UK basketball a finalist for daughter of former NFL star. Here’s what makes her elite.

A few years ago, Providence Academy basketball coach Conner Goetz and Kentucky women’s basketball prospect Maddyn Greenway were watching college basketball together.

They came across a matchup featuring Virginia Tech — then coached by Kenny Brooks — and took notice of 5-foot-6 point guard Georgia Amoore.

“‘Hey, look at this point guard,’” Goetz recalled. “‘Look how she plays.’”

Greenway, currently rated the No. 18 national prospect in the class of 2026 and first in the state of Minnesota, stands just 5-8, but, according to Goetz, has a considerable amount of overlap with Amoore’s style of play.

“We just loved the way she played,” Goetz said. “And we were like, ‘Well, hey, that’s something! You play a lot like her. You can operate in the pick-and-roll this way. You are dynamic off the dribble. You can shoot the pull-up 3.’ So we just started studying her, and what Coach Brooks does with her, a lot. And we really started to like that.”

The fall signing period for high school seniors begins Wednesday. Kentucky has yet to receive its first commitment for the class of 2025 but is hard at work anyway on 2026 and beyond — a group that includes Greenway.

The daughter of former Minnesota Viking and Iowa Hawkeye Chad Greenway and former Iowa track athlete Jenni Capista Greenway might be smaller than the typical, elite Division I prospect, but none of her coaches — nor Kentucky’s Brooks, who offered Greenway a scholarship last April — believe she lacks the skill, heart or competitive nature to excel at the next level.

“I’ve never met a person that is more competitive than her,” Goetz said. “So you hear stories about, like Michael Jordan, about never wanting to lose games. And those are like, ‘Oh, it’s just like a legend. Is he really that way?’ Until you meet someone that’s actually like that, you don’t know. This girl could be playing anything, from checkers to golf to whatever it is, and she wants to win, no matter what. And if you do somehow get lucky enough to beat her, she’s gonna make you play again until she beats you. That’s just the kind of person she is.”

A three-time Minnesota Class AA girls basketball state champion, a 2024 state champion in the Minnesota girls Class AA 300-meter hurdles and, most recently, a 2024 Minnesota Class A girls soccer state champion, Greenway holds more than 40 scholarship offers to play college basketball. She narrowed that extensive list to six schools at the end of October, focusing her attention on Kentucky, Clemson, Duke, Iowa, Stanford and UCLA.

Since her seventh-grade season with the Lions — during which Providence Academy lost in the state championship game — Greenway has led the team in multiple statistical categories. Last season, she averaged 34.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 4.5 steals. She made 76 3-pointers during a 28-4 season that ended with her third consecutive basketball state title. She also eclipsed 3,000 career points.

“She treats it like a business,” Goetz said. “Because she knows that she’s only got a short amount of time to be playing, and she wants to make the most out of that opportunity.”

‘That engine always runs hot’

It may not be a surprise that the daughter of two former Division I athletes is impressively athletic and intrinsically motivated, but the way Greenway operates as a basketball player stands out to those who work closely with her.

A three-year contributor on North Tartan’s 17U roster in the Nike EYBL and a program participant since she was a kid, Greenway has worked tirelessly to improve — and grown tremendously because of it.

North Tartan 17U coach Gerard Coury has worked with the club team for 20 years, and has known Greenway since she was in fifth grade. One of his biggest takeaways from working with Greenway? He’s never had to coach effort.

“There’s a lot of times when you get kids that are high-end talents,” Coury said. “They don’t always want to play the hardest all the time. Because for their high school teams, they need to pace themselves because their high school coach is gonna need them to play almost the whole game in order for them to be successful. And, in this day and age, it’s harder and harder to hold kids accountable to a standard.

“And with Maddyn, we never have to worry about coaching her up. In fact, sometimes we’re trying to get her to cool down. One thing I always say about Maddyn is, that engine always runs hot. And there’s a level of tenacity and competitive spirit that just doesn’t exist anymore to that level that Maddyn plays with.”

Coury told the Herald-Leader that Greenway’s fearlessness and level of aggression on the court, regardless of the situation, makes it feel like “she basically plays basketball as if she’s a football player.”

“There’s just that competitive energy,” Coury said. “It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to coach. And that’s why she’s endeared herself to so many people all over the country, so many schools. There’s nothing better. And that’s why kids want to play with her. That’s why coaches want her, and that’s why she has so much success in her career.”

Greenway’s work ethic and willingness to learn have also guided her development. According to Coury, North Tartan — whose alumnae includes WNBA All-Star and Notre Dame legend Arike Ogunbowale and current South Carolina sophomore guard and 2024 national champion Tessa Johnson — isn’t about getting offers. The invite-only club is more so focused on development, and ensuring that their players are well prepared for college basketball. It’s not easy to dive in headfirst and compete alongside (and against) some of the nation’s top talent, particularly when one is used to being a standout on their high school team.

“Maddyn has experienced some of those struggles,” Coury said. “And I think that’s what’s helped her, is that she knows that when she isn’t scoring — because everyone talks about her as a scorer — the one thing that we stressed with her is, ‘We want people to say you’re a basketball player.’ To us, it’s an insult to say she’s a scorer. No, she’s actually a really, really good on-the-ball defender. She’s led us in charges taken. She’s a great screener. She’s a great passer.”

Coury explained that Greenway has “lofty goals,” and that the focus for the North Tartan staff has been to communicate that everybody — even the best players — struggles when working toward becoming elite. It’s not easy, and it’s not ego-driven. It’s about doing whatever is necessary to help the team win.

“And again, what is all this about? We connect with our families about (how) we want kids to step in wherever they go, in the SEC, the Big Ten, wherever, and be ready physically and mentally. And so Maddyn knows that this isn’t about her scoring a bunch of points, it’s about helping her team win. Because, at the end of the day, part of her tenacity is because she doesn’t like losing. Some people enjoy winning. There’s people like Maddyn that can’t function if they lose. And I do think there’s a clear distinction between the two.”

Leadership and character

The coaches and players in Greenway’s life would probably tell you that her ability to embrace challenges, and the difficult days resulting from those challenges, have propelled her forward. That growth shows itself in how she treats those around her.

“It was tough that first year,” Coury said. “But she understood. We kept communicating and kept working with her, and now she understands the culture of the club. She understands who needs an arm around them, who needs to have a little conversation, who needs to get a shot in this possession. She knows. She’s just a very dynamic, charismatic young lady who people just want to be around. We talk about leadership a lot with her because she’s come such a long way, but none of it works unless she embraces coaching, and she has.”

When asked about Greenway’s leadership style, Goetz led with the fact she’s an older sister, and said those qualities bleed into everything Greenway does. And, though her younger sister Beckett will be starting for the Lions this season, Greenway is one to treat all of her teammates like family.

“She’s got that older sibling mentality where she takes care of others,” Goetz said. “... And as much as siblings will bicker and do that thing, she protects everyone in her family, and she treats our basketball team like a family, as well. So that’s been a really fun part.”

This season, as she chases a fourth straight state title, Greenway will jump into her second year as a captain of the Lions — last year she was the first sophomore captain in program history.

“Being a point guard who’s ever had the opportunity to run the program and be my eyes and ears on the floor,” Goetz said. “She’s a special kind of leader that way. I think it’s a weird thing, honestly, when she was a freshman and people were looking up to her and asking her to make the big plays. So she’s always had a lot of responsibility riding on her shoulders, and she’s handled it really, really well.

“It’s also a weird spot to be in when you’re a kid who’s 15, 16 years old, and you have 30,000 Instagram followers, and people are kind of waiting on you to make a mistake. She doesn’t really make mistakes. She has a really good head on her shoulders. She stays out of situations that could get her in trouble. You know, she’s just very hyper aware of her public image, and she’s really kind of advanced that way, where most kids her age don’t need to be, they don’t have that scrutiny on them. She does a really good job handling all the pressure.”

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