For Makayla Epps, life’s been different.

She likes that word because she says it’s starting to explain everything that’s going on in her life right now.

The former UK women’s basketball star and daughter of former men’s basketball star Anthony Epps is facing the same challenges that plenty of other collegiate standouts face once they reach the professional level: competing with other amazing athletes from across the world. But Epps doesn’t necessarily treat it in that way.

After unexpectedly sliding to the third round in last year’s WNBA Draft, Epps wasn’t disappointed or dejected. Instead, she was motivated. She had a newfound chip on her shoulder. When a talent like Epps’ is mixed with her refusal to accept defeat, failure is simply not in the cards.

Her team, the Chicago Sky, also took players in the first and second rounds, but ultimately cut both players in favor of keeping Epps. This, she says, was mostly a result of her hard work in training camp. For a player who could have gone much earlier in the draft, it’s easy to see where her hustle came from.

“There are players that are better than me. That’s just life, and I had to realize that. I just had to fight and grind every single day,” Epps said. “I wasn’t very grateful for the opportunity but never took it for granted because at any given time, they could’ve gotten rid of me, and I really wasn’t ready to come back to Lexington.”

And now, Epps is back in Lexington – but for all the right reasons. She’s finishing up her undergraduate degree, all while training for the upcoming WNBA season in April. But as she’s back in town, Epps can’t help but be proud and a little saddened as she reflects on her legacy as a Wildcat. Although she can still be around the team and has an offer from head coach Matthew Mitchell to practice with the UK team, it just isn’t the same.

“Very different. Very bittersweet. I miss it. Even when I left, at the beginning, I missed it… I really enjoyed my four years here, and I’m glad I’m back finishing school, but to not be playing basketball, it still hasn’t hit me until I go to a game next week and I’m not out there.”

Her final season with the Cats was one that began with adversity but ended up being her best one, she says. Following a mass exodus of players and coaches at the beginning of her senior season, which left only six returning players to go along with a handful of new faces, Makayla and her teammates came together to take on the underdog role that year. It all came to a head on senior night when the Cats knocked off Top 10 ranked Mississippi State.

“At the time, we didn’t know we were going to be hosting the NCAA tournament. The underclassmen took it as this was mine and Evelyn Akhator’s last game at Memorial, so we wanted to make it special.”

That night became a special goodbye to a special player, despite her being able to play two more games in the arena. Ranking fifth on the school’s all-time list in career points and seventh in career assists, Epps has likely played her way into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame conversation. Hearing the possibility of her name being up there with the greats is an honor to her, a rightful honor for one of the best homegrown players to ever wear the Blue and White.

“That’s deep… To hear that I might be in the Hall of Fame, up there with Valerie Still, that’s just big,” Epps said.