Blair Green will be one of the Kentucky natives on next year's UK women's basketball team. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
There seems to be an interesting sports phenomenon currently occurring at the University of Kentucky. It involves the women’s basketball program. No, it doesn’t have to do with NIL, or the transfer portal or any of the other buzzwords that have taken over the college sports scene recently.
In fact this phenomenon goes back to the days of Adolph Rupp, the “man in the brown suit,” and probably even further than that.
This new idea involves something similar to the flag, mom and apple pie. Some people call it loyalty. Others call it culture. Many say it’s just kids wanting to play for their in-state school. But whatever it’s called it’s been happening in the women’s basketball program a lot recently.
It’s called Kentucky players playing for their home state school. We’ve recently seen UK coach Mark Stoops turn a moribund football program into an SEC contender by using the same method to control football recruiting in his home state. In the past we’ve seen coaches like Adolph Rupp, Joe B Hall, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith win National Championships by using the same method to add significant Kentucky players onto their respective rosters.
Those coaches had players like Johnny Cox or Wah Wah Jones up through Jimmy Dan Conner and Mike Casey to Jack Givens, James Lee and Melvin Turpin to John Pelphrey, Deron Feldhaus, Richie Farmer, Rex Chapman, Scott Padgett and more recently Rajon Rondo, Patrick Sparks and Darius Miller.
There are so many other names that could be included on that list and collectively they make up the history of Kentucky Basketball.
Rupp was legendary for developing local talent. A high percentage of his rosters hailed from the Bluegrass State.Hall carried on that tradition by dominating the recruiting of Kentucky players. Pitino used a roster of Kentucky players to resurrect a dying program. Tubby Smith had a couple of Kentucky heroes in Scott Padgett and Cameron Mills on that 1998 championship run. Even John Calipari needed Miller to win a national championship in 2012.
Each coach that has won a national championship at Kentucky has done so with Kentucky players on the roster.
Now it appears that UK women’s coach Kyra Elzy, who hails from Lagrange, has adopted that same strategy. She, like so many of the great UK coaches in the past, realizes that Kentucky players playing for Kentucky teams win championships. History has proven that over and over again.
Elzy has begun to shape her roster with talented Kentucky high school recruits along with veteran transfers from other schools. The 2022-2023 UK roster appears to be loaded with players that hail from Kentucky. The roster should include current players Blair Green and Emma King to go along with incoming freshmen Cassidy Rowe and Amiya Jenkins along with Oregon transfer and former Miss Kentucky Basketball Maddie Scherr.
Elzy said in a recent press release concerning her new incoming talent, “It’s special to be from this state and wear Kentucky across your chest.”
She goes on to mention one of her recent recruits from Lawrenceburg, Amiya Jenkins, as a player that “is a Kentucky kid that fits our style and bleeds blue.” The same could be said for Green, King, Rowe and Scherr.
Elzy recently said on Twitter about the commitment of Scherr to UK, “Her basketball resume speaks for itself and she understands the responsibility of competing for KENTUCKY. Elated to have her #Home.”
It’s obvious that Elzy gets it. She sees the number one building block for this program is homegrown talent. Just like Stoops, she understands that controlling the state of Kentucky from a recruiting standpoint is “Job No. 1” and she is beginning to do that.
It will be interesting to watch Elzy’s Wildcats compete next year with a roster that is loaded with Kentucky players coached by a Kentucky native. Like Joe B Hall, who himself was born and raised in Cynthiana, she seems to consider herself a defender and keeper of the program. A program that values the name on the front of the jersey more than the name on the back. That’s a great first step for any coach that wants to be successful running a team sport. It sure worked for Hall.
I have a feeling it’s going to work for Kyra Elzy also.
2 Responses
I was very down on Elzy since the collapse halfway through last season. This year didn’t change that until the SECT, but the early Tournament exit and multiple transfers cast some doubt yet again. I have to say watching what she’s done this offseason, I’m pretty excited about where we’re headed. Aisha Foy was right few months back she said there’s a plan in place, don’t worry about transfers, trust the process.
You were not alone with your worries Mathew