‘Battle-tested.’ Despite loss to South Carolina, Brooks believes UK can regroup
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Brooks says UK believes it merits a top-16 NCAA seed.
- Kentucky lost 60-56, holding SC to their season-low scoring.
- Cats, as No.9 in SEC tourney, can bolster NCAA resume in Greenville.
Following a competitive, 60-56 loss to No. 3 South Carolina in his team’s regular-season finale, Kenny Brooks still believes Kentucky is one of the nation’s top teams — and is “excited” about what comes next for his program.
A program that, at this point in the year, finds itself on the outside looking in for a massive competitive advantage.
In its second season under Brooks, No. 18 UK (21-9, 8-8 SEC) is fighting for a place among the NCAA Selection Committee’s top-16 overall seeds; it’s an achievement that the program captured last year, booking its place as a No. 4 seed after finishing fourth in the SEC standings.
The Cats were absent in each of the committee’s two early reveals, the latest of which came ahead of Sunday’s full slate of games.
“We’re good, OK?” Brooks said. “And I’m not being overconfident. I just know what I see. I know what I watch when I watch teams around the country…we’re not one of the top 16 that’s in the reveal, but I don’t know if there are 16 teams better than us. It’s not coach talk, it’s just what I see, what I feel, and it’s what we continue to work toward.”
Ahead of Kentucky are five Southeastern Conference foes — No. 3 South Carolina, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 7 LSU and No. 12 Oklahoma — and four Big Ten teams sitting in spots 13-16.
“If we have to go on the road, we’re battle-tested,” Brooks said. “We’ve been there. We’ve been at these places. We’ve been at Vanderbilt with a chance to win. We’ve been at Texas with a chance to win. We won at Louisville. We were fine…I’m just worried about us getting ready.”
The Cats’ two biggest wins — a road victory at then-No. 5 LSU in the SEC opener and a home win over then-No. 5 Oklahoma on Jan. 11 — set a new program record for top-5 wins in a single season.
Kentucky closed regular-season play with a 4-6 record against opponents ranked within The Associated Press women’s college basketball top 25. UK’s narrow loss to South Carolina did not go as Brooks, nor the majority of Sunday’s sold-out crowd hoped it would, but Kentucky kept things competitive.
It’s the second of two UK-SC matchups since Brooks’ hiring that wasn’t truly decided until the fourth quarter; last season, Kentucky lurked until former Gamecock MiLaysia Fulwiley sped up the contest and put the Wildcats away, 78-66, in the final minutes.
On Sunday, despite only leading for less than 3 minutes of the matchup, the Cats had a chance to win it at the end. Kentucky pulled within 2 points with 59 seconds to play in the game, but crucial mistakes such as a consequential missed free throw by graduate guard Jordan Obi, a fourth foul called on Clara Strack, a missed layup by Teonni Key and a held ball with the possession arrow pointing South Carolina’s way prevented the upset.
“Great crowd, great momentum,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “I thought we got out to some leads and they came fighting back. And it’s just great talent on the floor that make plays. And we are fortunate to get the win, but we also did enough to get the win. We also executed, we also were able to get some stops when we needed to get stops. And it was a hard-fought game, it was an SEC conference game. Which is very normal.”
UK held the Gamecocks to their lowest point total of what’s been another successful South Carolina season, and limited starters and leading scorers Ta’Niya Latson (7 points) and Joyce Edwards (9 points) to just 16 points combined.
Strack — who finished with 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field — led all players in scoring, and added 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Though Kentucky trailed by 6 after the first period, Strack was forced to sit after earning her second foul of the game within the first minute of the second quarter.
“She’s big,” Staley said. “She’s long. She’s got a high-arcing shot that’s hard to get to. She’s very mobile. She can put it on the floor, can score at all three levels. And she just keeps her defense off-balance. I mean, once she got her shot going, it allowed her to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket and score.”
A highly-anticipated matchup between Strack and South Carolina’s Madina Okot — who finished with a team-high 21 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, plus 1 assist, 2 blocks and 2 steals — did not disappoint.
“She’s obviously a great player,” Strack said of Okot. “She’s big, but I think, I mean, I got myself into foul trouble early…and that’s on me, so I wasn’t able to be as aggressive as I would’ve liked to coming down the stretch. But I mean, she’s a great player, she’s big, and she does a lot for them. She rebounds really well.”
Strack was joined in double-figure scoring by only Asia Boone, who added 11 points behind 4-of-10 shooting from the field, including 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc.
Tessa Johnson scored 12 points for the Gamecocks, and Raven Johnson finished with 12 points.
Though Brooks believes UK should be considered among the top-16 seeds, he also said he doesn’t care whether the team receives hosting privileges.
“I don’t care,” Brooks said. “I don’t care about any other team. I don’t care about any other league, I don’t care about any other situation. I just want to get there and get healthy. I don’t care where we have to play. I would love to play here. And we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to do that.”
The Cats, who clinched a No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament, will have the opportunity to further bolster their resume this week in Greenville, S.C. UK will play the No. 16 seed Arkansas Razorbacks at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4 in the league tournament. The winner advances to play No. 8 seed Georgia at 11 a.m. Thursday.
