University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius was sitting in her office in October discussing every player on her roster.
The list of 14 ended with Meghan Schultz, a 6-foot-4 sophomore forward-center who played fewer than 100 minutes last season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementKarius said something about Schultz that might have raised a few eyebrows.
“We are seeing flashes of greatness with Meghan,” Karius said.
A couple of months later, it appears Karius knew exactly what she was talking about.
UWGB sophomore forward-center Meghan Schultz is averaging a team-high 13.9 points this season.Schultz has started all eight of UWGB’s games entering a Horizon League opener at Northern Kentucky on Dec. 4.
She is averaging a team-high 13.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and shooting 57.1%.
Schultz has topped the 20-point mark three times, including a career-high 26 points against North Dakota and 22 against Wisconsin.
Her name is all over the Horizon leaderboard.
Fourth in scoring. First in shooting percentage. Ninth in free throw percentage.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“None of the coaches were surprised that she was doing what she was doing,” Karius said. “I don’t think her teammates were surprised, because we had been seeing it really since last spring. In the postseason workouts, when there were only six of them out there on the court practicing (because of graduations) you just started to see a different look about her.
“When she returned in the summer, totally different look. It was the look of, ‘It’s my time, and my opportunity has come.’ She took her own personal steps to stay in shape over the time we weren’t here on campus and come back ready. Once that gap was closed, you are using your whole preseason just to get better, and she really did.”
Karius would be the first to say the Phoenix needed Schultz to step up like she has, especially after fellow post player Jenna Guyer was injured in an exhibition against Platteville and missed the first five games.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSchultz was a three-sport star at New Berlin West in volleyball, basketball, and track and field.
She was one of the best volleyball players in the Woodland West Conference during her four years as a middle hitter/blocker.
Schultz was a legend on the basketball court at the school. By the time she graduated in 2023, she was the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,666 points and the all-time leading rebounder with 861.
The scoring record she shattered by more than 300 points had stood for almost four decades.
Here’s where it gets even crazier.
Schultz decided she had time between volleyball and basketball to do track in the spring.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementShe competed in the shot put for the first time during her junior season and flourished.
“I took first,” Schultz said when asked how she did.
No, not first at the conference meet or at a regional.
She meant first at the WIAA Division 2 state meet, where she threw 45 feet, 10½ inches in 2022 to win the state title.
Schultz followed by capturing the state championship as a senior, this time breaking the D2 state record with a throw of 49-2½.
It’s the second-best throw in any division since the WIAA started sponsoring a girls track and field tournament program in 1971, only behind the 49-4¼ that former Seymour star Jessica Maroszek had in D1 in 2010.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSchultz also did the discus for the first time as a senior and finished state runner-up.
So, yes, she would have had more than a few colleges interested in her for track. The same for volleyball.
But she had committed to play basketball at UWGB by fall 2021, and it’s a decision she has not regretted.
Schultz redshirted her first year with the Phoenix and averaged 1.9 points in 4.6 minutes while coming off the bench in 22 games last season.
Like many players jumping from high school to the highest level of collegiate basketball, there was an adjustment period.
She went from a high school star to a college nobody having to prove herself all over again.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It was definitely a different experience, and I took it as a learning experience,” Schultz said. “I kind of came in, and you do come into college and you are coming off a high and it is hard coming down. But we had so many great players, and they had been putting in so much work.
“I got that opportunity to learn from them while I was here. Building those connections, and I still have those connections today, and just learning from them and taking their skills. (Former UWGB teammate and assistant coach Jasmine Kondrakiewicz) and I joke about it. She is a coach now, and in the post, I’ve taken some moves that she has learned.”
Had Guyer not been injured, there is a possibility Schultz would have come off the bench to start the season.
But whether she remains in the starting lineup or is a top-notch reserve doesn’t really matter.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt’s clear she will play important minutes. It’s quite obvious she will be a big contributor to what the Phoenix hopes is another run to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year.
MORE: UWGB men's basketball may be turning things around under Doug Gottlieb
“We could see Meghan grow so much that we were also as coaches trying to figure out, ‘Are these two going to play together? I think they need to. How are we going to guard like that?’" Karius said about Schultz and Guyer. “It was already on our minds. The circumstances just landed where they did.
“I don’t know how it would have been different. But I do know that the window opened, and Meghan stepped into it.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUWGB has been road warriors this season
The Phoenix loves playing in front of its fans at the Kress Center, but it mostly has played nothing but road or neutral site games since the middle of November.
That will remain the case the rest of 2025.
The last home game was against Kansas State on Nov. 22, and after a showdown against Youngstown State at the Kress on Dec. 7, its next contest in Green Bay won’t be until January.
There are five road games this month, including an approximately 4,000-mile round trip to play at No. 21 Washington on Dec. 13.
“No question, that’s really difficult,” Karius said of playing eight out of 10 games away from home. “From the basketball side, the reason for it is because scheduling is really difficult here. You are trying to schedule nonconference games amongst three conference games. You have very limited dates to do that. On top of that, you are not working with schools with the same academic calendar. As soon as you have a couple of open dates mid-December, they have finals and they can’t play.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s very difficult scheduling in general, but you had that layer on top of it, it’s near impossible. … You take all that and you say be resilient, fight through it. There are lot of teams living on the road for long stretches. The good part about road games is it’s us against the world. You don’t have the Kress Center behind you. We love our fans, of course, but when you are on the road, you have to bring your own energy and your own juice. Sometimes there is a really tight bond that can come out of living on the road.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former New Berlin West star Meghan Schultz shines with UWGB basketball
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