By LARRY VAUGHT
Almost every team that Providence Academy played last season tried to design something to slow down junior guard Maddyn Greenway, a prolific scorer and University of Kentucky commit.
“Everybody tried to slow her down but every year she gets more efficient and her assists go up,” said Providence Academy coach Conner Goetz.
Greenway averaged 32.8 points per game last season and scored 1,050 points in 32 games — her third straight year with more than 1,000 points. She shot 58.6 percent from 2-point range, 37.7 percent from 3 and 52 percent overall. She had 278 assists, 232 rebounds and 155 steals.
“To shoot almost 38 percent 3 with a high volume (241) of shots and having to take tough shots off the dribble was remarkable. Her range really starts when she crosses half court,” Goetz said. “She is just effortless. She has the strongest lower body ever. Her soccer body translates so well to the basketball court.”
Her team went undefeated and won its fourth straight state title, something no other Minnesota high school team had ever done, and she scored 14 unanswered points in the game sparked by four steals. She finished with 40 points on 16 of 27 shooting, six steals and five assists.
Greenway, the Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year, no longer surprises her coach with what she does on the court.
“You cannot put expectations on this kid, so I am not surprised by anything she does,” Goetz said. “She has a special drive and work ethic. She had 60 points in a game her freshman year. This year she had a 51-point game. We played the best teams in the state and the best in Iowa and Wisconsin.”
Greenway has started on the varsity team for five years and has 4,454 points in 153 games — an average of 29.1 points per game. She also has 1,036 assists along with 999 rebounds and 645 steals. She’s made 355 3-pointers.
Goetz said it has basically been “radio silence” from other schools since Greenway committed to Kentucky.
“Nobody has tried any funny business. I think that is partially due to respect for (UK) coach (Kenny) Brooks,” Goetz said.
The Providence coach also knows Greenway’s best basketball remains ahead of her. She’s on pace to become Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer in soccer and is also a state champion in track. The family went on spring break to Costa Rica after basketball ended but then both Greenway and her younger sister, Becca, jumped into track as soon as they got back to Minnesota.
“Other kids that have specialized in basketball for years hit their limit sooner. Maddyn does not go full-time basketball year-round. I think when she gets to college and it is just basketball the UK coaches are going to develop her even more just like they did (All-American) Georgia (Amoore),” Goetz said.
Goetz said Amoore had been “super gracious” helping Greenway, age 17, any way possible.
“I loved watching Georgia’s growth and I cannot wait to see Maddyn at that level. She has such a competitive drive,” he said. “In the state championship game they used a 2-3 zone to slow her down and clog up driving lanes. She is one of the most athletic players in the country. She only had one turnover the whole game and with her usage rate that is pretty remarkable against a really good team.”
That team included 5-11 guard Tori Oehrlein, a four-star prospect committed to Minnesota. She had also scored over 4,000 career points.
“Maddyn takes it personally when she is challenged. A lot of people on social media go after her and people in the stands say things to her,” Goetz said. “If you do, she will rip you to pieces. When fans chant ‘overrated’ at her, it’s like putting blood in the water and just sets her off.”
Even though she plays three sports at a high level, Greenway has been relatively injury free.
“She is tough as nails. She takes crazy hits. She has an unbelievable pain tolerance,” Goetz said. “She leads the team in charges taken. A little of that comes from her dad (former NFL linebacker Chad Greenway). She can push herself to exhaustion.
“It’s really cool when your best player will sacrifice her body like she does. No one else can make excuses because if she does it, other players know they need to do that.”
Long-time recruiting guru Ron Briscoe has known new Kentucky point guard Jaland Lowe since he was only 2 or 3 years old.
“His father, Marland, would push him in a stroller to come watch his dad work out and then his dad ended up coaching Houston Hoops AAU, a Nike team, for a long time. So I’ve been around that family a lot,” said Briscoe. “When I saw he was going into the (transfer) portal, I told my brother this was a guy Kentucky needs and I hope he goes there. Then a few days later, he commits to Kentucky.”
Jaland Lowe played point guard two years at Pittsburgh and averaged 16.8 points, 4,2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.8 steals and 35.4 minutes per game last year when he had 10 games of 20 or more points.
“I saw him play almost every game last season. He is a dynamic player,” Briscoe said. “He is left-handed but he can shoot with either hand. He is very good at getting by people with the ball. He has that floater in the lane. He’s really good at giving out assists. He’s a really good defender, too, and a very good leader.”
Briscoe thinks Lowe will remind Kentucky fans of a player they loved having this season.
“He is almost like Lamont Butler. He’s almost a carbon copy of Butler. He might not be quite as big but he is 6-3 and long and he knows basketball just like Butler,” Briscoe said. “He grew up watching basketball and working out all the time.”
Lowe’s Godfather is John Lucas, an All-American guard at Maryland, former No. 1 NBA draft pick, a 14-year NBA player and former NBA head coach.
“John wore number 15. Jaland wears number 15,” Briscoe said.
Quarterback Zach Calzada started his college football career at Texas A&M in 2019 for three years, spent the next season at Auburn and the last two years played at Incarnate Word before transferring to UK this season. He’s impressed teammates and coaches with his play this spring but he’s also shown he’s very media savvy.
Question: Has he settled into a leadership role on the offense?
Calzada: “It is organic. You don’t come in and be vocal right away. You have to establish yourself as somebody who can be imitated and that’s why I try to do. I try to get here early and come out and be prepared for how I want to practice every day.”
Question: Does it help that he might be the fourth straight transfer to start at quarterback for UK?
Calzada: “You come in new and it is still all about learning and developing. I have to be the most prepared on our team and then it is all about chemistry.”
Question: How has the offensive line been after the struggles it had at times in 2024?
Calzada: “It has been amazing. From day one it has been exceptional. You can see that they have put a lot of effort into playing together and making sure they are communicating correctly. I feel good about them.”
Question: How good has true freshman receiver DJ Miller been?
Calzada: “DJ has made a lot of good plays and so have all the receivers. As a quarterback, it is really exciting to see any receiver make a contested catch. In the SEC there is not a whole lot that is wide open. When you have a whole group of guys that can make those plays that makes it easy on the quarterback.”
Question: What has he thought of receiver Kendrick Law, an Alabama transfer?
Calzada: “He is a strong guy. He can create separation. Really that whole group (of receivers) is good. All of them have done a really good job going back to throwing in January and February to now to keep getting better.”
Question: What has competing with redshirt freshman quarterback Patrick Towles been like?
Calzada: “Cutter is great. We do hot yoga together. He is a good guy and we build off of each other and that’s what is important in the quarterback room. Quarterbacks have to be able to learn and build off each other’s mistakes and the good plays we make as well.”
Sacred Heart coach Donna Moir wants Kentucky fans to understand just how special she thinks Josie Gilvin, who won two state tourney titles and was state tourney MVP in 2021, is now that she has transferred to UK after spending three seasons at Western Kentucky.
“She is really long at 6-1 and is just a great defender. She loves to compete,” Moir said. “Kentucky fans are going to love her. She is so good with young kids and people are going to embrace her and her style of play. She never stops.
“She wanted to stay close to home and stay in state. She didn’t go visit anywhere else other than Kentucky. Western Kentucky coach Greg Collins did a really good job with her and she was torn about leaving. He was such a good mentor but she wanted to play on a bigger stage and she wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament. Getting an opportunity to be in postseason play was a big thing for her.”
Moir said a lot of coaches — Florida State, Virginia Tech, Alabama and more — called when Gilvin entered the transfer portal after averaging 13. 1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 0.8 blocks per game last season. She shot 53.2 percent overall from the field and 41.3 percent from 3-point range.
“She was one of the top players in the portal,” Moir said. “She had really worked on her 3-point shooting for three years. She is so competitive. If you go in the backyard and play capture the flag, wiffle ball, soccer or anything else, she doesn’t like to lose.
“Whatever it is, she will go hard because she loves to win. She was third in the state cross country meet her senior year and ran the 800 (meter dash) in track. She had two games in high school with triple-doubles for me. She is going to put her mark all the way across the stat sheet. She’s very unselfish and whatever it takes to win, she’ll do it.”
Otega Oweh exceeded expectations that almost everyone had for him after he transferred from Oklahoma to Kentucky to play for coach Mark Pope. He averaged a team-high 16.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game this season and shot 49.2 percent from the field.
He was a four-star recruit out of high school and consensus top 100 player in his recruiting class. He came to UK in hopes of enhancing his NBA potential. He could enter the draft but he’s not projected as a likely pick and Pope is hoping he will stay at UK to anchor next year’s team.
While Oweh thinks about basketball a lot, he does have other “little hobbies” including one that might be a bit surprising.
“When I am by myself, I like to do things with my Legos. When I get alone time and want to relax because we are held to such high standards in basketball and it demands so much energy, I like to get my Legos out,” he said.
He has his own apartment and mainly builds with Legos on weekends to relax.
“It just helps me relax and chill. I can make different things. It can be decorations for my crib (apartment). I built a plant lego, a hedgehog lego. It just depends on what I want in my crib,” he said.
“When I was younger I played with Legos a lot. As I got older, I didn’t. Now that I am a college kid I have more free time and got back to finding my innocence with my Legos.”
Quote of the Week: “Adversity is a gift. Adversity is a beautiful thing. The death of me is going to be when I’m sitting on a beach somewhere just drinking a nonalcoholic beverage and have no adversity because then how are you growing? What are you becoming? I think we’re obsessed with becoming something, like how can we find a way to get better,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope on coping with injuries last season.
Quote of the Week 2: “Off the field, the guys are working really hard to be united, spend time with each other, get to know each other. On the field, it’s been great competition. It’s been fun. It feels good to get out there and work on some of the areas where we fell short a year ago,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on spring practice.
Quote of the Week 3: “I feel like I finally have that confidence back where I know I can play. I know the coaches trust in me and believe in me. That’s the world, honestly,” UK junior offensive lineman Jager Burton on his improved play.