‘We’re trying to build it.’ UK women sign elite 2026 recruiting class
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky signed three top-25 prospects, forming one of 2026's elite recruiting classes.
- Coach Brooks emphasizes patient development, bringing freshmen off bench to grow.
- Class blends multi-sport athletes and international talent to build a long-term program.
With the official signing of one of the nation’s highest-rated recruiting classes, Kentucky’s Kenny Brooks can finally speak about Maddyn Greenway, Emily McDonald and Savvy Swords.
“We’re free!” Brooks said. “I can talk about ‘em!”
The trio represents one of the most successful recruiting cycles in the history of Kentucky women’s basketball by espnW’s top-100 rankings, with each of the three future Wildcats rated among the top 25 players in the class of 2026; Greenway is currently ranked No. 13 overall and a five-star prospect, Swords is ranked No. 19, McDonald No. 23.
“We’re very excited about this recruiting class,” Brooks said. “And obviously, the landscape of college athletics is ever-changing, and one of the reasons I came here was to be able to get involved with players of that magnitude. And the Kentucky brand allows you to get into a lot of different homes. And a lot more kids will pick up the phone since we’re wearing the blue, and now you’ve gotten them to say yes.”
Greenway, a 5-foot-8 point guard out of Providence Academy in Plymouth, Minnesota, was the first to commit to the Wildcats, announcing her pledge in November 2024 and choosing UK over Clemson, Duke, Iowa, Stanford and UCLA.
“I am beyond excited for the amazing opportunity to play at Kentucky,” Greenway said in a press release. “It is an honor to be recruited and trusted by this coaching staff, and I am excited to get on campus and prepare to have a great freshman year!!”
Greenway, from From Wayzata, Minnesota, is the daughter of former Iowa football and Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway and Iowa track athlete Jenni Capista Greenway. She started watching film of former Brooks point guard Georgia Amoore years ago with high school coach Conner Goetz.
“We think that she’s going to be a dynamic player,” Brooks said. “I never want to put this on her, but she plays a lot like Georgia. The size, little bit bigger than Georgia, shoots the basketball exceptionally well. Will really fit into our system. She’s a competitor. Her father played for the Vikings for 11 years, he was a linebacker. And she kind of plays point guard like that, like a linebacker. You know, she’s gonna run through the wall, she hasn’t seen anything that she’s scared of and she’ll go out there and compete. One of the best shooters in the country. I think she’s going to really help us.”
Greenway averaged 32.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 4.9 steals per game during her junior season as Providence Academy went 32-0. Greenway helped the Lions to a state runner-up finish in 2021 as a seventh grader and four consecutive state championships after that (2022-25).
The five-star guard is a Minnesota high school state champion at least one time over in basketball, soccer and track & field.
Her dedication to excellence across multiple sports, Brooks said, “is what you want from our youth today.”
“I’ve never discouraged it at all,” Brooks said. “I encourage it, as a matter of fact, because I think some of our young kids, they start specializing really early, and you need that camaraderie from a different sport, you need that teaching from a different level or a different sport, because it all will benefit you later on. And I went and watched her play soccer, and she’s really good.”
Brooks joked that Greenway scored “like, a million goals.”
With Providence soccer, Greenway has won consecutive titles in 2024 and 2025. She was named this year’s Minnesota Miss Soccer and had set all-time Minnesota high school records for goals in a single season (62) and career (218) by the end of her junior season.
Brooks said her consistent energy from the basketball court to the soccer pitch to the track shows what kind of competitor Greenway is.
“She’s one of those kids that just can’t sit down,” Brooks said. “She can’t sit down, and she’s always gotta be doing something. But that energy, the way that she’s going to bring that. She has a high motor. She’s tough.”
Brooks believes that Swords, a 6-2 forward attending national power Long Island (New York) Lutheran, will make Canada’s roster for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics — and she very well may.
Swords’ older sister, Syla, is currently a sophomore and the third-leading scorer (12.3 points per game) and leading rebounder (5.2) for No. 6 Michigan. Syla also competed for the Canadian Women’s National Basketball team in the 2024 Olympics, at which she was the youngest player in the history of Canada Basketball in the Olympic Games.
“You know, (Savvy) practices with the national team now and is on the path to make that national team in Canada,” Brooks said. “And she’s bringing some toughness to us. I hadn’t seen her since May, and I went to see her maybe a month or so ago, and I walked in and immediately I felt like she grew two inches. She’s about 6-foot-2 1/2, and, you know, she’s a big, strong kid.”
Swords announced her commitment to Kentucky in June. She chose the Wildcats over other finalists Michigan, Notre Dame, South Carolina and UCLA.
The native of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, has spent the majority of the past year rehabbing from an injury sustained early in her junior season at LuHi, but she averaged 16.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals through five games.
“I’m so excited to be a part of the Kentucky family and to be able to learn from Coach Brooks and the rest of the staff,” Swords said in a press release. “BBN is the best and I can’t wait to get to Lexington and get to work!”
McDonald, a 6-foot guard and teammate of Swords at Long Island Lutheran, is — like current UK center Clara Strack — a Buffalo, New York, native for Brooks to develop.
“She’s from that Buffalo area,” Brooks said. “So I don’t know what that is. Buffalo has been good to us. Not just the wings.”
McDonald averaged 12.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.4 blocks per game with LuHi last season.
“I can’t wait to be a part of one of the nation’s best recruiting classes!” McDonald said in a press release. “I look forward to growing as a player and a person under Coach Brooks and the entire staff at Kentucky. I am excited to call Big Blue Nation home and be a part of the Kentucky family!”
McDonald announced her commitment in early October and picked Kentucky over programs like Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina and UCLA, according to ESPN.
“She’s a 6-foot combo guard that can play both positions, shoots the ball from really, really deep,” Brooks said. “Had a lot of offers, but really fits our system and what we want to try to do. A great passer. …Really excited about Emily. Competitor.”
Brooks described UK’s three signees as “winners,” and referenced the fact that, in the recently-released SportsCenter Next preseason top 25 high school girls basketball rankings, Providence Academy debuted at No. 21, and Long Island Lutheran checked in at No. 2.
“So you’re getting winners,” Brooks said. “You’re getting kids who really impact a program, and we’re excited about them.”
He also referenced another list from the service, which rated Kentucky’s as the fourth-best recruiting class in the 2026 cycle.
“But more than that, they really fit what we want to do.,” Brooks said. “And so I’m really excited about them. Can’t wait till they get here.”
Though expectations are high for Greenway, Swords and McDonald, Brooks’ patience-forward development methods may mean the prospects won’t immediately be superstars.
“We’re gonna throw them out there,” Brooks said. “We’re going to throw them out to the fire and say, ‘OK, you know what, we’re trying to build it.’ What we’re trying to do here is we’re trying to build a program. We’re not just trying to have a great team. We want to build a program.”
Each of Brooks’ top-100 recruits since 2023 has come off the bench as freshmen and made their fair share of “freshman mistakes,” Brooks said. And those former touted recruits with at least one season under Brooks have both taken steps each year.
Strack, the No. 95 ranked recruit in the class of 2023, spent the bulk of her freshman season at Virginia Tech as a backup center to All-America selection and future WNBA Draft pick Liz Kitley while doing her best to adjust to the speed of college basketball.
As a sophomore in her and Brooks’ first season in Lexington, Strack was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and an All-SEC second-teamer. Six games into this, her junior campaign, Strack is besting herself in nearly every statistic; she’s averaging a 16.8 point-12.5 rebound double-double and contributing an average 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 3.3 blocks per game.
Lexi Blue, the No. 40 overall prospect in the class of 2024, was the first ranked recruit to commit to Kentucky since ex-Cats Tionna Herron (No. 69) and Amiya Jenkins (No. 94) in 2022. Blue averaged 1.6 points in 9 minutes per game last season as a freshman.
Six games into her sophomore year, the guard is averaging 4.2 points in 12 minutes per game, and had a career-best 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, including 6 of 7 from beyond the arc, in UK’s 104-46 win over Monmouth on Nov. 6.
Freshman forward Kaelyn “KK” Carroll graduated as the No. 18 recruit in the class of 2025 and to this point is the only McDonald’s All-American Brooks has ever signed out of high school. Yet even she understands that UK isn’t a place where she’s going to consistently shine right away.
Through the first six games of her collegiate career, Carroll is averaging 5.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks in 15 minutes per game. She has reiterated her desire to learn from older Wildcats in every interview with the Herald-Leader, dating back to her first comment in July 2024.
In Brooks’ mind, part of choosing Kentucky means embracing the process, even when opportunities are limited. Even when you mess up — and you will — or the game feels too fast for the first time in years or maybe ever.
But Brooks believes that Greenway, Swords and McDonald possess the skill sets and the dispositions to respond.
“We want to be able to have them for years,” Brooks said. “And Big Blue Nation watching them grow up right in front of our faces, and then we know when they get a little bit older, they’re going to be dynamic. Because they’re such great basketball players, but they’re great people as well.”
As of this week, Kentucky has signed all of its committed players in the class of 2026.
However, eight top-100 ranked prospects — espnW’s list is composed of prospects playing high school ball domestically, with the occasional Canadian exception — in the class of 2026 remain uncommitted, and Brooks and his staff have found success in international recruiting for years.
When asked following Tuesday’s win over Purdue if the Wildcats were still looking for more players in this recruiting cycle, Brooks laughed.
“We’re always looking,” he said.
