‘Sink or swim.’ How Nyah Leveretter became indispensable part of UK’s starting lineup.
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Nyah Leveretter leaned back into a leather chair inside Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and smiled.
In the immediate aftermath of one of her best games as a Kentucky Wildcat — an eight-point, seven-rebound effort to help UK to a road win at Alabama on Feb. 13 — Leveretter was asked by the Herald-Leader about her progression from freshman role player to significant sophomore contributor.
A grin immediately crept across the forward’s face as she answered.
“I feel like being thrown into the fire is like the best way to learn,” Leveretter said. “You’ll either sink or swim, and in this case I’ve just built my confidence and my skills enough to swim instead of sink.”
Evidently, Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy agreed.
That win over Alabama was the last time Leveretter came off the bench for UK.
She’s started the last nine games for UK — all victories as part of Kentucky’s current 10-game winning streak — and become an integral part of what the Wildcats do at both ends of the court.
The statistics produced by Leveretter often aren’t eye-popping. Her season highs in points (eight), rebounds (seven), field goals made (three) and steals (three) all came in that Alabama game when she played 19 minutes off the bench.
It’s often the heart and hustle displayed by Leveretter that is most evident.
These are also the qualities that have allowed Elzy to trust a sophomore still coming into her own with a starting spot on one of the hottest college basketball teams in the country.
“Nyah’s really grown up (in) the last month. We’ve asked her to step up to the challenge, come in, produce, make plays,” Elzy said on her radio show in early February. “The thing that I love about Nyah (is) she has a high motor, she’s going to work hard, and no, she doesn’t always fill up a stat sheet, but she affects the game so much.”
High school career defined by focus, dedication
Gregory Bauldrick will talk about Leveretter the basketball player in a second. But first, he wants to discuss Leveretter the person.
Bauldrick coached Leveretter for all four of her high school seasons at Westwood High School in Blythewood, South Carolina.
“The very first thing is just her presence, she (has) a glow the minute she walks in a room,” Bauldrick said last summer about the first time he met Leveretter. “She doesn’t demand attention, but she commands attention, because of her presence, the way she carries herself, the way she speaks and just who she is as a person. . . . I do not have any birth daughters, but if I did, I would want to have all the characteristics that this young lady has.”
This didn’t surprise Bauldrick, who knew Leveretter’s parents before he met her.
Leveretter comes from a military family. She was born on Fort Campbell military base, which is located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Leveretter’s father, Barry, is retired from the U.S. Army and is a junior ROTC instructor at Denmark-Olar High School in Denmark, South Carolina, located 70 miles from Westwood.
Bauldrick, Leveretter’s high school coach, is also a junior ROTC instructor at Westwood, so he knew Barry professionally before he knew Nyah personally.
Additionally, Bauldrick had Nyah’s older brother, Nicholas, as a student.
“I knew her dad, met her mom (Simquita), taught her brother, and so you kind of knew what you were getting with Nyah coming in,” Bauldrick said.
And this meant that for four seasons at Westwood, Bauldrick benefited from Leveretter’s power of positivity.
“No matter how bad it is, the glass is always half full and she’s just such a breath of fresh air for everybody because it’s always positive coming from her,” Bauldrick said. “Regardless of what’s happening, regardless of what somebody’s going through, she’s just a big, big fan of those that she commits to. She commits to her teammates, they’re important to her and she sacrifices (for) that. If she’s got a dime, you better believe her teammates have a nickel.”
It also didn’t hurt that Leveretter was a standout player at Westwood both on the hardwood and the volleyball court.
Leveretter was a top-85 recruit in the class of 2020, according to ESPN, and shot the ball at a 45% rate from the field throughout her high school career.
A 1,000-point scorer at Westwood, which opened in 2012, Bauldrick described Leveretter to the Herald-Leader as “the most decorated athlete in our school history, regardless of sport.”
But Bauldrick added that Leveretter’s legacy at Westwood extends far beyond on-court accolades and the end result of playing high-level Division I basketball.
A top student in her class, Leveretter’s off-court activities in the academic and community-service realms made her a role model even for adults, Bauldrick said.
“This young lady just touched every aspect of our community,” Bauldrick said. “That just goes to show the amount of focus, commitment and dedication that she had in how she approached what she wants to do.”
‘She belongs on the floor’
Leveretter’s upside as a player comes from her length and versatility.
At 6-3, Leveretter is able to both battle around the rim and play defense on the perimeter.
Her offensive game still needs refinement, but enough evidence exists to say Leveretter can take this season’s 48.4% shooting rate from the field (making 15 of her 31 shot attempts) and have similar success with a higher volume.
“She plays too fast offensively,” Elzy said on Jan. 17. “So slowing down and being able to finish around the rim consistently, and some of that will come with strength.”
The opportunities to learn and grow on the court haven’t always been there for Leveretter.
As a freshman during the 2020-21 season, Leveretter played in just 14 games. She played more than eight minutes in a game only three times, as Leveretter made just eight appearances for a combined 24 minutes against Southeastern Conference opponents.
After overcoming a non-COVID illness that sidelined Leveretter for the first five games of her sophomore season, she saw regular rotation minutes.
A lack of available players due to injuries and suspension meant Leveretter got her first college start during a Jan. 27 loss at Vanderbilt, in which she played a career-best 38 minutes as UK had only six scholarship players dressed for the game.
In total, Leveretter has played more than half of game minutes (more than 20 for a regulation game, more than 22 for an overtime game) in nine games this season, a sizable increase for a player buried on the depth chart last season.
While Leveretter is often subbed out of the game in the first quarter after just a few minutes, having the chance to fail and succeed in live action — to keep her head above water while trying to swim — was something Leveretter credited after that Alabama game.
“We’ve had to step up, so a lot of us, our confidence has just gone up tremendously,” Leveretter said.
This growth can be traced back to offseason work, which Elzy hinted at during Kentucky’s preseason media day in October.
But within Elzy’s preseason praise of Leveretter came a caveat, one more important than anything else.
Elzy said the UK team had more confidence in Leveretter than she had in herself, and that part of her progression as a college player would involve finding that self-confidence.
Now, it’s here.
And with the NCAA Tournament about to start, Kentucky is the better for it.
“She believes that she belongs on the floor and that she can get the job done,” Elzy said in February. “Even though we have had to throw her in the fire, it’s going to help us in the long run.”
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 17, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
