Kenny Brooks is ‘still building’ Kentucky women’s basketball’s 2025-26 roster
Kenny Brooks and his staff aren’t yet done building next year’s roster.
With a roster currently standing at 11 players — headlined by returning starters Clara Strack, Amelia Hassett and Teonni Key — Kentucky women’s basketball is deep in the throes of putting the finishing touches on Brooks’ second UK team, which already features four new faces.
“We’re still building,” Brooks confirmed to the Herald-Leader on Monday. “Magic number for us has always been about 13. It very well could be 12.”
Following the program’s first 20-win season in half a decade, the tearful sendoffs of graduate guards Georgia Amoore and Dazia Lawrence and a newfound sense of direction, the Wildcats have their sights set on continuing to build upon the foundation established in Brooks’ celebrated first season in Lexington.
Despite Monday’s news of the NCAA board having passed nine proposals which would grant student athletes the ability to receive direct payments by their individual universities, the college athletics landscape still waits in anticipation for the approval of the House settlement by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken.
“It’s a new landscape in college basketball,” Brooks said. “And it’s not just, OK, you offer a scholarship and you have 15 scholarships, and you can go until you figure that out. There’s new elements to it. You know, there’s components to it that have never been dealt with before. You know, not only is it a scholarship, but also you have NIL, you have rev share, you have a lot of different things. So it’s going to shape how you build your roster.”
Unlike in men’s college basketball, women’s rosters have already had a maximum limit of 15 spots. Though the cap remains the same, the slew of unknowns continue to muddy the waters of understanding, and give coaches around the country pause. Regardless of the changes, Brooks is committed to maintaining his standard — just because a portal player might have showstopping stats doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be the right fit for a program.
“You don’t want to make a mistake and bring somebody in who doesn’t fit what you want from either side,” Brooks said. “Basketball or the cultural side. Because then they could cause some trouble. So it is an art to it. It really is. It’s not just like, ‘Hey, there’s a bunch of people in there. Pick which ones you want.’ You know they have to pick you, as well.”
In addition to the departures of Amoore and Lawrence, four other players — freshman guard Tanah Becker (transfer portal), junior guards Cassidy Rowe (retirement) and Saniah Tyler (Missouri) and freshman center Clara Silva (TCU) — each announced they would not be with the Wildcats for the 2025-26 campaign.
Brooks and his staff have had a successful April in the transfer portal, securing a pair of All-Conference USA selections in junior Josie Gilvin, a defensive standout at Western Kentucky and former KHSAA state champion with Sacred Heart Academy, and sophomore Asia Boone, a 36.9% 3-point shooter at Liberty. Most recently, Kentucky added a veteran floor general in the form of pass-first point guard Tonie Morgan, who brings three seasons of starting experience and All-ACC honors after a successful career with Georgia Tech.
“We feel like we’re in a very strong situation right now,” Brooks said. “We probably need one more big, one more post. And we solidified depth at the guard spots, at the forward spots. We need, probably, one more big. Unfortunately, they are slim pickings … it’s a very hot commodity right now, and it’s a premium on the posts. But we’ve got some really good leads.”
The Wildcats will return former top-40 prospect Lexi Blue, who opted to return for her sophomore season at UK in hopes of a larger role after averaging just under 10 minutes per game this year.
UK will also welcome 6-3 wing Kaelyn “KK” Carroll, a McDonald’s All-American and the No. 18-ranked prospect in the class of 2025, and benefit from the delayed Kentucky debuts of guards Jordan Obi and Dominika Paurová, both of whom sustained season-ending lower leg injuries in the summer of 2024.
The transfer portal officially closes to new entrants (seeking immediate eligibility and not dealing with the aftermath of a coaching change) on April 23, but athletes in the portal will still be able to name a destination after that date. Though there might be a desire to secure a roster as soon as possible, it matters more to Brooks that the decisions made aren’t emotional ones.
“You still want to make sure you vet the situation,” Brooks said. “We have great culture, and we want to make sure we keep it that way, and bringing somebody in that fits in all aspects, not just the basketball part, but also the locker room part. Because I think that was a big reason why we were successful last year, was our culture and the way the kids got along. We want to build on that. And I really love the group that we have right now, and then we just need to add one, maybe two more.”
