Thursday was the first day of official practice for the Kansas women’s basketball team, and as it unfolded, senior guard S’Mya Nichols observed “a whole bunch of new faces, and a whole bunch of people just getting used to the speed of the game, the pace, and just moving on drill to drill.”
“It’s different, especially when it’s my — it could be, but it is — my last first practice,” Nichols added.
That phrasing reflects how Nichols is approaching her recently granted fifth year of collegiate eligibility, as a result of the NCAA’s new rules: She doesn’t seem particularly determined to use it.
When she heard she had another year if she wanted it, “I didn’t really care, honestly,” she said. “It was just another rule change — the NCAA, women’s basketball, college basketball in general, it’s moving in a great direction in the first place, and it’s moving in general, so changes are coming.”
Nichols has earned first-team all-conference honors each of her three seasons with the Jayhawks, including a unanimous selection in her junior year, when she averaged 17.4 points and 4.6 assists per game. The Overland Park native has never missed a game or a start in her career — despite a physical, slashing play style that has knocked her out of a few — and already ranks first in program history in free throws made, third in free-throw percentage and 3-point percentage, seventh in assists and 10th in scoring.
Even as KU has made the NCAA Tournament just once in her tenure, her accomplishments have drawn the attention of the professional ranks. Now, as she, sophomore forward Jaliya Davis and the rest look to guide a return to the postseason, outlets such as Bleacher Report, CBS, Swish Appeal and The Athletic have suggested in early predictions that Nichols could be a top-10 or even top-five pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft.
“She’s continuing to add things to her game,” head coach Brandon Schneider said. “She constantly has this thirst for improvement, and we’re excited about what she brings to our team, to our conference and to women’s basketball. I think she’s just really become that kind of player nationally.”
Nichols affirmed on Thursday that her ideal path would be to depart for the WNBA at the end of the 2026-27 season.
She did not speak in absolute terms, but did say, “When I came to college, and before I came to college, I was set on four years because that’s what we had, so I would love to just stay on that track in the first place, but if something different comes about, then I’m OK with that as well.”
Schneider said that he and Nichols have had discussions about her path and that it will indeed depend on her draft projections.
“I know that we’ve gotten a lot of really good feedback,” he said, “but I also think that it’s going to be important for those players who are strongly under consideration to at some point communicate to the league what their intentions are, and I think with the information we have right now, probably that’s what we think she’s going to do and what she’s communicated to us.”
OTHER IMPLICATIONS
The KU women’s basketball team has not redshirted a lot of players, which means that many of its members gained additional years of eligibility as a result of the same rule changes.
Most immediately relevant to the Jayhawks, however, is that transfers Mykayla Cunningham (Southern) and Mariyah Noel (Xavier) committed to KU as rising seniors but now could potentially return for 2027-28 as well.
“I think those are conversations that we have to have,” Schneider said. “I think it impacts what we’re doing right now, in particular in our high school recruiting. But until we get through these initial practices and start playing some exhibition games and really see who is contributing in what kind of role, I don’t think we’ll have those final talks until later in the year.”
The Jayhawks already have guards Kawehi Borden (Sumner, Washington) and Amillia Prochnow (Overland Park) committed in 2027, but only one outgoing fifth-year player in Brittany Harshaw.
Schneider also acknowledged that KU did consider making additional acquisitions from the pool of players who in some cases gained eligibility via the courts in the wake of the NCAA’s changes.
“We evaluated some people returning from last year, but at some point they had to make a decision,” he said. “Now they’re playing professionally overseas.”
That’s an apparent reference to Elle Evans, now in Italy, and Lilly Meister, now in Germany. Both, along with Sania Copeland, briefly seemed like they might have been deemed eligible, at least for the few weeks during which a national ruling out of Colorado made all former four-year athletes capable of returning for a fifth season.
“And then we did investigate a couple (other players) that were involved in court cases, but just never felt like it was going to happen, and happen for the duration,” Schneider said. “I think even now there’s a feeling that there’s some people that are currently, as of today, eligible, but are they going to stay eligible? At some point you have to move forward with the roster that you have.”
