The University of Akron women's basketball team is transitioning from the Reagan Bass era .
Bass transferred to Purdue after being a three-time All-Mid-American Conference honoree at Akron , including first team in 2022-23 , second team in 2023-24 and honorable mention in 2021-22.
Second-year coach Ryan Gensler is confident the cupboard isn't bare as the Zips return six players and welcome eight newcomers.
"I thought last season we learned a lot," Gensler said Oct. 30 at the Tipoff Reception at Rhodes Arena. "We learned a lot about what style we need to play in order to be successful within the MAC and beyond to be able to get to NCAA Tournaments and be able to achieve higher than that. Part of that is getting the right people here. We spent the spring recruiting. Had to bring in eight new faces.
"We had signed [6-foot-2 freshman] Ni'Rah Clark [from Toledo Rogers High School] in the fall, and then we needed to bring in seven new players and our staff did a wonderful job tackling the [transfer] portal. We did it very smartly. We are very analytically motivated in finding the right pieces that fit how we want to play. We want to create great spacing on the floor with the ability to shoot from the perimeter.
"We want to have a good complementary basketball game of some good inside and some good outside, and we want to play fast. I thought at times last year we did that, certainly with the win over Pittsburgh, the first win over a Power Five school in over 15 years."
Akron (1-1) hosts Robert Morris for a 6 p.m. Wednesday tipoff. The Zips opened the season with a 81-73 win at home over Georgia State on Nov. 4 and a 66-50 loss at Binghamton on Nov. 7.
Akron returns six players: 5-7 senior Alexus Mobley, 5-8 senior Zakia Rasheed, 5-3 senior Kaia Woods , 6-2 junior Lanae Riley (Hoban graduate), 6-5 junior Liisa Taponen and 5-9 sophomore Teniesha Clarke .
"There are some great players that remain," Gensler said. "I think they took big steps. All six of our returners took major strides this summer. Lanae Riley is in the best shape of her life right now. She knows in order for us to be successful, she needed to elevate her game on both ends of the floor. Unbelievable 3-point shooter. Led us in shooting last year at 43 percent. That is a luxury in basketball to have your five person shoot that.
"We needed more perimeter scoring. We needed more complementary basketball. Teniesha Clarke took a step this summer and has emerged as a regular. Zakia Rasheed took another step this summer. Kaia Woods took another step from a leadership standpoint this summer."
Woods said the expectation is "to play fast" and "to win."
"We have pretty much a whole new team," Woods said. "I came in last year as a transfer and it was pretty much a whole new team as well. This is kind of a replay of last year. It is a replay, but we also I think have a little bit more experience. I think we have more experience both on the court with the players and also on the staff as well.
"Coach G had his first year here last year and he learned a lot. We learned a lot. We learned his playing style and we made adjustments. ... We are team 51. The goal is to be the best team in University of Akron women's basketball history."
Gensler bid farewell to last year's seniors Morgan Haney, Alexis Stewart and Tahmala Thorpe and to five players who transferred out — Bass ( Purdue ), Dacia Lewandowski ( Youngstown State ), Olivia Brown (Wright State), Leila Jones (Fairmont State in West Virginia ) and Annie Watson ( Georgetown College in Kentucky ).
" Reagan is a great, quality player," Woods said. "She is over at Purdue now and she is doing pretty well over there. I am really happy for her, but we have a whole new system, we have a whole new set of players and a whole new buy-in. Everything is pretty much new again, so it is kind of a reset. There is not really a comparison to last year compared to this year."
Akron's roster features eight new players — Clark, 5-7 freshman Kyara Bakker, 6-0 sophomore Ella Wigal, 5-6 junior Kam'Ren Rhodes, 6-0 junior Maddie Vejsicky, 6-0 junior Caroline Lyles, 5-11 redshirt senior Shelbee Brown and 5-6 redshirt senior Emily Hall .
"We have a lot of talent and there is a lot of buy-in," Woods said. "Combining the buy-in and having talented people with good character on the team, I think that is a recipe for success. We have a lot of athletic people. We have a lot of jack-of-all-trade type of players."
Vejsicky previously played at San Diego and Virginia Tech . Rhodes transferred in from Illinois , Lyles from Tulsa, Brown from Memphis, Wigal from Liberty and Hall from Hamilton College in New York.
"We infused some great talent that was out there," Gensler said. "To complement an Alexus Mobley who is great at getting downhill, you needed to bring in some 3-point shooting. A Maddie Vejsicky does that exceptionally well. A Caroline Lyles and a Ella Wigal do that exceptionally well. A Kam Rhodes, who comes in from the University of Illinois, who I recruited since her sophomore year [of high school], is a talented player.
"If there is one thing that I enjoy about this group more than anything, it is finally a group that over 10 of our players I have known since their sophomore year of high school. There is a very calming influence about that, that they chose Akron, they chose our staff and they chose our style and our culture on purpose."
Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: What to know about the Akron Zips women's basketball team in 2024-2025
