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Having one competent player with size to hold her own in the Southeastern Conference and be a physical presence on both ends is not something the Kentucky women’s basketball team has had very often.
This year, though, first-year Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks looks like he has the luxury of not only having one center with dominating size but has two.
Not only that but Brooks insists he will play 6-5 sophomore Clara Strack, who played for him at Virginia Tech last year, and 6-7 freshman Clara Silva together because of Strack’s versatility.
“It’s not a tease. You’re gonna see it a lot. It’s something that’s good,” Brooks said about playing the two bigs together. “They’re too talented not to have them on the floor together. That’s where I gush with, you know, just excitement.”
Brooks said not only is Strack versatile enough to play four positions but is also one of the smartest players he’s ever coached.
“She understands my offense. If it’s a play, she knows why she’s supposed to go from A to B to get to C. It’s not just, ‘Hey, connect the dots’ and ‘Hey, he said go here, then I gotta go there.’ She knows why she’s supposed to go there and what she’s doing. I’ve been extremely proud of her.”
Strack played behind All-American Liz Kitley at Virginia Tech last season and then became a starter in postseason play when Kitley went out with a knee injury. She also watched All-American point guard Georgia Amoore, who also transferred to UK, lead the Hokies last season.
“If someone has a little bit of a hiccup or a brain freeze, they don’t know exactly where to go, she’s telling them where they should go in a manner that is very respectful, and the kids really listen to her,” Brooks said. “She’s being groomed to be a leader of our program because she knows it extremely well.”
Kentucky assistant coach Radvile Autukaite says the growth by Strack from last year to this season has been phenomenal.
“I told her (recently) I was laughing because I remember watching her struggling so much last year but wow, what a year can do for a young lady. She’s becoming a very special player,” Autukaite said.
Because Strack can do so many different things, it will make it easier for Silva, a Portugal native with plenty of international experience already, to get on the court more.
“She is one special player. When she walks in the room everybody knows she plays basketball. She is starting to talk more, starting to get more comfortable,” Autukaite said. “She played for her national team all summer and we did not have her over the summer. She did not have a lot of time to adapt.
“She is working really hard at school and basketball. She is watching film with coach Brooks all the time. She is so skilled. She is 6-7 but the crazy thing is she has a point guard mind which is so unique for a post player. We are very, very pleased with her.”
Autukaite, UK’s recruiting coordinator, was coaching the Lithuanian national under 16 team three years ago when she was an assistant at Virginia Tech and Brooks gave her time off to give back to her country.
“I was coaching my national team in Portugal. I was standing in the hall and this tall girl wandered by and I go, ‘Who is that?’ It was a long, two-year recruiting process but her family is phenomenal. She has an amazing and supportive mom, dad and big brother. We had to overcome a lot of competition to get her because her style and skill set made a lot of people notice her. We just started recruiting her early, made her feel comfortable and we were lucky enough to get her.”
One Response
The twin Claras.
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