Clara Strack Will Get Homecoming Game in Buffalo

UK Athletics Photo

Clara Strack was a high school standout in Buffalo, N.Y., before deciding to play her college basketball for coach Kenny Brooks at Virginia Tech her freshman season, and then followed him to Kentucky last season, where she was named Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Brooks is going to let Strack have a homecoming game early next season when the Wildcats play at Buffalo on Nov. 9. The game time is currently scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, but could be revised. It will mark the first meeting between the Wildcats and the Bulls.

Buffalo has a new coach in Kristen Sharkey, who took over after former Louisville player Becky Burke, who played in the 2009 Final Four with the Cardinals. Burke left after last season to become the new coach at Arizona.

Strack was the New York State Sportswriters Association Player of the Year in Buffalo. The UK center was the 2023 Class A girls’ basketball player of the year in New York, leading Hamburg to a sectional championship and a Far West regional appearance.

Strack was the 95th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2023 and averaged 24.4 points, 16.2 rebounds, 3.2 blocks, and 2.3 steals as a senior for coach Amy Steger. She broke her high school’s 22-year-old, all-time career scoring record – both girls and boys – with her 1,384th point in her senior year.

Strack started all 31 UK games last season and averaged 15.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.4 blocks, and 0.8 assists per game to earn second-team all-SEC honors.  She finished the season ranked first in the SEC and 11th and 13th in the nation in blocks (73) and blocks per game (2.4). Both were UK school records.

Strack was one of the nation’s most consistent players with 15 double-doubles, fourth best in the SEC and 26th best in the nation. She ranked eighth on UK’s single-season rebounding list. She shot 48.8 percent from the field, good for eighth in the league, and 78.6 percent from the line, ninth in the league.

As a sophomore, she led UK in scoring nine times, in rebounding 16 times, in assists three times, in steals eight times, and in blocks 18 times.

This statistic from Kentucky shows just how special Strack was last season: She was the only NCAA DI women’s basketball player on the season to do each of the following at least once in a game (25 pts, 16 rebounds, eight assists, eight blocks and five steals).

She became the only SEC player since at least 2002-03 – and the first NCAA DI player since 2009-10 – to have at least 429 points, 266 rebounds, 76 assists, 70 blocks, and 20 steals in a regular season.

She also became the only SEC player since at least 2002-03 to have at least 236 points, 150 rebounds, 41 blocks, 35 assists and 12 steals in a SEC regu­lar season.

And now Strack gets to return home to play where her basketball career started.