The Kansas Jayhawks women’s basketball team is dealing with a lot of turnover as they head into the 2024-25 season under coach Brandon Schneider.
Kansas went 20-13 season last season and reached the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years. The Jayhawks lost in the second round.
After that, three of their top players ran out of eligibility — center Taiyanna Jackson, guard Holly Kersgieter and guard Zakiyah Franklin. The long-time starters occupy many players in the Kansas record book, but now Schneider has to figure out how to live without a group that helped his program win the 2023 postseason NIT title.
It’s a mixed bag of a roster, which features several holdovers from a year ago, a stout recruiting class and a solid group of transfers that could make an immediate impact. How far that impact goes will be interesting to watch.
Here’s a preview of the Kansas Jayhawks’ upcoming season.
Odds
Vegas Insider gave Kansas +50000 odds to win the national championship earlier this year. The Big 12 coaches voted the Jayhawks to finish eighth in the preseason poll.
Three Players to Watch
G S’mya Nichols: When Schneider convinced the five-star player to stay close to home, everyone know this year would be her year to become the team’s star. Well, last year she got a head start as she earend All-Big 12 first-team and freshman honors after she averaged 15.4 points, tied for the second-most by a freshman in program history.
G Wyvette Mayberry: A big-time scorer at Tulsa before she transferred in last year, her averaged took a dip alongside the super-seniors, as she scored 9.7 per game. Her numbers should go up this year and she steps into a role as a bigger option in the offense with Nichols.
G Jordan Webster: Getting Webster to join the Jayhawks for her final season is a boost for a team with some untested depth. She played four seasons at UC Riverside and was a first-team All-Big West selection last season after leading the league in scoring with 17.1 points per game.
Biggest Strength
Guard play. The Jayhawks are loaded on the perimeter. Along with Nichols, Mayberry and Webster, the Jayhawks took in three additional transfer guards in Wisconsin’s Sania Copeland (7.9 ppg), North Dakota State’s Elle Evans (15.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg) and Creighton’s Brittany Harshaw (1.9 ppg). Kansas already has a rotation locked in for the backcourt, and that’s before you dig into their talented freshman class, which includes Wichita’s Zoe Canfield, who was teammates with Nichols in high school.
Biggest Weakness
Interior play. Kansas knew it would take a hit there after losing Jackson, who was a special player that could defend the paint and put up a double-double nearly every night. There is no obvious replacement on the roster. Nadira Eltayeb was a medical redshirt last year, and the 6-4 senior is a candidate. So is freshman Regan Williams, a 6-3 forward who has experience with Canfield and Nichols. Schneider and his team are going to spent most of non-conference trying to cobble together an interior game.
Season Prediction
This team should be a lot of fun to watch. Nichols could be one of the best players in program history by the end of her career and the guards all have the ability to fill it up. The inside game is going to be a sore spot early, but if Kansas can get enough out of whoever is inside it will help keep defenses from focusing too much on the guards. We’re projecting 16-18 wins before Kansas heads to the Big 12 Tournament. Repeating as an NCAA Tournament team is going to be tight and the Big 12 Tournament may be the key.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
