WSU's Dayana Mendes finding her footing after road to recovery

PULLMAN - The morning following the Washington State women's basketball team's 67-59 home win over San Francisco, WSU Associate Head Coach Laurie Koehn started her morning off watching film to prepare for the Cougars' next opponent.

She couldn't help but notice the difference she saw in Washington States' freshman forward, Dayana Mendes.

"I'm watching our Pepperdine game, which was December 28th, and I don't even recognize the player she was back then," Koehn said.

Mendes is averaging 12 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes per game over her last seven games and it's clear to everyone in the building that the freshman forward from Paris is starting to find her footing at the collegiate level.

"As she has been getting reps in practice and now has at least 20 games under her belt, you can see her getting comfortable with things," Koehn said.

Mendes hasn't just had to deal with transitioning to the collegiate level, but has done so while also rehabbing. A year before she arrived at WSU, Mendes suffered a knee injury that sidelined her for an entire year. Even when she arrived on the Palouse, she was still in the recovery process, but the Cougar coaches knew what kind of talent she could bring to the court when her knee healed.

"You're always rolling the dice a little with an injury like that, but she was worth the risk," Koehn said. "It was worth seeing if it can work out because she is such a special talent."

Despite being sidelined for an extended period of time, Mendes made the most of it and took the opportunity to polish other aspects of her game.

"She had taken a year off from playing, but in that year she spent a ton of time on her shot," Koehn said. "When she came to Pullman in June it was a big surprise at how well she shot the ball and how maybe she wasn't as raw of a prospect."

While coaches knew how special of a player Mendes could become, she didn't yet know where she stood playing at this level while still recovering from injury.

"For me I was a little bit scared that I couldn't play at this level," Mendes said. "Coming off an injury I hadn't played for a year, so I was just kind of observing the level of play and wondering where I would stand when I came back from injury."

When the season started it became clear early that Mendes belonged at this level. In just her fourth collegiate game Mendes scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Mendes has seen more action in the latter half of the season after starting center Alex Covill went down with an injury.

"I feel like I've had more responsibilities," said Mendes. "I know Alex is a very good player for this team and I didn't want losing her to negatively impact the team, so I knew I had to take on more of a responsibility."

Mendes has taken on the responsibility and made the most of her opportunity and it has become clear to a lot of people inside the building how high the freshman's ceiling as a player is.

"She's probably the type of player that is going to get exponentially better," Koehn said. "A year from now I think we'll look back and go, 'Oh my gosh, she's gotten so much better.'"

    MENDES