‘Let’s go, rev it up.’ UK senior point guard leads from the front after year of progress.
Kyra Elzy and Jazmine Massengill can sit and laugh about it now, about the moments this season when Elzy has asked for more from her senior point guard.
The requests have come in areas both on and off the court, from getting Kentucky into a better offensive rhythm to being more intentional with everything Massengill does.
Such is the relationship between a veteran point guard and their coach in high-level Division I college basketball.
Reflecting on this dynamic two weeks ago — before Massengill helped pilot UK to a Southeastern Conference Tournament title — Elzy was frank when describing the process of getting Massengill to be better this season, all while the senior guard sat next to her inside Memorial Coliseum’s media room.
“It’s hard to be a point guard at Kentucky. There’s a lot of responsibility, there’s a lot of stress, there’s a lot of pressure and an expectation. She is the coach on the floor,” said Elzy, who will lead Kentucky against Princeton in the NCAA Tournament at Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday. “She was not happy with me a lot of days, and that’s OK. But what I love about Jazmine is she was going to step up to the challenge. She didn’t like me pushing her out of her comfort zone, but I knew she had more and she showed more and that has made us a better team.”
Getting more from Massengill has been a theme this UK season, not so much because she wasn’t giving enough already, but because Elzy kept insisting more was there.
There were challenges to hunt more shots and score more. There were times when Elzy was dissatisfied with the pace of the Kentucky offense, putting an onus on Massengill to direct things better on the court.
There were even challenges for Massengill to become more engaged, and to show up to the team bus earlier.
Each time Elzy proved to be correct, and Massengill proved willing to answer the call.
“It’s been hard. She told me that I had more in me, it made me want to dig deeper and rise to the challenge,” Massengill said after a Feb. 17 home win over Vanderbilt. “Her being hard on me made me grow and rise as a leader.”
‘A calming presence’
The huddles between Elzy and Massengill are frequent.
During stoppages in play — while free throws are shot or refereeing decisions are sorted out — Massengill will retreat to the UK bench and engage in dialogue with Elzy about what each of them is seeing on the court and what to change or continue.
It’s moments like these when the communication and trust between a point guard and coach reveal themselves most.
“She understands what we’re looking for in the offense. (Her teammates) trust her, I trust her. She’s one of the leaders on this team,” Elzy said after an early-season win over North Alabama. “She knows when to push, she knows when to pull back. She has a good feel, but she also can get in the huddle and coach them up and tell them what she sees and what we need to get done.”
Part of the reason Massengill can command this from her coach and teammates is experience.
Massengill, who was born and went to high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, spent her first two college seasons at Tennessee.
Ranked as the No. 25 overall player in the 2018 recruiting class by ESPN, the 2018 McDonald’s All-American played in all 32 games as a freshman for the Lady Volunteers, leading Tennessee’s bench players in assists.
After her freshman season though, Tennessee made a coaching change, replacing Holly Warlick with current head coach Kellie Harper.
Under Harper, Massengill’s sophomore season brought a new role, as she started 30 games and ranked 12th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.67 to 1).
But the fit wasn’t right, and Massengill opted to leave her dream school for Lexington in April 2020.
Two of the factors in Massengill’s choice to transfer to Kentucky are currently regular starters for the Wildcats: Rhyne Howard and Treasure Hunt.
Massengill was coached in high school at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy by Hunt’s mother, Keisha, where Massengill also played with Treasure. Massengill also previously played AAU basketball with Howard.
That familiarity was able to be on display last season after Massengill was eventually declared eligible to play in December 2020.
Her first season with the Wildcats ended with 19 appearances and eight starts, including significant performances in UK’s two NCAA Tournament games.
It was plenty to earn the trust of Elzy and become UK’s everyday starting point guard.
“She has a calming presence about herself,” Elzy said of Massengill after a December home win over West Virginia. “She’s one of our leaders, they follow her. Has a great basketball IQ. Has a good pace about herself.”
The senior year per-game averages for Massengill have supported this decision: 33.6 minutes, seven points, nearly five assists, nearly four rebounds, less than two turnovers and more than one steal.
Massengill’s 2.94 to 1 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks sixth nationally, and is the second-best of all players in the NCAA Tournament (only Creighton’s Tatum Rembao is better).
“I love that she is a pass-first point guard. I just know I’m not going to get any dumb plays from her, like some stuff that we could get mad at,” forward Dre’una Edwards said after that West Virginia game. “We know at the end of the day, she’s not going to shoot any dumb shots and she’s going to do what she has to do. She is going to get us the ball when we need the ball.”
Massengill mentors freshman guard
Massengill’s senior season has also been defined by mentorship.
Freshman guard Jada Walker has emerged for the Wildcats as the point guard of the future, a first-year dynamo who moved into the starting lineup for good in January and has been integral to UK’s success this season.
Despite the gap in age and experience, Walker’s relentless play at both ends has served as an inspiration for Massengill.
“Me and Jada are complete opposites on the court. But I look up to her in a way, her energy, her effort for all 40 minutes,” Massengill said. “I look to her for that just like she looks to me for the mental part of it. We kind of feed off of each other and opposites attract.”
“Jaz is a veteran point guard; she knows when to push, she knows when to pull back, time and possession. Jada is a fearless point guard. She’s going hard, she’s going fast. She’s going to play downhill, look to score. So, I think they complement each other,” Elzy said after a December home win over South Carolina Upstate. “I think they’re a great combination.”
How does Walker think her game complements that of Massengill?
“I feel like we play off each other. I talk to her a lot just to get some point guard insight, because she has been in the SEC for a very long time,” Walker said after that South Carolina Upstate game. “Really trying to get a connection with her and Rhyne (Howard). When she throws me the ball, she just tells me to rip it and go, so that’s what I try to do. I just play off her, Rhyne and Dre’una (Edwards’) energy and it works most of the time.”
Massengill’s mentorship of Walker is tangible evidence of her growth as a senior leader.
This kind of persona isn’t something that comes naturally for Massengill, who describes herself as a “very chill, laid-back person” away from basketball.
“She tells me not to lead from the back,” Massengill said this month of advice from Elzy. “Sometimes I chill on the court and sometimes it’s very recognizable. She definitely challenged me to play the full 40 minutes, push past your limits: You think you’re tired, you have more, you have more.”
When Massengill slips into those lackadaisical moments she’ll usually hear it from Elzy or her teammates in the huddle: “Come on let’s go, rev it up,” they’ll yell.
There are still parts of Massengill’s game that remain a work in progress, even at the end of her senior season.
A preseason challenge from Elzy to Massengill to score in double figures has come with in-season struggles: Massengill has only nine double-digit scoring games this season, and just three since February.
But Massengill’s most efficient performances of the season — especially as a ball handler — have come in recent games.
During the SEC Tournament wins over LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina — teams that all received a No. 4 seed or higher in the NCAA Tournament — Massengill compiled 19 assists against just one turnover.
That’s the play of a leader.
In June, Elzy came to Massengill and told her she was Kentucky’s starting point guard.
The duo have talked plenty since, and will continue to in Bloomington, Indiana, this weekend, as Kentucky begins NCAA Tournament play.
It will be the highest-profile chance for Massengill to display the leadership qualities she’s honed all season.
Saturday
No. 6 seed Kentucky vs. No. 11 Princeton
What: NCAA Tournament round-of-64 game in the Bridgeport (Conn.) Regional
When: About 4 p.m.
Where: Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
TV: ESPN
Records: Kentucky 19-11, Princeton 24-4
Series: Kentucky leads 1-0
Last meeting: Kentucky won 82-77 on March 23, 2019, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Raleigh, N.C.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 7:54 AM.
