What Brandon Schneider said on KU women’s basketball staff additions

LAWRENCE — KU women’s basketball has hired a pair of Kansas natives to join the coaching staff, the team announced in April.

One is Jerise Freeman, who most recently was an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Oregon. She’s from Wichita, Kansas. She’s coached for nearly two decades in college, including at Utah and Oklahoma State, and will be the team’s new assistant head coach.

The second is Jayci Stone, who most recently was the director of student-athlete development at Arkansas. She’s from Goodland, Kansas. Her also-extensive coaching history includes time at Kansas State and TCU, and she’ll be an assistant coach for KU.

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“Jerise and Jayci both have extensive experience both in college basketball and the Big 12 Conference,” Schneider said in a KU release. “They are proven court coaches as it relates to teaching the game and developing players. Their strong, national recruiting ties will greatly benefit us as we continue to improve and advance our program.”

Schneider added: “Jerise and Jayci will be incredible mentors for our young women both on and off the court and we are excited to bring them back to their home state.”

The release detailed those two will join Brock McGinnis and Patrick Schrater on the team’s coaching staff for the 2026-27 campaign, with McGinnis being the associate head coach and Schrater the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator. Former associate head coach Morgan Paige was hired as the new head coach at Loyola Chicago. Karyla Knight was an assistant coach on this past season’s team, but was not listed in the release.

KU finished this past season at 22-14 overall, falling short of the NCAA tournament for the second-straight year. It did reach the second round of the Big 12 Conference tournament, and semifinals of the WBIT. With guard S’Mya Nichols and forward Jaliya Davis set to return as the Jayhawks’ leading duo, aspirations will be to get back to the NCAA tournament next season.