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PROVO — It's been repeated so many times to Kylie Maeda over the past four years for the senior point guard: everyone on the BYU women's basketball team has a role.
She knows her's pretty well, and that's a good thing for the Cougars, who could wrap up their first outright West Coast Conference title Thursday night at the Marriott Center.
"I try to be the positive leader both on the court and a second coach," said Maeda, who will suit up for the final time at home at 7 p.m. against San Diego. "At the beginning of the season, I thought I needed to be more aggressive. But every game is different; some games, the shots aren't falling for other people and I try to be more aggressive with my shots.
"We have great scorers, so sometimes my role isn't to score as much. I just need to get them the ball where they can score and make something happen. I think my role changes game-to-game."
BYU (22-4, 14-1 WCC) can clinch its first outright conference championship since 2009 with a win over the Toreros (21-5, 11-4 WCC) on senior night, the first regular-season title since joining the WCC. And both seniors — Maeda and the school's No. 2 all-time scorer Lexi Eaton Rydalch — will likely play a significant role in doing so — just as they have during the Cougars' current 14-game win streak.
For Maeda to be a starter and featured as a captain on the historic team has been a long time coming.
The role of the preseason all-WCC first-team selection has evolved over the course of her four-year career. She played in all but one game of the regular season as a freshman in 2012-13, averaging 1.5 points and 1.3 assists in 10.3 minutes per game following a standout career at Honolulu's Iolani High School.
But the transition to Provo wasn't always easy for the 5-foot-5 guard who has developed into one of the top point guards in the West Coast Conference.
But she admitted to struggling when she first arrived in Provo. The unique culture of Utah and BYU's strict Honor Code made for a tough transition for Maeda, who is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Being so far away from my family was really hard my freshman year," she said. "I come from a really close family, and it was hard not seeing them at every one of my games. I was used to that in high school, and that was really hard for me."
By the end of her college career, the homesickness is gone. Maeda spent New Year's Eve in Provo with her vacationing brother and his family, and her parents travel to several road games a year, mostly in California but also to the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas.
She's also found a new family at BYU in her teammates, coaches and the coaches' families. While she's never gone to the mountains for Utah's world-famous ski resorts, she's the regular go-to baby sitter for assistant coach Dan Nielson and his wife.
"It feels like home, like a family," Maeda said. "We're all really close here. Our coaches are interested in us as people and more than just basketball players."
Maeda has added to her family on the court as well. She averages 5.5 points and 3.5 assists per game as a senior, but her most intelligible contribution is the ability to limit turnovers for the Cougars.
"I try to focus on it," Maeda said of the turnovers. "At the beginning of the season, we struggled with turnovers, and that's when I really tried to buckle down. When I get two turnovers, I'm really upset with myself."
Maeda hasn't been upset with herself during BYU's current 14-game winning streak. She has just 44 turnovers on the season, and hasn't given up more than two in a game since Dec. 12 against Utah.
She's also been turnover-free four times in 2015-16.
All that leads BYU women's basketball coach Jeff Judkins to call his guard line the best in the league. And it's not just for Rydalch, the No. 5 scorer in the nation, and Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher, the squad's top on-ball defender.
"There's no question: my guard line is up there with the best in the league. Kylie is a coach on the floor," Judkins said. "They're solid, they're tough, they're smart, they're competitive, and they've been through a lot together and trust each other. If you ask those two who they trust most, Kenzi would say Kylie and Kylie would say Kenzi."
Judkins trust Maeda enough to let her run the show on the floor. The veteran head coach with seven-straight seasons of 20 wins or more has regularly turned to the bench in 2015-16, and let Maeda call the plays on the court.
It was a trust that has gradually built up since her freshman year. Now, Judkins doesn't even think about it.
"He trusts me since I've been here for a while," Maeda said with a laugh. "There have been timeouts where I adjust the play, and if he thinks it will work, we'll go with it. During the game, I'll sometimes look at the defense when we can't hear him and try to get something going.
"I'm fortunate that he trusts me and the girls trust me, too."
The trusting, caring personality is part of the reason why most of Judkins' players have been enamored with the coach.
"His personality stands out to everybody, and everybody loves him," Rydalch said. "He also wants his players to be great and his program to be winning, and that's what I wanted when I came here."
Add it all up, and BYU hopes it leads to the squad's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in five seasons — which would be a program record.
"The bottom line is we are hoping we can continue to keep winning, win the conference," Judkins said. "Then do well in the tournament, and hopefully get into the NCAA Tournament and make some noise."
