‘She’s ready to score.’ Robyn Benton has battled back from surgeries to be a spark for UK.
What Robyn Benton does, she does with precision and purpose.
Whether it’s spotting up for an open three-pointer, delivering words of encouragement to her teammates or carefully crafting her responses to questions from the media, Benton is straightforward and to the point.
Little, if anything, is wasted when Benton — a senior guard in her second season with the Kentucky women’s basketball team — sets out to accomplish a task.
Chief among the responsibilities for Benton this season has been to score more.
Benton came off the bench for Kentucky in all 26 games she appeared in last season, averaging 6.6 points per game while shooting 30.3% from three-point range and 38% from the field.
The directive from head coach Kyra Elzy this offseason was for her to become a double-digit scorer. Like usual, Benton has delivered in a direct way.
Benton has played in nine of Kentucky’s 10 games this season — all non-conference contests — and started eight of those games. Her averages of 13.2 points, 43.5% shooting from three-point range and 52.2% shooting from the field all rank third on the UK team.
Her scoring presence is a big reason why the Wildcats rank in the top 20 nationally in scoring offense with an average of 79.5 points per game.
“She definitely brings another spark for us. She’s definitely another threat for us,” star senior guard Rhyne Howard said of Benton. “We know that she can get to the basket or score, shoot, whatever.”
Benton’s true shooting percentage (which measures a player’s efficiency at shooting the ball by taking into account field goals, free throws and three-pointers) is 59.81%, which ranks second on the UK team behind forward Dre’una Edwards.
“I think she has found her niche where she can score in the offense,” Elzy said after Benton scored 17 points in a Nov. 27 home win over La Salle. “One thing we talked to her about (is) she had to hunt shots, we needed her to be a double-figure scorer, but we needed her to be consistent and thus far she has done that.”
Benton’s performances this season will cap a college career defined by adjustments and improvements, but Benton’s basketball journey has been a story of resiliency and strength, guided by a former WNBA star.
Battling back from knee surgery
By all measurements — both qualitative and quantitative — Lady Grooms is a women’s basketball legend.
A college star who scored more than 1,000 points at Georgia, Grooms was one of the first 16 players allocated to teams in the WNBA’s Initial Player Allocation draft before the league’s first season in 1997.
Grooms played eight seasons in the WNBA with the Utah Starzz and Sacramento Monarchs.
After her playing career, Grooms moved into coaching, beginning with the WNBA’s New York Liberty before shifting to the high school ranks, where her path crossed with Benton’s.
Grooms coached Benton for all four of Benton’s high school seasons at Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross, Georgia, located 30 minutes northeast of Atlanta.
The defining moments of Benton’s high school career, and some of the strongest memories Grooms has of Benton, are related to the two right knee surgeries Benton had in high school.
The first surgery came as the result of a torn right ACL Benton suffered at the end of her freshman season.
After that procedure, Benton cut out fried foods, sodas and sweets from her diet.
Benton’s shooting motion went from being sideways to straight up, the result of her improved physical strength.
The second knee surgery concerned Grooms more.
“I’m not going to lie, I said, ‘What’s going to happen to Robyn and her career?’ Because I knew she wanted to continue to play,” Grooms told the Herald-Leader. “Having a second one (surgery) on the same knee, geez Louise.”
“Whatever she didn’t do, she made sure she did even more, not to experience that again,” Grooms said of Benton after the second surgery. “She was determined to play at a high level. In her mind she was going to do whatever it takes to get where she needed to get.”
The surgeries didn’t dampen Benton’s confidence, either.
Grooms recalled Benton having the “Prime Time” nickname in high school, à la Deion Sanders.
“She’s the teammate that everybody wanted to play with,” Grooms said. “She demanded (other players) to step their game up. She demanded them to play.”
In the early part of Benton’s sophomore season she needed to wear a brace on her right knee as she recovered from the torn right ACL.
Benton didn’t want to wear the brace, though, and cried until Grooms let her take the brace off and play without it.
“She didn’t want to look like she had a weakness,” Grooms said. “When she came out of that knee brace she probably had 33 points. I think she said to me, ‘I told you.’ I’m telling you, the girl is over the top confident and edgy, but she’s not crazy.”
Grooms described the knee surgeries as blessings in disguise for Benton because of the mentality change it inspired in her.
“She was a brat to me as a freshman, a brat. She was good, but whatever she was good at that’s all she did. She didn’t work on her weaknesses,” Grooms explained. “Robyn came out of that knee surgery a different person. She was always competitive, but this time she was skilled … She came back smarter, she came back hungry. The way that baby came back from that knee injury, that’s who she is now.”
‘She’s ready to score’ at UK
While Benton battled back on the court, she developed a relationship off the court with Grooms’ daughter, Gabbie, who was in elementary and middle school while Benton was in high school.
Grooms said Gabbie “absolutely idolized” Benton, and that Benton was the best role model she could give Gabbie.
Grooms now coaches the girls’ basketball program at Landmark Christian School in Fairburn, Georgia, also just outside Atlanta, where Gabbie is a sophomore guard.
Gabbie and Benton remain close enough for Benton to call her and give advice before a big game or about life in general, Grooms said.
“It is important how you dress after that (AAU) game, how you walk, but if I say it I’m just her mother,” Grooms said. “But if cool Robyn says it … oh man that’s Robyn.”
“Her competitiveness, the way (Gabbie) is now … I credited it to Robyn. All she did was sit there and study Robyn,” Grooms added. “She talks to Gabbie all the time, (if) she’s sad, mad, something’s going on with me, she calls Robyn.”
School ties run strong in the Southeastern Conference. Grooms, a proud Georgia alumna, wanted Benton to also go to Athens.
While Benton was at Auburn — where she averaged 7.5 points per game over two seasons, 52 games played and 14 starts under former Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy — Grooms was able to see her play more compared to now with Benton at Kentucky.
Benton’s choice to transfer from Auburn to Kentucky came while Matthew Mitchell was still the head coach of the Wildcats in early 2020.
Benton’s best single-game scoring total at UK (22 points) came on Dec. 9 in a home loss to DePaul, on the night the Kentucky program honored Mitchell for his contributions.
“I liked the way that he ran his program and I liked the way that he was with the girls,” Benton said of Mitchell. “That just made my decision really easy to come to Kentucky. Mitchell, he’s a legend, the most winningest coach in the history of UK. I’m thankful for him, thankful for what he’s done for the program.”
From afar, Grooms has seen a different Benton at Kentucky over the last 20 months.
“I’m proud of her growth. I love her at Kentucky. I felt like she was Robyn more at Kentucky than Auburn,” Grooms said. “I feel like it was a better fit for her. There’s like a pep in her step when she runs out there. She’s ready to score, she’s ready to play.”
And while Grooms remains steadfastly committed to the Georgia Lady Bulldogs, she can make a small exception for Benton.
“I don’t like that Gabbie wears one of (Benton’s) Kentucky T-shirts now. That’s kind of disrespectful. I’m a Bulldog,” Grooms said. “But I only said she can do that because of Robyn. If somebody asks why you’ve got it on, you better say … because of Robyn.”
Benton ‘feels good’ at UK
The consistency from Benton desired by Elzy has been on display this season in Lexington.
Benton has scored 11 or more points in eight of her nine games this season, shooting 50% or better from the field in six contests and showing up in the biggest moments for the Wildcats.
In Kentucky’s four games this season against projected NCAA Tournament teams, Benton has averaged 12.5 points.
“Once Robyn gets hot, she doesn’t stop,” Edwards said after an early-season win.
Benton herself has said she feels more comfortable in UK’s offensive system this season.
“Our half-court offense, we run a lot of four out, just a lot of movement,” Benton said. “We just try to hit the open man or get the ball to the person.”
There’s also been moments this season when Benton’s personality has shown through.
“It felt good, like James Brown good,” Benton joyfully said after making her first Kentucky start during a Nov. 11 home win over North Alabama.
Behind-the-scenes moments also reflect this persona. Howard described Benton as the “class clown” of the UK team.
“You never know what you’re going to get with her,” Howard said. “She’s always cracking a joke, but she (will) be dead serious. That’s what makes it funny.”
These are the qualities that led Benton to Kentucky: The ability to score, the ability to connect with others and the ability to be counted upon.
It’s an ideal basketball package summed up succinctly by Grooms.
“There’s just something about her that, she has that cockiness, but then she has that love that people see, too.”
On pause
Benton didn’t play in Kentucky’s most recent game, a Dec. 19 home win over South Carolina Upstate, due to an ankle injury. Benton is expected to return for Kentucky’s next game at home against Georgia on Thursday night.
The game will be the first SEC contest of the season for UK (7-3 overall) after the Wildcats’ last two games — last Thursday at Auburn and Monday night at home against Mississippi State — were postponed due to COVID-19 issues.
New dates for those games have not been announced.
Next game
No. 15 Georgia at No. 21 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
Live video broadcast: SEC Network Plus (online only)
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Georgia 12-2 (1-1 SEC), Kentucky 7-3 (0-0)
Series: Georgia leads 38-21.
Last meeting: Georgia won 78-66 on March 5, 2021, in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals at Greenville, S.C.
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 7:54 AM.
