Kentucky’s women’s basketball season is over. Here’s who could be staying and going.
For the second straight year, Kentucky’s women’s basketball season ended with a Southeastern Conference Tournament elimination.
The Wildcats (12-20, 4-12 SEC) fell 76-62 to 5-seed Tennessee in the second round of this year’s tournament. Following the loss, head coach Kyra Elzy said she thinks the future is bright for the program, with lots to look forward to in terms of player development. Though UK has not recorded 10 conference wins in Elzy’s four seasons of leadership — and failed to win half that number in each of the past two seasons — it did ask plenty of its more inexperienced players.
“I took 10 players that haven’t played really any college minutes, significant minutes,” Elzy said. “Besides Maddie Scherr. Ajae Petty, Brooklynn Miles, Cassidy Rowe, (Amiya Jenkins), Emma (King) played limited minutes. Saniah (Tyler), Eniya (Russell), Janaé Walker. So that is a whole group that hadn’t really played any minutes, and then you’re asking them to produce. And we did grow up. It didn’t always show in the win and loss column, but if you go back and look at the stats, the minutes, they did grow up.
“They grew up on the job, and it usually takes you to about a junior before it really clicks. And now, you go to the transfer portal, get some more veterans. But the group that I have here returning, we’ll be grown up, and that does matter. Experience. And we’ll get some. ... No excuses, not where we want to be. But it does take time to build and we’ll get to where we need to be.”
Which begs the question: Who’s coming back for another season?
At the time of the writing of this article, the only known is fifth-year player King, who used her final year of eligibility this season. In her graduate season, King bested her previous highs for games played, games started, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and points, rebounds and steals per game.
“I had to play a position. ... that was completely new to me,” King said. “But it was just kind of fun to be able to embrace a new role and to figure out what you can do to help your team win. For me, it doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet and I was OK with that. And so just being able to do the little things that could help my team in any way it was just a really fun, really fun thing.”
As for the remaining 10 players, Elzy spoke to the importance of recruiting all the time, even those currently wearing Kentucky blue.
“No matter if you have a good season or you struggled,” Elzy said. “Part of the reality now with the transfer portal and NIL, you do have to recruit your own kid daily. And so that’s spending time hands-on, building great relationships, rapport, having honest conversations. And then just making sure they have the belief in your vision and the program vision, and that’s one thing I take great pride in myself, along with my staff. Great relationships with our players and continuing to recruit them.
“It’s not over once they get to your campus, so not only are you recruiting your own players, we also will recruit out of the transfer portal and you’re still recruiting high school, so you’re recruiting three sets of players. And it’s a tall task, but a job that has to be done. Recruiting is your lifeline. I like where we are right now as far as talking to the recruits that we are and where we are with our current players.”
The Wildcats have two incoming freshmen — 6-foot-5 center Ramiya White of Butler Traditional (Louisville), who signed in November, and 6-1 wing Tanah Becker of Hamilton Heights Christian Academy (Chattanooga), who gave a verbal commitment to the Wildcats at the end of February.
Another year?
Four seniors still hold one season of eligibility: Forward Nyah Leveretter, who missed this season while rehabilitating a torn ACL sustained late in the 2022-23 campaign, and Petty, Russell and Scherr. Leveretter and Russell participated in Senior Day activities alongside King, but no official statements have been made at this point.
Elzy said she’d had conversations with the seniors regarding the choice to come back for another year, and that the decisions will be announced soon.
“We had those conversations throughout the year already,” Elzy said. “And so now you give them time to go back, reflect, we’ll talk, they’ll talk to their parents and we’ll make decisions from there. But we have several that can return and I’m sure we’ll come up with a game plan how we would like to announce those in the near future.”
Prior to Leveretter’s injury in February 2023, Elzy relied heavily on her to anchor the frontcourt. She averaged 2.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 20 minutes per game over 26 contests in 2022-23. She made 21 starts.
Petty took a major jump in production this season, after averaging just 15.1 minutes per game in the 2022-23 season. This season, she elevated to become the Wildcats’ leading scorer, rebounder and shot-blocker. She started every game for Kentucky, averaging 14.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks in 31.0 minutes per game. After her commitment to improvement during the offseason, the Wildcats counted not only on Petty’s ability to produce, but also to set an example for the others on the floor.
“I’m more of a doer, less of a, like, talker,” Petty said after her 11-point, 14-rebound performance against Georgia on Wednesday. “So if I’m doing it and my teammates are seeing me do it then I expect them to follow what I’m doing.”
Russell, who only started two games this season, was one of Elzy’s go-to players when it came to providing an offensive punch off the bench. She finished eight games this season with at least 15 points, and averaged 10.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks in 20.7 minutes per game over 31 games played.
Scherr, who missed the SEC Tournament due to concussion protocol, was Kentucky’s second-leading scorer this season. The 2020 Miss Kentucky Basketball started in every game for which she was available this year, averaging 12.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in 33.1 minutes over 26 games played.
The future of the backcourt
Nobody’s minutes spiked more than Tyler’s, after she played a total of only 25 minutes during her freshman year.
“I wasn’t playing a lot, so I lost all my confidence,” Tyler said after Kentucky’s loss to Tennessee on Thursday. “I just had to, you know, find myself, get in the gym, so that’s where I saw a lot of my growth that you guys can see it on the floor. I’m hitting shots, just being able to help my team so that’s amazing to me.”
Tyler averaged 10 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 0.7 steals in 26.6 minutes per game this season. She also ranked within the top 10 for 3-pointers made in the SEC, hitting 1.9 per game.
Elzy often credited Tyler and Miles for serving as the defensive spark plugs for the team.
Miles inherited point guard responsibilities this season, and found a new level of confidence during her junior campaign. The 2021 Miss Kentucky Basketball averaged 5.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 29.7 minutes per game.
Jenkins, the 2022 Miss Kentucky Basketball, averaged 22.2 minutes this season. She missed most of December’s action due to a shoulder injury sustained in the Wildcats’ 65-41 loss to Cincinnati in the Paradise Jam over Thanksgiving weekend. Jenkins averaged 7.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.5 steals per game.
Kentucky native Rowe jumped from 4.2 minutes per game in her freshman season to 17.4. Rowe averaged 2.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.2 steals per game. She also led the team in charges taken, with more than 20.
The freshmen
Similar to last year’s freshmen, Elzy didn’t use Walker and Jordy Griggs too often this season. Following the team’s 103-55 loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 25, Elzy spoke to the pair’s development over the course of their first year.
“They continue to grow,” Elzy said. “... I’ve been talking to (Griggs) about pace, and competing even when you’re learning and growing and I thought she did that today. And she continues to get better. You know, Janaé, you’ve seen her learn and grow. She’s one of the best screeners that we have, she does not mind physical play, very coachable. A freshman is a freshman. You learn and grow; it’s learning on the job and they continue to get better. And we’ll need both of them.”
Walker played in 28 games this season, making her only start in the 78-50 loss at Auburn on Feb. 15. She averaged 0.9 points, 1.3 rebounds, 0.1 steals and 0.3 blocks in 7.8 minutes per game. Walker scored a career-high six points in the team’s 73-61 loss to No. 18 Louisville on Dec. 10.
Griggs, who the Wildcats transitioned to the guard position after she played wing in high school, averaged 3.5 minutes per game in four games this season. Her lone points came via 3-pointer in the team’s 76-57 loss to Minnesota on Dec. 6.
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