Entering his 20th season as the BYU women’s basketball coach, Jeff Judkins has a talented roster that is expected to contend once again for the West Coast Conference championship.
Returning are senior guard Paisley Johnson Harding and senior center Sara Hamson, who were named to the preseason All-WCC Team for the second year in a row. Hamson is the two-time WCC Defensive Player of the Year.
Also returning is sophomore guard Shaylee Gonzales, who was named to the All-WCC Team as well after being sidelined for the 2019-20 campaign due to a knee injury. Gonzales was the 2019 WCC Newcomer of the year after averaging a team-high 17 points, 4.1 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game.
With Gonzales, BYU won the WCC tournament title and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, where the No. 7 seed Cougars beat No. 10 Auburn before being eliminated by No. 2 Stanford. In that loss against the Cardinal, Gonzales scored a jaw-dropping 32 points.
During the summer of 2019, Gonzales suffered a season-ending injury, tearing the ACL and meniscus in her right knee.
Without Gonzales, the Cougars finished with an 18-11 record overall last season. As the No. 3 seed, BYU fell to Pepperdine in the quarterfinals of the WCC tournament quarterfinals.
But Gonzales has recovered after months of grueling rehab. And she’s returned to the court.
“I’m so happy to be back,” Gonzales said.
What does Gonzales return mean to BYU’s program?
“Losing Shaylee would be like the Utah Jazz losing Donovan Mitchell. We’re just a totally different team when she’s on the floor. She can do so many things to help everybody out,” Judkins said. “You know what makes a great player is not scoring and rebounding. It’s making people around you better. I think that’s what she learned as a freshman.”
What are Gonzales’ expectations for this year?
“We have huge goals set for this next season, especially after the season the girls had this last season. Some of them were devastated and upset about how the season ended,” Gonzales said. “But I want to come in and push them to be the best they can be and to have a great season.
“I personally want to have a better season than I did my freshman season. We definitely want to go win the WCC tournament. We know that’s going to be super hard with these teams coming back and being even better but I know that we can do it. We want to go to the NCAA tournament and go … to the Sweet 16 and even further this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to push each other, work hard and reach those goals.”
The Cougars are set to tip off the 2020-21 season this weekend in Las Vegas with games against Louisiana State on Friday and Washington on Saturday.
“It’s been difficult to try and get our seven (nonconference) games, but we’ve put together a good schedule against good competition,” Judkins said. “We’re excited about the teams we’re playing that will give our players plenty of experience playing in different venues and against solid programs.”
BYU welcomes a pair of transfers to the program, senior grad transfer Tegan Graham, a grad transfer from Colgate, and junior forward Kayla Belles-Lee, a transfer from Michigan State. Belles-Lee married BYU men’s basketball forward Kolby Lee last summer.
The Cougars have five international players on the roster — Maria Albiero and Babalu Ugwu hail from Brazil; Signe Glantz is from Sweden; and Graham and Kaylee Smiler come from New Zealand.
Judkins won his 400th game with the Cougars last December with a win at Pepperdine, making him the all-time winningest coach for men and women at BYU.
The Cougars are expected to keep winning and Judkins is thrilled to have Gonzales back this season.
“She just does everything she’s supposed to ... she’s a dream player. You’re very lucky to have a player like that as a coach in your career,” he said. “She’s a hard worker, she’s talented and she’s motivated. She really wants to prove to a lot of people how good she is. And she wants to win.”