Three important storylines to follow as Kentucky women’s basketball starts SEC schedule
After a non-conference season that saw a new-look roster take shape — with some significant speed bumps along the way — the Kentucky women’s basketball team is primed to start SEC play.
The Wildcats (8-4 overall) will begin their 16-game league schedule Thursday night at Missouri, just one day after the UK men’s team plays in the same venue.
Head coach Kyra Elzy’s team has incorporated 10 new players into the fold this season with mixed results: Earlier this month, UK followed a non-conference road win at Minnesota with three straight home losses, including defeats to Louisville and Murray State.
Led in scoring by guards Robyn Benton (16.1 points per game) and sophomore Jada Walker (13.2), Kentucky will aim to avoid last season’s Jekyll-and-Hyde showing in SEC play, when a limited roster contributed to a stretch where Kentucky lost eight of nine SEC games, only to finish the season with 10 straight wins against league opponents, including the SEC Tournament crown.
UK getting production, and buy-in, from transfers
It was known that UK would look a whole lot different this season than last season.
In the offseason, UK lost 74.7% of its blocks, 70.5% of its scoring, 67.4% of its rebounding and 41.3% of its assists, headlined by the departures of Rhyne Howard to the WNBA and Dre’una Edwards in a transfer to Baylor. Edwards has not played yet this season for Baylor.
To help replace this lost production and to help craft a new identity for the Cats, Elzy brought in 10 newcomers, including four transfer players from other college programs.
All four have made their mark so far.
Former Miss Kentucky Basketball Maddie Scherr (Oregon) has provided another primary ball-handling option, along with Walker, for UK on offense while also doing a bit of everything for the Cats.
Scherr, who has started all 12 games this season, has per-game averages of 7.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.9 steals.
Scherr also leads UK in blocks with 13.
Junior Ajae Petty, formerly of LSU, is UK’s most polished interior player and its best scorer around the basket. Petty is shooting 59.7% from the field this season, but has come off the bench in all 12 games.
“Her ability to score inside, but she also brings the athleticism and the physicality that we need,” Elzy said Tuesday of Petty. “She can score consistently, and her ability to rebound ... I challenge her, day in and day out. Sometimes I think she thinks I’m really hard on her, which I am, but I know we need her to be successful.”
Graduate student forward Adebola Adeyeye (Buffalo) is an important communicator on both ends for Kentucky, and junior guard Eniya Russell (South Carolina) will enter SEC play following her best showing of the season in a home win over Ohio: Russell had 14 points, four rebounds and two steals against the Bobcats.
“This team is different. They’re new, they’re learning to play together. We’re coaching them for the first time together,” Elzy said. “I’m asking a group of people to do things that they’ve never been asked (to do) before. They’re all in a different role.”
Scherr and Petty in particular will be crucial to Kentucky’s success or failure in SEC play given their experience and UK’s need for multiple scoring options.
Defensively, these new players have bought into Elzy’s preferred style of play, which places a premium on forced turnovers.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Kentucky ranks 14th in the country by forcing an average of 22.67 turnovers per game (top among all SEC programs).
Three-point shooting struggles
Kentucky has been one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country this season.
That’s the frank, non-sugar coated way, of describing how the Cats have been shooting the ball from distance through 12 games.
Here are the accompanying statistics, and how those metrics rank nationally (as of Tuesday afternoon):
▪ Three-point shooting percentage: 24.53% (324th)
▪ Three-point shots made per game: 4.3 (302nd)
▪ Three-point shot attempts per game: 17.7 (235th)
In short, the Cats are attempting fewer three-pointers than most teams nationally, which is good because the success rate of those shots is significantly below national average.
Among only SEC teams, UK is dead last in three-point shooting percentage and second-to-last in total three-pointers made.
No Kentucky player (minimum seven total three-point attempts) is shooting better than 30.8% from deep, and UK’s two highest-volume shooters from three-point range — Benton and Blair Green — are shooting 28.3% and 23.1%, respectively.
In a top-heavy SEC, where does Kentucky fit?
Two teams have separated themselves at the top of the SEC: South Carolina (12-0 and No. 1 in the latest AP Poll) and LSU (12-0 and No. 9).
Everyone else in the SEC has at least two losses, including Tennessee, which is hovering around .500 despite being the No. 5 team in the preseason AP Poll.
The Lady Vols will be without star center Tamari Key for the rest of the season due to blood clots in her lungs, just one of several absences and injuries Tennessee has dealt with this season.
Elsewhere, Alabama (as of Tuesday afternoon) boasts the ninth-best three-point shooting offense (39.7% success rate) in the country, and three of the four most proficient three-point shooters in the SEC.
Vanderbilt — a team that defeated UK last season to mark the low point of a turbulent regular-season stretch for the Wildcats — features one of the SEC’s most exciting players in graduate student guard Ciaja Harbison, who is second in the SEC in scoring (18.8 points per game) and is tied with Kentucky’s Scherr for the SEC lead in assists per game (5.5).
Like Scherr, Harbison is a former high school star in Kentucky: Harbison was a standout player at Male High School in Louisville, before beginning her college career at Saint Louis, where Harbison is the program’s second-leading all-time scorer.
While the SEC is led at the top, once again, by South Carolina, there’s plenty of potential for parity further down the standings.
Remember, UK won the SEC Tournament last season as the No. 7 seed.
In two seasons as Kentucky’s head coach, Elzy has a 17-14 combined record in regular season SEC games.
“Preparation. You staying mentally balanced: Not too high, not too low,” Elzy said of what she’s learned is needed for SEC success. “Just walking a fine line of keeping (the team) very confident, but also staying demanding and knowing what we need to accomplish to be successful in this league.”
Kentucky’s SEC schedule
It’s only SEC games from here on out for UK women’s basketball.
Here’s the league schedule that lies ahead for the Wildcats.
Dec. 29: At Missouri, 9 p.m. (SEC)
Jan. 1: ARKANSAS, 2 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Jan. 5: At Georgia, 7 p.m. (SEC)
Jan. 8: x-LSU, 2 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Jan. 12: SOUTH CAROLINA, 7 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Jan. 15: At Florida, 3 p.m. (SEC)
Jan. 22: At Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC)
Jan. 26: AUBURN, 7 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Jan. 29: MISSOURI, 3 p.m. (SEC)
Feb. 2: At South Carolina, 7 p.m. (SEC)
Feb. 9: ALABAMA, 7 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Feb. 13: At Mississippi, 7 p.m. (SEC)
Feb. 16: GEORGIA, 7 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Feb. 19: At Vanderbilt, 3 p.m. (SEC Plus)
Feb. 23: At Texas A&M, 7 p.m. (SEC)
Feb. 26: TENNESSEE, 2 p.m. (SEC)
March 1-5: y-SEC Tournament
x-Rupp Arena; y-At Greenville, S.C.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 6:45 AM.
