Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie stated that he loves this time of yr. The college is on winter break, which means lecturers aren’t a component of the equation, which permits full focus on follow. Mittie stated that “this window is pretty important,” significantly because the youngest roster of Mittie’s final seven years at Ok-State embarks upon the grueling Big 12 Conference schedule.
Ok-State put collectively a 7-6 document within the non-conference season, together with a 3-3 mark at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats have suffered back-to-back losses simply as soon as — an 85-73 loss to No. 12 North Carolina adopted by an 82-70 loss to South Dakota State within the Cancun Challenge in November — however concern rests on the crew’s inconsistencies. Ok-State adopted a probably season-turning 61-60 win over No. 13 Ole Miss in St. Joseph, Missouri on December 7 with a 64-53 dwelling loss, as San Diego State captured its first win over a Power 4 crew since 2005.
Ok-State closed out its non-conference season with a 75-71 win at Creighton on Sunday, maybe offering a shot of momentum for the grinding street forward.
But…
“I’m cautious,” Mittie stated. “We have not dealt with success very nicely. We beat Ole Miss and got here dwelling and did not deal with that nicely. We’re too inconsistent for me to know the way I really feel about that proper now. I believed we had respectable preparation earlier than San Diego State, and I used to be clearly flawed. Going to Creighton, I felt fairly good about our work, however I used to be anxious to see that on the ground. We had stable week of follow.
“I’m excited about having a two-to-three-week span of time with just practice time. We’ve had a good week of finals practice, and we’re a better team than a week ago. That’s a positive.”
Ok-State might want to convey its finest sport of the season to Fort Worth, Texas, when it faces No. 9 TCU, 12-0, for Saturday’s 4:00 p.m. tipoff within the Big 12 opener for each groups.
TCU, the defending Big 12 Champion, rides a school-record 33-game dwelling profitable streak after a 109-54 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday, as Olivia Miles posted her third consecutive triple-double with a season-high 25 factors, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. She leads Division I with 9 triple-doubles in her profession. Marta Suarez had the primary triple-double of her profession with 20 factors, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Three Big 12 groups are within the AP Top 25 in No. 9 TCU, No. 10 Iowa State and No. 15 Baylor. TCU, Iowa State, Arizona State and Texas Tech are all undefeated, and 13 of 16 groups have fewer than 4 losses.
“The league looks to be fairly strong again with really good teams,” Mittie stated. “TCU is the defending champions and look like they’re similar to a year ago with a lot of good veteran pieces who’ve played in a lot of big games. We have a big challenge ahead of us.”
Ok-State has one veteran presence on its roster. That’s junior guard Taryn Sides, whose regular affect has at occasions helped reduce the blow of inconsistencies across the squad. She averaged 23.3 factors on 60.0% (24-of-40) taking pictures from the ground, together with 60.0% (15-of-25) from 3-point vary whereas including 2.7 assists, 3.7 assists and a pair of.3 steals within the three-game match in Cancun. She averages 14.5 factors, a career-high 5.2 rebounds and three.7 assists per sport this season.
Ok-State has additionally gotten a elevate so removed from a pair of newcomers in senior level guard Tess Heal (Stanford) and junior Nastja Claessens (Belgium). Heal averages 14.2 factors, 3.4 rebounds and three.2 assists in her profession. Claessens averages 11.1 factors and 4.3 rebounds this season. Claessens led Ok-State with a profession high-tying 21 factors and 5 rebounds at Creighton.
“They’re pretty steady overall,” Mittie stated. “They’re the ones that don’t see too many highs or lows. They’re steady. Certainly, with Claessens, you don’t really know if she’s playing great or poorly. She’s just really steady the whole time. Tess is a little more emotional, but she’s had a good string of games, and we’ve been able to utilize her later in games to get good looks for us, and that’s been a big key for us.”
Jordan Speiser leads a freshman class that ESPN ranked at No. 8 in the summertime. Speiser, a McDonald’s All-American and arguably the highest-rated highschool signee in Ok-State historical past, already has two double-doubles and is third on the crew with 9.6 factors per sport whereas making at the least two 3-pointers in six video games.
“We see how talented they are,” Mittie stated of the freshman class. “The next six weeks will be critical for them. This group has done a pretty good job. They improve every day. They’ve always been a hardworking group.”
Ok-State additionally has a brand new addition to its roster — and she or he may play at TCU on Saturday.
Freshman middle Ivona Scekic from Slovenia signed with Ok-State in November, arrived on campus on December 10, and is cleared to follow with the crew for the primary time on Friday — lower than 24 hours earlier than the Wildcats face the Horned Frogs.
With her 6-foot-3 peak, the 18-year-old Scekic is essential because the Wildcats reel from the heartbreaking departure of skilled and anticipated starter Kennedy Taylor, who was dominated ineligible by the NCAA simply days earlier than the beginning of the season.
Ok-State has one participant on its roster taller than 6-foot-3. That’s 6-foot-5 sophomore middle Ramiya White, who averages 2.9 factors and a pair of.5 rebounds in 10.0 minutes per sport.
TCU has 6-foot-7 senior Kennedy Basham, 6-foot-8 freshman Sarah Portlock, 6-foot-7 sophomore Clara Silva and 6-foot-7 freshman Emily Hunter on its roster.
Cincinnati, which is able to go to Ok-State on New Year’s Eve, has 6-foot-6 sophomore Mary Carden and 6-foot-5 junior Delaney Snyder.
“(Scekic) is able to start practice (Friday), and she’ll dress on Saturday,” Mittie stated. “We’ll just see. It’d be really hard for her to play on Saturday, but I wouldn’t rule it out, either. We’ll see in (Friday’s) practice.”
Scekic averaged 5.7 factors, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists whereas enjoying in seven video games with the 2025 FIBA U18 Women’s Eurobasket. She had 13 factors and 9 rebounds in 19 minutes in opposition to Greece.
“Defensively, she can give us help with rim protection,” Mittie stated. “That’s the first thing. Most realistic for us is she comes in and can do that and hopefully help our rebounding. Offensively, we haven’t seen her. She shoots it OK, has a good touch around the rim. We’ll just see how quickly she can acclimate.”
Mittie indicated that Scekic may have a restricted playbook on account of her late arrival.
“She won’t have the complete playbook responsibilities,” he stated. “That won’t be realistic for her. Hopefully, we can put together a 5-10 play playbook that when she’s in the game she can run effectively.”
For now, Mittie is not sure if Ok-State may ultimately alter its beginning lineup that at present options 4 guards.
“That’ll be interesting to see where it goes,” he stated. “Our hope is that our bigs continue to improve and Ramiya continues to improve and Ivona gives us more depth there. I don’t know how that’s shake out lineup wise.”