Jenna Guyer’s breakthrough season with Green Bay has the fifth-year senior reconsidering her post-college plans.
For now, though, she is trying to put off those choices by delaying the end of her college career as much as possible.
Guyer has Green Bay back in the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year after scoring 21 points in the Phoenix's 57-49 Horizon League Tournament championship game victory over Youngstown State. Green Bay (25-8) will try
to advance beyond the opening round of the NCAAs for the first time since 2012 on Friday at Minnesota (22-8).
“It’s kind of been our main goal this year, is getting into the tournament, but we don’t just stop there,” the 6-foot-2 forward/center said. “We say we want to win a game and do some damage there.”
Green Bay showed it could play at this level last year, when the 12th-seeded Phoenix trailed Alabama by just five points with seven minutes left before falling 81-67. This year, Guyer wants to help her team take the next step.
“Knowing we can compete with anybody is huge going into this tournament,” Guyer said.
Guyer played 15 minutes off the bench in that Alabama game as part of a senior-laden team, but she needed to take on a greater role this season. She also had to adapt to playing power forward as well as center.
She responded by averaging 15.1 points and 6.3 rebounds as the Horizon League player of the year. Guyer also was the most valuable player of the Horizon League Tournament.
Guyer graduated with a degree in human biology in December 2024 and is on track to finish her master’s program for applied biotechnology this fall. Guyer plans to pursue a career in the medical field but could put that on hold to play basketball overseas.
“I feel like this year I’ve had so much fun,” Guyer said. “It’s kind of hard to put so much time into something and then it just be over. I’m kind of maybe just thinking about playing a year or two and seeing where that takes me.”
Guyer is one of several women’s players from one-bid conferences who bear watching in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Here’s a look at some others.
Opening game: Friday at Duke.
Notes: These twin sisters from Floral Park, New York, have helped Charleston reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. Taryn Barbot is a two-time Coastal Athletic Association player of the year who has scored at least 30 points four times this season. Taryn is the CAA’s leading scorer, while Taylor tops the league in assists and assist-turnover ratio. Taryn scored 23 points in the CAA championship game, while Taylor had 16 points and eight assists.
Opening game: Saturday vs. Notre Dame at Columbus, Ohio.
Notes: This 5-6 guard leads the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in points per game (17.6) and was named the league’s player of the year. She also has 5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game. L’Amoreaux showed her ability to produce against major-conference foes by collecting 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a loss to North Carolina. L’Amoreaux will be looking to bounce back after totaling five points and nine turnovers in her last two MAAC Tournament games.
Opening game: Saturday vs. Kentucky at Morgantown, West Virginia.
Notes: McDaniel had 28 points, 10 assists, four assists and four steals in James Madison’s Sun Belt Tournament championship game triumph over Troy. The 6-footer was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. She has earned first-team all-Sun Belt honors each of the last two seasons. McDaniel is averaging 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists.
Opening game: Friday vs. Washington at Fort Worth, Texas.
Notes: Meyer is one of five finalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award. She has scored over 2,000 career points. The 6-2 forward has averaged 22.4 points, 8 rebounds and 2.7 assists this season. That includes a 27-point performance against Duke and a 20-point effort against Texas. Meyer had 19 points and eight rebounds in South Dakota State’s first-round NCAA Tournament victory over Oklahoma State last season.
Opening game: Friday at North Carolina.
Notes: Nicastro is one of five finalists for the Becky Hammon Award. The 6-2 forward has averaged 24.2 points and 9.9 rebounds as the Ohio Valley Conference player of the year. She has three straight double-doubles, including 21 points and 12 rebounds in an OVC championship game victory over Lindenwood. Nicastro had 20 points and seven rebounds in a loss to Iowa this season. This is her second year at Western Illinois after two seasons at Saint Louis.
Opening game: Saturday vs. Oklahoma State at Los Angeles.
Notes: After a torn anterior cruciate ligament limited her to four games last season, St. Rose has come back to earn first-team all-Ivy League honors while leading the 23rd-ranked Tigers to the league’s regular-season and tournament titles. The 5-10 guard has 16 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. She scored 22 points in an NCAA Tournament first-round loss to West Virginia in 2024. St. Rose had 20 points in a loss to Maryland this season.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
