5/28/2026 11:33:00 AM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
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Missouri Valley Freshman of the Year averaged 14.4 points for 20-win Bradley
By: Paul Coro
There was a point in Maya Foz's youth when her basketball talent was overlooked and unnoticed. But she just kept showing up to shine her own light.
The versatility and competitiveness emerged as a freshman to illuminate her for more than stats. Her best numbers came in final scores and win tallies to catch the interest of Grand Canyon head coach Winston Gandy when she entered the transfer portal.
Keana, Marieta and Maya Foz
After her older sister, Keana, committed to GCU, Maya also was all in to join a Lopes program that aligns with her drive to stack success onto being the Missouri Valley Freshman of the Year at Bradley last season.
"Maya can score the ball," Gandy said. "She can make plays with the ball in her hands or not. I think she plays the game with a great passion and a great energy. She performed well against some of the best teams in the league as a freshman. That's stuff I take into account. When the stakes are at the highest or there is a high level of competition, how do you perform? That was really, really cool to see her be able to do those things as a freshman."
Foz, a 5-foot-9 guard from the Toronto area, averaged 14.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals in 27.5 minutes per game for Bradley, which recorded its first 20-win season since 2019-20 and tied its record for conference wins. She recorded the sixth-highest freshman scoring average in the nation after reaching double-digit points in each of her last 25 games.
"I think I can get better at GCU with the coaching staff and the facilities," Foz said. "I think GCU was a good fit for me. My surroundings and coach have always been hard on me, and look where it got me."
To Foz, her prep-to-college transition appeared seamless because it felt that way to her. After her family moved from Montreal to the Toronto area, Foz and her sister attended Fort Erie International Academy, where her toughness and confidence was boosted by coach Handel Kipp and a travel competition schedule against top North American programs.
Often overlooked on the prep level, Foz moved to the forefront to be MVP of a Grind Session event where her play mixed finesse with grit.
"When I first saw Maya playing in the WNPA, my jaw dropped," North Pole Hoops director of women's basketball development said on northpolehoops.com. "I thought she would have been heavily recruited. She was scoring at all three levels, making high-level reads, taking charges and guarding the opposing team's best player every night. She was a dog on the court, but the nicest kid off it."
Foz was an Opening Night starter in her college debut, becoming a relentless force who scored 29 points at conference champion Murray State and posted a 12-point, 10-rebound game at Evansville. She scored the second-most points (476) by a freshman in Bradley's 45 seasons.
"I wouldn't say there was a big change from being in high school with him and going to college," Foz said. "He (Kipp) did a good job of being hard preparing for me. Literally, it literally was the same thing for me, minus all the running that I was doing in high school."
Foz made 37.1% of her 3-point attempts as a freshman and turned defense into offense for transition opportunities that helped her set a Bradley freshman record for free throws made (121).
"I love to shoot the 3, but I'm currently working on getting to my mid-range shot more because it's literally been I'll get to the rim or I'll shoot the 3," Foz said. "I need to also use the mid-range. But I also like to pass the ball and make assists for my teammates. I love to win.
"Not too flashy, but I just get it done. Just keep it simple."
That tenacious personality, work ethic and court IQ appealed to Gandy, who saw how differently she channels a passion for basketball with a commitment to her development.
"Maya impacts winning," Gandy said. "She has an infectious personality."
Gandy knew Farid Foz, their father, when he coached other top prep players over the years. But the Foz sisters did not get into basketball until they began looking up to a pair of babysitters, who took the young Foz girls to their hoops sessions and became role models until one played Division I basketball.
After joining her sister at the D-I level last season, Maya was not looking to leave Bradley until her coach, Kate Popovec-Goss, departed for Boston College. The sisters now can reconnect on the court, where they were teammates growing up, but they are intertwined off the hardwood. Maya serves as vice president of Point Goddess, the nonprofit foundation that Keana founded six years ago to empower, inspire and uplift girls and women.
"We didn't really base our decision off each other," Maya said of Keana, who is older by 18 months. "She committed before me, and then I committed. It's going to be great for us to play together again."
The Foz sisters will arrive in Phoenix in June for informal team workouts with the Lopes coaches, who they chose to push them to another level and position them for an NCAA Tournament visit.
"I like the way he coaches," Maya said of Gandy. "I watched him work out the girls on the visit, and he jokes a lot. I think that'll help when I'm frustrated. He has great experience, so I trust him and I'm ready to work with him."
