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BYU's Amari Whiting (left) drives to the basket against TCU's Madison Conner during a Big 12 women's basketball game in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Athletics

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BYU women's basketball coach Amber Whiting, left, talks to her team in a time out during a Big 12 game against TCU at the Marriott Center on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The first step in building a roster is to have a good plan.

The plan for the BYU women’s basketball team began with seeing what they could get out of the transfer portal in the offseason and also included some adjustments in the assignments for the coaching staff.

Third-year Cougar head coach Amber Whiting hopes those changes can push her team toward the top of the Big 12.

“We wanted experience out of the portal,” Whiting said. “We wanted to get a big but what kind of a big? Then we wanted to put a lot of shooting around that big, not just catch-and-shoot but playmakers.”

The “big” is Kendra Gillespie, a former ESPNW Top 100 player who has been at Baylor and Arkansas State. The new playmakers around Gillespie include Kemery Martin (Cal), Marya Hudgins (Santa Clara) and Hattie Ogden (Buffalo). Add in a freshman class led by Canadian standout Delaney Gibb plus returners such as sophomore guard Amari Whiting, senior forward Emma Calvert, senior guard Lauren Davenport and junior guard Arielle Mackey-Williams (coming off a knee injury that cost her last season) and Coach Whiting is seeing her plan come together.

“We wanted to make sure the newcomers fit the culture,” she said. “You can put together a team with a lot of big dogs but there are only so many basketballs to go around. All of the girls that came from the portal are competitive and selfless players. They mesh well with the rest of the team. We want to play fast and play together so that can be our competitive advantage.

“We want to try to get old and stay old and we want to find freshmen and transfers that can fall in love with the process of development and get chemistry with each other.”

Coach Whiting has also decided to hand over the offense to assistant coach Lee Cummard, heading into his sixth year in the program.

“The last couple of years we’ve all had input into it,” Coach Whiting said. “Lee’s mind goes to the offensive side. He wants us to shoot more threes and play faster. I fully trust him. He’s been doing our side out-of-bounds plays and end-of-game scenarios. I’m going to let him run with it and see what he can do. It’ll be fun to watch. He’s got a lot of pep in his step since we made this change.”

Coach Whiting intends to assign one assistant coach for defense but will wait until she replaces Morgan Bailey, who left the staff two weeks ago for a job at the University of Utah.

The biggest change from last year’s team, which finished 16-17 overall and 6-12 in Big 12 play, is the graduation of the school’s all-time leading rebounder, Lauren Gustin. She averaged 16.7 points and an NCAA-leading 15.3 rebounds per game as a senior.

Coach Whiting laughed when she was asked if she has to keep reminding her players that Gustin is gone so they have to go get rebounds now.

“It’s crazy,” Coach Whiting said. “We’re going to miss that. We’re trying to push the rebounding as hard as we can. No one person can make up for Lauren but we can have two or three of four pick up more rebounds per game to help us.”

The team was involved in summer camps and have had two weeks of summer workouts together. Gibb, who graduated from high school in Canada last week, have finally joined the group as the Cougars work to not only replace Gustin but two other starters in Kaylee Smiler (graduate) and freshman sharpshooter Kailey Woolston (church mission).

“It’s been really fun,” said Amari Whiting, who averaged 10.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game as a freshman. “We lost some really good players. All of the players coming in from the portal have a couple of years under their best and the freshmen are adapting well.

“I feel like a lot of time last season I was uncomfortable, coming back from an injury and not playing for a year and jumping in at point guard. The pace in college is so different and so is the physicality. I was kind of waiting for the time to be comfortable but the key is how comfortable you can be being uncomfortable. The game will slow done.”

Coach Whiting and her staff are getting a good look at what kind of team they can put on the floor in the fall.

“We’re communicating with the girls to make sure we’re on the same page, and that’s a lot of work as staff,” she said. “When you get transfers the language is different for them. Chemistry is another thing. We’re pushing them to be stronger this summer. Everyone in the Big 12 is faster and stronger.

“I like how hard they play and how they are playing together. Sometimes, they’re too unselfish. We’ve been going against the boys (practice squad) and working on skill development. I like what I see so far.”