Every coach wants a roster problem like this one the Kentucky women's basketball team has. Kenny Brooks has three 6-foot-5 players and one frontcourt to put them in.
No. 14 Kentucky opens its 2026-27 season Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET in Historic Memorial Coliseum against Morehead State. On paper it is the softest landing spot a ranked team could ask for. In practice it is the first real look at whether a roster built largely in the portal and the recruiting rankings can play like a team.
Brooks knows how to build one. He is in his 25th year as a head coach and his third in Lexington, and for the third year in a row his staff is intact. In women’s college basketball, in the transfer era, that is close to unheard of. Meanwhile, three starters from last
season’s club were all drafted into the WNBA. Rebuilding on the fly is a skill, and Brooks has been practicing it.
The pieces
Clara Strack is the centerpiece, and the preseason hardware says so: USA TODAY’s Defensive Player of the Year, a unanimous All-SEC first-teamer, and a watch-list fixture for National Player of the Year and Center of the Year. She is the reason a team can build everything else around its defense.
Beside her, Brooks has added experience. Me’Arah O’Neal comes from Florida, where she put up 13.6 points and 6.4 rebounds a night, and she opens the year on the Power Forward of the Year Watch List after an All-SEC Second Team season. Diana Collins arrives from Alabama after posting 8.4 points and 2.4 assists. Ajša Sivka was the No. 10 pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft and now shares a college locker room. Ayanna Patterson carries a national title résumé from her time at UConn. Asia Boone, a Shooting Guard of the Year watch-lister, is the shooter who keeps defenses from collapsing.
The incoming talent is just as deep. On3 puts the transfer class at No. 6 nationally, and ESPN has the freshmen at No. 6, with three McDonald’s All-Americans. Texas is the only other program that can say it signed members of the 2026 McDonald’s class.
The opponent
Morehead State is a new team in nearly every sense. Jackie Alexander begins her head-coaching tenure Monday, and only senior Millie Pearson remains from the group that finished 18-15. Ten of the 12 players have Division I experience, but they have never played together, and league coaches and SIDs picked the Eagles eighth in the nine-team OVC.
The series history leans hard toward the home side. Kentucky has beaten Morehead State 34 times in 38 tries, including 17 straight, and the Eagles have won once in Lexington in 25 trips. The last meeting, on Nov. 3, 2025, finished 75-59.
The Eagles do have a few names worth knowing. Kensley Feltner, who was the fourth Kentuckian to reach 4,000 career points in high school, has 70 college games behind her. JUCO transfer Breayah Jefferson, who averaged 18 points at Monroe University, dropped 50 on Lackawanna in February, a school record. She is the player most likely to test a Kentucky defense that has not yet played together.
Keys for the Cats
- Win the glass early. Last season Kentucky outrebounded opponents by 7.8 a game, and Morehead State was minus 2.6. With three players at 6-5, anything short of a clear edge on the boards would be a surprise, and it would be a warning sign for the SEC.
- Keep the ball. Kentucky turned it over 13.2 times a game last year, and Morehead State gave it away 16.4 times. Forcing mistakes from a roster this new is the cheapest way to build a lead. Giving the ball back would be the cheapest way to lose one.
- Sort out the minutes up front. Strack, Sivka, and O’Neal all deserve court time, and they cannot all play the same spot at once. Watch which combinations Brooks trusts together and which he keeps apart.
- Find the spacing. Last year’s Cats shot 33.0 percent from three, which is fine but not scary. If Boone and Collins knock down shots early, Strack gets room to work. If they do not, Morehead State can pack the paint.
- Contain Jefferson. A scorer who can go for 50 in a game does not need many looks. Kentucky’s perimeter defenders should show they can handle her without fouling, because the Cats allowed just 28.4 percent from three last season.
- Get the freshmen on the floor. An opener against a team picked eighth in its league is a good place for the young players to take their first real minutes. If Brooks plays his rookies and keeps the margin comfortable, that is a good night.
The bottom line
Kentucky should win this game by a lot. The question for Monday is how it wins. A team with this much size and this much new talent will be judged first on its habits: how it rebounds, how it guards, and how it shares the ball.
Morehead State will show what it has. Kentucky needs to show how it fits.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky women's basketball tests new tall lineup Monday
