photo by: Damon Young/Kansas Athletics

Kansas guard S'Mya Nichols, center, listens to head coach Brandon Schneider during summer workouts in July.

Kansas City, Mo. — The Kansas women’s basketball team returns nearly every significant contributor from last year’s roster, so the Jayhawks have a lot of continuity entering the 2025-26 campaign.

And even the Jayhawks’ five newcomers — four highly touted freshmen and one transfer, Lilly Meister — have certainly become quite familiar with the program, and with their teammates, by this late stage of the offseason.

“I think we’re kind of at the grind point of the season,” senior guard Elle Evans told the Journal-World, “where we’re kind of knowing each other’s tendencies too, and even our practice players’ tendencies, so it definitely gets to a point where it’s hard to play against the same people every single day in and day out, but we know that’s part of it.”

That’s also, though, a point at which an event like what KU hosted over the weekend can be particularly useful.

The Jayhawks welcomed Wichita State to Allen Fieldhouse for a closed-door scrimmage on Sunday. The Shockers, an opponent KU beat as part of its nonconference slate each of the last four seasons, twice in Lawrence and twice in Wichita, aren’t on the schedule this year for the regular season. That created an opportunity for head coach Brandon Schneider to bring in former KU associate head coach Terry Nooner — also once a member of the KU men’s basketball team — and his Shockers to town.

KU’s post-scrimmage social media post suggested the Jayhawks “got better today” from battling Wichita State, and several players echoed that sentiment at Big 12 media days on Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center.

“The things we’ve been working on in practice, we were kind of able to see kind of how those things were translated,” Evans said. “I think we showed out a lot of great things on film. Obviously still have a lot to work on. But it was great to be in an environment that we’re not playing against ourselves or our practice players.”

For freshman forward Jaliya Davis, in fact, it was the first time ever battling collegiate players in general, other than her teammates.

“I think it’s kind of what I expected, honestly, just being able to get out there and do what I know what to do,” she said, “and just make the right plays and do what I know.”

All 12 Jayhawks made it into the scrimmage, Schneider said. Star guard S’Mya Nichols played just 15 minutes.

“(We had) a lot of opportunity to get film of newcomers and even returners,” Schneider said, “and experiment with different lineups and how we want to go about kind of building a rotation.”

Nichols enjoyed the reunion with Nooner, who played a key role in bringing her to KU in the first place.

“It’s always fun playing him,” Nichols said. “He always has so much to say. I can hear him on his sideline: ‘Pick her up at the free-throw line! Take her ball! Take her crossover!” So it’s always fun.”

Her main takeaway from the scrimmage, though, was simply the caliber of the Jayhawks’ roster this season.

“Yeah, we’re really good,” Nichols said. “We have a lot of players that can contribute a lot of things, whether that’s offensively or defensively, and I’m so excited for our season to start, just to show that.”

KU has one more exhibition ahead, this time open to fans, against Fort Hays State on Oct. 29. Then the Jayhawks host Kansas City in their season opener on Nov. 5.