Grace Mbugua (Chris Zollner Photo)
New Kentucky women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks knows that three of the nation’s top juniors — Sacred Heart’s ZaKiyah Johnson (No. 5), Bethlehem’s Leah Macy (No. 8) and George Rogers Clark’s Ciara Byars (No. 37) — are in the Bluegrass.
There’s also rising star Grace Mbugua, a 6-5 center at Danville Christian Academy who has received 15 offers, including Kentucky, since her play at the state tournament.
At his introductory press conference, I asked Brooks what his philosophy would be about in-state recruiting as he tries to restock the Kentucky roster.
“When you think about Kentucky, you think about basketball,” the former Virginia Tech coach said. “We definitely understand the importance of keeping in-state players at home.
“We also understand the importance of fit. We will look at all of it and make sure it’s going to be a great fit. Because sometimes situations, some kids just want to get away. We’ve encountered that in the state of Virginia where we have recruited and we want to make sure everything’s going to be a good fit.
“We know it is a rich country with basketball. And we definitely are aware of the young ladies (in Kentucky). We’ve actually been recruiting some of the young ladies to the point that we had conversations. We understand the importance of it and that’s going to be a priority for us but it will also be very important that we make sure everything is a good fit for our program.”
Brooks quickly found four familiar good fits for his first UK team when all-ACC guard Georgia Amoore and 6-5 center Clara Strack both transferred from Virginia Tech to UK and junior college standout Amelia Hassett and high school senior Lexi Blue flipped their commitments from Tech to UK.
