Kemie Nkele (Nuh-KELL-ee) begins her second season as an assistant coach and the third with the women's basketball program.
 
In her first season with the Bengals, Nkele helped lead Idaho State to a Big Sky regular season title as well as a Big Sky Tournament Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament where Idaho State faced the University of Miami (FL) in the first round.

Nkele, a 6-1 forward/center, competed for UC Riverside from 2004-09 earning numerous accolades from the Big West Conference. She is a two-time Player of the Year (2007 and 2009) and Defensive Player of the Year (2005 and 2009) winner.

In her final season at UCR she finished first in the conference in scoring average, three-point field goals made, minutes played, and defensive rebounds per game. She surpassed 2,000 career points her senior season and set the record for all-time blocked shots during her sophomore year.

Other honors include being named first team all-Big West four times, Big West Hustle Player of the Year in 2006, being named to the All-Big West Tournament team in 2005 and 2007 while earning Big West Tournament Most Valuable Player honors in 2006 and 2007. Nkele earned her bachelors of liberal arts with a concentration in psychology and a minor in sociology from UC Riverside in 2009.

Nkele came to Idaho State after competing as a professional basketball player overseas for two seasons with the Apollon Ptolemaidas Club of Greece. In 2010, she earned second team all-Greek league with Apollon.