{"id":91248,"date":"2025-10-21T08:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=91248"},"modified":"2025-10-21T08:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:40:21","slug":"tiger-basketball-programs-set-for-upcoming-season-with-mix-of-experience-and-new-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=91248","title":{"rendered":"Tiger basketball programs set for upcoming season with mix of experience and new faces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By GARRETT WELLBROCK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Hays State basketball enters the 2025-26 season with both programs balancing experience and transition. The men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams each return nearly half of their rosters while integrating several new faces as they aim to build on strong finishes from a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Head Coach Talia Kahrs and the women\u2019s team, the roster splits evenly between returners and newcomers \u2014 seven apiece. The Tigers are coming off a 28-5 season and another NCAA Tournament appearance, but will have to replace two All-MIAA standouts in Katie DeGarmo and Olivia Hollenbeck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have seven returners and seven new kids, so it has looked a little different than it has the last couple of years,\u201d Kahrs said. \u201cWe\u2019re learning a lot in practice right now and looking forward to starting full turn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite heavy roster turnover, Kahrs believes her group has channeled both last season\u2019s success and its disappointments into fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a good year, but [were] disappointed in how it went,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have returners who\u2019ve seen some playing time and others stepping into bigger roles. It\u2019s been fun to watch them take that opportunity and lead our six freshmen and a transfer who haven\u2019t been around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FHSU enters the season as the preseason favorite in the MIAA Coaches Poll and No. 2 in the Media Poll. Returning All-MIAA honorees Talexa Weeter and Brooke Loewe headline the Tigers\u2019 roster, which will be tested early. FHSU\u2019s first eight regular-season games are on the road before its home opener on December 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good going into the MIAA because our conference ranks among the top nationally in attendance,\u201d Kahrs said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be good to get road tested early \u2014 and when we finally get home, we\u2019ll be excited to play in front of our fans. Honestly, nobody wants to come to Hays and play, so we had to do what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the men\u2019s program, longtime coach Mark Johnson begins his 25th season at the helm after guiding the Tigers to the MIAA Tournament title and a second straight NCAA Tournament berth last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have 14 people \u2014 eight returners and six new players,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of starting a little bit slower than in the past, but it\u2019s a good group, hardworking and wanting to get better. I feel really good about our front line, but the big question mark will be the backcourt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers were picked second in the MIAA media poll and fourth by the coaches. They return only one starter \u2014 Kyle Grill, who averaged 11.6 points per game last year \u2014 but expect key contributions from forward Dan Mukuna and several reserves now stepping into larger roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson acknowledged the challenge of replacing program pillars Kaleb Hammeke and Traejon Davis, who led FHSU through its recent postseason success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had those guys for a long time, and they set the tone for what we did,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cNow it\u2019s about finding players who have that same toughness and competitiveness. Our returners that didn\u2019t play as much will be focal points this year, and I think they\u2019re ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Tiger squads begin their seasons with exhibition contests at the University of Kansas before opening regular-season play in mid-November. Expectations remain high in Hays \u2014 and both programs believe the foundation is set for another memorable year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INF 349<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By GARRETT WELLBROCK Tiger Media Network Fort Hays State basketball enters the 2025-26 season with both programs balancing experience and transition. The men\u2019s and women\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":91249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3394,7349,3395],"tags":[179,2372,16359,664,674],"class_list":["post-91248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball-sports","category-sports","category-womens-basketball-sports","tag-basketball","tag-fhsu-basketball","tag-garrett-wellbrock","tag-mens-basketball","tag-womens-basketball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled.png?fit=1200%2C630","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91251,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91248\/revisions\/91251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}