Nov. 6—When the University of Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball team takes the court for the first time against another opponent to open the 2025-2026 season, it will officially begin the start of Matt Thune’s tenure as the head coach of the program, although he’s been on the job since spring.
“The time has flown by since May and it went really fast,” he said. “My family’s been great, they’re integrating into the community and our son is going to preschool.”
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The Seawolves will take on Northwest University at the Alaska Airlines Center on Friday at 7 p.m. for the first of a two-game series, and it will mark their first game in 14 years without legendary head coach Ryan McCarthy.
“I think coach McCarthy had a very unique style,” senior guard Elaina Mack said. “If you’ve ever been to one of his games, he’s very intense. He’s the loudest person in the gym. Coach Matt, he’s a little bit opposite, but he still holds us to a high standard every day.”
The Seawolves practices are very fast-paced — even more so than her time under McCarthy, according to Mack.
“I think McCarthy just held us to an insanely high standard, and he was very verbal about it,” Mack said.
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While Thune doesn’t have the same level of fiery clipboard-shattering intensity, his attention to detail and attentiveness toward his players is right on par.
“We’re ready to get after it,” Mack said. “The preseason always feels long, so we’re ready to get out and play and compete against somebody other than ourselves. We’re excited to get out and show everybody what we’re capable of doing.”
The roster wasn’t finalized until about the second week of August as Thune and his coacing staff were on the recruiting trail until school started. They currently have 12 players on the roster and will be getting two more veterans when junior Jaela Reid and another late addition join the team after winter break.
“With who we brought in and who’s coming, I think right now, we don’t have the depth that we preferably want at the beginning of the season,” Thune said. “All these kids fit the way we want to play, they all work hard and they’re all great people. We’re just excited to get rolling and play somebody else.”
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The starting lineup the Seawolves will trot out against the Eagles to open the season won’t be the one that will be the norm as they are dealing with some injuries and are going to have an injection of new blood for the second half of the year.
“The way we play doesn’t go through one person,” Thune said. “I think whether you’re starting or whether you’re not, and opportunities they get, they’re all going to be able to impact us in a positive way.”
New players to the program likely to be playing prominent roles include sophomore Mahaila Harrison, a versatile guard with some size who Thune said shoots well. Another newcomer is junior forward Lillee Duffin, who Thune said is a strong post presence when it comes to defense and rebounding.
“There’s going to be things that fans see that they like in all of them,” Thune said. “They’re all a little bit different but the great thing about how we play is there’s not a significant drop off. So when we go to our bench because of our offensive system, it’s just a continuity of what we’ve been doing, and we don’t have to adjust based on lineups.”
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Coming together on and off the court
McCarthy took some key contributors from last year’s team with him down to his new job at Fresno State but despite so many new faces on both the roster and coaching staff, the team is gelling.
“It is a lot of new stuff and a lot of learning for everybody involved,” Mack said. “I think it’s going really well. We have a good group of people and that’s really great to have on a basketball team. I think our cohesiveness on the court is going really well. I think we all really like each other, which is really nice. And then I think Coach Matt and the rest of our coaches are doing a really good job of preparing us, so I’m excited about it.”
The Seawolves work on their chemistry off the court by living together and doing fun activities together whether it’s going out for coffee every day or enjoying the outdoors before winter arrived.
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“It’s just a total 180 from that first week we all linked up in August to where we’re at now,” Thune said. “It’s been exciting, it’s been encouraging to see (and) it’s not the case all the time. A lot of this depends on the personalities you bring in. And as of right now, they’re all meshing.”
Mack emerged as a leader last year and has taken it to the next level with a new regime in her final season in the program.
“With Elaina, this being her sixth year, she really gets college basketball and what it takes,” Thune said. “Her leadership amongst the group to bring them together and drive home what’s important early has been huge.”
A major character trait that both of Mack’s head coaches have raved about is how much of a hard worker she is and how it resonates throughout the rest of the program.
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“I don’t think anybody would outwork her in any program she joins,” Thune said. “That’s rubbed off on the others. There’s not a day that goes by that not one of these kids is in the gym getting extra time in by themselves, trying to get better.”
Young Alaskans are making strong first impressions
Two new recruits who honored their commitments to join the program even after finding out that McCarthy wouldn’t be their coach were Wasilla’s Mylee Anderson and Tikigaq’s Jennifer Nash.
“Mylee has been great,” Thune said. “She’s one of our leaders, very outspoken as a freshman. Comes from a program where she gets what’s demanded of you as an athlete and what it takes to be successful. I’ve been very impressed with her.”
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Nash is an elite shooter and helped lead Tikigaq to back-to-back 2A state titles as a freshman and sophomore.
“Jen can really shoot the ball,” Thune said. “She’s been firing it up in here, and I try to tell her, we don’t care if you take 15 threes in a game and miss 12 of them, if you see open spots, you put that thing up.”
