WACO, Texas — As the calendar flipped to June, the Nicki Collen era at Baylor officially began.
The women's basketball team returned to campus this month to begin preparing for the 2021-22 season.
A few weeks ago, Collen sat down with 6 News to talk about the transition and what the Lady Bears program would look like.
"It is a whirlwind," Collen said. "It's just been hard to even slow down, you know."
Collen said she was pleased with the speed at which she was able to start hiring staff. At the time, she was hoping to have her coaching staff finished out in the next week, however there is still an opening on her inaugural coaching staff in Waco.
As far as players, four members of the 2020-21 team transferred from the program.
Star 2020 commit Hannah Gusters and fan-favorite guard Moon Ursin are both heading to Louisiana State University alongside Hall-of-Fame former Baylor coach Kim Mulkey. Chrislynn Carr, who announced she was leaving Texas Tech for Baylor is now at Syracuse, instead. Trinity Oliver, a D/FW area-native, signed with Washington on Monday.
However, Collen said some transfers are always expected during a big change like this.
"Certainly, we weren't going to keep everyone and it's going to be a personal decision but I feel good about the progress we've made in that area," Collen said.
She elaborated that there were players who told her they were planning to enter the portal before Mulkey informed the team of her departure for LSU.