Key, Strack and Hassett are poised to level up for Kentucky women’s basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Brooks rebuilds roster with portal pickups, injured returnees and elite freshman.
- Team maintains defensive identity and height advantage led by Strack, Key.
- Returners assert leadership, accelerate chemistry and set expectations for 2025-26.
Kenny Brooks said his second Kentucky women’s basketball roster has the potential to compete with anyone.
A combination of several factors led him to that evaluation.
First, there’s depth. Brooks and his staff worked hard in the transfer portal to to replace starting guards Georgia Amoore and Dazia Lawrence and added all-conference trio Josie Gilvin (Western Kentucky), Asia Boone (Liberty) and Tonie Morgan (Georgia Tech).
Big Blue Nation can also expect the long-awaited debuts of guards Jordan Obi (Penn) and Dominika Paurová (Oregon State), both of whom sustained leg injuries during the summer of 2024 that kept them out all of last season.
Not to mention five-star freshman forward Kaelyn “KK” Carroll, whom Brooks said would be “there in the rotation helping us because she’s a great shooter.”
Second, the foundation set by last year’s team leaves a high-level blueprint for the 2025-26 Wildcats. Brooks’ team finished fourth in the Southeastern Conference standings, earned a top-16 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and had the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year in Clara Strack.
“Obviously, building off of last year, nd a lot of them gained so much confidence in themselves, not only on the court, but off the court,” Brooks said. “And they came to campus, they were ready. They were ready to get to work.”
Just five players remain from last year’s roster — junior forward Strack, senior Swiss Army knife Teonni Key, senior defensive hustler Amelia Hassett, sophomore guard Lexi Blue and reserve guard Gabby Brooks, the coach’s daughter.
Next, there’s height. Last year’s team rated as one of the tallest in program history, and Brooks believes this season’s might be even taller. Hassett is now listed an inch taller at 6-foot-4, and the additions of 6-3 Carroll and 6-5 freshman center Elsa Vadfors mean that half of the Wildcats’ 12-player roster stands 6-2 or taller.
“What I didn’t expect is they seem taller than I remembered before they left,” Brooks said. “This is probably the tallest team I’ve ever had in my 25 years of coaching, and I think we’re going to be able to use that to our advantage. Obviously, we may not be the quickest team, but last year, we led the country in blocked shots. And I think we have the catalyst to still do that again with Teonni Key and Clara Strack holding down the middle. But they’re very tall and they’re long, and so we’re looking forward to using that to our advantage.”
The kingpin, however, is how impressed Brooks has found himself with his trio of returning starters — Strack, Key and Hassett —who not only have every intention of continuing last year’s success but also have grown into leadership roles to ensure the culture carries over.
“The returners’ attitude has been very infectious to the newcomers,” Brooks said. “’Hey, this is how we do it.’ So I’ve been very proud of that.”
Hassett, who transferred to UK ahead of last season after two seasons at Eastern Florida and earning 2023-24 National Junior College Athletic Association Division I All-America Third Team honors, was brought in to be a hardworking sharpshooter but quickly proved her potential exceeded that.
In 31 games with the Wildcats last year, Hassett averaged 8.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.3 blocks and 0.9 steals.
The Aussie shone brightly during UK’s nonconference slate but faded into the background as the season evolved into stiffer competition in SEC play. Hassett’s contributions shifted to more of what the team needed from her amid a lack of depth, and often that was guarding the opponents’ toughest players or reinforcing the dominance of the post group.
This season, Brooks said the even-taller Hassett is “playing out of her mind.”
“The one that you guys really need to watch out for is Amelia,” Brooks said. “And Amelia has walked into the room, she bust down the door like, ‘Here I am.’ And she’s got the green light. She’s shooting the ball exceptionally well.”
Key, who struggled with confidence down the stretch last season, spent the summer working on her game and her self-perception.
The dynamic forward received minimal playing time across two active seasons at her previous stop — North Carolina — but exploded onto the scene in her first year at UK with 12 double-doubles during her junior season. She averaged 11.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.7 assists, and her presence on the court was indispensable. Brooks often refers to her as “the key” to her team’s success.
“She’s put in so much work to expand her game,” Brooks said. “To fine-tune her game, to be confident in some of the things that that she hasn’t done well. And because of that, and because of her work ethic, we’ve kind of given her carte blanche. ‘Just go, just play. You make a mistake, that’s on me. You make another mistake, it’s on the other coach.’”
Key was so important, in fact, that any time her confidence wavered, the team lacked its typical cohesion. Brooks is proud of her skill set and the work she’s put in to improve it, but he’s also impressed by her charisma; he half-joked that Key will run for President somewhere down the line due to her “striking” personality.
“We want her to just play with confidence, because when she does, so many wonderful things can happen,” Brooks said. “And when she’s playing like that, and it gives us an opportunity to beat anyone, and we want to give her that opportunity to grow, because we think that (we) will benefit from it, that she’ll benefit from it. And no question in my mind that she’s going to have a year that’s really going to be one that’s going to be impacted not just by her play, but by her leadership.”
Strack, who also earned All-SEC Second Team honors during her first full season as a Power Four starter, inherits the responsibility shouldered most often last season by Amoore — the assumed production leader and the player that every opposing coach will plan hard to stop.
“Now, what she has to be ready for is that she’s not going to sneak up on anyone,” Brooks said. “She’s going to be the focal point of everyone’s scouting report, and I think that she’s ready for that, and she’s had a phenomenal summer.”
At only 19 years old, Strack earned a spot as a top-10 finalist for the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award, and anchored the Wildcats’ defense despite spending the majority of her freshman season learning from Virginia Tech great Liz Kitley the year prior.
With the Wildcats, Strack averaged a near-double-double with 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. She also contributed 2.5 assists (Brooks calls her the best-passing post player in the country), 2.4 blocks and 0.8 steals. The Buffalo native broke UK’s single-season records in both total blocks (73) and blocks per game, but Brooks’ opinion is that her best basketball has yet to be seen.
“The beauty is, I think she’s challenging me,” he said. “And I always tell them, if they want to be great, you have to meet me halfway. And this kid, she’s done everything that I’ve asked her to do in a short amount of time. And even though we put so much pressure on her, and rightfully so because she deserves it, she’s earned it.”
Brooks admitted that sometimes he has to remind himself of Strack’s youth, but he deeply respects how the junior challenges him as a coach, asking him daily for extra workouts and extra shots.
“I don’t ever have to ask her,” Brooks said. “And she’s really compliant in that because she wants to be great. She’s a fierce competitor … her attitude is infectious, and she’s becoming one of our leaders on the team. And that’s something that I never would have considered maybe a year ago, and that’s just how far she’s grown as a person and a player.”
Now just a few weeks into practices, Brooks said the team is “still learning each other,” and that, because of that, “we still have some ways to go.” But he and his staff aren’t too concerned about chemistry, particularly due to his trio stepping into new-and-improved versions of themselves.
“Once they continue with the chemistry part of it,” Brooks said, “and they start holding each other accountable, I think their attitude will become more infectious, and they’ll have a little bit more of a swagger.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 7:57 AM.
