Kentucky’s lone exhibition game of the season Thursday night against Lee University, an NCAA Division II school from Cleveland, Tennessee, was meant to be a chance for the Wildcats to ease back into competition ahead of one of the most anticipated seasons in program history.
Instead, the game will be the first look at how UK adjusts after the loss of a key player.
During a closed-door scrimmage against Eastern Kentucky last Saturday, senior guard Blair Green ruptured her Achilles.
Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Green will miss the entire 2021-22 season.
Elzy also said Green is recovering from successful surgery on Tuesday and that Green will continue to be involved with the team this season.
“We have a love and trust for each other,” Elzy said of Green. “She knows that we’re going to look out for her and make sure that she has what she needs to come back to be successful.”
Elzy said Green will have two years of college eligibility left.
Green started 18 games for UK last season, and appeared in all 27 games the Wildcats played.
One of her best assets was her floor spacing ability. Green is a career 33.3% three-point shooter at UK and shot that exact percentage from behind the arc last season, making 21 of her 63 attempts from distance.
Statistically, Green was UK’s fourth-best returning three-point shooter.
Elzy told the Herald-Leader last summer she was counting on Green to average double-digit points per game this season.
Green was projected as a full-time starter this season for Kentucky, along with fellow guards Jazmine Massengill, Robyn Benton and Rhyne Howard, and forward Dre’una Edwards.
On Wednesday, Elzy referenced Benton, sophomore guard Treasure Hunt and junior guard Emma King as some of the players who will have to step up their scoring production in Green’s absence.
“We all have to step up, including the coaching staff,” Elzy said. “Everybody has to be accountable in order for this team to reach their goals.”
While Benton was expected to start this season after appearing in 26 games last season, all off the bench, both Hunt and King have only played sparingly in their college careers.
Hunt played in 15 games last season with just one start, although she scored nine points in a Southeastern Conference Tournament win over Florida, while King played in just five games with two starts last season.
“One of the things that we’ve talked about all summer is you’re a shooter, and you have to be able to put the ball in the basket. Even under pressure, with (the) defense running out at you,” Elzy said of King, who is 7-of-43 from the field in her college career. “My vision for her is to spread out in transition, let us throw ahead to her and hit open threes. Be a zone buster and shoot 40% or higher from behind the three-point line.”
Green’s injury means the Wildcats now have only 10 active players, one of which is walk-on freshman guard Kristen Crenshaw-Gill, who joined the program in September.
“We have enough to win. I have 11 players who are built to play in this program,” Elzy told the Herald-Leader in October, before Green’s injury. “They are hard working. They are coachable and competitive and they want to win. So, we have enough.”
During the preseason, Elzy has praised Kentucky’s ability to play position-less basketball, with players like Howard who can play the one through four spots and Massengill who can play the one through three spots.
Kentucky begins the season ranked No. 13 in both the preseason Associated Press poll, which was released in October, and in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association poll, which was released Wednesday afternoon.
The exhibition against Lee — which went 15-8 last season and was picked to finish second in the NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference this season — is one of only three early-season opportunities UK has to get ready before a serious non-conference test.
After Thursday night’s exhibition against Lee, Kentucky will play Presbyterian College of the Big South Conference and North Alabama of the ASUN Conference, all at Memorial Coliseum, before a road game at Indiana on Nov. 14 that will be broadcast on ESPN.
The Hoosiers reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight last season and are ranked No. 8 in the preseason AP poll.
“That’s what you have exhibition games for, so you can put your team in position and it gives me and the coaching staff an opportunity to look at different lineups or look at different defenses that we’ve been working on or offenses,” Elzy said. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to be able to play to work some of the kinks out.”
Thursday
Lee University at No. 13 Kentucky
What: Exhibition game
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Memorial Coliseum
TV: None
Radio: WLAP-AM 630