Kentucky women’s basketball lands 6-foot-5 freshman center in transfer portal

Former Virginia Tech Hokie Clara Strack will follow Kenny Brooks to Kentucky.

The 6-foot-5 center announced via Instagram on Thursday that she would be transferring to the University of Kentucky, following online reports surfacing Tuesday that she had entered the transfer portal.

“New beginnings #BBN,” Strack captioned her post.

Strack was the second of three players to commit to Kentucky on Thursday in a sweeping move by Brooks one week after he was introduced as head coach of the Wildcats.

Amelia Hassett, a 6-3 forward from East Florida State junior college, committed late Thursday afternoon, followed by Strack. Then came the announcement that Virginia Tech All-America point guard Georgia Amoore would join the Wildcats as a transfer for her final season of college basketball.

Strack, a native of Buffalo, was the No. 97 overall recruit in the class of 2023, and played in all 33 games with the Hokies this season, contributing 4.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 13.8 minutes per contest. This season, the Hokies finished 25-8 (14-4 ACC) and won the first ACC regular season title in program history. The team turned to Strack to anchor the frontcourt when Second Team All-America center Liz Kitley tore her ACL in the final game of the regular season.

Brooks praised Strack’s talent in a conversation about the Hokies’ disappointing end to the season — a home-court loss in the NCAA Tournament round of 32 to Baylor — with the Herald-Leader last week.

“I’ve said it all year long,” Brooks said. “She was a type of player that would have been playing a lot more if she had been on a lot of other rosters, but playing behind a three-time All-American … but we found spaces for both of them on the floor together.”

Strack recorded 39 blocks and shot 56% from the field. Her two starts this season came in crucial moments — each of the Hokies’ NCAA Tournament matchups. She scored 17 points in Virginia Tech’s first-round victory over Marshall, and finished with her first-ever double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) against the Bears.

At Brooks’ introductory press conference March 28, he said he hadn’t yet had conversations with any players on UK’s 2023-24 roster or Ramiya White, the program’s sole 2024 signee. Brooks did, however, pick up a big win on the recruiting trail when AAU team West Virginia Thunder announced via social media that Sacred Heart Academy junior ZaKiyah Johnson, the No. 5 recruit in the class of 2025 and a starting guard for the Thunder, received an offer from UK and added the Wildcats to her list of finalists, which UK had previously been left off.

Every player on the Wildcats’ 2023-24 roster retains at least one year of eligibility except for graduate guard Emma King, who this season exhausted her fifth and final season of eligibility granted by the NCAA following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leading scorer Ajae Petty and freshman forward Janaé Walker are the only two players to publicly declare their intentions to enter the transfer portal. Petty and Walker, as well as seniors Nyah Leveretter, Eniya Russell and Maddie Scherr are not listed on UK’s 2024-25 roster online, though Leveretter, Russell and Scherr have yet to issue public comment regarding their future plans. Each senior still has the option to use their COVID year.

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