With the departure of five of the top seven most-used Jayhawks from the 2023-24 KU women’s basketball roster, there were questions in the offseason about which players would step up for Brandon Schneider’s team in 2024-25.
The list of candidates was long and included newcomers and returners alike.
While the Jayhawks (4-1 overall) are still working through both how this exact roster fits together and a couple of early-season minor injuries to key players (Wyvette Mayberry and and Brittany Harshaw), one of the most pleasant surprises has come in the post, where veteran center Nadira Eltayeb has been healthy enough to average 17 minutes per game so far.
It’s only been a surprise because of her availability, the other side of a long road that included tears to both Achilles tendons, one before coming to Kansas and the other just before the start of last season.
Both were significant blows to her psyche, but the one that hit in September of 2023 was a particular downer in that it came on the heels of a solid summer and quality showing during the Jayhawks’ overseas exhibition tour in August.
The belief then, both in the eyes of Eltayeb and the KU coaches, was that she was ready to provide key minutes and good size behind starting center Taiyanna Jackson.
The belief today is much less about her role and much more about being able to play at all.
“I mean, I just thank God,” Eltayeb said after a recent KU home win of being back on the court. “It’s been a long journey. You know, my second Achilles’ tear. I’m trying not to get emotional. It was hard. It was hard, rehabbing and stuff. But being out there is amazing. It’s really a blessing to be able to play still and be out here with amazing teammates.”
If there’s any kind of silver lining in this run of bad luck for the 6-foot-4, redshirt-senior from Seattle, it’s that going through the process of rehabbing one torn Achilles made doing it a second time on the other leg a little less overwhelming.
“It’s just hard work,” she acknowledged of what’s required to make a full return. “I still feel like I am still coming back into my body from rehab. I still wouldn’t say I’m at 100%, but I have torn my other Achilles’ before, so I do know how it goes. It just takes time. It’s such a long injury — the recovery process — and I just trust in the rehab and trust the work that I’ve put in over the years.”
In Eltayeb’s case, trust is a two-week street, and KU coach Brandon Schneider said seeing what his post player has done to get back on the court has proven to him that he can trust her with anything he might throw her way.
“I just have a lot of respect for Nadira,” Schneider said. “To have two Achilles’ surgeries — both Achilles’ — and then to rehab as well as she did, I think she’s in the best shape of her life, from a basketball standpoint. Physically, I think she looks great.”
In those 17 minutes a game off the bench so far, Eltayeb has found a way to make an impact.
She enters this week averaging 3.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and her size and natural comfort battling for buckets and rebounds down low have given the Jayhawks a veteran presence at a position that needs it.
Starting center Regan Williams is a true freshman. And the only other forward taller than 6-foot on the current roster is juco transfer Freddie Wallace, who is still adjusting to her new surroundings.
In addition to Eltayeb’s statistical production, Schneider believes that her mere presence, as someone who has shown a profound dedication to the game regardless of her role and numbers, is good for the Jayhawks old and new on this roster to see.
“I think if you come back from an Achilles’ injury and then you decide, ‘Hey, I’ve had another one and no I’m not quitting, I’m coming back,’ that tells you a lot about a person,” Schneider said.
That mindset illustrates just a part of Eltayeb’s overall toughness.
During a recent home win, after getting hit with an elbow above the eye and spilling a significant amount of blood, Eltayeb left the court and was in the locker room for a while.
“She’s on the table getting stitches, I went in to check on her and she said, ‘I’m good. I’ll be ready,’” Schneider recalled. “You know, (she’s) just the kind of player that we’d all want the rest of our group — even my own kids — to model.”
Neither Eltayeb nor Schneider would say the veteran forward is playing today at the level she was last summer, before that second Achilles’ tear. But she’s closing in on it. And she said every day feels like one step closer to getting back to her pre-injury self, with the added wisdom and resolve of someone who’s been through this twice.
“So, now it’s just getting back into rhythm,” she said.
Eltayeb and the Jayhawks will get a great chance for some serious rhythm this week, when they play three games in three days at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
KU will take on Pitt at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Northern Iowa at 2 p.m. Friday and Auburn at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
After that, it’s back to Lawrence for a trio of non-conference home games — Dec. 5, 11 & 15 — before opening Big 12 play against Baylor on Dec. 21 at Allen Fieldhouse.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
