by LARRY VAUGHT
“I have a lot of respect for all three of those players,” Skinner recently said. “They spent three years in this program, three seasons in this program, and dedicated themselves to Kentucky volleyball and while I might have an opinion on them staying or not staying, they made the choice to go.
“I think when you do have the success that we have, there’s going to be a lot of vultures out there trying to see what remnants might fall off the tree. I’ve always believed that when building a team, you can’t have 12 role players but you can’t have 12 starters ,either.
“You have to have players that have starters. You have to have role players. You have to have people aspiring for those positions. It gets a little bit more difficult right now with the way of college athletics. I mean, it is the victim of our success, but at the same time these guys just didn’t spend a year and go. They invested in the program and themselves to put themselves in the best position.”
The transfer portal can also benefit a successful program. All-American Eva Hudson and Liz Carr transferred to UK from Purdue last season and Molly Berezowitz came from Marquette. This season Kentucky added Notre Dame star Morgan Gaerte.
“It’s a very tempting world. You have to live by your moral integrity to do the right thing. We’ve always lived by doing the right thing because it’s the right thing,” Skinner said when asked if players from other teams reach out to him in different ways. “I think one of the easiest things to say in recruiting is yes and one of the most difficult things in the recruiting world is to say no. There’s a lot of great players, but not all great players belong in Kentucky.”
Skinner does not encourage players to leave Kentucky. Instead, he tries to be honest with evaluations of how they fit into future plans.
“I think it is more here’s where you are. Here’s where you were your last year, here’s where you are now and if you want to be on the floor and beat out so and so, these are the things that you need to do. If you aren’t able to do that, then it’s gonna be really hard to be on the floor. And if that happens, are you okay with that? Are you okay in a role position?” Skinner said.
“I put it more like here’s reality, here’s the truth. If the truth hurts or the truth isn’t what you want to hear, and you want to be guaranteed that you’re going to play, then I can’t guarantee that and you might want to consider something different. But it’s never it’s time for you to go find something else unless they’re detrimental to the team.”
Skinner prefers to sell players on Kentucky being a development program where they can get better each year and help UK become a Final Four team.
“We can’t be a Final Four team if we don’t have role players pushing and ready and willing. Some people aren’t willing to accept that and if you aren’t willing to accept that, are you willing to go to a program that may not necessarily win as much as we do?” Skinner said. “We recruited knowing that this isn’t for everybody.”
