Another year under the tutelage of head coach Jeff Mittie. Another tournament berth for the Kansas State women’s basketball team.
For three years now Mittie has led the Wildcats to postseason play, which in itself isn’t an anomaly — Deb Patterson’s teams only missed playing in March five of the 18 seasons she coached (1996-2014) before Mittie arrived in Manhattan.
But when Patterson was fired at the end of the 2013-14 season, the Wildcats had gone from a 9-9 conference record in 2011-12 to finishing 5-13 against Big 12 opponents for two straight years.
Mittie was brought in to reverse K-State’s downward trend — the Wildcats had an 85-80 record the last five seasons under Patterson after having enjoyed a 114-51 stretch the five years prior.