Weekly Notebook – Week 1 (Nov. 3, 2025)
Each week throughout the season, a weekly Lady Topper Basketball notebook entry will be featured on WKUSports.com that will highlight content from the previous week and will spotlight various topics.
Important Links:
2025-26 Schedule (web)
2025-26 Schedule (printable)
2025-26 Roster
2025-26 Media Guide
Tickets
In Case You Missed It:
Greg Collins and Torri James Press Conference After Exhibition Win Against Lindsey Wilson (link)
Lindsey Wilson Recap (link)
Greg Collins Preseason Press Conference (link)
Zsofia Telegdy and Trinity Rowe Preseason Press Conference (link)
Roster Breakdown:
The 2025-26 Lady Topper Basketball roster will look a little different this year. WKU will return just 21 percent of the offensive production from 2024-25 and just one starter, Zsofia Telegdy. There isn't a single player on the roster that has been at WKU longer than a season. This isn't abnormal in 2025; it's the new reality of college athletics.
Let's take a closer look at the roster Greg Collins and his staff put together for the 2025-26 season.
The biggest need for the Lady Toppers going into the offseason was at point guard. Alexis Mead, starting point guard for four seasons, graduated in the spring after a successful career on The Hill. Mead left WKU tied for the third most career starts (125), fourth in career steals (242), sixth in career assists (470), tied for seventh in career free throw percentage (.803), ninth career 3-pointers (166) and the 23rd all-time leading scorer (1,385 points) in the WKU record book. That left some big shoes to fill. Quickly after the 2024-25 season ended, Collins and his staff zeroed in on Trinity Rowe in the transfer portal. Rowe was a former Miss Kentucky Basketball (2024) and was named the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year after one season at Southern Miss. In high school, she was a 2,000-point scorer and notched over 1,000 assists. At Southern Miss, Rowe started in all 31 games, shot 38.3 percent from three, dished out 82 assists and scored 221 points. Along with all the accolades and basketball skills, Rowe brings a penchant for leadership, too.
"When you have high basketball IQ players like Trinity (Rowe), they just take to it (leadership) like a duck to water," said Collins at preseason media day in October. "She picked up right away. Even though this is new to her, she's been playing basketball her whole life. She's been talking about basketball her whole life. She understands it and is able to lead others pretty quickly."
The other need Collins and staff addressed was size. Jeniffer Silva, a 6-foot-4 transfer out of USF, gives WKU size it hasn't had in a few seasons. Eight of the 14 total Lady Toppers on the roster are over 6-feet tall. That needed size should help the Lady Toppers on the boards, an area WKU struggled in last season.
"I'm proud of this team right now – they have a focus on rebounding that we've not had in five years," said Collins. "That was an area that hurt us last year. It hurt us in big ball games. We didn't have that size that we needed, but we didn't have that rebounding mentality we needed either. I'm proud of this team, they've worked really hard to embrace that."
Once the roster was assembled, chemistry became a focus. With six newcomers, the team needed to make up for lost time getting to know one another. Despite having not known each other for some more than a year, others more than a few months, the Lady Toppers quickly gelled and have become one of the best chemistry teams under Collins.
"As a coach, nothing feels better than when it feels like everyone is rowing in the same direction or pulling the rope in one direction," said Collins. "They don't all like the same music, they don't all like the same food, but they're all respectful of each other and they appreciate one another and the differences they all bring to the table. They value that. As long as they're going to treat each other that way, we'll have a lot of positivity. This team does a great job of lifting one another up and trying to celebrate each other's success."
After a preseason closed scrimmage and a preseason exhibition game, WKU is ready to get the ball rolling on the 2025-26 season.
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