Going into year two as head coach, Terry Nooner said the Wichita State women’s basketball team is “anxious and excited as a coaching staff and I think the players are (too),” to get the 2024-25 campaign underway.

“It’ll be good to just go up against some other people and just see where we stack up right now,” Nooner said. “They’re (the team) just excited to play somebody else.”

American Athletic Conference coaches predicted the Shockers to finish second-to-last in the conference standings this year. In response, Nooner said, “People don’t know who we have.”

“They don’t know the work we’ve done,” he said. “So they don’t understand who we are and how close we were … with the group that we had last year. So that’s just another thing that I was almost kind of hoping for, just to make sure I keep the team hungry and that we don’t start to get satisfied because they really are in a good place.”

Over the offseason, women’s basketball lost nine players from its roster, including key player Daniela Abies. Abies led the team in scoring and minutes per game last season.

Nooner said the critical loss requires the team to step up and “be able to do it by committee.”

“We have more people that can do more jobs,” Nooner said. “So instead of (other teams) thinking they can just take away one or two players, it’s going to be a lot more players that (other teams) have to scout and take away.”

Despite the losses to the roster, the Shockers replenished it by adding nine new players during the offseason. Nooner said this year’s team has had more time to gel together.

“Last year, with that group of kids, with the way we were recruiting, we didn’t even get the whole team all together until August,” Nooner said. “Whereas this summer, we had our full team, where we’ve been together working out and training in the weight room, on the court, doing individual workouts, doing conditioning, strength and conditioning workouts, since June.”

Nooner said the new recruits have adjusted well to their new system because “they got to go through the grind and the off-season,” giving them “a little bit of a head start.”

“We brought … kids that were tough, kids that … had chips on their shoulders,” Nooner said. “People that … were used to winning, people that had a lot of internal work ethic.”

Of the new recruits, Nooner pointed to juniors Princess Anderson and Maimouna Sissoko and senior Aicha Ndour as potential key additions. 

Nooner praised Sissoko for her rebounding ability, noting that “she’s an athletic, strong, aggressive kid.” 

Anderson, a transfer from Pratt Community College, averaged 26.7 points per game on a 42.3 shooting percentage last season.

Ndour is a transfer from the University of Illinois but wasn’t a stat-stuffer for the Fighting Illini; she averaged 4.3 minutes per game during her two years in Champaign-Urbana. Nooner said other schools didn’t want to take a chance on the player due to her poor stats, but “we saw her potential.”

Going into the season, Nooner said the biggest difference between last year’s team and this year’s will be the pace of play, especially with the addition of graduate transfer Taylor Jameson. 

“I think Taylor just adds a level of speed and ability to break down the defense and make plays for others in addition to scoring for herself,” Nooner said.

Nooner said sophomore Salese Blow has stepped up in a leadership role, despite being an underclassman. 

As a true freshman, Blow averaged 12.3 points per game, a .368 shooting percentage and a .707 free throw percentage, averaging 29.5 minutes per game. Blow was also voted AAC Freshman of the Week three times and voted on the 2023-24 All-Academic Team.

Nooner said this season would be successful if the team is “better than where we are (now)” by the end of the year.

“I want people to come to our games and … watch us play, win or lose (and) if they say we (were) the hardest working team and the biggest fighters on the floor,” Nooner said. “I think if we can do that … the wins and losses will come.”

Blow’s goal for the team this season is to “raise a trophy” and to personally “get to know all of my teammates in the right way and just build a bond (with them).”

Senior center Ella Anciaux said some of the goals for the team are playing fast, hard and sharing the ball.

“We have a really deep and talented team,” Anciaux said. “And so we’re going to use everybody and share the ball and have everybody be successful in their own way.”