Big things on horizon for K-State women’s basketball as Ayoka Lee returns from injury
Jeff Mittie has high expectations for the Kansas State women’s basketball team.
Ask him about what the Wildcats can accomplish next season and the veteran coach gives them no ceiling — because “top to bottom, this is the best roster that we’ve had” dating back to his Manhattan arrival in 2014.
It’s easy to see why Mittie, and many others, are bullish on K-State heading into the 2023-24 season. The Wildcats are coming off a year in which they won 19 games, reached the WNIT and pulled off an upset against Big Ten powerhouse Iowa ... and they did all that without their best player.
Ayoka Lee, a dominant 6-foot-6 senior center, missed all of last season due to a knee injury. But it won’t be long before she is ready to return to the court and join a talented group of teammates that just had a solid season without her. Add her to the mix, and the Wildcats appear capable of big things.
“It makes me really excited,” Lee said this week at a Catbackers event in Salina. “Last season really challenged our guards to have to do a lot more in our offense because we were playing small and things were different. It makes me excited just to see how playing with a true center again will be incorporated into the offense and what we can do.”
The last time Lee was healthy she put up monstrous numbers, as she averaged 22 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
She played so well as a junior that she earned several All-America honors and briefly became the talk of the sport when she erupted for a record-setting 61 points in a home game against Oklahoma.
Add that production onto a roster that got big contributions from Gabby Gregory (18.5 points per game), Serena Sundell (13.9 points per game) and Jaelyn Glenn (11.3 points per game) last season and K-State should plenty of firepower on the inside and on the perimeter.
Lee tried her best to support her teammates while she was on the bench.
“I didn’t want to go through the season just hating that I was sitting out,” Lee said. “It was hard, especially during the end of the season. But I was very intentional in how I spent my time and how I spent my time with my teammates and how I was able to encourage them.”
Now that the season is over Lee is trying to focus on regaining strength in her injured knee.
She doesn’t know exactly when she will be able to get back on the court, but her rehab is on schedule and her fingers are crossed for the middle of the summer.
“Rehab is going really well,” Lee said. “I’m taking it day by day. It can be exhausting, but in a good way. It feels good to do stuff again, just because right after my surgery I couldn’t doing anything for a while. I don’t have any complaints. I love our trainers and our strength coach. They keep it fun.”
It wasn’t hard for Lee to push herself while she was sidelined last season.
Helping K-State win has always been a big motivator for her. She had opportunities to leave for the WNBA after her breakout junior season, but she decided to stay in Manhattan. She also could have pursued other options after latest knee injury, but, again, she stayed with the Wildcats.
She is ready to go out on a high note.
“I remember coming here on my visit and just immediately thinking this is the place where I want to be,” Lee said. “At the time it was the next four years but now it has turned into six. Through the good seasons and the bad seasons I just kept going back to how this was the place where I need to be. This is the place where I feel like I have been placed to be successful.
“Coming back this season, I really want to finish well and have one more great experience with my teammates.”
