UK women’s basketball is using a personable approach to recruiting. So far, it’s worked.
The Kentucky women’s basketball program has a new recruiting tool now at its disposal.
The Wildcats spent a March afternoon inside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville climbing up a ladder and cutting down a net, the signature celebration that comes with success in college basketball.
Long after the 2021-22 UK women’s basketball season had ended, and the shock had subsided from Kentucky’s stunning SEC Tournament title, that net has remained in use.
Recruiting trips in recent months for head coach Kyra Elzy and the UK coaching staff have included that net, brought into homes and featured in social media photos.
Ahead of her third season as Kentucky head coach, Elzy has now fully settled into the role of recruiting the nation’s best players to the commonwealth’s flagship university.
Six freshmen have joined the UK roster this season, and on Oct. 21, the Wildcats received their first commitment in the class of 2023.
“We like to play positionless basketball. We want to be up-tempo offensively. We want to be a scrappy, defensive team. So you need to recruit players that fit what you’re trying to do,” Elzy told the Herald-Leader in October of her recruiting philosophy. “Then, looking for players that want to achieve academic success. ... Then relationships. It’s one thing when the staff is recruiting them and they get along with us, but when you bring them in on an official visit, how do they react and fit in with your team?”
With Kentucky’s 2022 recruiting class now in Lexington, and the 2023 group beginning to fall into place, here’s an inside look at how Kentucky women’s basketball has approached recruiting under Elzy.
Kentucky uses a personable recruiting approach
In all likelihood, Blanca Thomas won’t be a Kentucky Wildcat.
Ranked as the No. 9 overall recruit in the class of 2024 by ESPN, Thomas is a skilled 6-foot-5 post player from North Carolina who released her top 10 schools in August, a short list that didn’t feature UK.
But Thomas was offered a scholarship by Kentucky in August 2021, and the Cats actively recruited her to Lexington.
Now with the freedom of knowing she isn’t planning on going to UK, Thomas has more leeway than most to discuss what UK’s recruiting pitch was like.
“They’re very personable,” Thomas told the Herald-Leader in August of communicating with Kentucky’s coaches. “Talking to Coach Elzy, we would Facetime. She wasn’t big on doing phone calls. She wanted to see your face and she’s very personable with her questions.”
How important to recruits is it to have a relationship outside of basketball with the coaching staff that’s recruiting them?
“If we just talk about basketball, then that’s not really a person I want to talk to,” said Jaloni Cambridge, a 5-6 point guard who is ESPN’s top-ranked player in the class of 2024.
Cambridge holds a distinct viewpoint into the recruiting process in college athletics at large, as well as specifically to UK women’s basketball.
Jaloni has four siblings that currently play Division I college basketball: Older brothers Desmond and Devan began at Nevada and Auburn, respectively, and are now both at Arizona State. Older sister Jordyn is at Vanderbilt and has long been one of the best defensive players in the SEC.
And another older sister, Kennedy, is a freshman at Kentucky.
Kennedy’s commitment to UK was accidentally revealed to Jaloni while the pair watched Kentucky at the SEC Tournament in March in Nashville.
In August when speaking to the Herald-Leader, Jaloni confirmed that UK is still part of her recruitment: The Wildcats first offered her a scholarship in 2019.
Having been around so many college recruitments in her own family, Jaloni has a good feel for what she wants in the relationship between herself and a college coaching staff.
“I want to go to a school that the coach is like a family environment for me, not just someone that just wants to coach basketball,” Jaloni said. “Basketball is not the only thing I do. I do think I’m a good person, so off the court being able to be that kind person, sweet person, someone you can count on, just to be that person, I need someone to coach that for me.”
This is the kind of recruiting approach that Thomas described Elzy taking.
“She’s particular to you as a person,” Thomas said. “Not just like the basketball aspect of my life, which I loved about her style.”
Elzy expects to continue recent recruiting success
Another top high school player being courted by Kentucky is Joyce Edwards, a 6-2 forward from South Carolina who is ranked as the No. 2 player in the class of 2024 by ESPN.
Edwards visited Kentucky in mid-March, and was one of the first players to pose with UK’s newly acquired SEC Tournament championship trophy
“I love their culture and their environment,” Edwards told the Herald-Leader in August about Kentucky.
Edwards also referenced Kentucky’s ability to resonate with her beyond basketball, something also expressed by Cambridge and Thomas.
Another thing that clicked with Edwards?
The potential to translate a standout college career in Lexington to professional success, exemplified by Rhyne Howard becoming the first UK player to be selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft in April.
“I want to go to a program that can develop me into a WNBA player,” Edwards said. “Seeing that just draws me to that college more.”
“I definitely want to go to the WNBA, so seeing her be a first-round pick, of course Kentucky is going to be in my mix at all times,” added ZaKiyah Johnson, a class of 2025 standout guard from Louisville’s Sacred Heart Academy.
All of these factors — from the recruiting credibility that comes with winning championships and producing top draft picks, to the personable approach Elzy and her coaching staff have taken when speaking with prospects — have paid dividends thus far.
Elzy expects it to continue.
“The momentum has been unbelievable. It’s a lot easier to go in a recruit’s house when you are winning and you have a net around your neck and they’re seeing you on national television,” Elzy said at SEC women’s basketball media day in October. “The exposure it’s given our program has helped us in recruiting, but also as far as staff and players’ confidence.”
Wednesday
Exhibition: Pikeville at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Memorial Coliseum (free admission)
TV: None
