This Indiana Miss Basketball commits to transfer to coach skilled at developing posts
A return closer to home for Ayanna Patterson will give her a fresh start alongside one of the top returning centers in the country.
A promising career hampered by injuries in college will be reborn elsewhere, hoping to breed new life into the 2022 Indiana Miss Basketball winner . Ayanna Patterson spent the previous four seasons with UConn women's basketball, two of which were spent rehabbing from injuries (patella tendinitis, shoulder). Patterson was on the Huskies' 2025 national championship team, and played in 55 games during her time in Connecticut.
But Patterson entered the transfer portal , and found greener pastures. Patterson, a Fort Wayne native and Homestead's second-leading scorer all time (1,912 points), elected to spend her third season of eligibility at Kentucky . Wildcats coach Kenny Brooks has a track record developing post players and will get an opportunity to do so with a former five-star recruit.
Brooks developed Elizabeth Kitley into a three-time ACC player of the year and two-time All-American at Virginia Tech, where he began doing the same with Clara Strack before he took the job at UK, and Strack later followed. Strack is a former top-100 recruit who played behind Kitley before starting the previous two seasons at Kentucky. She developed into SEC defensive player of the year, an All American and a Naismith national defensive player of the year finalist.
The 6-foot-2 Patterson will vie for playing time alongside the 6-5 Strack, one of the top returning posts in the country. "The Lisa Leslie (finalists) for the top centers in the country, there are five on that list right now, and four of them are seniors," Brooks said after the season. "The one that's coming back is coming back to us, so that gives you a leg up right there.