Reinforcements have arrived for Kansas State women’s basketball frontcourt just in time for the start of conference play. 

A late addition for the Wildcats, Slovenian center Ivona Scekic signed with the Wildcats back in November and arrived on campus about a week ago. She participated in her first practice on Friday and could see the floor as soon as Saturday afternoon when the Wildcats (7-6) travel down to Fort Worth to face No. 9 TCU (12-0). 

At 6-foot-3, Scekic is the second-tallest player on K-State’s roster and is one of two players taller than 6-foot-1. 

Heading into the season, the Wildcats were hopeful that former center Kennedy Taylor would have her eligibility extended a season by the NCAA, but those efforts, including an appeal, were denied after a lengthy process that led up to the week before the start of the season. 

When it became apparent that Taylor’s return was doubtful, Mittie and his staff began to scour for a potential replacement. The Wildcats already had some Euro luck heading into the year, with freshman point guard Gina Garcia from Spain and junior forward Nastja Claessens from Belgium, and so the hunt turned international. 

Slovenia’s education system had fall graduation dates, and Mittie had come across Scekic at a tournament in Portugal where Garcia was also playing. 

“It was an opportunity,” Mittie said. “I think she’s a good young player that’s got some upside to her, and so that’s why we grabbed her.”

Like Garcia, Scekic may be coming in as a freshman, but has plenty of experience playing for her country’s national team. 

Scekic has taken part in the 2025 FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket, the 2025 FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket, the 2024 FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket and the 2023 FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship.

During the 2025 FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket, Scekic saw action in seven games and averaged 5.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists. She ranked 17th in the event for rebounds per game. Against Greece, Scekic tallied 13 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes of action.

Mittie’s not expecting a lot right away. He’s hoping that the Wildcats can put together a handful of plays that Scekic can run while on the court as she gets comfortable. 

“The challenge is, how many reps can you get them?” Mittie said. “You’re taking it away from somebody else, and so integrating that kind of player in isn’t easy, but I think you’ve just got to treat it like we’re becoming more and more professional all the time. And this is just one of those things professional teams do all the time. They make a trade for two or three players, and they integrate them as quickly as they can.”

While the Wildcats have some idea of how Scekic can help them in the short-term, it’s probably going to take a little while to get a full grasp on her skill set and ability level, especially against players at the Big 12 level. 

“I would think defensively, she can give us some help with rim protection,” Mittie said. “I think that would be the first thing that would be most realistic for her is that she could come in and do that, and hopefully help our rebounding offensively. That’s yet to be seen. … She shoots it okay. She’s got a good touch around the rim. We’ll just see how quickly she can acclimate.”

The good news for Scekic and a very young Wildcat roster is that finals week just wrapped up, so players can focus solely on basketball for the next month and a half. 

“I’m excited about the next six weeks,” Mittie said. “I always love this time of the year. I love that academics are taken out of it. I like that they get a break. We won’t get back to school until (the end of January), so this window is pretty important.” 

K-State is coming off a gritty road win at Creighton in Omaha and is looking to string back-to-back wins together for the first time since starting the season 3-0. 

“I’m cautious because we haven’t handled success very well,” Mittie said. “I think we’ve had a good, solid week of practice. I said before the Creighton game, the thing that I was most excited about was having an extended period of time where we had some practice time. We’ve had a good week of finals practice. I feel like we’re a better basketball team than we were a week ago.”

The Wildcats and the unbeaten Horned Frogs are set to tip off at 4 p.m. Saturday at Schollmaier Arena. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.