MANHATTAN – Kansas State will play the first of two exhibition games on Sunday, as the Wildcats host Washburn in Bramlage Coliseum at 1 p.m.
• Sunday’s game can be seen live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, as Brian Smoller (play-by-play), Missy Heidrick (analyst) and Kelsey Bigelow (sideline) will have the call.
• K-State returns eight letterwinners from last season’s squad. Returning players are: seniors Cymone Goodrich, Laura Macke, Rachel Ranke and Savannah Simmons, juniors Emilee Ebert and Ayoka Lee and sophomores Taylor Lauterbach and Jada Moore.
• In October, Lee was tabbed by the league as a unanimous Preseason All-Big 12 recipient. At the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, Lee was a WBCA All-America honorable mention recipient.
• The Wildcats will blend in six newcomers for the 2021-22 season: sophomores Rebekah Dallinger and Heavenly Greer and freshmen Brylee Glenn, Jaelyn Glenn, Malene Lind Pedersen and Serena Sundell.
Starting 5
Five names, numbers or storylines about K-State women’s basketball
1. K-State Selected 8th by League’s Coaches
• The Wildcats were selected to finish eighth in the 2021-22 Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll in October. The Wildcats have finished 17 of 23 seasons above its preseason prediction.
2. Mittie Set for 8th Season
• K-State head coach Jeff Mittie is prepared for his eighth season in Manhattan. He owns a 125-97 (.563) record and five postseason appearances with the Wildcats.
3. Lee Nearing 1K
• With 66 points, Ayoka Lee will become the 44th player in program history to reach 1,000 or more career points. When she reaches the milestone, Lee will become the 27th player in program history and the sixth center to reach 1,000 or more career points and 500 or more career rebounds.
4. Experienced Guards
• With their first official game action in the 2021-22 season, senior guards Cymone Goodrich and Rachel Ranke will become the third and fourth players in program history - Jenny Coalson (1995-00) and Kim Price (1978-83) - to play at least one game in five different seasons for the Wildcats and the first set of teammates to achieve the feat.
5. International House of Hoops
• K-State added a pair of guards with international experience. Sophomore guard Rebekah Dallinger is K-State’s first player from Australia, joining the Wildcats after one season at Miles (Montana) CC. Freshman guard Malene Lind Pedersen is K-State’s first player from Denmark and played with the Danish National Team in the 2019-20 FIBA Women’s Eurobasket Qualifiers.
At a glance: Washburn
• Washburn will play one exhibition game before beginning its 2021-22 season on November 12 at Southwestern Oklahoma Sate.
• On the sideline, Washburn is led by head coach Ron McHenry who is entering his 22nd-season. In his time with the Ichabods, McHenry has achieved a record of 476-164 (.744) and led the program to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• The Ichabods were voted sixth in both the MIAA Preseason Coaches and Media Polls.
• On the floor, Washburn returns 12 letterwinners including all five starters from the 2020-21 roster and are led by senior Hunter Bentley.
• Bentley is Washburn’s top returning scorer with 15.2 points and second-leading rebounder with 6.2 rebounds. In 2020-21, Bentley was named an All-MIAA Second Team selection.
Number to know
71.3
• K-State was generous with its assists in the 2020-21 season, as the Wildcats assisted on 71.3 percent of K-State’s made baskets.
• According to HerHoopStats.com, K-State ranked fifth in the nation in assisted shot rate and are the highest ranked Power 5 member in the category.
• The assisted shot rate of 71.3 percent was the highest in school history.
• K-State handed out the most assists per game, 15.9, in the Mittie era. The 15.9 assists per game were the most for the program since the 2005-06 season.
Rules changes for the 2021-22 season
• NCAA Division I women’s basketball made a number of rules changes to aid the quality of the game for the upcoming 2021-22 season.
• The first noticeable change will be the distance of the 3-point line. The line has been moved back to 22 feet, 1.75 inches and 21 feet, 7.875 inches in the corners to match the NCAA men’s/FIBA distance.
• The officials uniforms have been updated to a gray and white striped shirt with black side panels, black raglan-style sleeves with blue accents and black pants. This is to modernize the official’s uniform and establist a style specific for NCAA women’s basketball.
• An instant-replay review may now trigger a media timeout in each period or the first media timeout of the second half, which will reduce the number of stoppages in the game and aid in the pace of play.
Mittie in 8th season at K-State
• Jeff Mittie, one of the winningest active coaches in NCAA Division I with over 575 career wins, is in his seventh season at the helm of the K-State program in 2020-21.
• Mittie, the ninth head women’s basketball coach in K-State history, owns an overall career record of 579-332 (.636) in 29 years as a head coach, including a 125-97 (.563) mark in his time at K-State. He has won 19 or more games in four of his seven seasons with K-State.
• With his 125 wins at Kansas State, Mittie ranks tied for third for wins at the helm of the K-State program.
• Mittie registered the 575th win of his coaching career, a 74-57 decision over Kansas City on Dec. 14, 2020.
• In the 2016-17 season, K-State’s 23 wins were Mittie’s most at the helm of the Wildcats and the most for Mittie since registering 23 in the 2007-08 season at TCU.
• He has averaged 20.4 wins per season and experienced only one losing season in his previous 28 seasons.
• Mittie has 20 postseason appearances in his career (NCAA or WNIT Tournaments), in which he has a combined record of 20-18 (.526).
Team odds and ends from 2020-21
• Playing a reduced non-conference schedule due to COVID-19 precautions in its 53rd season of action, K-State (9-18, 3-15) Big 12) jumped into its 18-game Big 12 schedule in mid-December. The Wildcats finished tied for ninth in the Big 12 and won four of their last 10 games of the season.
• K-State endured a 30-day gap between games from December 21 to January 20 due to COVID-19 protocols. Due to the postponement of five Big 12 games in early January, the Wildcats would play five games in 12 days to end its regular season schedule.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, K-State played 27 games which marked the fewest since the 1994-95 season. This marked the second consecutive season that K-State played fewer than 30 games in a season.
• K-State registered a 62-53 win over (22/21) South Dakota State on December 10. This was K-State’s first win over a ranked opponent since defeating Drake on March 18, 2017.
• The Wildcats defeated seven-seed Texas Tech in the first round of the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. This marked the 18th time in the 24 Big 12 Championships in which K-State has advanced at least one round.
• Head coach Jeff Mittie tied for third in school history for career wins, capturing his 125th victory with the Wildcats on March 11 in the first round of the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
• This season’s free throw percentage of .736 was second in school history for a single season and the highest in the Mittie era.
• K-State’s three-point field goal percentage of .309 was the highest for the Wildcats since the 2016-17 season.
• The 123 blocks this season were the 14th highest total in program history and marks the seventh straight season K-State has blocked 120 or more shots.
• K-State had a blocked shot differential of +44 this season (123-79). This was the fifth-highest block shot differential in program history.
• The Wildcats held opponents to a field goal percentage of less than 40.0 percent for the third straight season and the sixth time in the seven seasons under head coach Jeff Mittie.
• Ayoka Lee, a 2021 WBCA All-Region 3 selection and WBCA All-America Honorable Mention recipient, led K-State in scoring (19.1 ppg), field goal percentage (.621), rebounds (8.7 rpg) and blocks (2.0).
• Lee, a 2021 All-Big 12 First Team selection, led the Big 12 and ranked third in the nation in field goal percentage (.621) and ranked fifth in the Big 12 in free throw percentage (.812). She was the only player in NCAA Division I this season to shoot 60.0 percent or better from the field and 80.0 percent of better from the line.
• Since the 1999-00 season, Lee joins Baylor’s Brittney Griner (2011-12) as the only two players in the Big 12 to shoot 60.0 percent or better from the field and 80.0 percent or better from the free throw line. Lee’s field goal percentage in the 2020-21 season ranks eighth all-time in Big 12 history.
• Lee also led the Big 12 and ranked third in the nation, according to HerHoopStats.com, for PER (39.9) which is a measure of a player’s value based on their box score stats.
• Lee became the first player in program history with the combination of 450 or more points, 200 or more rebounds and 45 or more blocks in her first two seasons with the Wildcats.
• Lee’s field goal percentage ranked second in school history for a single-season and the second-highest field goal percentage in a sophomore season.
• Lee is the eight players with two or more consecutive seasons with 200 or more rebounds in a season.
• Lee blocked 49 shots and tallied 1.96 blocks per game. Her blocks per game ranked seventh in school history for a single-season.
• Rachel Ranke made 55 three-point field goals in the 2020-21 season. She was the 12th player in program history to make 55 or more 3-point field goals in a junior season.
• Ranke was the eighth player in program history to register 50 or more 3-point field goals made and 50 or more assists in a junior season.
• Emilee Ebert set the school record for blocks by a guard with her career-high 25.
• Ebert was the only player in the Big 12 in the 2020-21 season to appear in the top-15 in assists per game and blocks per game.
– kstatesports.com –