Today, the Penn State women’s basketball team opened their doors to a practice, which allowed Nittany Sports Now to take their first look at the 2026-2027 Lady Lions and meet some of the players and coaches.
The team was not going to show much to the media who was allowed to videotape the practice, so the coaches kept the 30-minute snippet very vanilla.
Coach Octavia Blue led the drills with the forwards and centers on one side of the court, while Coach Tanisha Wright and Coach Kelly Mazzante led the guards in drills on the other side of the court.
Both sides of the court were stressing fundamentals with ball screen pick-and-rolls to the hoop and shooting off screens from the top of the key.
The media was also able to interview coaches and players, so PSU all-time leading scorer and now assistant coach, Kelly Mazzante, was NSN’s first interview. NSN asked Mazzante how she was adjusting back into State College after spending the past three seasons in D.C. at Georgetown University. The Montoursville native said, “It has been great. It’s definitely home. It feels great to be back. Especially when we’re on the Jordan Center floor it kind of brings back a lot of memories. Just to be on the coaching side of it now it’s a true blessing, so we’re enjoying every second of it.”
NSN then asked the Lady Lion legend if there were any players on the team that reminded her of the kind of player she was when she played from 2000-04. Mazzante said, “Yeah, we have a couple of kids that know how to shoot the ball. Just being able to share our experiences and coach them at a high level…we won a lot on this floor so being able to share that and integrate our beliefs has been really a good first couple of months.”
KELLY MAZZANTE
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.NSN then wanted to make sure to interview 5′-9″ freshman guard, Kamrah Banks, from Indianapolis, IN. Banks as a senior in high school for Crispus Attucks was the No. 1 rated combo-guard out of Indiana. She also broke NBA Hall of Famer, Oscar Robertson’s, all-time single-game scoring mark at Crispus Attucks by netting 63 points in one game. Nittany Sports Now asked Banks what she hopes to bring to State College. Banks commented, “I hope to bring my energy. I’m really excited to meet all the fans, just build up this program with my team and accomplish all the goals that we have not only for myself but as a team, we’re all in this together. We all, obviously, want to win, but we want to bring the program back to where it used to be and get all the fans out here and interact with you guys.”
KAMRAH BANKS
Then after interviewing 6′-4″ junior transfer from Nebraska, Petra Bozan, and Mountain West Freshman of the Year for Nevada last season, 5′-8″ sophomore guard, Skylar Durley, it was off to the media room to hear from first-year head coach Tanisha Wright and from players Savannah White and Enjulina Gonzales.
NSN’s main highlight from the media room was when the 5′-9″ guard from Miami, FL, Gonzales, told Nittany Sports Now she thinks this team can make it to the NCAA Tournament this season. Gonzales, who played last year for Georgia, helped the Bulldogs to a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. So Nittany Sports Now asked Gonzales if she uses that tournament experience as a motivational tool for the rest of the team. The Miami native said, “Yeah, I mean that’s the goal. We want to play in March and I think we have the ability to do that, and once we buy-in to Coach T’s whatever she has for us, I think we can have the team that can make it there and we can go far…once the season starts anything can happen and all you have to do is believe and trust each other and I think we can go far and we’ll be playing in March.”
ENJULINA GONZALES & SAVANNAH WHITE
The Lady Lions will begin the 2026-2027 season with an exhibition game against UPJ on Tuesday, October 27 inside the BJC and then their regular season kicks off on Monday, November 2 at home against the Cleveland State Vikings.
Stay with Nittany Sports Now for all your Penn State Basketball news and coverage.
