GOING DEEPER
1/13/2026 11:59:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Collen plans to ‘sub when you can sub’ in games at Utah, BYU
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Playing back-to-back games in elevation, there's a good chance that Baylor coach Nicki Collen will have to go a little deeper into her bench for Wednesday's game at Utah and Saturday's matchup at BYU.
That could mean significantly more minutes for freshman guard Marcyala Johnson and SMU transfer Ella Brow. Even redshirt freshman Ines Goryanova could see her first game action in almost two years.
"I will try to sub to the best of my ability," said Collen, whose No. 18/17 Bears (15-3, 4-1) will play Utah (13-4, 4-1) at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday and BYU (14-3, 2-2) at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Provo. "I think you have to see it in them and sub when you can sub. But I don't think we go there and do anything differently."
Johnson, who started two games when Taliah Scott was out with an ankle injury, has averaged just over eight minutes and scored a combined two points during Baylor's four-game winning streak. She is averaging 4.3 points and 2.2 rebounds per game and shooting just 32.3% from the floor.
"I've told her, at the beginning of the year, no one had a scouting report on you," Collen said. "No one had a scouting report when we played Duke. Now, everyone's got the scouting report. She just has to trust that she's going to get opportunity every game. She can't press to try to do something. Show me what you can do, not what you can't do. When she presses and takes a shot she doesn't need to take or misses a defensive assignment, it becomes more glaring."
Particularly early in the season, Johnson's role was to clamp down on defense and "guard the ball really, really hard," Collen said.
"She changed the game by coming in and giving us a ball hawk. Now, you're playing (Kansas guard) S'Mya Nichols, and you need more size on her. Or, you're playing (Iowa State's) Jada Williams, who would be a good player for her to ball hawk. But our defensive game plan was to play off her. That thing that got you on the floor, that allowed you to impact the game, isn't always the same thing every game."
Brow made her Baylor debut in the comeback win against Oklahoma State, contributing two assists and a rebound and playing solid defense to help the Bears rally from a 19-point deficit in the last 11 ½ minutes to defeat the Cowgirls, 77-68. But her only other game action was less than a minute off the bench in a 56-52 win at home over Colorado.
Ines Goronya, a native of London, England, who played her final season at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 2024, has yet to play in a game at Baylor and was just cleared from an injury a little over a week ago.
"I would have loved to put her in the Kansas game," Collen said of Sunday's 79-64 win at home over Kansas. "But it went from 21 to (an 11-point lead) pretty quickly. I thought the group that was out there needed to right the ship, which they did, before I went that route."
Collen calls Goronya "an elite passer, maybe the best passer in the gym," but she has "glaring deficiencies" because of her lack of practice time.
"We're teaching things to Ines that you'd think she would have picked up by osmosis," Collen said. "But honestly, she hasn't had any reps. She has realistically been on the floor for a week. And even load-managed at that, so not getting as many reps. I'll be excited to get her on the floor, but I want her to be ready."
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with Tony Parks and former Utah coach Elaine Elliott calling the action.
Baylor Bear Insider
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Playing back-to-back games in elevation, there's a good chance that Baylor coach Nicki Collen will have to go a little deeper into her bench for Wednesday's game at Utah and Saturday's matchup at BYU.
That could mean significantly more minutes for freshman guard Marcyala Johnson and SMU transfer Ella Brow. Even redshirt freshman Ines Goryanova could see her first game action in almost two years.
"I will try to sub to the best of my ability," said Collen, whose No. 18/17 Bears (15-3, 4-1) will play Utah (13-4, 4-1) at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday and BYU (14-3, 2-2) at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Provo. "I think you have to see it in them and sub when you can sub. But I don't think we go there and do anything differently."
Johnson, who started two games when Taliah Scott was out with an ankle injury, has averaged just over eight minutes and scored a combined two points during Baylor's four-game winning streak. She is averaging 4.3 points and 2.2 rebounds per game and shooting just 32.3% from the floor.
"I've told her, at the beginning of the year, no one had a scouting report on you," Collen said. "No one had a scouting report when we played Duke. Now, everyone's got the scouting report. She just has to trust that she's going to get opportunity every game. She can't press to try to do something. Show me what you can do, not what you can't do. When she presses and takes a shot she doesn't need to take or misses a defensive assignment, it becomes more glaring."
Particularly early in the season, Johnson's role was to clamp down on defense and "guard the ball really, really hard," Collen said.
"She changed the game by coming in and giving us a ball hawk. Now, you're playing (Kansas guard) S'Mya Nichols, and you need more size on her. Or, you're playing (Iowa State's) Jada Williams, who would be a good player for her to ball hawk. But our defensive game plan was to play off her. That thing that got you on the floor, that allowed you to impact the game, isn't always the same thing every game."
Brow made her Baylor debut in the comeback win against Oklahoma State, contributing two assists and a rebound and playing solid defense to help the Bears rally from a 19-point deficit in the last 11 ½ minutes to defeat the Cowgirls, 77-68. But her only other game action was less than a minute off the bench in a 56-52 win at home over Colorado.
Ines Goronya, a native of London, England, who played her final season at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 2024, has yet to play in a game at Baylor and was just cleared from an injury a little over a week ago.
"I would have loved to put her in the Kansas game," Collen said of Sunday's 79-64 win at home over Kansas. "But it went from 21 to (an 11-point lead) pretty quickly. I thought the group that was out there needed to right the ship, which they did, before I went that route."
Collen calls Goronya "an elite passer, maybe the best passer in the gym," but she has "glaring deficiencies" because of her lack of practice time.
"We're teaching things to Ines that you'd think she would have picked up by osmosis," Collen said. "But honestly, she hasn't had any reps. She has realistically been on the floor for a week. And even load-managed at that, so not getting as many reps. I'll be excited to get her on the floor, but I want her to be ready."
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with Tony Parks and former Utah coach Elaine Elliott calling the action.
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