2024-25 Women's Basketball Season Preview

BYU looks to return to winning ways as the Cougars approach the 2024-25 campaign with nine new faces and a new style of play.

Author Austin Rustand
2024-25 Women's Basketball Season Preview2024-25 Women's Basketball Season Preview
Abby Shelton/BYU Photo

PROVO, Utah — BYU looks to return to winning ways as the Cougars approach the 2024-25 campaign with nine new faces and a new style of play.

The Cougars are led by head coach Amber Whiting, who enters her third season at the helm of the program. In her first two seasons in Provo, Whiting’s teams totaled an overall record of 32-34 with two postseason appearances, one in the WNIT in 2022-23 and a trip to the inaugural WBIT last season.

In 2023-24, the Cougars finished at 16-17, fueled by two All-Big 12 players in Lauren Gustin (1st Team) and Kailey Woolston (Honorable Mention), senior staple Kaylee Smiler and freshman standout Amari Whiting. BYU finished 10th in the Big 12 regular season standings before falling to Kansas in the second round of the Big 12 Championship.

Lauren Gustin is recognized after breaking BYU's all-time rebounding record with 1,483 rebounds and counting.

There were many milestones set during the 2023-24 season for the Cougars. Gustin eclipsed BYU’s all-time rebounding record with 1,694 career boards and 547 offensive rebounds (1st). She also broke into the top 10 in career rebounds per game (2nd), field goals made (6th) and points scored (9th).

Kailey Woolston hits a runner in a BYU women's basketball game against Iowa State.

Woolston set the program record for 3-point percentage as she went 81-174 from behind the arc for a 46.6 percent clip, also a freshman record. Her 81 made threes set the second-highest mark for a freshman and the eighth most in a single season in BYU history. Her 46.6 percent from downtown also set the freshman record by nearly four percentage points.

Amari Whiting defends an Iowa State guard during a BYU women's basketball game.

Amari Whiting added to the record year by recording the third-best mark for a freshman in assists (123), free throws made (80), defensive rebounds (136) and games played (33). She also matched the freshman record for games started by a freshman with 33 starts. Whiting also slid into the freshman records’ top 10 in points (7th), with 349, 3-point field goals made (7th), with 31, 3-point field goal percentage (9th) at 31 percent, total rebounds (10th), with 163, assists per game (4th) at 3.73 per contest, steals (7th), with 50 and steals per game (8th) at 1.52.

The Cougars also picked up their first top-20 win of the Whiting era as they knocked off No. 18 Baylor on February 7, 2024. In that game, Gustin scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting and grabbed 16 rebounds. Amari Whiting also flirted with the first recorded triple-double in program history as she recorded 14 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in the win over the Bears.

 

The Cougars return just four players from a season ago while adding five true freshmen and four Division I transfers to the 2024-25 roster. Despite losing its two top scorers in Lauren Gustin (graduation) and Kailey Woolston (LDS mission) from a year ago, BYU returns three players in Amari Whiting, Emma Calvert and Lauren Davenport who each started at least 10 games last season.

Whiting also added four transfers: Kemery (Martín) Congdon from Cal, Marya Hudgins from Santa Clara, Hattie Ogden from Buffalo and Kendra Gillispie from Arkansas State who will play big minutes in 2024-25.

Ari Mackey-Williams and Kylie Krebs will both miss the 2024-25 season due to injury.

The third-year head coach brings in a highly-touted group of freshmen led by Delaney Gibb who is the 77th-ranked player in ESPN’s 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings. Gibb is joined by two-time Idaho 4A Player of the Year Brinley Cannon, three-time Utah 6A state champions Sarah Bartholomew and Naia Tanuvasa and Idaho 5A All-State honoree Kambree Barber.

2024-25 Women's Basketball Team Photo

This new-look BYU team has a tough task in front of them as they enter their second year as a member of the Big 12 Conference. Perennial powers Texas and Oklahoma left the conference to join the SEC this summer, but Big 12 women’s basketball likely took a step forward, despite their departure.

With the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, the Big 12 has eight conference members that were selected to the 2024 NCAA Tournament, without including Texas and Oklahoma. Arizona, Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Utah and West Virginia all made the trip to the Big Dance with all but Arizona advancing to the Round of 32. The Buffaloes and Cyclones each made a run to the Sweet 16 before falling to National Runner-up Iowa Hawkeyes and USC Trojans, respectively.

“We are really looking forward to our second season in the Big 12 Conference,” said BYU head coach Amber Whiting. “With the women we have returning, the additions from the portal and our talented group of freshmen, we have a really solid group that is eager to prove that we belong in the best basketball conference in the country.”

During the 2024-25 campaign, BYU will play a home-and-home series with the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils and the Utah Utes. The Cougars will host Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and UCF while traveling to take on Baylor, Cincinnati, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

“This team is going to look a lot different than last season, not just with the players on the floor, but also the way we play,” Whiting said. “The Big 12 Conference is stacked top-to-bottom with talented, veteran teams that will demand us to play our very best, night in and night out. I’m optimistic about the strides my women have taken throughout summer workouts and now in practice, and I’m excited to see what they can do when we take the floor next month.”