Assessing the potential Kentucky WBB roster for 2022-23

Kentucky Women’s Basketball doesn’t expect to lose many of its pieces from the 2021-22 season, but one of them is a bit more impactful than the rest.

Rhyne Howard’s Wildcat tenure came to an end over the weekend during UK’s first-round NCAA Tournament exit against the Princeton Tigers, turning the final page on what will go down as one of the program’s all-time greatest careers. She is one of four seniors on the roster, but the only one who came into this season expecting to leave Lexington at year’s end. Howard is currently projected by ESPN to hear her name called with the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming 2022 WNBA Draft.

The other three upperclassmen — Blair Green, Jazmine Massengill, and Robyn Benton — all came into this past season with the intention to come back for a fifth year of college, taking advantage of the additional eligibility granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there has been no confirmation as of yet on that front. Green is the one we can assume is the most likely to return, as she missed the entire 2021-22 season after rupturing her Achilles during the preseason.

But again, anything can happen. Remember, KeKe McKinney shockingly transferred to Charlotte after the conclusion of last season. The transfer portal presents all sorts of different possibilities.

Losing Howard will obviously hurt Kentucky on both ends of the floor, meaning head coach Kyra Elzy won’t have one of the best failsafe options in all of basketball. But returning Green, Massengill, and Benton — who could all fill in as starters for 2022-23 — is a terrific base for the start of the post-Howard era.

Massengill and Benton were vital pieces for Elzy this past year, with Massengill starting all 30 games she played in as the lead point guard on averages of 7.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and a team-best 4.7 assists per game. Benton, who missed a good chunk of the season with an ankle injury, was key in Kentucky’s late-season revival. The shooting guard averaged 8.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in over 24 minutes per contest, shooting 37.3 percent from distance.

Coming into the 2021-22 season, Green was viewed as a potential breakout candidate after putting up averages of 6.0 points on 44.1 percent shooting overall and 33.3 percent from distance as a junior in 2020-21. The 6-foot wing would add some much-needed shooting to Kentucky’s Howard-less rotation next year if she does choose to return.

The deadline to declare for the WNBA Draft is March 28, although none of them figure to put their name in outside of Howard.

Elsewhere, barring an in-house transfer, Coach Elzy will return the rest of the roster from a season ago. Redshirt junior forward Dre’Una Edwards will likely be the focal point of the team moving forward. She’s been Kentucky’s second-best player behind Howard for most of the last two seasons and played the best basketball of her life from February to March.

As long as she has firmly shaken off whatever internal issues led to her being suspended for five games, Edwards will enter next season as one of the Southeastern Conference’s 10 best overall players.

Moving down the roster, redshirt junior center Olivia Owens and junior guard Emma King will become rising seniors at the end of the semester, but both play vastly different roles. Owens was the team’s backup center a season ago and the lone source of a player over 6-foot-3. She was mostly effective in her 13.2 minutes per game, putting up 3.1 points and 3.0 rebounds, but her playing time fluctuated based on the opponent at hand. Unless Kentucky was playing against height, Owens didn’t see much playing time.

As for King, she clocked nearly 14 minutes per outing over her 26 appearances but shot just 33.3 percent from the floor overall and 3-32 (9.4 percent) from beyond the arc. With four new freshmen coming in (who we’ll address in a moment), carving out more playing time could be tough for the Stanford, KY native.

Next, we have a pair of soon-to-be juniors in Treasure Hunt and Nyah Leveretter, who should both figure to play an even larger role than they did as sophomores. Hunt went from shooting guard to stretch-four last season, which has seemingly worked in her favor, particularly down the stretch of the season once she adjusted to the new roles. She became a much-improved rebounder as the year went along and rediscovered her shooting confidence. She’s a bit undersized for a forward at 6-foot-1, but she’s getting better and better at playing within her limits.

Leveretter could be a breakout star as Kentucky’s 6-foot-3 pogo stick, grading out as one of the country’s best at drawing fouls, according to HerHoopStats. 23 of her 55 points from this past season came from the free-throw line. She’s not nearly as effective a rebounder as you might hope but possesses more than enough length, versatility, and hustle that makes her tough to deal with under the basket. Leveretter will have a role regardless, but if she can get more comfortable handling the ball around the rim, she could be a high-impact player very soon.

Lastly from the 2021-22 roster is rising sophomore Jada Walker, who surprised everyone as the breakout player from a season ago, making her mark early in the season with 16 points against ranked Indiana before earning the SEC’s All-Freshman Team honors by the time her year was all said and done. Next season, she’ll be gunning for an All-SEC Team and that’s not even close to out of the realm of possibility. The rookie was second on the team in scoring with 10.4 points per outing on an impressive 41.4 percent clip from the field and 35.5 percent from deep. Walker can get out of control at times, but that was expected as a freshman. If she can reign it all in, the sky is the limit for the pesky bucket-getter.

Now let’s get to the incoming freshman. Elzy has four of them ready to call Lexington home in a few months, headlined by 6-foot-4 DeSoto (TX) product Tionna Herron. The buzz around the program is that Herron can come in and be an instant-impact player from day one for the ‘Cats, shoring up the lack of a true post player that has caused Kentucky issues over the last decade-plus. She’s considered a four-star prospect by ESPN and a top 70 high school senior.

A pair of homegrown recruits will come to Kentucky as roommates this summer: Cassidy Rowe of Shelby Valley and Amiya Jenkins of Anderson County. Both were in contention for the 2022 Miss Kentucky Basketball award, with Jenkins coming out as the victor.

Rowe is a 5-foot-6 workhorse point guard with elite-level passing skills and a high-level outside jumper. She’s currently rehabbing from a fractured bone in her shooting hand, but after overcoming two high school ACL injuries, this hiccup shouldn’t slow down her progress — she’s expected to be fully healed by next season. As for Jenkins, she’s also considered a four-star prospect by ESPN, checking in at No. 94 overall. She’s known as a slasher, but is also an excellent defender and has vastly improved her outside jumper.

The final incoming freshman was made in the mold of Jada Walker. 5-foot-6 point guard Saniah Tyler is the third and final member of this incoming frosh group to hold a four-star ranking by ESPN. She’s another tough and pesky small guard who can get up under the opponent’s skin. Tyler has the ability to score from nearly anywhere on the floor and has powered her high school teams to plenty of postseason success.

If my math is correct, that puts Coach Elzy at 13 players heading into the 2022-23 season. Obviously, this can all change between now and August, as the transfer portal will surely play a role in some form or fashion. A severe lack of depth was what helped pushed Kentucky into the gutter midway through last season as injuries piled up, but that shouldn’t be nearly as big of a factor moving forward.

Just for fun, let’s layout a potential rotation. The only freshman I’m including in the rotation is Herron, but the other three could absolutely work their way in over the course of the summer.

Potential Kentucky WBB 2022-23 rotation

Starters
G: Jazmine Massengill (5th Sr.)
G: Jada Walker (So.)
G: Blair Green (5th Sr.)
F: Treasure Hunt (Jr.)
F: Dre’Una Edwards (R-Sr.)

Reserves
1. Robyn Benton (5th Sr.)
2. Nyah Leveretter (Jr.)
3. Tionna Herron (Fr.)
4. Olivia Owens (R-Sr.)
5. Emma King (Sr.)

Wait and see
– Amiya Jenkins (Fr.)
– Cassidy Rowe (Fr.)
– Saniah Tyler (Fr.)

I could see a world where Leveretter is in the starting lineup (she did start every single contest during Kentucky’s 10-game winning streak), perhaps in place of Hunt. Benton did well in her Sixth Woman role, so that feels like a good bet to stick. However, I could be convinced that she takes Green’s spot as a starter, depending on how Green looks post-rehab. There’s a lot to assess.