Roster reboot: How the transfer portal has reshaped Kentucky’s women’s basketball team
Since her promotion to head coach at Kentucky prior to the start of the 2020-21 season, Kyra Elzy has seen quite a bit of roster turnover.
Following last season, which included the Cats winning their second SEC Tournament title after an upset-filled run in Nashville, only four players returned for the 2022-23 campaign.
Rhyne Howard’s exit to the WNBA was expected. However, UK also parted ways with second-leading scorer Dre’una Edwards, who transferred to Baylor, as well as significant contributors Jazmine Massengill, now at Florida State, and Treasure Hunt, now at Arizona State. Olivia Owens transferred to Syracuse and Kristen Crenshaw-Gill is now at New Orleans, bringing the total number of transfers to five.
But, to paraphrase an old adage, the transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away.
Transfer portal a game-changer
Since its launch in October 2018, the transfer portal has proven a bit controversial.
There have always been situations where student-athletes have expressed a desire to transfer, but until the portal’s introduction, the actual path to a successful transfer was a complex undertaking.
Prior to the portal, student-athletes needed permission from their coaches to contact other schools regarding a potential transfer. If permission was granted, compliance administrators were then tasked with communicating with potential schools and exchanging forms, known as “transfer tracers,” which schools filled out by hand.
For student-athletes and coaching staffs alike, there was a question of visibility. How can you make an informed decision that, ideally, improves both parties’ situations, without knowing who all is out there? There was no easy way to access and interact with this data.
In creating the transfer portal, the NCAA provided compliance administrators with a digital database where collegiate student-athletes in any division and any sport could be seen as an available option. Gone were the days where student-athletes needed permission to try to play somewhere else.
And, in April 2021, the Division I Council adopted the one-time transfer exception, which granted “a one-time opportunity to transfer and compete immediately beginning in the 2021-22 academic year.”
According to research conducted by the NCAA, in 2021 more than 9,500 Division I student athletes successfully entered the portal and transferred to another NCAA school.
Whether or not it works out for a student-athlete at their next school(s) is another story.
Athletes such as Oscar Tshiebwe at Kentucky, who transferred from West Virginia and went on to sweep all six of the major national player of the year honors, or Emily Engstler at Louisville, who made her way from Syracuse to lead the Cardinals to the 2022 Final Four, help demonstrate how effective the transfer portal can be as a resource to reload a roster.
Southeastern Conference women’s basketball, specifically, further highlights the benefits of the portal. Kentucky has already faced stiff competition from transfer players, including potential national player of the year contender Angel Reese along with LaDazhia Williams at LSU, and in Diamond Battles at Georgia, Kierra Fletcher at South Carolina, and KK Deans and Leilani Correa at Florida.
And UK still has to suit up against some other formidable in-conference transfers, including Rickea Jackson, Jasmine Powell and Jasmine Franklin at Tennessee and Myah Taylor at Ole Miss.
Elzy, Kentucky reboot the roster
Kentucky’s offseason task of building around returners Robyn Benton, Blair Green, Emma King and Jada Walker required a clear understanding of what was needed for the 2022-23 season.
“We lost some to the portal. Then there’s also an amazing opportunity in the portal,” UK assistant coach Amber Smith said. “We knew we needed to go into the portal, but then we did a bunch of work high school-wise. We need people that come out of high school, and we also need some vets. So we wanted to get a good balance of it.”
UK added six freshmen to the roster: Kennedy Cambridge, Tionna Herron, Amiya Jenkins, Cassidy Rowe, Zennia Thomas and Saniah Tyler. The Wildcats also welcomed transfers Adebola Adeyeye (Buffalo), Ajae Petty (LSU), Eniya Russell (South Carolina) and Maddie Scherr (Oregon).
“We have a lot of support staff here to help,” Smith said. “We get very clear, ‘OK, we need post players, we need two guards, we need a guard that can score, we need a leader, we need an energy player.’ And so, we try to pinpoint ‘What is it that we need?’ And not necessarily what we need to replace. Because you can’t replace a Rhyne Howard. It’s more of, ‘Who are going to be good pieces? Who are going to fit into Elzy’s (system), how she wants to play?’ Because, we could’ve went out and got other players, but if they don’t have a motor, they can’t play here. And so I’m wasting my time going to recruit a kid that does not have a motor. Because I know once they get here, Elzy’s gonna want a certain level of intensity.”
That level of intensity appears clearly in Benton, another transfer for the Wildcats. The explosive guard, who goes by the nickname “Primetime,” transferred from Auburn prior to the 2020-21 season. The graduate student is averaging 16.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and shooting 40.5% from the field, often providing that motor the coaching staff wants.
She surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in a Jan. 5 loss at Georgia and set a new career high of 29 points in last Sunday’s win at Florida, the Wildcats’ first SEC victory of the season.
“Rob is something else,” Smith said. “She’s gonna put on a show and she’s gonna step up. Primetime, she’s gonna step up in those crucial moments. I think it showed in Florida, that she has ice in her veins. And she wants to make the big plays. I think sometimes it’s hard ‘cause people can get shy, get nervous. But Rob is, ‘Oh, it’s my time.’ I’m super proud of her and her consistency. We need what she brings.”
Homecoming queen
Scherr, who starred in high school at Ryle, is another transfer who has found a way to elevate her game this season.
After two years with an Oregon team that didn’t require her to serve as such an offensive threat, Scherr has been challenged by the UK coaching staff to step it up. With the Ducks, she never averaged more than 4.7 points per game and only started 32 of the 53 games in which she played.
At Kentucky, her development is evident and ongoing. She has started in each of UK’s 18 games this season, averaging 31.4 minutes.
When asked on Monday’s episode of her weekly radio show if Scherr was the glue of the team, Elzy said “absolutely.”
“She brings us a calmness,” Elzy said. “A quiet confidence. She doesn’t say a lot, but when she does, they do listen … . When they make the run, I look over, and she’s like ‘We’re okay, Coach.’ So she does bring a calmness, but a veteran experience. But, now let me tell you, Even with her quiet confidence, she has a competitive spirit. She is not going to back down, and you need that from your veteran guard.”
Smith said that Scherr serves as a model for the younger guards.
“She’s super selfless and she just wants the team to do well,” Smith said. “She knows she needs to push herself to that limit in order to do that. Maddie is a great, great person. A great leader. Very vocal. And so, I’m very happy that Jada Walker, Saniah Tyler and Cassidy Rowe, to have a point guard leader in Maddie Scherr is invaluable. Just having her presence has been huge for us. She’s a difference-maker; makes us different on the floor.”
Anyone wondering if Scherr is pleased to be back playing in her home state need only look at the box scores.
Scherr has set a career high for scoring three times this season. The first came in a Dec. 11 loss to Louisville when she had 18 points. The other two came in back-to-back contests against ranked teams. In a Jan. 8 loss to then-No. 7 LSU, Scherr scored 22 points. Four days later, when No. 1-ranked South Carolina came to Memorial Coliseum, Scherr dropped 25.
She is also the only player in the SEC averaging at least 5.0 in three separate statistical categories this season, with 10.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.
‘Everybody needs to star in their role’
UK has also found veteran leadership in Adeyeye, who served as an important piece over the course of 116 games during her career at Buffalo.
Adeyeye is averaging 17.1 minutes with five starts in 18 games this season. She is the only one of this season’s incoming transfers who the UK coaching staff didn’t recruit out of high school.
“What I love about Ade, she wants to star in her role,” Elzy said Monday on her radio show. “She knows she has to bring the toughness, the physicality, be able to finish around the rim. If she gives us six to eight points, that’s spectacular for her. But we need her to do the dirty work, 50-50 plays, be able to defend big posts.”
Elzy will regularly speak about everyone on her roster having a role, and the idea that the team’s success is dependent on the players’ willingness to buy into their assignments.
In Sunday’s win against Florida, Elzy felt that Adeyeye starred in her role.
“What Ade did [in the win], it didn’t show up in the paper,” Elzy continued. “Robyn got the headlines, or the Twitter account numbers, whatever you wanna … but we don’t win without Ade. We don’t win without a Nyah Leveretter. We don’t win without a Kennedy Cambridge. The things that they do are the intangibles that we need to win. Everybody can’t go to the press conference or make headlines. But if we want to win, everybody needs to star in their role.”
And not every successful transfer finds that stardom immediately. Petty and Russell haven’t found the same rhythm as Scherr, or even that of Adeyeye, at this point in the process.
“Ajae and Eniya, they came from really good programs,” Smith said. “And I think coming here, obviously they wanted to play. Make a difference and be part of a program that was going to put them in positions to do that. And help them grow, and help to challenge them. Because you look at it, they don’t have much experience on the court.”
After two seasons of averaging no more than 5.7 minutes per game across 30 games with the Tigers, Petty now averages 14.7 minutes per game with the Wildcats. Petty has seen the court in all 18 games this season, and contributed an average of 6.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game — more than doubling her averages during her time with LSU.
Russell, who has only been officially available for 16 of the Cats’ 18 total games so far this season, has averaged 10.8 minutes across the 13 games in which she’s suited up.
“I think those are two players that can be difference-makers down the road. We’re just staying with them and helping them grow. And I think they’re learning on the go. It’s some hard times. Especially for our freshmen and for them. I’m super proud of them for being consistent, but I think it’s going to be a situation, later down the road it’s gonna pay off for them.”
Sunday
Kentucky at Mississippi State
When: 1 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Kentucky 9-9 (1-5 SEC); Mississippi State 14-5 (3-3)
Series: UK leads 31-22
Last meeting: UK won 83-67 at SEC Tournament in Nashville on March 3, 2022
