Three Kentucky women’s basketball starters enter NCAA transfer portal
The NCAA Tournament may still be underway, but with the Kentucky women’s basketball season now over, it’s time for offseason roster moves to commence.
The first of these occurred Friday morning, and it was a massive one.
Three Kentucky players — all starters — entered their names in the NCAA transfer portal: Dre’una Edwards, Treasure Hunt and Jazmine Massengill.
Edwards was a redshirt junior and a talismanic presence for the Kentucky team. She was suspended twice during the 2021-22 season by head coach Kyra Elzy, but returned to great acclaim and effectiveness.
Edwards made the game-winning three-pointer to defeat No. 1 South Carolina and win Kentucky the 2022 Southeastern Conference Tournament title this month. The iconic shot gave UK its first SEC Tournament title since 1982.
Edwards began her college career at Utah, but transferred to UK after her freshman season. She sat out the 2019-20 season due to NCAA transfer rules and to recover from a torn ACL.
Hunt was a sophomore and was a consistent starting presence for Kentucky during her second season in Lexington. Hunt started 29 games for UK this season, but her effectiveness as a floor-spacing presence was limited.
Hunt shot just 25.8% from three-point range and 35.4% from the field this season, often playing in the post as an oversized guard due to Kentucky’s lack of interior depth.
Massengill was a senior who began her college career at Tennessee, before transferring to UK after her sophomore season.
In two seasons in Lexington, Massengill morphed into a consistent and reliable point guard, who boasted one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country this season.
Massengill started 30 times for Kentucky in 2021-22 and led the Cats in assists, although the emergence of freshman point guard Jada Walker hinted that UK’s point guard of the future was here and ready.
The Herald-Leader confirmed that all three players alerted the Kentucky women’s basketball program that they are entering the transfer portal.
“The program thanks them for their time here and wishes them the best,” the UK program said in a statement.
On Friday afternoon, both Edwards and Massengill posted statements on social media that noted the end of their playing careers at Kentucky.
On Friday night on the SEC Network, Elzy addressed the departures of Edwards, Hunt and Massengill.
Then on Saturday morning, Kentucky got a commitment from a fifth player in the 2022 recruiting class.
Still, these three departures from the UK program mean Elzy has work to do in the transfer portal.
Elzy’s 2022 recruiting class features five players — four guards and a post player — but the Wildcats had only 10 scholarship players last season.
This means Kentucky is now also currently projected to have 11 scholarship players for its 2022-23 roster, with legendary player Rhyne Howard leaving for the WNBA and accounting for a fourth departure from last season’s team.
This means UK will lose four starters from last season’s team.
The players currently expected to be on the 2022-23 UK women’s basketball roster are: Guards Robyn Benton, Kennedy Cambridge, Blair Green, Amiya Jenkins, Emma King, Cassidy Jo Rowe, Saniah Tyler and Jada Walker, and post players Tionna Herron, Nyah Leveretter and Olivia Owens.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 12:02 PM.
