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When Georgia Amoore Underperforms, Kentucky Women’s Basketball Is Not a Threat

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3 hours ago

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Kentucky Wildcats guard Georgia Amoore with head coach Kenny Brooks.
Morgan Simmons | UK Athletics

At halftime, Georgia Amoore jogged into the locker room with 12 points against No. 7 LSU, helping the Kentucky Wildcats hold a 38-26 lead over one of the top teams in the nation. 

Historic Memorial Coliseum exploded with cheers for the star point guard on Feb. 23, with all hope and belief that LSU Head Coach Kim Mulkey and her Tigers would head back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a loss. 

The Australian native always has immense pressure on her shoulders to bring this team to glory, leading the team in both points and assists per game. However, without Amoore putting up impressive stat lines night-in and night-out, Kentucky can be seen as an unthreatening team. 

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Sure, Amoore isn’t the only special talent on the team. Amelia Hassett, Teonni Key and Clara Strack, the triplets, are the only trio in Division-I women’s basketball this season to average at least nine and a half points and eight rebounds per game. 

Dazia Lawrence is 19th in the nation with a 44% three-point percentage. They’re the only team in the country with four players with at least 20 blocks, consisting of Hassett, Key, Strack and Clara Silva. 

These numbers define the Wildcats’ 21-5 season and the fourth best  conference record in the SEC, but fans have caught a glimpse of what happens when Amoore has an “off-night.”

On Dec. 5, the Wildcats suffered a 72-53 loss on the road against the No. 16 North Carolina Tar Heels, where Amoore put up 10 points on 4-12 shooting, missing all five of her shots from deep and picking up four fouls. Strack, the team’s second leading scorer, had to step up for Amoore when times were tough, and put up four points and shot 2-10 from the field. 

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On Jan. 23, the Wildcats went on the road yet again, facing a 9-8 Texas A&M team where the Cats were heavily favored. Amoore shot 5-18 from the field, missed every 3-pointer she took yet again, and had to lean on Strack and others for offensive production. Strack shot 2-12 and finished the game with six points. They lost 61-55. 

They’re one of the best teams in the SEC, the best conference in college basketball. Yet, they are yet to get over the hump and take down the top teams in the conference, simply because Amoore is swarmed all game. 

On Feb. 13, Amoore crumbled against No. 3 Texas, shooting just 5-16 from the field and putting up 14 points. With redemption on the line, Amoore came back out for the second half against LSU with fiery eyes. 

In the first half, the fifth year guard wasn’t “carrying the team” for once and she received nine points from both Hassett and Lawrence. These two did not score again. 

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The Wildcats came out in the third quarter and were a prime witness to how good the top teams are. The Tigers went on to outscore Kentucky 23-6 in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Amoore missed all of her shots and didn’t score once. 

In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, Kentucky scored more points than it did in the entire third quarter and an Amoore layup gave the Wildcats a 52-51 lead. However, she wouldn’t score again and Kentucky would only score six more points. They lost 65-58.

She finished the game shooting 6-22 from the field and 3-15 from three.

After the game, Kentucky Head Coach Kenny Brooks opened up the press conference with a statement that any coach would hate to admit. 

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“Obviously disappointed with the outcome. Give LSU credit,” said Brooks. “They wanted it a little bit more than we did. They made the plays they needed to make and we didn’t.”  

However, motivated as usual, Brooks followed that up with aspirations. 

“When you play a team of that magnitude, you have to be able to be on point,” said Brooks. “We’ll learn from this.” 

You can’t even blame Kentucky. All season, they’ve defeated the odds and shocked the country. They competed with the No. 7 team in the country in a “rebuild” year after winning just 12 games last year. 

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With just a handful of games remaining in Amoore’s collegiate career, she has to play her best against top opponents to help the Wildcats prove everyone wrong once again. 

To finish off the regular season, Kentucky will host No. 15 Tennessee on Feb. 27 and face No. 6 South Carolina on the road on March 2nd. 

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Football

Grammy Nominated Music Star Has Credit Card Stolen, Thief Buys 15 Hotdogs at Kentucky Football Game

Published

4 months ago

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October 28, 2024

By

A Kentucky football fan stole music artist Noah Kahan's wallet at an airport and purchased 15 overpriced hot dogs.
Piet Levy | Imagn

Not a lot of good things came from Kentucky’s 24-10 loss to Auburn on Saturday, but one fan did get FIFTEEN (yes, 1-5) hot dogs courtesy of Grammy-nominated folk-pop artist Noah Kahan.

To clarify it was not a gift, rather the fan stole Kahan’s wallet at Laguardia Airport in New York City. Of all the places for it to venture to, it was Kroger Field.

“The guy who took my wallet went to a Kentucky football game last night,” Kahan shared on social media. “I just know that Mofo bought 15 overpriced hot dogs.”

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Kahan has found comedy in the situation, despite having hundreds of dollars in hot dogs purchased on his dime.

“Come on dawg we gotta be collaborative in our spending!! Check with me first,” Kahan shared.

Kahan headlined Railbird Music Festival in Lexington this past summer. Maybe the next time he is in town, he can get a hot dog of his own.

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Cards Best Cats On National Stage In Volleyball

Published

5 months ago

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September 19, 2024

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The Kentucky Wildcats volleyball team lost to the Louisville Cardinals in a top 10 battle.
Megan Simmons | UK Athletics

The fourth-ranked Cardinals traveled to Memorial Coliseum in Lexington on Wednesday night to take on the 11th-ranked Wildcats. 

The stage was set for another memorable Battle of the Bluegrass with both teams having a national ranking. In addition to that, the game was broadcast nationally on ESPN and was in front of a great crowd of 3,838 in Memorial. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for the Cats to pull through as they lost in four sets, 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 25-16

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The lady Cats have now fallen to 6-4 on the season, as well as 0-4 against ranked opponents. To make matters worse this is the 4th consecutive loss to Louisville in the annual match-up. However, Kentucky still holds the series 37-29.

After the match, Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner said “Our team did a good job of sustaining their concentration level, but execution suffered at times.” He also gave credit to the Louisville team, complimenting their ability to “play well for a long period of time.” He also credited the 4th ranked team’s ability to “continue to limit options,” and elaborated. “I mean, I think the first several passes, they were doing a good job keeping themselves in the system. And when you’re playing against teams like that, to get blocks when they’re passing the ball within 8 feet of the net, it’s tough. And so it comes down to individual plays, reading the situation of the attacker and making those moves and getting those stuffs. And creating chances by transition opportunities to limit their options that way, too. But yeah, it took a while. And obviously, something we continue to work on.”

Looking to shake off this series the Wildcats will face No.2 Stanford who are 7-1 in Palo Alto, California, on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

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Kentucky Baseball Transfer Class Ranked Ninth in the Country

Published

6 months ago

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August 16, 2024

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Kentucky Baseball is bringing in the ninth best transfer class in the country.
USA Today/IMAGN

The Kentucky Baseball program is coming off its first-ever trip to the College World Series and they have carried that momentum to the recruiting trail. After losing a large amount of production and experience, Nick Mingione and Co. went and hit the transfer portal hard and are bringing in some talented players.

According to 64Analytics, the Bat Cats are bringing in the 9th-best portal class in the country. The class consists of fifteen players totals, including seven players within the top 250.

92. 1B/DH Cole Hage (Columbia)
114. C Raphael Pelletier (Kansas State)
152. INF Luke Lawrence (Illinois State)
156. OF Shaun Montoya (San Diego State) Transfer Spotlight
168. RHP Nic McCay (South Dakota State)
211. RHP Scott Rouse (Radford)
235. LHP Ethan Walker (Longwood) Transfer Spotlight
272. OF Carson Hansen (Milwaukee) Transfer Spotlight
319. RHP Oliver Boone (California) Transfer Spotlight
398. OF Will Marcy (Memphis)
407. RHP Simon Gregersen (Indiana State)
425. LHP Cole Hentschel (Richmond) Transfer Spotlight
752. 1B Dylan Koontz (Columbia) Transfer Spotlight
2872. RHP Chase Alderman (Eastern Kentucky) Transfer Spotlight
2893. LHP Adam Hachman (Arkansas)

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Mingione is no stranger to the transfer portal as he has effectively used the portal to completely change the outlook of his tenure and the program.

From the brink of being fired in 2021, he has led the Cats to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in program history. In those appearances, they advanced to the Super Regionals in each and the aforementioned CWS this past season. With this incoming class, Mingione will hope to continue that trajectory and become a consistent tournament team and contender.

That said it will be difficult. While Kentucky has one of the top classes in the portal, it is the 7th best in the SEC, with top 25 programs in Oklahoma and Texas joining the conference as well.

There will likely be some fall exhibitions for the Kentucky Wildcats, but it won’t be until February that we get to see how this collection of talent looks and if they can make another run to Omaha.

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Also published on A Sea of Blue.

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