Meet the 2021-22 Kentucky women’s basketball team

With the Kentucky women’s basketball season set to start on Nov. 9, it’s time to learn more about the Wildcats.

Here’s what you need to know about each player on the 2021-22 roster.

Players are listed in numerical order.

00 Olivia Owens

Vitals: The 6-foot-4 redshirt junior center is from Albany, New York. Her major is U.S. culture and business practices.

Lowdown: Owens spent two seasons at Maryland before joining Kentucky. Owens played in 16 games as a freshman at Maryland before missing a season due to medical issues, and she was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA prior to last season. Owens made 25 appearances for UK last season, starting five games, and averaging 4.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

Quotable: “We’ve asked her to slow down in the paint, be able to finish, but keep that physical mentality,” Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy said.

1 Robyn Benton

Vitals: The 5-foot-9 senior guard is from Conyers, Georgia. Her major is journalism.

Lowdown: Benton played 52 games in two seasons at Auburn before transferring to Kentucky. She was an All-SEC Freshman Team selection in 2018-19 and was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA to play at UK prior to last season. Benton played in 26 games, all off the bench, for Kentucky last season and averaged 18 minutes per game with 6.6 points per contest.

Quotable: “She can score in transition, she can shoot the three. She can create her own shot, so her point productivity will go up this year,” Elzy said.

3 Jazmine Massengill

Vitals: The 6-foot senior guard is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her major is pre-communication.

Lowdown: Massengill played two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Kentucky. Massengill made 19 appearances and started eight times for UK last season after being cleared to play in December, averaging 5.1 points and 3.3 assists per game. She became the first Kentucky player to have at least seven assists while coming off the bench since 2010.

Quotable: “She has really stepped up to the plate as far as leading this team, and she and I being on the same page as far as communication and work ethic,” Elzy said.

4 Kristen Crenshaw-Gill

Vitals: The 5-foot-9 freshman walk-on guard is from Youngstown, Ohio. Her major is sociology.

Lowdown: Crenshaw-Gill impressed during open tryouts for the team in September and earned a roster spot as a walk-on player. Her addition boosted the Kentucky roster from 10 to 11 players following the dismissal of sophomore guard Erin Toller.

Quotable: “You have to be committed to get up at 6 a.m., not knowing if you’re going to get into practice or not, and work out with a coach alone, and she withstood the test of time and she’s been a great addition,” Elzy said.

5 Blair Green

Vitals: The 6-foot senior guard is from Harlan County, Kentucky. Her major is kinesiology.

Lowdown: Green suffered what was expected to be a season-ending Achilles tear 10 days before the start of the season. She has been a recent UK mainstay, playing in 90 games for the Wildcats in the last three seasons combined. A career 33.3% three-point shooter, Green played in all 27 games last season and started 18.

Quotable: “Although it appears we have lost her on the court, her leadership off the court will still have an impact on our team this season,” Elzy said.

10 Rhyne Howard

Vitals: The 6-foot-2 senior guard is from Cleveland, Tennessee. Her major is digital media and design.

Lowdown: Howard’s laundry list of college accolades includes being the two-time defending SEC Player of the Year, a three-time All-SEC First Team selection, the unanimous National Freshman of the Year in 2019 and a First-Team All American in the last two seasons. Howard played and started in 24 contests for the Wildcats last season, averaging 20.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Howard shot 44.4 percent from the field last season, and also led the Wildcats with 91 assists.

Quotable: “This year I just want to leave it all out there ... for the fans, for my teammates, for my coaches. Just be there for them and be the best player that I can be and that I know I can be,” Howard said.

11 Jada Walker

Vitals: The 5-foot-7 freshman guard is from Richmond, Virginia. Her major is sports management.

Lowdown: Rated as a four-star guard by ESPN in the class of 2021, Walker had a breakout junior season at Henrico High School, averaging 26.3 points and 5.9 steals per game while hitting 54 percent from the field.

Quotable: “When she arrived on campus, I told her, ‘I only need two things from you. One thing is to work as hard as you can work and the second thing is (that) you do not back down.’” Elzy said.

12 Treasure Hunt

Vitals: The 6-foot-1 sophomore guard is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her major is exploratory studies-ag.

Lowdown: Hunt was a high school teammate of Jazmine Massengill. As a freshman at UK, Hunt played in 15 games and made one start. One of her best showings came in the SEC Tournament victory over Florida, where Hunt played 24 minutes and logged nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Quotable: “Treasure Hunt is an X-factor for us ... she can score at all three levels. She has great size, a high basketball IQ,” Elzy said.

21 Nyah Leveretter

Vitals: The 6-foot-3 sophomore forward is from Blythewood, South Carolina. Her major is pre-journalism.

Lowdown: In her freshman season at Kentucky, Leveretter played in 14 games and averaged 6.7 minutes per contest. Half of her 14 career college points, along with a career-best nine rebounds, came in a 61-point non-conference win over Wofford.

Quotable: “She commits to her teammates, they’re important to her and she sacrifices (for) that,” Westwood High School head coach Gregory Bauldrick, who coached Leveretter in high school, said.

34 Emma King

Vitals: The 5-foot-10 junior guard is from Stanford, Kentucky. Her major is human health sciences.

Lowdown: King was a star scorer at Lincoln County High School in Stanford, ending her high school career with more than 2,500 points and 750 rebounds. She played in 15 games as a freshman at UK and played in just five games last season as a sophomore, but started two of those contests.

Quotable: “She was a really good high school player, a really good shooter, and that’s kind of what attracted us to her. ... It was always her dream to play at Kentucky,” Kentucky Premier Director David Tapley, who oversaw King’s AAU program, said.

44 Dre’una Edwards

Vitals: The 6-foot-2 redshirt junior forward is from Las Vegas, Nevada. Her major is social work.

Lowdown: Edwards played her freshman season at Utah, starting 26 times and averaging 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, as part of a campaign in which she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019. Edwards missed the final games of Utah’s season due to a torn ACL. She then transferred to Kentucky and sat out the 2019-20 season. Edwards played in all 27 games for UK last season, starting 11 times and averaging 9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. She led UK in blocks nine times last season and had 21 rejections overall.

Quotable: “Dre has probably had her best summer since she’s been at Kentucky. She’s really taken fitness and nutrition seriously,” Elzy said.

This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 6:20 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription