Women’s Basketball will be tipping off their second year under Coach Octavia Blue on Monday, Nov. 7 as the team travels to Ole Miss in the season opener at 6 PM
The Owls went 3-1 in the past four-season openers and seek to continue the winning record against SEC opponents. Ole Miss and KSU have prior history, playing once before on the court resulting in a 92-63 victory for the Rebels on Nov. 13, 2017.
Under Coach Blue, the team ran away with a 100-31 win during the opening competition last year. This set the record for most points in a game in KSU’s program history.
On the opposing team, Ole Miss is hoping to find success this year as well after coming off of a 23-9 season. This record was marked as the most wins for the program since the 2006-07 season and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
For the Owls, eyes are on Amani Johnson as Johnson is projected to break the KSU record for most points scored in program history. Johnson resides at 1,350 points and needs 103 additional points to surpass Alexis Poole’s record to become the new reigning record-holder. She has already achieved great feats by holding KSU’s Division I record for assists (485), steals (209), and minutes played (4,061).
As the season tipoff approaches, there are quite a few Owls to keep an eye out for.
Graduate guards Johnson and Jah’Che Whitfield earned a total of 602 points together last season for KSU’s offense. Johnson scored over 300 points while Whitfield blazed the competition with 235 points.
Last season, four different players reached over 100 points including Bre’Lyn Snipes (158) and Stacie Jones (125).
As previously reported, Coach Blue will be entering her second season with the Owls. Blue hopes to ignite KSU with a breakout season as she is aiming to build on and improve from last season’s 9-19 record. This can be done through strong home performances from both the offense and defense to protect the nest.
Last season, seven of nine wins occurred at home with KSU winning games with an average of 17.3 points. Blue’s KSU coaching debuted with the 100-31 win against Thomas on Nov. 9 last season. This victory for the Owls marked the first time KSU scored 100 points in a game in program history.
In the offseason, KSU also added two new assistant coaches.
Malikah Willis joined the team highly decorated with over 20 years of coaching experience spanning through 10 colleges including West Virginia and Georgia Tech. Willis has assisted with forming seven top-25 recruiting classes and coached 16 student-athletes to all-conference honors which incorporated five future WNBA draft picks.
KSU also brought in Drew Landers who has seven years of Division I coaching experience as a former assistant coach to USC Upstate from the past two seasons. He increased the Spartans’ total wins by 14 games, building the team to 22-8. Landers also helped with player development and player recruitment on a national level.
The matchup against Ole Miss can be streamed on ESPN+.
