The intensity of the Kansas women’s basketball team’s nonconference schedule has varied somewhat over the last several years.
When they had a veteran team with loads of continuity in 2023-24, the Jayhawks were challenged by a preseason tournament that included top-10 teams in UConn and Virginia Tech. Last year, with very little returning production, KU went 10-1 in nonleague play, but its biggest wins were over teams like Auburn and Penn State that finished at or near the bottom of their own conferences. KU also didn’t play a true road game until it entered Big 12 play.
This season, the early-season schedule leans a bit more toward the second model. Missouri is in its first year under a new coach after a string of suboptimal seasons, and Georgia and Northwestern are low-end power-conference teams. KU’s biggest challenges will be Minnesota, 13th in the Big Ten last year and winner of the WBIT, and Missouri State, a solid mid-major that it does have to play on the road.
All this is to say that the true nature of this year’s KU squad — one of which a higher level of success is expected, at least by its peers who voted it sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll — will not be revealed until it begins conference play.
The league schedule features plenty of early tests that will show what the Jayhawks are made of, and that begins on the very first day.
Iowa State center Audi Crooks (55) shoots over Iowa forward Hannah Stuelke (45) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Iowa City, Iowa.
Dec. 21 at Iowa State
KU’s lack of a bona fide post player hurt it at numerous times during the 2024-25 season, but one team that did some particularly intense damage to the Jayhawks in the paint was Iowa State, with its star center Audi Crooks. She had 33 points and eight rebounds in a New Year’s Day matchup at Hilton Coliseum and 25 and nine in a rematch a few weeks later at Allen Fieldhouse; both went decisively in the Cyclones’ favor.
Crooks finished last season as a third-team All-American and between her and fellow returning forward Addy Brown, who came a rebound short of a triple-double in Lawrence, ISU has two preseason all-conference frontcourt players.
What an introduction to the Big 12 they will provide for freshmen Jaliya Davis and Tatyonna Brown and Indiana transfer Lilly Meister in this conference opener (which, thanks to a quirk of the league’s women’s basketball scheduling, comes 11 days before KU plays any other Big 12 foes). The Jayhawks are expecting to play with two forwards more often this year and this game could potentially provide a proof of concept as to how well that setup might work, with Regan Williams also playing a key role after starting for most of 2024-25.
Kansas State guard Taryn Sides (11) controls the ball during the first half against Southern California in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Spokane, Wash.
Jan. 25 vs. Kansas State
The Sunflower Showdown did not bring a lot of intrigue last season. KSU won by 27 points in one game and 30 points in another despite having star center Ayoka Lee for a combined four minutes, and the Wildcats held KU’s Kansan star S’Mya Nichols to single-digit scoring twice, something that only happened twice the entire rest of the year. KSU went on to reach the Sweet 16 for the fifth time ever and push No. 1 seed USC to the brink.
KU and KSU should be on much more even footing this season, as the Wildcats’ seventh-place preseason projection would indicate. KSU lost all five of its primary starters from last year and is relying on a combination of young transfers — only one senior, Stanford transfer Tess Heal, is on the roster — and its own highly touted freshman class, which ESPN ranked one spot behind KU’s at No. 8 in the nation.
K-State has an in-state standout in sharpshooter Taryn Sides, and KU has a lot of local representation of its own between Davis, Nichols, Sania Copeland (Kansas City) and Brittany Harshaw (Andover). The presence of a pair of sisters on opposite sides of the rivalry — KU freshman Keeley Parks is the younger sister of K-State redshirt sophomore Mikayla Parks — adds another fun dynamic to a rivalry that should provide plenty of entertainment this time around.
West Virginia Thunder’s Darianna Alexander plays during a game at the NCAA College Basketball Academy, Friday, July 28, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn.
Feb. 7 vs. Cincinnati
This is perhaps a bit of an off-the-wall choice for a game to highlight considering that the two teams have only ever met twice, given that the Bearcats joined the Big 12 prior to the 2023-24 season, and that with a rebuilt roster Cincinnati isn’t expected to be among the top teams in the league this year.
But last year’s matchup was such a memorable one. The Jayhawks trailed 67-56 with just over four minutes remaining at Fifth Third Arena after conceding a three-point play and a more conventional 3-pointer to Tineya Hylton. They promptly embarked on a run of 11 straight points, led by Elle Evans and Williams. Nichols tied the game at 67 and then put KU ahead, but a pair of 1-for-2 trips from the free-throw line for Brianna Byars were enough to keep UC tied, and Copeland missed at the buzzer.
The Bearcats held KU to one field goal in overtime, after keeping the Jayhawks scoreless for the first three minutes and 23 seconds, to take a 78-74 win in the extra period. That spoiled Evans’ best statistical game as a Jayhawk, in which she scored a season-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers.
A game with that level of entertainment at Allen Fieldhouse would be enough, but this year’s clash will have an added element of intrigue with the addition of Dee Alexander.
Cincinnati’s 6-foot-2 guard is the highest-ranked incoming freshman in the Big 12 this year, beating out players like KU’s Davis, Parks and Libby Fandel, KSU’s Jordan Speiser and Utah’s Leonna Sneed and Avery Hjelmstad, and earned the conference’s preseason freshman of the year honor. Alexander was ESPNW’s No. 11 player in the 2025 class and is Cincinnati’s first McDonald’s All-American and highest-ranked recruit ever. A talented play-making wing, she will be well adjusted to the collegiate level by the time she comes to Lawrence, and it should make for an exciting clash with her fellow freshmen on the KU side.
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
AP Photo/Young Kwak
AP Photo/George Walker IV