On April 6, the Billikens led by Kyla McMakin, wrapped up their season with a dominant win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (NIT) final. McMakin led the game in scoring, with a total of 20 points. While Kyla had an outstanding performance in her collegiate basketball finale, her entire career is worth honoring.

McMakin, is a 5 feet 11 inches guard out of Virginia Beach. She started out playing basketball at a young age. In an interview with the University News, she said, “My Dad played basketball, and he was always someone I looked up to.” She said, “I wanted to be like him.” Her love for the game propelled her into the world of college basketball.

McMakin started her career with the Billikens just last year, after playing her first three years with Rebecca Tillet at Longwood University. During her time at Longwood, McMakin averaged 18.8, 17.9 and 18.3 points respectively, across her first collegiate seasons (SLU Athletics). When Tillet was hired as the head coach of Billikens Women’s Basketball program, McMakin followed, and so did her success. McMakin expressed admiration for Tillet’s coaching approach when saying, “she helps me grow in all areas, not just basketball.”

McMakin helped her teams to back-to-back conference tournament titles (Big South at Longwood in ‘22; Atlantic 10 at Saint Louis in ’23), and the Billikens to their first-ever NCAA Tournament after topping UMass in the highest-scoring A-10 final since 1995 (91-85 Final OT) (SLU Athletics).

This past season, McMakin has maintained a high scoring average of 16.6 points per game and ended up with a total of 666 points in just this season alone. In addition McMakin has perfect attendance being No. 1 in the NCAA in career minutes played.

Kyla humbly reflects on her success in saying, “I’ve played with great players whose game helped elevate mine.” One player she spoke about in particular, was her former Longwood teammate turned Billikens coach, Tra’Dayja Smith. McMakin said, “She taught me how to be the leader I am now. “She constantly infused confidence in me and it helped me have confidence on the court.”

As Kyla is set to graduate later this month, she is planning to continue her basketball career overseas. Last week, McMakin signed to the Global Pipeline agency family, an international service and representation agency.

Tillet describes that McMakin has had an unbelievable career of leadership, saying in a post-game interview with the University News that, “She had to lead this team through adversity many times, and she did so with poise and composure and love.