The Lady Toppers ended their season with a whimper, not a bang. The 2025-26 campaign is officially over for WKU Women’s Basketball after three consecutive losses.

The team struggled throughout the season and ended at the bottom of the Conference USA standings with a 4-14 conference record that reflects that struggle. Despite ending the season on a down note, the team showed clear improvement in the second half of the season, and that’s worth something.

Offense: D

Offensively, the Lady Toppers struggled all around. The team averaged 57.4 points per game, with a scoring margin of -7.5 points per game.

After so much offseason turnover, the Lady Toppers only retained one starter from their previous season. The new starting lineup clearly struggled to find an offensive rhythm, which led to an early season plagued by turnovers, injuries and inconsistency.

WKU turned the ball over more than 20 times in its exhibition game against Lindsey Wilson and its season opener against Kentucky State University. The turnovers were a symptom of the team’s failure to fully come together over the offseason, and I can’t blame them for that.

As Head Coach Greg Collins said multiple times in post-game interviews, he only has two months with the full team before the season starts. It’s hard to put together a real, functional team in that time, especially with so many new faces taking prominent roles.

The early-season issues were only compounded by a hand injury to starting sophomore guard Trinity Rowe before the team’s third game. Team morale fell drastically in their first away game against the Longwood Lancers.

By the beginning of CUSA play, the team still felt unrealized. The starting lineup was full of good players, but they couldn’t seem to mesh well. Those issues meshing were made worse by Coach Collins’s strange substitutions. The players struggled to create a playing rhythm, and, just as the team began to come together, Collins would make a substitution that brought the pace of play to a screeching halt.

The Lady Toppers late-season blitz was an impressive step-up in the team’s shown abilities, but it wasn’t enough to escape the 12th seed. It’s unfortunate to see the team come together so late in the season, because once they locked in, the team was a sight to behold

Even still, they weren’t without their issues. The team’s inconsistent shooting proved frustrating throughout the season. While there were consistent pieces of the offense, the team as a whole struggled to fight the good fight when it needed to.

If I had to describe the team’s offense in a word, it would be: inconsistent. The team showed clear signs of offensive brilliance, like in its win against Middle Tennessee State University, but it failed to capitalize on that brilliance in the moments that mattered.

Offensive MVP: Salma Khedr

The team’s most valuable offensive asset was starting sophomore guard Salma Khedr.

Khedr’s biggest offensive contributions came when the team was at its lowest. Amidst the doldrums of CUSA play, when the team couldn’t seem to buy a win, Khedr played her heart out.

Nothing seemed natural about Khedr stepping up this season. A sophomore who didn’t get any significant playing time her freshman year didn’t seem like the natural pick to be such a huge offensive asset for this team, but she exceeded all expectations.

There’s something so fascinating about the way that Khedr plays offense. She stands in stark opposition to Rowe, who seems to have been born to play collegiate basketball. Khedr’s shooting form doesn’t look like someone who played basketball from a young age. She doesn’t move like any other basketball player I’ve seen on the court.

Her playstyle isn’t necessarily pretty or graceful, but it’s impressive nonetheless. Khedr plays like someone who brute-forced herself into being good at basketball. Her confidence, size and technical skill as a player made her this season’s true offensive powerhouse.

She worked her way into the starting lineup and stayed there every game from Jan. 15 to Mar. 5.

When it mattered, Khedr didn’t flinch in the face of any team. She would take the shot when no one else would, and it often went in. While the team’s offense struggled to find consistency, Khedr didn’t.

Khedr averaged 10.4 points per game with 41.7% shooting from the field, and she played all but two games.

Khedr’s prowess as a player became paramount to any success WKU found throughout the season. She was, without a doubt, the most valuable offensive piece the team had.

Defense: C

The Lady Toppers’ defense struggled with a different issue than what plagued their offense: mediocrity.

WKU’s defense was nothing more than middling. When the team’s offense played well, the defense helped facilitate the offense, but the defense alone wasn’t strong enough to fuel a victory.

Throughout the season, the cracks in WKU’s defense began to form. The team found itself unable to rebound effectively. During conference play, WKU suffered a rebound margin of -12.6. Even on the team’s best night, rebounds were a shining issue.

Despite that, WKU’s defense proved to be much stronger than its offense. The team averaged nine steals per game, largely thanks to senior guard Tia Shelling, who ranked fourth in CUSA for steals.

The Lady Toppers played an effective zone defense that played a huge role in the limited success the team found throughout the season.

Defensive MVP: Zsofia Telegdy

Despite some inconsistencies, senior forward Zsofia Telegdy played the best defense on the team.

She averaged 4.4 rebounds a game and proved to be the team’s most reliable defensive option. Early in the season, it seemed that senior forward Jeniffer Silva would be the team’s offensive powerhouse. She was the team’s only true center and played well in the paint, but, as the season went on, she became a much less reliable defender.

Even when Silva outsized her opponents, she failed to get rebounds consistently. Telegdy, while not a great defender, played the role to the best of her ability.

Telegdy graduates this year, and her absence leaves a hole in the team. Telegdy was the only starter that WKU retained from its 2024-25 season, and she earned her spot on the court. Without her, the Lady Toppers will be without a forward who plays solidly on both sides of the court.

Overall MVP: Trinity Rowe

Before the season, Coach Collins said that Rowe took to basketball “like a duck to water.” I may disagree with Collins on some things, but that isn’t one of them.

Rowe played selflessly and confidently. She led the team, which is an impressive role to see a transfer sophomore take on. She’s a natural playmaker who pushed her team to be better. It was clear through her playing and her post-game interviews that Rowe saw the best in her team.

Every single game, Rowe played her heart out. She pushed herself and her team, and it paid off eventually.

Rowe wasn’t just a player on the team; she was the team’s player. If I had to pick a player who was the most valuable Lady Topper this season, there’s no question whether Rowe is it.

Overall: C-

Despite playing some really great basketball by the season’s end, the Lady Toppers ended the season 12th in CUSA. After such an amazing 2024-25 season, it was disappointing to see the team this low in their conference.

In all honesty, I think that the team’s ability exceeded their rank, but that only became the case in the final games of the season. I think that in the future, CUSA should allow every team into the conference tournament, not just the top 10 seeds. It gives teams like WKU, who only really came together at the end of the season, the opportunity to play above their station.

One key takeaway is that WKU has a bright future ahead of it. This team relied heavily on sophomores Rowe, Khedr and forward Torri James. Freshman guards Enni Ahervuo and Lola Bond showed real sparks of talent on the court.

So long as Collins and company can build a strong team around this young core, I’m confident that the team will do well in the future.