Year 3 under Kenny Brooks means a win-now roster for UK women’s basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kenny Brooks says Year 3 roster construction was intentional and largely accomplished.
- Kentucky built a deeper, experience-rich roster to complement Clara Strack and Asia Boone.
- Staff targeted shooters and transfers to prevent opponents from crowding Strack's space.
Intentionality is the name of the game in Lexington, where Kenny Brooks and his Kentucky women’s basketball staff are proud of what he called “a really good spring” of Year 3 roster preparation.
“Very intentional in what we wanted to accomplish,” Brooks said. “And pretty much accomplished what we wanted to.”
With only two starters returning in veteran guard Asia Boone and projected first-round WNBA draft pick Clara Strack at center — but an all-time great UK recruiting class joining the fold — the priority list for the 2026-27 roster looked slightly different from either of the previous two summers.
Kentucky has won quickly under Brooks, posting back-to-back seasons of at least 23 wins, but Year 3 is the first time his staff has been able to build a team that looks deeper on paper and layered on purpose — experienced answers for the SEC right now and another international talent with superstar potential combined with a freshman class with national clout.
After two weeks of summer workouts, Brooks noted the early chemistry has matched the blueprint.
“Everyone’s jelling well together; people have come back very hungry,” Brooks said. “We’ve had freshmen who’ve come in and given us a little bit of an energy boost with their enthusiasm, their youthfulness. It’s a great combination with the older players and experienced players. …We have to put it all together because I think we are a really good team on paper.”
For Brooks and associate head coach Lindsey Hicks, roster building isn’t simply collecting names or five-stars. It’s assembling a puzzle of answers. The staff returned to the same roster-building principle it leans on each spring — define roles and needs first, then pursue players who will actually fit them.
“Everyone has to have a purpose, a role,” Brooks said. “We don’t want to just stack talented players together and they don’t fit.”
That philosophy began this spring with UK’s established center of gravity and other strengths. Brooks described Strack as “the best center in the country” and called Boone “one of the best shooters in the country.”
The offseason, then, became about building a roster that makes those two harder to scheme against and focus on.
“We wanted to make sure that we surrounded both of them with players with experience, but also a skill set that would complement our existing players,” Brooks said. “That was very, very important, especially to open up things for Clara inside.”
As Strack — the only finalist for last season’s Lisa Leslie Center of the Year award who returns to college in 2026-27 — continues to draw more defensive focus, UK needed a roster built to punish the help.
“Clara is a huge impact player for us, and she draws a lot of attention,” Hicks said. “But we look for it — that’s a really important position for us, ‘Who can play off of Clara?’...We never want Clara to be double-teamed, so someone they have to think twice about doubling off of, that can be an offensive threat as well.”
In Year 1 at Kentucky, Brooks’ Cats featured plenty of healthy, veteran experience — including eventual WNBA draft selections Georgia Amoore, Teonni Key and Amelia Hassett, and future international pro Dazia Lawrence — which allowed for confident leaders Amoore and Lawrence to spark the offense and set the tone.
However, once that duo exhausted its eligibility in 2025, Strack elevated to the top of the depth chart. The staff spent much of Year 2 learning what opponents were willing to live with — and what they weren’t.
Brooks said last season’s roster wasn’t ideal for reacting to the congested spacing Strack often saw, particularly during Key’s prolonged, injury induced absence.
“Last year, we had to adapt a lot,” Brooks said. “A lot of time (Strack) was bombarded, she was crowded, she was double-teamed, didn’t have a whole lot of space to work.”
So Kentucky’s Year 3 roster build leaned hard into a counter: Shoot well enough from enough spots around the floor that crowding Strack becomes a losing game.
“We were very intentional in trying to go out and find players that really helped complement (Strack and Boone),” Brooks said. “We probably have the best shooting team that I’ve ever had….This year’s group is probably the best 3-point shooting team that we’ve had, so now we think it’s going to be very difficult for them to really crowd Clara’s space, and she’s going to have more room to operate.”
Kentucky’s answers came from three avenues: the transfer portal, the signing of 2025 first-round WNBA Draft pick Ajsa Sivka and a trio of extraordinarily competitive McDonald’s All-Americans.
Depth has been a common point of criticism of Brooks’ UK rosters. However, this year’s portal class — on paper — provides new levels of experience and lineup flexibility.
Kentucky added forwards Me’Arah O’Neal (Florida) and Ayanna Patterson (Connecticut) and guards Jemma Amoore (IU-Indianapolis) and Diana Collins (Alabama). Hicks said replacing complementary frontcourt pieces Key and 2026 third-round WNBA draft pick Jordan Obi was a major portal priority entering what is likely Strack’s final collegiate season.
“She’s a big part of what we do,” Hicks said of Strack. “Bringing somebody in to fill that hole (left by) Teonni Key and Jordan Obi, when she was in there, was really important. That was a big focal point for us when we got into the transfer portal.
Hicks didn’t hide how aggressive Kentucky was in pursuing O’Neal in particular.
“We went after her pretty hard,” Hicks said. “We really think that she is that piece that will help Clara. We think she’s a great complement to Clara, playing the four and the five together.”
The freshman class, meanwhile, is the kind of treasure trove Kentucky can build marketing campaigns around. Maddyn Greenway (espnW’s No. 14 high school player in 2026), Savvy Swords (No. 20) and Emily McDonald (21) comprise the highest-rated recruiting class in program history.
Brooks called them advanced for their age and very competitive. But he also emphasized that the transfers give Kentucky the option to bring the freshmen along with intention rather than desperation.
“What we were able to do in solidifying some players with experience, we don’t have to throw them into the fire,” Brooks said. “Now they will get thrown into the fire, but we’re also in win-now mode. And when you get a player like Diana Collins, who’s had tremendous experience in the SEC and the Big Ten, Me’Arah O’Neal, who’s had great experience in the SEC, Ayanna Patterson, who has played at a very high level and been coached by one of the best coaches ever, that’s going to allow you to go out and compete and to win now.”
