Breaking down the K-State women’s basketball team

There is a lot to like about the Kansas State women’s basketball team.

Breanna Lewis, the Wildcat’s leading scorer last season, returns a year older and wiser. Louisville transfer Megan Deines brings big game. And junior guard Kindred Wesemann knows how to run Jeff Mittie’s offense.

Add on an abundance of young, in-state talent – Jessica Sheble, Kaylee Page, Lanie Page, Kelly Thomson and Shaelyn Martin – and you have a team that is ready to win now and improve down the road.

Mittie is building something good. He has recruited well and developed players since arriving a year ago from TCU. He thinks this team could even make the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats were close a year ago, winning 19 games and reaching the WNIT.

Taking the step to 20 victories and the Big Dance won’t be easy, but it certainly is possible.

The schedule could help. K-State plays eight of its 11 nonconference games at Bramlage Coliseum, against soft opponents. Its hardest games will be at Tulsa, at Chicago State and at Connecticut. Beating the Huskies seems impossible, but if the Wildcats can win the other two road games and take care of business at home they will enter Big 12 play with 10 victories.

From there, a .500 conference record might be enough.

K-State will need to stay healthy to make it happen. The Wildcats are already down Lanie Page, who will redshirt, and several other players battled injuries during the preseason. Mittie expects to use an eight-player rotation. If even one of them gets hurt, it will be hard for her teammates to make up for the absence.

The Wildcats also need to improve offensively. No team can win in the difficult Big 12 without regularly topping 70 points.

This team is capable of doing exactly that. Don’t be surprised if it is still playing late in March.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 2:15 AM with the headline "Breaking down the K-State women’s basketball team."