WBB Preview: Utah State Begins New Era Against Kansas City

After seasons of underachieving and a tumultuous offseason wrought with change, it is finally the dawn of a new age for Utah State women’s basketball.

For head coach Wes Brooks and the slew of players he brought in, Monday night's matchup marks their regular season debuts as Aggies and a chance to introduce themselves with a strong first impression. The season opener for a team coming off a 5-25 campaign doesn’t often register as a high-stakes affair, but this game is deeply important for the Aggies.

At the very least, it's a milestone for the team as the 10th head coach in history takes his place at the helm, but it could be much more. This is a program desperate for direction. For years, the Aggie faithful have hoped for more from the women’s basketball program. Utah State hasn't finished with a winning record since 2018-19 and hasn't surpassed the 20-win mark since 2011-12 – which stands as the only such season in school history. With the arrival of Brooks, that desperate hope for more has been acknowledged and replaced with real optimism that the time has finally come.

That’s what’s at stake in his first game as head coach. A win could set the tone for a bright future and a loss could be the opposite, leaving fans waiting even longer for signs that the team is on the right track. Either way, it’s a new season and a new program, and there is no better place to kick off the new era of Utah State women’s basketball than at home in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Opening the 2024-2025 campaign, Utah State play host to the Kansas City Roos. Neither team has played yet, so it’s a completely blank slate with more unknowns than knowns. This is especially true of Utah State after an offseason overhaul of the program.

The teams met last year and the Aggies narrowly escaped with a win as Cheyenne Stubbs hit a buzzer-beater, giving the team their first win of the season after a 0-2 start and snappin a 15-game losing streak that extended to the prior season. The Roos ended the season 12-20 and 3-13 in the Summit League. Ahead of this season, both teams were picked to finish last in their respective conference's preseason polls.

Because the teams met last year, there are some familiar faces, starting with Kansas City’s head coach Dionnah Jackson-Durrett, who is starting her third year at the helm. Tamia Ugass, a 6-foot-3 forward who came off the bench and dropped 11 on the Aggies a year ago, returns too, as do a pair of incumbent starters in Emani Bennett and Lisa Thomas. The Roos are also returning their leading scorer, Alayna Contreras, who didn’t score against the Aggies but ended the season with a team-high of 10.2 points per game as a serious weapon off the bench.

Utah State also returns its top scorer, Stubbs. She averaged 16.1 points per game last season, and in her exhibition game showing against Westminster, she dropped 21 points on an 8-of-13 shooting day, quite a bit more efficient than her 38.1 percent hit rate on field goals last season.

It was her heroics that lifted the Aggies past the Roos a year ago, and it very well may be Stubbs again leading the way for Utah State, but the team around her looks very different than it did a season ago. The Aggies will need that supporting cast to deliver this season, and that starts on Monday night in the Spectrum.

Players To Know

Kelby Bannerman: Bannerman spent two seasons at Davidson before transferring to Kansas City, and will be starting her second year with the Roos this winter. She made an immediate impact in Kansas City after seeing action in only 12 games at Davidson, earning 12 starts and playing in 27 games in her first year with her current school.

Standing at 6-1, Bannerman helps anchor the Kansas City frontcourt with complementary scoring and rebounding. Last season, she averaged 5.1 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. She wasn’t a team leader – she was seventh in scoring, fifth in rebounding and second in blocks – but she was a reliable force when needed. This year, she could be called on to play a larger role, particularly on the boards, to make up for departing players like Dominique Phillips (9.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game) and Nariyah Simmons (10.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game).

Against Utah State last year, she had two points, five rebounds and a block. She will be looking to team up with Ugass to command the post against a Utah State team that went small with its starting five in the exhibition game. The Aggies are a guard and wing-heavy team, but the frontcourt has enough talent to make an interesting matchup.

Alayna Contreras: Contreras is a junior entering her second year with the Roos. In year one, she played 31 games, starting in 11, and became the team’s leading scorer, averaging 10.2 points, 2.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds per game in a campaign that earned her Summit League All-Newcomer team honors. She is coming into the season with high expectations and could be the team’s best player this year. 

Contreras is a dangerous scorer with range and the ability to get to the line. She shot 33.6 percent from deep last year and 77.2 percent from the line, claiming an 11.9 percent free-throw rate. The rest of her game is still a work in progress, but Contreras is Kansas City's most prolific offensive weapon, narrowly finishing second in assists to go with her production as a scorer, while turning the ball over less than 2.0 times per contest.

Lisa Thomas: A steady and capable player across the board, the 5-5 Thomas was the team’s assist leader last year. She can score, though she often elects to move the ball rather than shoot it, averaging 4.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 2023-24.

Against the Aggies, she had nine points, two rebounds and five assists. She got to the line to do most of her scoring, where she finished 5 of 6. Outside of the charity stripe, she was 2 of 4 from the field. Thomas shot 42.1 percent from the field, 50.0 percent from three and 56.9 percent from the free-throw stripe on the year, though much of that came on low volume. With Simmons off to Austin Peay, Thomas may be asked to bump her shooting volume up this season, especially if she slides into a starting role in the backcourt alongside Bennett and Contreras on a full-time basis.

Tamia Ugass: Ugass is going into her senior season with Kansas City, and her role has changed over the years. She didn’t play much in her first season, appearing in just four games, but in her second year, she started in 13 games and averaged 7.5 points. Last season, Ugass became a nice role player, appearing in 28 games but starting just six.

She averaged 6.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 61.7 percent from the free-throw line. Settling into her job as a role player, she had a big game against Utah State and came off the bench for 11 points, six rebounds and an assist in 21 minutes of action.