The Kansas women’s basketball team dropped another tough one at home on Wednesday night, but not before making a little bit of history.
Junior point guard S’Mya Nichols, who has long been regarded as one of the top players in the Big 12 Conference and the country, made 6 of 7 free throws in the nine-point loss to Oklahoma State to push her career total to 508 made free throws.
That number pushed her past KU legend Lynette Woodard, who hit 505 free throws during her 4-year Kansas career back in the late-1970s and early 1980s.
Setting a program record is always significant and cool. But too often athletes break records held by former players who aren’t as well known or easily remembered.
That’s certainly not the case with this. Woodard is one of the greatest KU basketball players of all-time — men or women — and her name is known in all corners of the Kansas basketball universe.
The fact that Nichols broke Woodard’s free throw record in 2.5 years is a real testament to Nichols’ talent.
It also speaks to their style of play. Woodard was a bona fide scorer who could hit from anywhere, play fast and free and use her athleticism to score inside and out.
Nichols certainly can too — and she leads the Jayhawks and ranks fourth in the Big 12 at 19.1 points per game entering the weekend — but she made it known early in her career that the free throw line was going to be hers.
KU guard S'Mya Nichols getting hit on her way to the hoop has been a common sight around KU women's basketball of late. [Kansas Athletics photos]
Last season, she finished third nationally in free throw attempts, with 260, just seven shy of the country’s leader. And she spent a few days as the national leader in that department.
This season, she picked up right where she left off and currently leads all Division I women’s players in both free throw makes (124) and attempts (149).
She entered Thursday as one of just three players in the country to reach triple-digits by this point in the season. And her 124 makes were 9 more than second place, while the 149 free throw attempts are 20 clear of the next closest player.
If you’ve watched Nichols play, you understand that this is a huge part of her game. Big 12 coaches have known it for years.
She’s so smart and crafty. She’s strong and physical. And she’s willing to take the abuse anytime she can to get to the free throw line for a chance at a free two points.
She’s hitting them at a rate of 83.2% so far this season and is a career 83.3% free throw shooter. Her total trips to the line went up from her freshman season (201) to her sophomore season (260) and she’s on pace this season, with at least 13 games to play, to eclipse that 260 number, as well.
As for whether Nichols could make a run at Woodard’s school scoring record of 3,649 points, which, for 43 years, stood as the major college women’s record — and is the most ever scored by a player at Kansas, male or female —the current KU junior would have to light the world on fire to catch her.
To date, Nichols has 1,408 points.
Assuming that she plays the rest of this season — call it 15 more games — and all of next season — call it another 35 games — Nichols would have to average 44.84 points per outing in those 50 games to pass Woodard.
Not happening.
But she did get the free throw record. And she may get a few more before she’s done.
Maybe that’s why KU coach Brandon Schneider said it’s important that people don’t take S’Mya Nichols and her talent and totals for granted.
What a player.
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