You don’t have to be an expert to realize how much injuries derailed the 2021-2022 Kentucky Wildcats down the stretch of their basketball season. Guards Kellan Grady, Sahvir Wheeler and Tyty Washington all had nagging injuries that heavily impacted their play. While some of the injuries were more of a fluke, one may still wonder if they had more strength and conditioning if the athletes would’ve been able to prevent them or recover more quickly.

Brady Welsh was introduced this May as the team’s new strength and conditioning coach after spending time with the Purdue Boilermakers. At 29 years old he brings a unique perspective to the team and is prideful on technology. According to rising star Jacob Toppin, he’s already making an impact just over two months in to his new role.

Toppin told media on Thursday that Brady “has been very good for us.” He said Brady has made the team stronger and has been very helpful early on.

CJ Fredrick said he already had a “great” relationship with Welsh. He went on to say how personable Welsh is with the team and has introduced new things to work on. That’s huge for a player like Fredrick who acknowledged he’s had a fair amount of injuries already.

High school basketball players are relatively “skinny” and having Welsh looks like it will be incredibly beneficial for Kentucky — a team that has obviously committed a lot of time and effort to recruiting lots of freshman over the years. A player like Daimion Collins, who many expect to blossom this coming season, could benefit greatly from becoming stronger.

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