10 April 2024
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – K-State women’s basketball is getting 114 games of college basketball experience, and 2,194 points scored, back for the 2024-25 season in one All-American center.
On Sunday, the Wildcats’ four-time first team All-Big 12 selection announced plans to return to K-State for her seventh and final season of college basketball.
Ayoka Lee needs just 140 points in her super-super-senior campaign to become the program’s all-time scoring leader. However, head coach Jeff Mittie says her return has an impact which expands well beyond Manhattan, Kansas.
“I think Yokie’s one of those players that, going into next year, will have an opportunity to be the face of women’s basketball,” Mittie told reporters on Tuesday. “You look at [UConn’s guard Paige] Buekcers and you look at [USC freshman] Juju Watkins and Yokie’s certainly in that category.”
Lee is aware of the potential she has to impact the game but returns more focused on a mission to win a Big 12 Championship with her teammates, who have become some of her closest friends.
“I’ve never really been one to talk the talk,” Lee said when asked about the legacy she leaves on women’s college hoops. “I kind of just let my game speak for itself so I think in that case it’s the same thing, like that’s going to come if we do the work.”
It’s a unique offseason for Lee in that it’s her first in multiple years in which she isn’t rehabbing from injury. Mittie says the opportunity for the veteran Wildcat to focus solely on improving her game, rather than spending a bulk of time in the training room, can work wonders.
Lee met with Coach Mittie on Sunday before announcing a decision. She texted her teammates, past and current, with jokes that she enjoyed senior night so much she wanted another one.
While the minutes and shots Lee will undoubtedly eat up could first be seen as a deterrent to prospective student-athletes, Mittie says her return should actually have a positive impact on recruiting.
“People want to play on winning teams,” Mittie said, pointing out that recent graduate Gabby Gregory came to Manhattan largely due to a desire to play alongside Lee. “…We’ll look for a player that wants to play with a team that has some momentum going into next year.”
K-State won 26 games in the 2023-24 season, its most yet in the program’s ten seasons under Mittie.