UK Signee Emily McDonald Has Infectious Spirit

Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks sees Emily McDonald as a "crafty playmaker and tremendous shooter."

How good is Kentucky signee Emily McDonald of Buffalo, N.Y.?

“I pushed back my honeymoon to watch her play. I drove to Pennsylvania and watched her on a back court. Almost nobody was there. My husband and I, who has worked on the boys side and helped me with the girls, watched her for about five minutes and knew this kid could really play,” Long Island Lutheran coach Christina Raiti said.

The 6-foot guard is a top 25 player nationally and a two-time all-state player at St. Mary’s of Lancaster in Buffalo before transferring to Long Island Lutheran for her junior season. She averaged 12.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.4 blocks per game last season playing Savvy Swords, another UK signee, on a top five team nationally.

McDonald had plenty of other college options including South Carolina, UCLA, Michigan and North Carolina.

Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks described her as a “tremendous shooter and crafty playmaker” after she signed with UK.

“Her competitive spirit will be infectious to all those around her,” Brooks said.

Swords missed most of last season at Long Island Lutheran after injuring her knee. However, when McDonald did play with Swords, McDonald averaged almost 20 points per game.

“She gave E Mac a tremendous amount of confidence when they played together and they worked well together,” Raiti said. “They were in the gym together at 6 a.m. getting shots up. They became pretty close because they were aligned with the same goals and culture and are very like minded.

“Savvy did not want to pressure her about going to Kentucky (Swords committed earlier to UK) but she also wanted her to know she freakin’ wanted to play with her. Savvy told her maybe they could live together for four years. Savvy said it was stressful for her when she was getting recruited and that she hated calling other players but it was different with E Mac because they were high school teammates and she wanted to keep playing with her. It was no surprise E Mac wanted the same thing.”

Raiti felt like McDonald and Long Island Lutheran were a perfect fit.

“She comes from one of the  most humble facilities in upstate New York but being with us was all brand new. Long Island might as well be a new state for her being from Buffalo. We are very particular about who is a fit for our program,” Raiti said. “We asked her to do so much last year when Savvy went down. She went from playing at a small school upstate to being on the national stage.

“Her  mom wanted to know if we really thought her daughter was good enough to play with us but she stepped up for us in so many ways. We had players returning who understood being on ESPN games and big-time national matchups. She had to learn that on the fly. We asked her to guard four- and five-star point guards and play multiple positions for us.”

Despite losing two players to knee injuries, McDonald helped Long Island Lutheran finish as a top 15 team nationally.

“She started having some swag to her game. I saw an AAU game this summer and she was talking (to opponents), something I don’t know if she would have done before she came here last year,” Raiti said.

Raiti knows McDonald is a gifted and versatile scorer.

“She shoots the daylights out of the ball. She is long and also gets to the rim well. She creates contact and can finish above the defense,” the Long Island Lutheran coach said. “She is a great midrange scorer who can score at three levels.

“She had to get faster and was in the gym with an assistant coach every day. That’s the kind of mindset she had. She is a pretty special kid. She can put the ball on the floor and is always thinking about getting others open. She thinks about the next play all the time. She just has skills and an IQ that very few players have.”