LEXINGTON, Ky. — It came screaming out of the abyss, a white-hot fireball of unstable elements that held together long enough to blaze across the sky and make everyone gaze up asking, “Where did that come from?!” just before the whole thing broke apart and scattered across the continent. You missed the entire show if you blink. It is possible to wonder if the show really took place without photographic evidence.
However, it is true that Kentucky did win the 2022 SEC women’s basketball tournament.
Before that, however, WildcatsThey almost imploded. They disbanded most of them shortly afterward. Everyone left behind got rings, though, and now we’re about to find out whether third-year coach Kyra Elzy can assemble a less combustible contender. All she has to do is integrate 10 new players — six freshmen and four transfers — while replacing five of the top seven players from last season, including No. Rhyne Howard, the WNBA rookie of the year and pick 1, is her first choice. That’s the hard part. The fun part is when Elzy can finally make her own roster.
“Now I have two years under my belt, we’ve hand-picked this crew while I was the head coach here, and it does feel a lot different,” says Elzy, 44, who won two national championships as a player at Tennessee under Pat Summitt and cut her teeth as an assistant coach at both UT and UK. “I wanted to make sure that we signed kids who fit the culture. We did our research and spent hours talking with people from their circle to find players that fit the culture. If Kentucky is not the place for you, that’s OK.
