Anna Drakeford, center, says it is “really cool” to have former UK player Dominique Hawkins helping her improve her fundamentals/skills. (Photo by Chris Zollner)
A year ago Mercer County junior point guard Anna Drakeford was just starting her rehab from a knee injury suffered in the 12th Region Tournament championship game.
No AAU basketball, no team basketball, no pickup games.
Drakeford did return to the court midway of the 2021-22 season and averaged 7.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 42 percent from the field after averaging 13.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game during the 2020-21 season before she was averaged.
Now she’s playing AAU with East Tennessee Thunder and has a full schedule of tournaments in Charlotte, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Louisville and Tennessee that will average about six games per week.
Her high school team has not started official offseason workouts but Drakeford and several teammates do shoot most days after school.
“It has been pretty tiring with AAU. I would say I am close to 100 percent. I know I am not fully there yet but I am really close,” she said.
Now she’s also spending extra time working on her game with former Kentucky Mr. Basketball and University of Kentucky guard Dominique Hawkins. They had their first individual workout this week at Mercer County and she’s hoping to continue those weekly sessions.
Her connection to Hawkins came from physical therapy. One of her physical therapists from her knee rehab dates Hawkins and reached out to him about training Drakeford.
“I distinctly remember watching him play (at UK),” Drakeford said. “I knew who he was.”
Hawkins played in 121 career games at UK and helped the Cats reach the 2014 national title game and 2015 Final Four. He played in 38 games his senior year in 2016-17 and set new career-best marks in minutes, field goals, field-goal percentage, 3-pointers, 3-point field-goal percentage, free throws, free-throw percentage, rebounds, assists, steals and points when he averaged 4.7 points, 1.7 assists and 1.6 rebounds per game.
His best game may have been during the 2015-16 season when he had 13 points in 26 minutes against Louisville. During his freshman season, he was a defensive stopper in NCAA Tournament wins over Louisville and Michigan.
“My AAU team sets a lot of ball screens and stuff. We worked on going off screens and pulling up (for jump shots),” she said. “I was pretty tired when we finished. I am not sure if I am out of shape or if he worked me that hard.”
“He worked on fundamentals and skills like footwork that I have never really known. He tells me everything I am doing right or wrong and just talks me through it. He talks about how different stuff transitions into games.”
“He told me a lot of what I already knew but I just need help getting there and hopefully he is the one that can help get me there. I am trying to get better at everything but mainly just creating my own 3-point shot and own mid-range shot.”
Drakeford is an intense competitor and Hawkins probably can relate to that. He was an overachiever who led Madison Central to a state title his senior year that led to the scholarship offer from John Calipari at UK.
“It’s definitely really cool to be working with him and I know he’s going to help me a lot,” Drakeford said.
