mary split during the regular season, each winning on the road. The Coyotes won 66-53 December 1 in Leavenworth and Saint Mary prevailed 75-70 February 1 in Mabee Arena.
"The first time we played them I thought we defended really well but we didn't finish plays," Showman said. "We didn't shoot a very high percentage, but we got to the free throw line, we found ways to manufacture points on the road while playing really great defense. I thought we didn't play poorly when they beat us, but we didn't get stops when we needed and then we couldn't get a bucket when we needed it."
Despite having an NAIA tournament berth in hand neither Ricks nor Showman are satisfied.
"Just looking at the week ahead of us instead of looking too far ahead," Ricks said. "(The NAIA) is a month away so just sticking with that path that we've been on the entire season will be really important. It would be great to win a championship at home."