Genuine UK coaches impressed 5-star Savvy Swords

Published 10:57 am Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Top 10 player Savvy Swords likes what coach Kenny Brooks is building at Kentucky. (UK Athletics photo)

Savvy Swords had her choice of where she wanted to play her college basketball but ultimately picked Kentucky and coach Kenny Brooks over UCLA, South Carolina, Notre Dame and Michigan (her sister, Syla, was Michigan’s leading scorer last season as a freshman).

Swords, a five-star wing, is ranked in the top 10 in her recruiting class but felt Brooks’ coaching style was perfect for her.

“You could tell that his players play very free and that they aren’t really stressed or restrained when they play,” said Swords.

She also liked that UK coaches told her they were open to letting her try new things to improve her game and the relationships she felt with the coaches were “authentic and not forced” like it was at some schools.

“It’s really easy to be fake on stuff like that, but it felt like they were being genuine,” she said.

The 6-foot-2 wing out of Long Island Lutheran High School in New York missed most of her junior season because of a knee injury. She’s also a standout for AAU club Kia Nurse Elite and the Canadian junior national team. where she helped her team win  a silver medal in the 2024 U17 World Cup when she averaged 16.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Email newsletter signup

Swords is on one of the nation’s best high school teams and another appeal at Kentucky was the verbal commitment of five-star point guard Maddyn Greenway, another top 10 national recruit.

“I really like what they are building by bringing in Maddyn and what they already have there,” Swords said. “It’s really exciting to be part of the next generation of Kentucky basketball on the women’s side and I want to be part of that. I committed early because I just didn’t see any reason to wait.”

Swords made all her official visits, including one to Kentucky last fall, and didn’t feel her college choice was rushed.

“I had enough time to really think about it and I wanted to get it out of the way so I could just enjoy my senior year and just play freely,” the UK commit said.

She relied on her older sister’s recruiting experiences to help her. She didn’t ask a lot of questions but said she carefully observed what went on with her sister.

“I was on her phone calls to see kind of what she was looking for when she was making her decision just to see what her main values were,” Swords said. “I want to be like her. I also have the same values, so that kind of helped me a lot. The last two weeks of my recruitment before I committed, I talked to her because I trust her the most out of anyone in the world.  Just hearing her opinion and what she had to say, that really helped me get a clear head.”

Swords admits growing up she thought her best college basketball option likely would be Laurentian University in her hometown of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. Her mother and father both played basketball there and her father also was the men’s head coach at Laurentian.

“We would always go to games there. I was like, ‘I am gonna play her one day.’ Then about a year ago was when I thought maybe I could play in the United States,” Swords said. “Things just kind of opened up with a lot of higher level schools reaching out. I honestly had no idea where I wanted to go until the last two months of my recruiting. That’s when I started to narrow it down and Kentucky turned out to be the right choice.”

Swords tore her ACL in December and had surgery in January. She’s not fully recovered but expects a full recovery before her high school senior season starts.  Swords admits rehab was “definitely hard” initially but did get easier.

“PT (physical therapy) just became another workout. I’m still working, still benefiting from what I’m doing. When I was able to start shooting again and doing more core stuff, it definitely helped a lot because I could tell I was getting better and I know very soon I will be back out there doing what I love to do.”