K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On COVID changing the season and practices...
"I think every program has been affected. We're no different. We are just grinding our way through it. It affects practice some here and there. We are kind of grinding through it. I think the one thing we did from a coaching perspective and I talked about this with you tyhe last time we talked, I put a ton of stuff in early because I just didn't know if there would be players that would miss practice. I think the biggest issue with basketball, while we haven't had a lot of cases, the contact tracing is generally the problem and I think that is what you are seeing with other programs. Certainly, we dealt with that throughout the fall just like everybody else. If we had a game today, fortunately we'd be able to play it. So we are in a good position there. The NCAA still, we're still trying to figure out the number of players that you have to have. I am hearing that number might be six. I think they are going to make a final decision this week. Right now we are good to go for Fort Hays State. That will be our first opportunity on the 25th and hopefully that will remain that way."
On the lack of travel in non-conference schedule...
"We were supposed to go to Omaha on the road, but because of the jam-packed schedule they had facility issues so we flipped that to a home game. At that time, we didn't have the Fort Hays State game. I am thankful we were able to get the Fort Hays State exhibition game because we didn't have anything on the 25th. We need to play. You hope that within our little bubble as we get to Thanksgiving and as the campus gets emptied that is the hope for basketball that we can create our own little bubble here in Manhattan. You are right because if something occurs COVID-wise in the first of December we are in trouble because we have six games in 13 days. We've got to do our best to stay as healthy as we can."
On the December stretch of games on the schedule...
"We've got five straight games where only one day separates the games. I think it is upon us as a staff to have everything ready going in and keep them light. I have always been the type of coach that wants them fresh not just physically but mentally. I think players play better that way. We'll shorten practices. We'll shorten prep time. Normally this time of year, your in a Thanksgiving tournament where we're playing Thursday, Friday, Saturday and so you aren't practicing in between games. As a player, they love it. They don't want to practice anyways, they want to play the games, right? They'll choose a game over practice every single time I can assure you of that. We've got a great December schedule for that but we will have to balance it. We'll need everybody on our roster. I am convinced of that. Not just the health part of COVID, but the fact we are jamming games in in December we will need our entire roster."
On team's strengths and weaknesses at this point...
"I think the strength is we have a great end of offense player in Ayoka Lee. She established herself as a player we could throw it to and finish at a young age and I think she has had a good solid offseason. I think the difference in her game will be, last year we really didn't facilitate offense through her as much as we threw it to her when she was in a scoring position. I think she is going to be involved in the pick and roll game. I think she is going to be able to be involved in other actions that will benefit our offense overall. I think we have improved our 3-point shooting in that we get Ranke back. I think Chrissy Carr has had a really good offseason. The addition of Goodson, who knocked down 68 two years ago in the league. I think she led the league in 40-minute games played at the guard spot. Those things are all improvements. Last year's team just could not make an outside shot consistently and things just got very crowded around both Lee and Williams. We went into the offseason really wanting to do the best we could to creat space for Lee in there and I think we have done that. Weaknesses right now, I think we are really inconsistent with controlling the basketball. We have, like a lot of teams, getting the team back is I think we have had more nagging-type injuries because keep in mind these players did not play any full court from March 10 on and quite honestly. We have had the plantar fasciitis. We have had a strained Achilles. We have had a strained quad. We have had things that have taken players out of nine, 10 days worth of practice. That has been impactful. I can list Ebert was out for awhile. Savvy Simmons is out right now with a strained quad. Goodson has been out with a strained Achilles. These things have been impactful in our consistency for sure. My guess is a lot of teams are dealing with it though. We just went so long without actually playing the game of basketball. Rebounding is a concern. Rebounding is an area we need to improve. We lost a great rebounder in Williams. She averaged 11 a game. We are not going to replace that player. We are not going to replace Williams with one player. I have gone back and rewatched Moneyball and we are not replacing Giambi. We are going to have to replace Giambi with about three players and I have done all the math I can do but I don't know if it works with basketball but I like the movie anyway so it is a great excuse to watch it.
On replacing Peyton Williams on the glass...
You still have to stick with five but I will equate it basketball-wise with the minutes. Peyton played 36 minutes, so we are not going to have a 36 minute player there. So how do you plug two players into there maybe splitting the time and can they find the production. I think (Laura) Macke has had a really good fall. And I think Macke, if you look at her strengths she is just a grinder and a tough kid. She does what you want and competes well. She's not going to get 11 boards but she could fall in that range of six. Then I think who gets those other minutes. (Makayla) Pippin, Ranke could go in that area. We've got to have a better effort by all of our group to rebound the ball as well as they did a year ago."
On importance of Rachel Ranke's return...
"It is huge because a lot of pressure was on Chrissy (Carr) last year. Certainly they did not have to come off Chrissy much, so she had small windows to get openings. I think the addition of Goodson and Ranke is big. Having Ranke back, she stretches the floor cause she has such deep range. She didn't get 'on' in any games last year but she was really playing well early in the season last year and then she ended up trying to play in five of those games with a broken foot and just couldn't do it. It is really important to have her back."
On Ranke's playing time...
"She is good to go. She's another one that suffered an injury that isn't taking her out of the games or practices but she broke a finger about two and a half weeks ago. She is back to doing light shooting. The great thing about the injury is its not anything that is going to hurt her down the road and she can run and stay in shape but we have had to limit her from getting that finger hit. She will be under no minutes restrictions. She is ready to go and has had no trouble with the foot coming back other than the same thing everybody had trouble with and just not doing anything for an extended period of time competitively. Everybody kind of had things early. I think a broader question to that would be in trying to develop more depth I am going to play more people early in the year. There won't be people on minutes restrictions. It will be us trying to make sure that we are developing our depth knowing that every person on the roster is going to need to be ready to go at any given minute."
On Lee being the main target for opponents...
"I think a couple things will help her. One, facilitate offense through her. We would like to see her be able to read that double-team coming. She didn't have a lot of assists last year and we weren't asking that of her. We don't want her to pass it out alot but when she does pass it out we want it to be a scoring pass. We want it to be because a double team is coming or a rotation is coming and she reads that. We are anticipating that there is going to be extra help in there, but we have also worked extremely hard in improving our three-point shooting. Not just through recruiting but drills. I have liked our group. I think (Emilee) Ebert is shooting the ball much better. I think (Laura) Macke is shooting the ball very well right now. I think Makayla Pippin is capable of that. Chrissy is shooting the ball better than I have ever seen her shoot it. That was one of the things in the offseason, as you know watching us last year, we didn't shoot the ball very well. If we don't improve that, there is going to be a big crowd around Lee."
On Lee's development in the offseason...
"Two areas. Facing up a little bit so she can see where double teams are coming from. The second area is being able to take a dribble or two to get to spots on the floor that she wants. She is a player that will eventually have the ability, she can really knockdown the 17-, 18-footer. She really does. We didn't ask that of her last year because there just wasn't a lot of space with Peyton in there but you will see her be able to do that this year. Those are the areas. She has had a really good offseason again. I think she is playing at a really high level. She just comes in and gives you the same effort every day. She is one of those players that has an ability and does that and has a smart brain. She just has a really high ceiling."
On the Big 12 and how it has grown in the post...
"It is a really talented center group. It might be one of the most talented center groups. When you look across the league and you see Lee for us, Collier for Texas, Mack at Oklahoma State. Now it will be interesting to see if they get players eligible. I think the NCAA is going to give a lot of these waivers a pass that they normally wouldn't in a normal year but they want games to be played. So Lauren Ebo is a player at Texas from Penn State. She is a pretty good center. We recruited Ebo. Patricia Morris is a player that was on our campus here in Manhattan who was at Oregon State who just transferred to TCU. She is 6-7. So you have got a center group. Kansas has added more depth. West Virginia has two or three. So that particular group is pretty talented. I saw that Mack was I think in one of the WNBA mock drafts was either a fifth or sixth pick. They had Collier number one but I think they made a mistake. She is only a junior. I hope she leaves early. I wish all those players well. We haven't even talked about the centers at Baylor, right? I have named everybody else, right? If you want to go with Queen Egbo or NaLyssa Smith who can play all over the place and then they just added Hannah Guesters who is a top-10 kid at 6-6 coming there. That position is loaded across the league. I think a couple things can attribute to that. Ayoka Lee for one. You can also attribute it to Baylor. Everybody in the league has needed to get centers to try to defend that. I think even across the board the year Lee had every said, 'Geez its not just Baylor, it's not just Texas. We have got to be able to defend that player. Other than that, Baylor won a lot of the transfer battles. They are another Final Four, national championship contender. Iowa State certainly returns a lot of really talented players. I think Texas will be impacted if those players are eligible. That will give them much more depth. Texas lost some good players but Vic replaced them with some transfers and my guess is they will have a decent chance to get eligible."
On the recruiting class...
"We are really excited to get those three. We were really excited to get the (Glenn) twins. Both have had outstanding high school careers and hope they have a great senior year. And then Serena Sundell was a player of the year last year. We felt all three were the type of players that had great upside to them and could shoot the three but also do other things within their arsenal. We are really excited to get those three. We have known them for a long time. We got to watch them for a long time. We were fortunate to have them committed before all the craziness went down because all of the recruiting has been very unique. Excited to get them to sign on the dotted line. The twins have been committed to us for a long time so it seems like it has been forever before you sign them. It was a great day for us and a great day for them and their families. We are excited to have them as part of our family."
On all three signees from Missouri...
"No coincidence. I am from Missouri, but that didn't have anything to do with it. The fact we had watched their team play a lot of AAU. We had gotten to know them very early. Nothing other than they were kids we got to see a lot of. I think it is always an advantage when you have a longer evaluation on players. We always want to do well on our areas. Those were players that were on our campus very early in their careers and we were fortunate to be able to get them."
Sophomore center Ayoka Lee
On December schedule and staying in shape...
"I think it is going to be really important. I think recovery is going to be the big thing during that time. As far as physical fitness during the season, there isn't a big emphasis it is about maintaining our muscle and not to lose muscle. Just so we can get through the season. I think our support staff is great. I am not super worried about it and having one season under my belt definitley helps. I know what its like and how serious it is to get that recovery and make sure I am in the weight room and all that stuff. It will definitely be different and a challenge but I think we have a great staff."
On long layoff and early nagging injuries for the team...
"I think it is definitely better to get them early so you don't have to worry about them when we are in season. I think there is a fine line. You never want to be playing like you are worried about an injury. Coach Mittie never wants us to feel like that is something that we are doing. I do think that is something our trainer is helping us with. Our strength coach is definitely helping us with that and injury prevention and making sure that we are healthy. Even when we first got back, we didn't do basketball stuff until there wasn't anymore soreness from the weight room. I think taking those precautions is really important."
Junior guard Christianna Carr
On the return of Rachel Ranke...
"Of course she is my teammate, so I am super excited to get her back on the court. I think when it comes to being a three-point shooter, it is always nice to have another three-point threat on the court with me because I feel it is harder to guard. Having her back and having that energy back on the court, because she does bring a lot of energy, I am very excited for this year."
On her development in the offseason...
"After sitting down with my dad (K-State assistant coach Chris Carr) after last year, I struggled a lot offensively last year. I was very up and down. You never really knew what you were getting out of me from game to game and I just told him, 'I just feel really pressured to make shots and score alot and if I want to achieve my dream of playing in the league one day I feel like I need to score alot of numbers.' My dad sat me down one day and was like, 'You know you don't really need to score high numbers to achieve your dream of being a WNBA player. You can do the little things. Get steals, get rebounds, get assists.' My focus going into this summer after quarantine and all that stuff, I watched lot of film on Sabrina. My focus was mainly to be more of a playmaker and get some more assists. My goal is to get triple-doubles this year. It has taken my mindset off of I need to score the ball and it has been more focused on doing the little things like getting steals, getting more rebounds, creating more shots for my teammates as well. It has gotten a lot less stressful in practice. I feel like it helps build trust in my teammates as well to know that if I get into a situation where I need to pass, they know I am going to make the right pass to them as well. I feel like I am making some good strides in that area and I am excited to see what this year has to offer."
On the group of guards...
"One thing Yokie does a good job of is noticing there is a lot of pressure whenever they do start double teaming. One of our biggest points of emphasis this year was that we need to move without the ball to help our posts out when they do get in those situations. That is one thing we have been really focusing on in the offseason is making sure we are sliding to open three-point spots, we are cutting to the rim. We are doing the things we can to give the posts more space to do what they need to do if they catch the ball and they need to pass it out. As well as opening up shots for other guards as well, so I think it goes hand in hand. If you cut hard, you get the ball and you can score. If they don't double down, we get the ball to Yokie in her house down there and we score. So I think it goes hand in hand."
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