The Kansas State women’s basketball team is having another successful season in 2024-25, a continuation of the program’s rise over the past two decades. The Wildcats have made 13 out of the past 22 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournaments.
But reaching the Sweet 16 has been another matter, and it’s a drought that the team’s backers at Kansas sportsbooks will hope to see end in 2025. Here’s a look at their NCAA Tournament achievements:
Round Reached | No. of Times | Last Time |
Final Four | 0 | --- |
Elite Eight | 1 | 1982 |
Sweet 16 | 3 | 2002 |
Second Round | 13 | 2024 |
Made Tournament | 18 | 2024 |
K-State’s current run of form began with the most recent Sweet 16 appearance, in the 2002 Tournament. The Wildcats have reached as high as No. 2 in the regular-season Associated Press rankings a couple of times and have been a single-digit seed in all 12 tourney appearances since 2003, but they have not gotten out of the second round in 23 years.
BetKansas.com, where you will find the best Kansas sports betting promos, researched past tournaments.
The best seed that the Kansas State women have had in the NCAA Tournament was No. 2, in 2004. Three other times they were a top-four seed, including last season when they were a No. 4. But in 2024 the Wildcats, hosting the first two rounds at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, lost in the second round to Colorado, 63-50. KSU also reached the second round of the tournament in 2022 as a No. 9 seed before falling to top seed North Carolina State, 89-57.
For the 2024-25 season, BetMGM Kansas Sportsbook lists K-State at +5000 odds to win its first national championship.
In 2002, the Wildcats won two games in the NCAA Tournament to reach the Sweet 16 before losing to Old Dominion, 88-62, in the Mideast Region semifinals. In the first two NCAA Tournaments, in 1982 and ’83, KSU also got to the final 16, including an Elite Eight run in 1982, the first tournament under the NCAA’s administration (the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women ran a national tournament from 1971-82).
That 1982 event included 32 teams, so KSU won twice to reach the final eight teams. The program is still waiting to win three times in a single tournament run.
This season, 11th-year head coach Jeff Mittie seems to have the Wildcats poised for another top-four seed. The Wildcats were 19-1 until Saturday, when a 63-53 loss at Big 12 rival Colorado ended KSU’s 14-game winning streak. But the ‘Cats only dropped one spot to No. 11 in the new AP poll, issued Monday.
Even better, KSU is No. 7 in the official NCAA Net Rating, the best ranking in the Big 12. Conference games are ahead on Thursday against visiting Iowa State and on Feb. 2 in Lawrence at archrival Kansas, then a tussle at home against No. 9 TCU looms on Feb. 5.
If KSU secures one of the 16 most coveted spots in the 64-team event for 2025 (a No. 4 seed or higher), it would dramatically improve Sweet 16 chances, despite the program’s past inability to convert those top-four seeds into deep tournament runs. In the history of the women’s tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1994, the eventual champion has been seeded No. 3 or better every year. Only one team seeded lower has even reached the national championship game (No. 5 seed Louisville in 2013).
Center Ayoka Lee leads the Wildcats with 16 points and 6.3 rebounds per game; she has +12000 odds at DraftKings Kansas Sportsbook to win the Women’s Wooden Award as top national player this season.
USA Today photo by Scott Sewell
Author
Jim Tomlin edits and writes about sports, gambling and the intersection of those two industries. He has 30 years of experience with companies such as the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition. He now lends his expertise to BetKansas.com, among other sites.
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