Dominika Paurova can only encourage teammates while she rehabs her knee injury. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Queens coach Jen Brown played for UK coach Kenny Brooks at James Madison and coached under him at both James Madison and Virginia Tech. She admires how he runs his program and after her team lost to UK, she made a bold statement about his team.
“Once he gets back his two kids who are hurt he could have an Elite 8 and Final Four team out there,” Brown said.
Those two kids are Jordan Obi, a 6-1 guard who played four years at Penn, and Dominika Paurova, a 6-1 guard who played at Oregon State her freshman season.
Obi averaged 13.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game in 83 games during her three seasons (COVID cancelled her first season at Penn). Paurova played in 35 games as a true freshman and averaged 5.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game on a team that reached the Elite Eight.
In late July, Kentucky announced that Obi and Paurova had both suffered lower leg injuries and were out indefinitely. However, Brown’s comments made it sound like maybe the two still maybe had a chance to play this season.
“She (Brown) was on my staff and helped me recruit Jordan to Virginia Tech, so she knows how Jordan is capable, and she got to watch Dom play a little bit too,” Brooks said. “But no, there is still no update on those two.
“We have what we have and that is what we are going with day-by-day, but she is right. You know we do miss those two kids, and it hurts us in a lot of different ways, but we have what we have.”
2 Responses
If they had them 2 they would definitely be undefeated. But they have done a phenomenal job so far this year! I think they could go to the final 4 especially with these 2 that are injured.
The Lady Cats have size I haven’t seen on any Ky team before. It’s a shame they don’t have the two other ladies right now. They laid one egg, but NC looks to be a really good team.