Cats By 90 Podcast with Erin Toller

On Sunday morning, UK women’s basketball commit Erin Toller joined the Cats By 90 Podcast.

Toller is one of several top-rated players that will be making their way to Lexington next season. Treasure Hunt is a five-star wing player from Tennessee and one of the highest ranked signees in program history. They will be joined by Nyah Leveretter who, like Erin Toller, is also rated as four-star recruit.

Toller is a 5-7 guard out of Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville who had a decorated high school career and was named a 2020 Kentucky Miss Basketball Finalist. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 concerns, the ceremony was moved from its original scheduled date in early April to June 28th.

Pairing these three talented incoming freshmen with Rhine Howard, the top returning scorer in college basketball, then you can begin to see just how special next season’s team has the chance to be.

One of the most interesting takeaways from the podcast was Erin Toller determining exactly what led to her becoming a Kentucky Wildcat.

“Tennessee was my dream school. I actually got my Tennessee offer before UK.” Toller told me.

I was a little shocked to hear that the Vols were her dream school considering she plays and lives in Louisville. But when you take a second to remember the illustrious history of the Tennessee women’s basketball program, then it becomes easier to understand.

The best part of the story was hearing about one key component that sold her on Kentucky —the support of Matthew Mitchell and the coaching staff while she battled through knee injuries.

Toller talked in detail about the coaches reaching out to her and helping to set specific rehabilitation goals. It’s evident that the sincere interest shown in her well-being from Coach Mitchell and others is what ultimately made her choose to wear blue.

I can personally attest to the fact that Erin Toller is a lethal scorer. I watched about 12 of her games this year when she played for Sacred Heart Academy —the #1 team in the state of Kentucky. The most prominent component to her game is shooting the basketball, she can flat out light it up from outside. She has great ability to change pace and finish at the rim.

By her own admission, working on the defensive end will likely be the biggest challenge she faces in the transition to Division-I basketball.

After signing with UK here is what Head Coach Matthew Mitchell had to say about Erin Toller:

“There is always something special about a Kentucky grown player deciding to play for the University of Kentucky and we are thrilled that Erin is a Kentucky Wildcat. She is a very talented basketball player that can score inside with an attacking mindset or knock down an outside shot with confidence. What I love about Erin is the fact she relishes being a leader on the court. We know that is going to be very beneficial to our team. Erin is a quality young woman who we are glad to have wearing Blue and White.”

Here are the topics we hit on the Cats By 90 Podcast:

• Touching on Turmoil in Louisville
• Career at Sacred Heart
• Miss Basketball Finalist
• Tennessee dream school?
• Battling knee injuries
• What made Erin ultimately choose Kentucky
• Loaded incoming class of 2020
• Expectations for next season