Woori Bank, picked by fans and players as the favorite to win the 2026-27 Women's Korean Basketball League title, and Samsung Life Insurance, tipped to finish last, opened the season with sharply contrasting messages from their head coaches.
Six head coaches and 12 representative players, 18 people in all, attended the KB Starbanking 2026-27 WKBL Media Day held on the 27th at Hotel Riviera Cheongdam in Seoul's Gangnam district.
A survey of 719 fans and 109 players from the six clubs named Woori Bank the team of the year. Woori Bank head coach Jeon Joo-won, who took charge of the team this season, pointed to the arrival of three-point leader Kang Lee-seul and the pairing with Kim Dan-bi, stressing the synergy between the two.
Jeon presented "W" as the team slogan. "W stands for Woori Bank and for 'win,'" the coach said. "This is my first year as head coach and Kang Lee-seul's first season here, so we will build team chemistry as the season goes on and maximize the synergy between the two players."
Samsung Life Insurance head coach Ha Sang-yoon, whose team was picked to finish sixth and last, declared he would overturn those predictions. The club was ranked bottom in the survey after the retirements of former marquee players Bae Hye-yoon and Kim Dan-bi left a drop in strength all but unavoidable.
"I felt quite bad hearing the talk that Samsung Life would finish last," Ha said. "The veterans have retired, but the current senior players have trained harder than ever and led by example. We will prove on the court that those who predicted Samsung Life for last place got it wrong, and overturn that forecast."
Busan BNK Sum drew an overwhelming number of votes from the six head coaches as the team with the deepest roster, emerging as the club their rivals watch most closely.
Shinhan Bank head coach Choi Yoon-ah said BNK has the deepest squad, with many national team players and younger players improving at a frightening pace. Jeon of Woori Bank also rated BNK's strength highly, saying that at the Park Shin-ja Cup the team lost nothing even while rotating 10 players. Hana Bank head coach Lee Sang-beom and Samsung Life's Ha agreed, saying BNK maintains the same level of play even when backups come on.
BNK head coach Park Jung-eun said she too believes her team has the deepest roster. "Our good national team players and younger players have gained a lot of confidence," she said. "I will use them in harmony and build a solid team."
The women's league faces a major change this season as the regular season expands. For the first time since the 2018-19 season, eight years ago, the regular season shifts from six rounds to seven. That raises the number of games per team to 35 from 30. With the longer regular season, the playoffs shrink to a best-of-three series from the previous best-of-five.
The official opener is a matchup between Cheongju KB and Busan BNK at 4 p.m. on Nov. 1 at Cheongju Gymnasium. The regular season runs through March 9 next year, followed by playoffs starting March 13, with the championship series scheduled to run no later than April 3.