With the way she plays, Clara Strack is going to win awards.

Kentucky women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks believes his 6-foot-5 junior is the nation’s best center and she has the numbers to back up her coach’s belief.

“Obviously, you want to be the best you can be and live up to your potential, but awards are never on my mind,” Strack said. “I love every single one of my teammates. I think that we have an outstanding group of people that I get to spend every day with, and I honestly wouldn’t want another group of people to be with.

“I think that what we have and what we can be is really special. Everyone is on the same page, and I think that we can make a long run, and I’m excited to do it with these people around me.”

Strack was the 2025 Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year after transferring from Virginia Tech to Kentucky when Brooks left Tech for UK. She has broken the UK single season blocks record two straight years and should be UK’s all-time leading shot blocker when her career ends. She’s already on the verge of joining UK’s top 10 list in career rebounds after two seasons with 661. She is already in the top 10 in single season scoring (563 points, ninth) and rebounding (331 rebounds, sixth).

“Clara is developing into a leader. Knowing her and knowing just her personality, she’s the type of player that does not want to disappoint me. Doesn’t want to disappoint anyone,” Brooks said. “I know we go through different stages with athletics and whatnot, but because I know her and because our relationship is so strong, I know what buttons to push with her.

“She’s a coach’s dream because you can coach that way because she knows everything that I’m doing to her is for her, and it’s going to come from a place of love. Before it’s over with, she probably will be the best superstar that I ever coached.”

Kentucky point guard Tonie Morgan, a Georgia Tech transfer, broke the UK single-season assists record set by Georgia Amoore last season. Many of Morgan’s assists were scores by Strack.

“She makes my life a lot easier. She makes my job very easy. I think everybody says it in the locker room. She’s the best player — best post player in the country,” Morgan said.

Opposing teams have tried double or even triple teaming Strack to disrupt her with physical play. Brooks feels some games she has been “mauled,” but Strack has not let the extra attention impact the way she plays. She is averaging 17.1 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.

“You just have to play through stuff like that. I think probably the scout on me is I am not as big as some people (so be physical). I have to use my advantages against their advantages,” Strack said. “They might be able to push me around, but I have length and touch. I have to rely on those and not worry too much about what teams are doing to me and beat them with my strengths.”

Her strengths were on full display in the SEC Tournament last week when she hit five 3-pointers in a 33-point performance against Georgia. She became the first SEC player 6-foot-5 or taller ever to hit that many 3s in a game. Strack is also only the second SEC player — Tennessee superstar Candace Parker was first — to have at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 150 blocks, 125 assists and 50 steals in their first two seasons in the SEC. If that’s not enough, she is the only Division I women’s player in the last 23 years to have 64 points, 26 rebounds, eight blocks, six made 3s and 57% shooting from the field in a conference tournament.

Kentucky is now waiting to see what the NCAA Tournament selection committee will do when pairings are announced Sunday. Kentucky hosted NCAA games last year, but Brooks said no matter where UK is seeded or plays, he’s confident he has a team that can do well in March Madness with Strack anchoring the offense and defense.

“We are tough. Clara is one of the toughest players in the country, She will battle anybody,” Brooks said. “Teonni Key will battle anybody. Amelia Hassett will battle anybody. We are a tough team. We have the best center in the country. We will go rebound and that is what gives us an opportunity to play with anybody.”

Strack feels the same way about Kentucky’s postseason chances.

“Obviously we have had a few different things that we’ve been through. We had to re-identify ourselves a few times now, but I think that just makes you stronger, makes you better,” Stack said. “Getting through adversity makes you better prepared for life. I definitely think the goal is to just be playing our best basketball in March because that is when it matters. Knowing that we have the people and pieces to play with anybody, I think our best basketball is ahead of us.”

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New Kentucky defensive coordinator Jay Bateman has coached at Texas A&M, Florida, North Carolina and Army in the last 10 years but he got his introduction to Kentucky football in 2023. That’s when he was at Florida and the Gators lost at Kentucky 33-24 in 2023 when Ray Davis ran for 280 yards and four touchdowns.

“The place was awesome and Kentucky just killed us,” Bateman said. “We had just beat Tennessee and I thought we had a really good team, and we came up here the next week and got beat. I thought that the fans were awesome, the environment was awesome, and I remember thinking, ‘Man, you can win a lot of games at this place,’ and I think now more than ever. This is a place where you can have a lot of success.”

There are some off-the-field perks for Bateman also.

“Lexington is a lot better, a lot bigger, a lot more options to go eat dinner than the last few places I have been at,” Bateman said. “The people have been awesome, so it has all been great so far.”

Bateman was at Texas A&M last year and will bring his 4-2-5 defense to UK. Senior safety Ty Bryant was immediately impressed by Bateman and bypassed the transfer portal after Bateman’s hiring to stay at UK.

“How hard we play, the physicality we play with, that’s going to be where we’re going to try to hang our hat, and that’s what a defensive coordinator wants to be known for,” Bateman said. “If you don’t have that, what do you have? Playing with effort, playing with physicality is what you have to have.”

Bateman has normally had an aggressive defense and wants that to continue, but he wants effort and physicality to be the team’s strengths.That physicality obviously resonated with new UK coach Will Stein when he was looking for a defensive coordinator.

“He wants us to play really, really physical. I think it’s the job of the coordinator and the coaches to build a system that allows them to do that,” Bateman said. “It’s been a long time since I played, but I think when I was a player I would want to have some aggression. I wouldn’t want to not be an attacking unit. I wouldn’t want to sit back.

“Certainly there are times where you want to play coverage and you want to be in a bend but don’t break mode. But I think that you have to create an attacking mindset with how you call the game and how you play the game. I think that’s kind of been the way I’ve been built most of the time.”

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Paintsville’s Kash Daniel was part of a senior class that won 32 football games at Kentucky from 2016-19. He was a two-time team captain who played in 51 games with 23 starts — and the numbers would have been even higher if not for Daniel suffering several injuries. He had 168 career tackles.

Now the former UK linebacker is starting a new career — professional wrestling — at age 28.

“I’ve always been a big fan of it. From an entertainment standpoint, an athletic ability standpoint, and a production standpoint it is something that always drew me to it. Even when I was playing football,” Daniel said. “I would steal some things from wrestlers back in the day just to give me confidence and increase my mojo to go out there and play football. It was something that I’ve always thought of myself being decently good at just from an athletic standpoint.”

Daniel had some opportunities to try wrestling after his college football career ended but “things weren’t aligned” for him then.

“But it was something that I wanted to look at. I don’t want to be the guy that’s 67 years old looking back and saying should I have done this. You only get this life one time, so you might as well live it to the fullest and take every advantage of doing things,” Daniel said.

Daniel admitted it took some time after his football career ended to get his body to the point he could try professional wrestling.

“I keep myself relatively healthy and active,” Daniel said. “I keep a clean diet. I’m still active in the gym stretching and doing some mobility stuff and things like that because health is wealth. The more you can move your body and keep going, the better.

“I try to take as best care of myself as I possibly can. There were definitely times where I wanted to make sure we got things right with my body before I stopped into a wrestling career, but I am at that point now.”

He was scheduled to make his Ohio Valley Wrestling debut last week in Lexington before the show was postponed until a later date.

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Former Sacred Heart standout Josie Gilvin had a successful collegiate career at Western Kentucky but wanted to challenge herself at a higher level, so she transferred to Kentucky for her senior season. She didn’t expect to be a starter, but was hoping to play a major role off the bench. Instead, she has averaged only about seven minutes per game in the 19 games she has been in compared to over 30 minutes per game at Western Kentucky her junior season.

She did get to play 11 minutes in UK’s SEC Tournament win over Arkansas and had four points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.The second game she got seven minutes, including five in the first half, in a much closer win over Georgia before playing 13 minutes in the loss to South Carolina. She had played only 11 minutes in the previous six games.

Gilvin, an all-conference player at Western, has not pouted or complained about her lack of playing time. Instead, she’s made the best of fulfilling a dream to play at Kentucky.

“I heard something good and it was clap for others until it’s your turn to be clapped for,” Gilvin said before UK’s Senior Day. “I think just supporting the people around you, whether it’s friends, your teammates, your coaches, just having that good support system off the court makes the whole difference.

“I wanted something that was more competitive, higher level, and that’s exactly what I got. Basketball is hard and it gets even harder when you go up. I learned a lot from that. I knew it was going to be a great place to get better and become that best player I can be.”

Gilvin has seen UK pull off some major wins over ranked teams this year going into NCAA Tournament play but her best memories have been celebrating what other players have done with teammate Gabby Brooks, the coach’s daughter.

“I just think of me and Gabby and a lot of celebrations for everyone. When either Millie (Amelia Hassett) hits a 3 or Clara (Strack) takes you down in the post, we have a lot of celebrations for that. It’s been a lot of fun,” Gilvin said.

Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks knows things have not gone “as we hoped or predicted” for Gilvin this season, but that has never altered her attitude.

“There’s been a couple of games where I was a little hesitant, and maybe it was only a minute left, and I called her name, and she sprints up to the top with a great attitude. She comes into practice with a great attitude,” the Kentucky coach said. “It’s been a little bit of an adjustment for her to try to figure out our schemes and what we’re trying to do, but she never stopped. Her attitude has been tremendous.”

Brooks said she became a “team favorite” because of her attitude.

“Kids love her. They cheer for her. They root for her. I anticipate, especially when you are trying to broaden your rotations, I think she’s going to be a part of it. I think she’s going to be a part of it throughout the NCAA Tournament, and I think she’s going to add some value to us.”

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Quote of the Week: “Let’s not overthink this! He fully understands the program as he was once a part of it and knows the expectations that follow. The perfect guy for the job,” former UK basketball star DeMarcus Cousins, endorsing DeWayne Peevy to be UK’s next athletics director.

Quote of the Week 2: “I think for $22 million they could have constructed a better roster. I think a lot of schools would like to have that money and that type of support. Big Blue fans are so passionate. They deserve better,” ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, on Mark Pope’s team.

Quote of the Week 3: “He goes, he gives 110% for each and every day in practice. He’s just a walking bucket, and he’s just coming here and doing what he can for this team to get wins — he’s a competitor. Wherever God takes him, he’s going to thrive as well,” Denzel Aberdeen, on Kentucky teammate Otega Oweh.