Kentucky WBB recruiting notes; 2022-23 roster nearing completion

Kentucky Women’s Basketball currently has 11 scholarship players on the roster for the 2022-23 season. That leaves two open spots for potential transfers or high school recruits, which could be filled in the very near future, likely within the next two weeks. Before we dive into some of those potential options, let’s quickly recap the current state of the team.

*Correction: Women’s Basketball rosters are allowed 15 scholarships, not 13. Kentucky could add as many as four more pieces to next year’s roster.*

Five holdovers from the 2021-22 roster are expected to return. Following the departure of four key players to the transfer portal (Dre’Una Edwards, Jazmine Massengill, Treasure Hunt, and Olivia Owens) and Rhyne Howard leaving for the WNBA, soon-to-be third-year head coach Kyra Elzy was left with a relatively bare cupboard. However, she will see the return of several critical components, most of which will likely fit into high-usage roles.

Returnees (5)
Blair Green (5th Sr.)
Robyn Benton (5th Sr.)
Jada Walker (So.)
Nyah Leveretter (Jr.)
Emma King (Sr.)

Harlan County native Blair Green will be one of the on-court leaders for this team after rupturing her Achilles ahead of last season and sitting throughout the entire year. The 6-foot-2 guard was on the brink of a breakout campaign heading into 2021-22, but now it might be necessary this season. Green has recently begun to run at full speed again and expects to be ready for 2022-23. Her outside shooting will be vital to Kentucky’s offense.

Fifth-year senior Robyn Benton and sophomore Jada Walker will assume backcourt responsibilities. Benton is about as steady a contributor as they come on both ends of the floor while Walker will look to follow up her SEC All-Freshman season with a run for an All-SEC spot. The word inside the program is that Elzy wants to get the team back to playing fast and pressure opposing offenses for all 40 minutes — a tactic that former Kentucky WBB head coach Matthew Mitchell became known for while in Lexington. Benton and Walker are more than capable of doing that, and it also explains the amount of high-energy freshman Elzy is bringing in, which we’ll talk more about shortly.

Junior Nyah Leveretter has the potential to be an early-season X-factor. At 6-foot-3, she’ll be one of the tallest players on the roster and a known rebounding commodity. Leveretter’s length and bounce are something you can’t teach and she does it at a level higher than most. But can she elevate her production across 25-28 minutes per game instead of the 17.7 she did a season ago? Her track record suggests she can.

As for senior Emma King, another Bluegrass native, it’s all a matter of making shots. Her 3-32 (9 percent) mark from distance last season prevented her from earning more playing time. With so many eager freshmen waiting behind her, an uptick in her outside shooting will be necessary if she wants to see the court.

Newcomers (6)
Adebola Adeyeye (graduate transfer – Buffalo)
Kennedy Cambridge (Fr.)
Tionna Herron (Fr.)
Amiya Jenkins (Fr.)
Cassidy Rowe (Fr.)
Saniah Tyler (Fr.)

Of the six newcomers, five of them will be playing their first year of college basketball. Bringing in 6-foot-2 grad transfer Adebola Adeyeye from the portal was a solid addition and she will likely figure into the early rotation as a high-minutes player. She’s an above-average rebounder, is willing to run the floor, and adds another veteran presence.

As for the five freshmen, it’s tough to say where any of them will land in the rotation. Word inside the program is that 6-foot-4 Texas product Tionna Herron is the most college-ready prospect of them all. Point guards Cassidy Rowe and Saniah Tyler could battle it out for backup minutes as the lead guard. Kennedy Cambridge and Amiya Jenkins will contend for minutes on the wing. If Elzy is truly leaning into 40 minutes of pace, all of the first-year players could find clock solely off working harder than someone else.

But as I said at the very beginning of this article, there are still two more available spots, and I expect Elzy to fill them both. The battle for minutes could change entirely based on what the program does or doesn’t do with those scholarships.

Multiple sources tell KSR that Oregon transfer Maddie Scherr will take a visit to Kentucky later in the week. A 5-foot-11 rising junior guard, Scherr is a native of Florence, KY, and attended Ryle High School where was named 2020 Kentucky Miss Basketball. She was a five-star recruit and top 20 overall prospect before taking her talents to Oregon, but a mass exodus of players from the Ducks this offseason saw her put her name in the transfer portal as well, which she did on March 29.

Scherr averaged 4.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game for Oregon in 2021-22, starting in 28 of the 31 games she appeared in. She would provide instant production in the backcourt for the Wildcats and another steady, reliable ball handler. Jada Walker is the only “pure” point guard with college experience on the roster. Scherr would plug in nicely alongside her. Don’t count out Florida State for Scherr though, which appears to be firmly in the running.

Another potential portal prospect is West Virginia transfer KK Deans, who was on campus for a visit two weekends ago with recent commit Adebola Adeyeye, KSR has learned. The 5-foot-8 senior guard was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention in 2020-21 and was averaging 14.5 points in over 30 minutes per game as a junior last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in late January 2022. There’s been no public confirmation on the severity of the knee injury for Deans, but if schools such as Kentucky are recruiting her, you’d have to think she’ll be ready to play at some point in the 2022-23 season.

Sources tell KSR that Villanova transfer Lior Garzon is also a name to keep an eye on, although there is no visit in place as of right now. The 6-foot-1 stretch forward from Israel averaged 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds as a sophomore a year ago.

Elzy definitely has her mind on the portal, but she doesn’t seem opposed to adding even more freshmen to the roster as she begins to establish her own brand of culture. Kentucky saw two high school seniors visit campus over the weekend: Zennia Thomas and Imarianah “Mari” Russell.

Starting with Thomas, she’s a long 6-foot-2 forward out of Lyndhurst, OH, playing her senior season at Warrensville Heights where she was regularly dropping 30-point games. She’s being recruited by the likes of Arizona State, Purdue, Ohio, Wright State, and Howard. On Monday morning, not long after completing her visit to UK, Thomas tweeted that she would drop her top five this Friday.

As for Russell, she actually received an offer from Elzy and the ‘Cats while on her visit over the weekend. The 5-foot-11 wing originally committed to West Virginia in June 2021 but backed off that decision last month. Her previous top five schools included Indiana, Ole Miss, Ohio, Ohio State, and WVU. But now, Kentucky is a real player for Russell.

The final roster is slowly coming together and Elzy has options to choose from.