How a Utah basketball standout is using her studies to win on the court

A lot has been asked of Maty Wilke for her senior season of college basketball.

In the sharp-shooter’s final collegiate year, she’s started every game, has an increased scoring load and above all has had to take on a major leadership role for a Utah team that lost its two leading scorers and head coach last season.

But Wilke has seamlessly entered into this leadership role with some help from her chosen academic major: psychology. More specifically, Wilke is earning her positive psychology certificate during her last year of eligibility.

This area of interest has not only made her a more grounded player, but has made her one of the most consistently sound voices for a 15-7 Utes team that has NCAA Tournament ambitions.

“In college [basketball], everyone is really skilled. The mental side of it is really where you separate the good from the elite,” Wilke said.

Wilke, a 5-foot-10 guard from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, is admittedly a “nerd” when it comes to the topic of psychology, and will “talk for hours [about the subject] if you let her,” according to Utah’s staff.

“Your mental preparedness, confidence in yourself and your ability to instill belief within the team is huge,” Wilke said. “Psychology has really matured my mind and my approach to the game.”

Much of the way that Wilke stays mentally prepared is seen in her routines.

Every day, she lists things that she’s grateful for. “Gratitude is a really highly studied thing,” Wilke said. “If you start your day off with what you’re grateful for, it makes everything else seem so much smaller.”

She listens to music that she knows will relax her. This season, gospel music has been the go-to genre.

Before games, she meditates. “Meditation before games allows me to be like, ‘Whatever happens, I’m going to go out and do my best,’ and helps me prepare my mind and brings a calmness and confidence.”

Her chosen habits are a big reason that her teammates look to her as a leader.

“It’s just those little things that she does on a day-in, day-out basis,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said. “She knows what the standards should look like, sound like, feel like, and she does a good job setting the table for our players to look up to and try to model their habits after hers.”

Last season, a major wrench was thrown into Wilke’s usual routine when longtime head coach Lynne Roberts decided to leave the Utah program just two weeks into the regular season to become the head coach for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

“Obviously, I loved Coach Rob, so to have her leave, I was just really sad and really mad, too,” Wilke said. “When adversity happens, it kind of shows your true colors.”

Roberts leaving Utah wasn’t the first time that Wilke had faced adversity in her basketball career. During her senior season of high school, Wilke tore her ACL, causing her to redshirt her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin. She did not play a competitive game of basketball for nearly two years, and to cap it off, she also faced a coaching change during her time committed to the Badgers.

Wilke transferred to Utah in 2023 and quickly became a key contributor off the bench for Roberts and the Utes. It’s a role she continued last season, amid change and uncertainty.

Leaning into her studies, Wilke said she felt at peace with Roberts’ departure and thinks she’s a better teammate because of it.

“Just being honest and communicating [about our feelings on the coaching change] made us feel stronger,” Wilke said. “We’ve been through hard things, we’ve been through it all before and we got through it.

“I’ve said it before, but when you list the things you’re grateful for, I was just still so grateful. I’m so grateful that Gavin [Peterson] was hired as a head coach and that I knew him and had a relationship with him, I still had all my teammates. … I was grateful for another opportunity to lead,” Wilke said.

After her time at Utah is over, Wilke wants to put her psychology knowledge to use in the form of coaching.

“Psychology is all coaching,” Wilke said, “I mean, you have problems every day and you work with so many different types of people.”

This season, Wilke is Utah’s second leading scorer, averaging 9.7 points per game. The Utes are sitting at sixth place in a crowded Big 12 conference and are a 12-seed in ESPN’s latest bracketology projections.