By the time she arrived on campus for her first season with the Jayhawks, KU guard S’Mya Nichols had played basketball all around the world and in some high-level situations.
But that didn’t erase the need for her to pay her dues and wait her time before taking over as one of the team’s leaders.
So, instead of being too assertive off the court, Nichols saved her aggression for those moments on the court when she attacked opponents and put opposing defenses in tough spots.
“Being a being a freshman on a team with four fifth-year seniors, she really observed a lot,” KU coach Brandon Schneider recently said in reflecting back on Nichols’ first year with the program during which she led the team in scoring. “I thought she learned a lot. I thought that she picked her moments to speak up. But this spring she and I spent a lot of time together just talking about the future of the program and the role that she would play in it, in a lot of different facets.”
As if his hopes and expectations for the talented sophomore from nearby Shawnee Mission West High School were not already high enough, those offseason conversations pushed Schneider’s vision for Nichols to an even higher level.
They won’t skip steps. Not that she’d want to. And she’ll still have to let the process play out in front of her. No problem. But today, even more than during all those hours and days and weeks and months that Schneider spent recruiting Nichols, the KU coach believes he’s got something really special in his sophomore guard, and that belief goes way beyond her ability with a basketball in her hands.
“She’s not there yet,” Schneider noted. “But I think she will probably develop into one of the better leaders that I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach.”
A series of offseason conversations last spring led Schneider to believe that in a more profound way than ever before. He always thought she would be good. And her personality and style of play screamed lead dog.
But those conversations allowed Schneider to open up a new window into what makes Nichols tick and rather than merely looking through it, Nichols made sure to open it wide and stick her head out to feel the breeze.
“It was a little bit more of, ‘OK, you’ve spent a year around me, you know what’s important to me; are there things maybe that are not that important to me that are important to you,’” Schneider recalled. “Those conversations I think are really critical.”
He gave the example of finding out what Nichols would prefer for the team to wear on road trips and on the plane, noting that if she felt strongly enough about it one way or the other, “we’ll change it.”
And therein lies the best part about Nichols’ potential as a leader. She could not care less about things like dress code and uniformity.
“No, we don’t need to wear the same thing on the plane,” Nichols told R1S1 Sports when reflecting back on those conversations with her head coach. “That’s OK. Everyone has their own style, everyone’s at their own comfort level. But when he asked me to sit down with him and talk about all of that, I was like, ‘Of course we can have those conversations. Of course I’m gonna think of ideas. Let’s get this thing started.’”
While admitting that there were some “non-negotiables” that he probably would not budge on, Schneider opened the door and his mind to anything and everything Nichols could possibly throw at him. What he expected was for her to ask for things that might make practice or travel or even the games a little more fun. What he got was a request for things to get tougher.
“Honestly, I didn’t really ask him anything, but I mostly like stated some things that I thought we needed and I wanted to see,” Nichols explained.
One of them was simple.
“When you say something, we need to respond,” she told him.
Could be an OK or a Yes or even something like, Got you coach.
“When your mom calls your name, it’s like, ‘Yes?’ Like, ‘Yeah, what do you need,’” Nichols explained. “And when she says do something, you’re like, ‘OK.’ And it’s the same thing with basketball and our coaches. They’re not giving us demands but they’re asking us to be better and they’re literally helping show us what to do.”
She continued: “You know how much an OK means? OK means I understand. And if you don’t say OK then you must not understand.”
Nichols said she felt incredibly comfortable talking to Schneider about her wishes and wants for the program and added that she appreciated him opening the line of communication.
“It meant a lot,” she said. “Bust because he wanted a player’s input. But I think it also meant a lot to him because he has a player here asking to make things more difficult. I think that showed both of us the desire we have to be better and do whatever it takes.”
Bingo.
“It was really just going through the entire program — here’s what’s important to me, what’s important to you,” Schneider explained. “I just think that there’s things, sometimes between a coach and a player, that at the end of the day we’ve got to be on the same page (about). I’ve got to have her back as a leader and then, obviously, she’s got to have my back as a head coach.”
Fast-forward several months and Nichols is happy to report that many of the things she asked for and wanted to see have become routine and a part of the KU culture.
“I can hear people be like, ‘Yes or OK,’ and I think it’s so cool,” she said. “It’s natural now. Maybe not for every single one of us every single time, but we’re getting there.”
Another request Nichols had was to do more team-bonding types of activities away from basketball.
That, too, has gone well. Earlier this month, after Big 12 media day in Kansas City, Missouri, the Jayhawks went out to Schneider’s house and painted pumpkins to get ready for Halloween. That’s just one example, but there are others like it and there are more to come, too.
“I literally was thinking and trying to find the smallest things,” Nichols recalled. “But I will say that the littlest things might be the most important. It’s crazy how the littlest things can really take you far.”
Losing three all-time greats and adjusting to a completely new style of play will likely come with some growing pains. The Jayhawks were picked to finish 8th in the 16-team Big 12 in the preseason coaches poll and they’ll miss the natural scoring prowess of Holly Kersgieter and Zakiyah Franklin as well as the defense and rebounding that Taiyanna Jackson brought to the court.
But a new chapter of basketball is about to begin for the KU women’s program, and Nichols and Schneider seem fully confident that they are, in fact, on the same page as they take the first steps into the future.
The Jayhawks will close out their exhibition schedule tonight with a 6:30 p.m. tipoff against Washburn at Allen Fieldhouse. And they’ll open the regular season next Wednesday (Nov. 6) at 6:30 p.m. at home against Lindenwood.
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