Unfamiliar familiarity for two returning UK women’s basketball players

LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — There are only two players on this Kentucky women’s basketball team returning from last season: Saniah Tyler and Cassidy Rowe. They bring some familiarity, with a lot of unfamiliar elements.

The team is dealing with a ton of new elements: new head coach with Kenny Brooks, a new scheme on the court, and a new building with the team finally moving back in to Memorial Coliseum after its renovation. That is where the unfamiliarity comes in.

“The truth is, we’re all trying to figure it out together because it’s just it’s new, new coaching staff, new players, even new facilities. So we’re all just learning together. But as far as, like, the city of Lexington, we’ve helped out, you know, restaurants and stuff like that. But as far as the team goes, we’re just learning together,” Rowe said.

One could say that Georgia Amoore, Clara Strack and Gabby Brooks have even more familiarity than the two returning players because they all played under coach Brooks at Virginia Tech.

What Tyler and Rowe do have is SEC experience, which none of the other players have. Both played in over 30 games last season, with Tyler averaging 10.2 points-per-game and Rowe starting 16 games due to other injuries.

Rowe is a homegrown product as a Shelby County-native. Brooks said when he met with all of last year’s players when he got hired, he knew he had to get her to stay at Kentucky.

“Cassidy when she started talking about her experiences here. I swore when she started crying, it was blue tears, you know? And I’m like, man, this kid had me, you know, she had me at hello. Just because she knew how much she loved Kentucky,” Brooks said.

The Kentucky women’s and men’s basketball teams will take centerstage at Rupp Arena during Big Blue Madness on Friday night.

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