KANSAS

Kansas women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider facing make-or-break season

The 2025-26 season is a crucial one for Kansas women’s basketball head coach Brandon Schneider if he hopes to remain the leader of this program.  
Dillon Davis|
Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Kansas Jayhawks

The Kansas women’s basketball team officially kicks off the 2025-26 season on Wednesday night when they take on the Kansas City Kangaroos inside Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. Tipoff for tonight’s game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+ for those not in attendance.

This year's roster

This year’s KU team is loaded with talent thanks to a stellar recruiting class put together by head coach Brandon Schneider and his staff this offseason.

The Jayhawks’ 2025 class was highlighted by five-star forward Jaliya Davis (No. 17 overall on ESPNW) who played at Blue Valley North High School in nearby Overland Park, Kansas. She has already shown flashes of greatness after scoring 29 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in the team’s 90-59 win in an exhibition against Fort Hays State last week.

The 2025 class also featured five-star guard Keeley Parks (No. 29 overall) from Norman, Oklahoma, four-star guard Libby Fandel (No. 44 overall) out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and four-star forward Tatyonna Brown (unranked in top 100) from Colorado Springs.  

The class, which was ranked No. 7 in the country, is likely KU’s best in program history, and they have joined a roster that returns each of its top six scorers from last season – led by two-time All-Big 12 First Teamer and potential All-American S’Mya Nichols.

As a result, the Jayhawks were picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 coaches poll and received seven votes in the AP Top 25 women's college basketball preseason rankings.

Taking the next step

Schneider deserves a lot of credit for building the roster into what is today, but now the pressure is on for him to take this program to the next level.

This will be his 11th season as head coach at Kansas, and the Jayhawks have just two NCAA Tournament appearances in that span (2022 and 2024) – never making it past the second round. In fact, KU didn’t reach postseason play at all during each of the first six years of Schneider’s tenure.

The team did win the WNIT Championship in 2023, but that was with a senior-laden roster that underperformed by failing to reach the NCAA Tournament to begin with.

With the talent and experience on this year’s team, KU has no excuse for not reaching the NCAA Tournament, and they appear to have the talent to make it out of the first weekend for the first time since 2013.

If the Jayhawks fail to reach the NCAA Tournament or the team suffers another early exit, it will be time to question if Schneider is ultimately the right man for the job.

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Dillon Davis
DILLON DAVIS

Being a Kansas Jayhawks fan was never a choice for me. I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, surrounded by a family full of Jayhawks. I was even born during a Kansas basketball NCAA Tournament game, so I guess you could say it was fate for me to be a Jayhawk too. When it came time for me to go to college, there was only one place I applied and only one place I wanted to go – KU. I've since turned that passion into sports writing. I've written about KU sports for more than seven years and produced hundreds of KU news articles in that time. I love storytelling, I love KU and I love interacting with my fellow Jayhawks. Rock Chalk!

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