Kansas State women’s basketball might be without a valuable part of its frontcourt this season, pending the appeal of a denied NCAA eligibility waiver.
Kennedy Taylor, a senior forward and one of K-State’s top players off the bench last season, has an uphill battle to play another season of college basketball after the NCAA denied a waiver to extend her eligibility another season.
“The NCAA denied it two weeks ago,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “Kennedy and her family filed an appeal. That’s where it sits, and I don’t get it. I, for the life of me, can’t understand the NCAA on some things. And what I mean by that is, they keep changing the goal post in that this is a case that would have been successful 95% of the time previously.”
Taylor is coming off a season where she played in 36 games with 12 starts, averaging 12.6 minutes and 7.1 points per game. She tallied 13 games with 10 or more points and shot a career-high .534 from the field (95-of-178). She was also 66-of-83 (.795) from the free-throw line. She also had 167 rebounds to go along with 16 blocked shots and 19 steals.
Before spending two seasons at Missouri State, where Taylor was named the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Sixth Player of the Year, the Shawnee Mission Northwest graduate played her freshman season at Colorado during the 2021-22 season.
Taylor played in just eight games, totaling 19 minutes, for the Buffaloes before transferring.
While some of Mittie’s frustration comes from the fact that the waiver was denied, the bigger problem in his mind is the NCAA’s timing. K-State has waited months for an answer on Taylor’s situation, and instead of resolving it earlier this summer, the Wildcats and Taylor are now scrambling to find answers with the season weeks away.
“I, for the life of me, can’t figure out why you can’t make this decision in June. Not July, not August, not September, not October, in June,” Mittie said. “In fairness to (Taylor) and in fairness to us, quite frankly, because it’s a pretty good player that we’re waiting for a decision about. … In recruiting, you either want a yes or no. Maybe is the worst answer you can get. … I don’t sit here and pretend to have all the answers. I just know there’s a better way to do it, not just for Kennedy, but for any player in these situations, and in our particular situation, it’s been frustrating.”
And while a player’s final season is in the balance, the situation also put K-State in a bad spot roster-wise.
Currently, the Wildcats have just one player on the roster taller than 6-foot-1 in sophomore Virginia Tech transfer Ramiya White. Taylor was in line to be a full-time starter this season, but now K-State’s depth at the center spot is almost nonexistent.
“We’re thin, as thin as we’ve ever been,” Mittie said. “It’s a problem. We’ve just got to figure out how to cover it up and figure out how we’re going to play that. But yeah, we’re not very deep there. We’ve looked for possible players who could be eligible. They’re just not very many out there. And so, you know, (we’re) pretty thin.”
Taylor would also serve as a veteran voice on a team that currently has one senior and just three players returning from last year’s roster, two of whom are redshirts.
While the prospects are bleak, there’s still some hope that the appeal process works in favor of Taylor. She is currently not with the team or listed on the roster, but would be a more than welcome return if the NCAA reverses its ruling.
“She was (with the team) during the initial waiver part, and then, quite frankly, I just didn’t think it was fair to her to continue on that unknown,” Mittie said. “Her and I have had a lot of discussions on what would be the next path for her. But we’re still hopeful that somebody sees the light and says, ‘We really should make this kid eligible for a lot of reasons.’”
There’s not much time, though. K-State opens its season in less than two weeks when it travels to Tarleton State for an exhibition on Oct. 27. The Wildcats will play their first home game one week later when Omaha comes to Manhattan on Nov. 3.