‘That’s the one we want.’ Why a single freshman matters so much for Kentucky
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kaelyn Carroll becomes Kentucky's first five-star signee since 2020.
- Kenny Brooks emphasizes culture and fit over star rankings in recruiting.
- Carroll's outside shooting and versatility add key depth for 2025 roster.
In the coming weeks, Kentucky women’s basketball will welcome its highest-ranking recruit in half a decade.
Kaelyn “KK” Carroll, the Wildcats’ first five-star signee since ex-Cat Treasure Hunt signed with UK out of high school in 2020, served as a key marker in the upward trajectory of the program during Kenny Brooks’ first year. The 6-foot-3 wing out of Tabor Academy (Mass.) graduated as the No. 18 national prospect in the class of 2025 and, as Brooks puts it, “She shoots the lights out of the basketball.”
Brooks isn’t known for leaning heavily on his freshmen. During his inaugural season as UK’s head coach, only one freshman, 6-foot-7 Portuguese center Clara Silva, played in each of the Wildcats’ 31 games. Even Silva, who was heralded as a top prospect in the class of 2024 and proved a necessary depth piece in the post, averaged just 12.5 minutes per contest. Rising sophomore guard Lexi Blue, who, like Silva, flipped her commitment from Virginia Tech to UK after Brooks’ move to Lexington, averaged only 9.2 minutes across 23 contests for the Wildcats last season.
Though several five-star recruits took visits throughout Brooks’ first fall at UK, Carroll emerged as “the right one,” due to her dynamic style of play — height and length, guard skills and effective outside shooting.
“She’s everything we wanted on the floor,” Brooks said. “She plays the game the way our offenses are played. She’s a great team player, but she is going to be just as impactful in our locker room as she will be on the floor.”
Brooks has been vocal in recent years — arguably his most successful — about the role culture plays in a winning program. Despite the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, perhaps best highlighted by the recent final approval of the House vs. NCAA settlement, Brooks and his staff remain in pursuit of student-athletes who best fit their system and culture.
Whether it be via the transfer portal, the high school ranks or international recruiting, Brooks has repeatedly spoken about the dangers of prioritizing talent over all other attributes or intangibles. As a result, Big Blue Nation will probably not see a star-studded transfer class chock-full of 20-point scorers, or — as his controversially received comments indicated following the regular-season finale loss at South Carolina — a recruiting cycle with multiple McDonald’s All-Americans during his tenure.
Carroll isn’t just Kentucky’s first McDonald’s All-American since Hunt, Carroll is the first-ever McDonald’s All-American to sign with Brooks out of high school. Of the nine WNBA draft picks coached by Brooks, 2025 selection and beloved Virginia Tech and Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore — who notably did not have any “stars” at all — became his highest-ever draft pick when the Washington Mystics selected her sixth overall.
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Of course, star power and five-star abilities don’t necessarily translate to “poor fit” or “bad attitude” — nor does Brooks think they do — in the same way that a “diamond in the rough,” such as Amoore, doesn’t always translate to a first-rounder. Just as it matters that a potential signee fits a program, it’s necessary for the prospect to feel a program is the right fit for them.
Enter Carroll, whom Brooks and his staff has recruited for years. Though the uniform, conference and locale are different from when Brooks first came calling, the connection built during her high school career sustained. When she took an official visit to Kentucky in the fall with 2026 commit and fellow five-star Maddyn Greenway, Carroll only continued to impress, and separated herself from other elite recruits in her cycle.
“She was the one that we were like, ‘That’s the one we want,’” Brooks said. “And we knew when we got her, it was more than just us getting one player. It was us getting a player that’s going to help us in so many different ways. And we’re very, very excited about that.”
In addition to her skill set, Carroll’s character and energy further cemented her as a must-sign recruit for Brooks and his staff.
“Great personality,” Brooks said. “She’s never met a stranger. ... That’s gonna help us recruit. It really gives a great vibe to recruits who want to come here because of the culture. And so that’ll be very, very important to us.”
Until May 18, when Swedish center Elsa Vadfors announced her commitment to UK, Carroll was the only member of the Wildcats’ 2025 recruiting class. A deep appreciator of Jayson Tatum and Breanna Stewart, Carroll is the highest-ranking prospect out of the state of Massachusetts, and chose UK after taking visits to Ohio State, South Carolina and Minnesota, among others.
Because Kentucky returns three members of last season’s starting five — 6-foot-5 center Clara Strack, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year; 6-foot-4 forward Teonni Key, a dominant game changer; and 6-foot-3 forward Amelia Hassett, a hustling shooter — Carroll’s guard skills are of paramount importance. No longer will she be one of the tallest, if not the tallest, players on her team, as she was for Tabor Academy or UAA club Bay State Jaguars.
Before the McDonald’s All-American Game, Carroll told media that Brooks has emphasized her versatility, and that she should expect to be “more on the outside wing,” as opposed to inside the paint. She also noted how she’s “excited to continue those accomplishments,” made by Brooks’ first UK roster.
Among those accomplishments, a 23-win season, a top-four national seed in the NCAA Tournament, a fourth-place finish in a loaded Southeastern Conference and a top-10 WNBA draft pick. After such an impressive first year, Brooks enters a new frontier, sans Amoore or sharpshooting leader Dazia Lawrence.
Kentucky signed transfers Tonie Morgan (Georgia Tech), Josie Gilvin (Western Kentucky) and Asia Boone (Liberty), and will finally see the debuts of Jordan Obi and Dominika Paurová, both of whom sustained serious lower-leg injuries ahead of the 2024-25 campaign after transferring to UK from Penn and Oregon State, respectively.
The Wildcats appear to have more depth and, save Silva, more height than last season. Carroll’s joining the Wildcats, in Brooks’ mind, seems to be a necessary piece of the puzzle, whether he opts to sub her in to every game of her freshman season or to focus on her development, a la Blue’s freshman campaign.
Regardless how the 1,000-point high school scorer performs, or is used, during her first year at Kentucky, Carroll has committed to the process.
“It was for sure a difficult decision at first,” Carroll said. “Just because of the many amazing opportunities I had. I definitely had Coach Kenny in the back of my head a lot throughout the whole process. ... The relationship is so strong.”
Brooks lives by the mantra that “you’re going to get the kids you’re supposed to get.” Part of that, then, is committing to a recruiting philosophy and standing by it, though, “sometimes with that comes heartbreak.”
“You have to be truthful,” Brooks said. “... I have to make tough decisions sometimes. And telling a kid, you know, ‘Yeah, you probably won’t start here.’ But there’s truth to it. So you want to make sure you put the truth out there, so they can make informative decisions as they move forward; they’re not just hearing what they want to hear, and they come back next year and nothing changes.”
In fact, “anything can change at any time.” Whether it’s a transfer you can’t possibly turn down, even if that transfer plays the position of an underclassman who was likely to receive more playing time, or a significant injury changes a team’s dimension. It often works in the opposite direction; take Obi and Paurová, for example, who were meant to be contributors on last season’s team, but never got the chance to suit up.
Carroll was not promised a certain amount of playing time, nor was she guaranteed a starting spot based on her accolades or potential. And, like the returning starters — each of whom had little or no experience starting against some of the nation’s top teams before arriving at UK — Carroll will not only be required to work her way toward changing the way the country views Kentucky women’s basketball, but also welcomes the challenge.
“I’m super excited to play with all of them,” Carroll said. “Getting to meet them, they’re great, great people. But I know that Clara Strack and Teonni Key, they both reached out to me during this process, which was really cool to see. And I can’t wait to play with them.”
