Five observations from Kentucky’s women’s basketball media day and open practice

Prior to his opening statement at Kentucky women’s basketball media day Tuesday, head coach Kenny Brooks took out his phone to snap a photo of the packed room.

“When I tell my wife how many people are here,” Brooks smiled. “I want to have proof.”

If the increase in media attention from last season, and Brooks’ excitement to share what his inaugural roster has to offer, are any indication, Big Blue Nation has plenty to learn and look forward to regarding the Wildcats’ new-look program. Following an offseason that brought a complete overhaul in coaching staff and a near-entire roster refresh, UK is just about ready to embark upon a new chapter.

This season starts with 11 healthy players — Oregon State transfer Dominika Paurová is out for the season with a torn ACL, and Penn transfer Jordan Obi is out until January, at soonest, with a lower-leg injury — returning only junior guards Cassidy Rowe and Saniah Tyler, and everybody is looking forward to opening day on Nov. 4 .

Here are five observations from media day.

This is Georgia Amoore’s offense

If it weren’t already obvious, All-America graduate point guard Georgia Amoore will be the architect of the Wildcats’ offense in her fifth and final season of college basketball. Amoore, who chose to stay in college another season in lieu of entering the WNBA draft (wherein she was projected to be a first-round pick), instantly gives the Wildcats credibility on the national stage. More importantly, she grants Brooks some peace of mind when evaluating the strength of his roster.

“This time of the year, you keep going against each other,” Brooks said. “So if your offense is good, your defense must be bad. If your defense is good, your offense must be bad. And so there’s been a lot of comparison. I’ve gone back and watched film of previous teams, previous really good teams, and the only thing I do know is, I know that the little monster we have at the point guard position is really good. And when you have it, like football, if you have a good quarterback, you know you’ve got a chance. And we’ve got a really good point guard, we have a chance.”

In four seasons at Virginia Tech, Amoore averaged 14.7 points (including 36.1% from 3-point range), 2.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 0.8 steals per contest. With her, she brings 121 career starts and 92 double-figure games, plus 656 career assists.

Though this season she’ll play without All-America center and all-time Hokies great Liz Kitley — the other half of one of modern college basketball’s great dynamic duos — Brooks has done his best to add offensive weapons for Amoore’s arsenal, like junior college transfer Amelia Hassett (Eastern Florida State College), 1,000-point scorer Dazia Lawrence (Charlotte) and top-40 high school prospect Lexi Blue. Not to mention, Amoore’s Virginia Tech teammate (and Kitley’s primary backup last season) Clara Strack has also made her way to Lexington. Strack, a 6-foot-5 sophomore center, averaged 12.3 points and 6.5 rebounds her final four games with the Hokies following Kitley’s season-ending ACL tear. Her biggest performance of the season came in Virginia Tech’s NCAA Tournament round-of-32 loss to Baylor, in which Strack contributed 18 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 24 minutes.

Brooks also made it clear that, in Kitley’s absence, Amoore has to embrace being a top offensive option herself. Over the summer, she took steps to further her development against high-level competition; Amoore had the opportunity to practice with the Australian National Team, attend the Kelsey Plum camp and go to the Nike Academy.

“So she got a lot of good basketball nationally,” Brooks said. “Playing against the best of the best. To shift her focus, ‘Hey, I have to be the main person.’ Now when she comes off of a screen-and-roll, instead of really looking for Liz as option one, option two, now she’s becoming option one, and then other people are becoming option two. She’s my little mini-me. We’re joined at the hip. We watch film like we would watch Netflix, and we just go, and we’re on the same page.”

Amoore’s leadership was on full display during open practice after media day Tuesday, when she stepped away from a drill to observe her teammates at Brooks’ side, asking him questions and paying close attention to detail.

Freshmen will be a factor

Despite the fact that his hiring occurred in late March, Brooks still managed to sign three freshmen to his first Kentucky team: the 6-2 Blue, who ranked No. 40 in the class of 2024, 6-7 Clara Silva, a top-rated international prospect, and 6-1 Tanah Becker, who initially committed to the Wildcats under former head coach Kyra Elzy and elected to stay pledged to UK following the coaching change.

Blue and Silva, especially, are likely to play significant roles over the course of their Kentucky careers. Already, Blue is garnering respect from her teammates. When asked about players who’ve stood out to her so far, Hassett named Blue as someone who’s shouldered newfound responsibility well.

“Obviously, we’ve had some injuries of players,” Hassett said. “But I definitely think Lexi’s stepping up both offensively and defensively, and I do think she’s really stepped up as a freshman.”

Brooks expressed similar sentiments when asked about Blue.

“Because of the injuries, it’s been a little bit more,” Brooks said. “We need a little bit more from her. Any freshman, you want to try to ease them into the situation, but now she’s going to be thrust into the situation because she’s going to have to step in and produce for us in a way that the other two probably would have. And obviously she’s going to make some mistakes, but I think she’s had a really good camp so far. She’s shooting the ball well. She’s learning the intricacies of defense at this level. But her attitude has been tremendous, so we’re going to continue to thrust her into situations and make her feel a little bit uncomfortable so she can become comfortable later on. But we have all the confidence that she’s going to be great for us.”

Similar to Blue, more is being asked of Silva than she’s used to. That’s saying something, considering Silva has several summers with the Portuguese Junior National Team and multiple seasons with Spanish professional club Unicaja under her belt. Her ceiling is sky-high. And Brooks is confident that, as Silva continues to develop as a college player, she’ll find her way.

“Clara Silva, bless her heart, she had a tremendous summer,” Brooks said. “She played international basketball, was voted one of the top players in her age group. There’s been plenty of websites who said, if she was American, she probably would have been a top 10 player coming out of the high school class. And then she gets here two days before classes start, and she’s having to get acclimated to a whole new life. ... The other freshmen have been here all summer. It’s just going to be a work in progress for her because it’s just a totally different style.

“But she’s as skilled as any player that I’ve ever had at that position. She’s taller than any player I’ve ever had at that position. She’s one that, if we get her talking a little bit of smack, everybody is going to be in trouble. But she’s a joy. She’s a joy to have around, and I think Kentucky fans are going to be in for a treat over the next four years being able to cheer for her.”

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Here comes Teonni Key

The Wildcats are expecting big things from transfer forward Teonni Key , who arrived this summer after three years at North Carolina.

The former McDonald’s All-American and top-10 prospect in the class of 2021 wasn’t able to make her collegiate debut until the 2022-23 campaign due to a torn ACL sustained ahead of her freshman season, and hasn’t yet found the consistent, high-level success her pedigree would suggest. In two seasons with the Tar Heels, Key averaged 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 9.9 minutes per game.

Fast-forward to this offseason, and Key is ready to make the jump to the next level in her move to UK.

“I’m feeling great,” Key said. “Everything has been moving along super well. I’ve been more confident than ever, so I’ve been feeling really great about the system and everything, too. I’m really excited to get going and see how the SEC is going to be for us. ... Everybody has their days. It’s not just like a one-trick pony. Everybody brings something different every day, and it’s been really exciting to see people grow and doing things out of their comfort zone. But just to see how it comes together and flows together within our system, it’s been really, really exciting.”

Not only did Key appear to get first-team reps during Tuesday’s open practice, but the 6-4 forward was everywhere. Talking on defense, flying around and fighting for rebounds. She feels different, and she’s making her presence felt on and off the court. Strack pointed out Key’s growth from the time she showed up on campus to now, just weeks away from the start of the season.

“I’ve been impressed by a lot of people,” Strack said. “I think that we have a very talented team, but I think, really, the progression of Teonni since she got here, she’s been super impressive to me. Super fun to play with.”

Becker shouted out Key’s positivity and company.

“T’s always bringing the energy,” Becker said. “Love T’s energy.”

New heights

Kentucky fans may not be used to seeing women’s basketball rosters with height, but this season’s has a ton of it.

Last season, 6-3 freshman forward Janaé Walker (now at Rutgers) was the tallest player on the team. Six of the 11 players on last year’s roster checked in below 6 feet. This season? Eight of the 13 rostered Wildcats stand 6-1 or taller.

Brooks noted that he “loves the potential” of the roster with all of its height.

“We had a lineup in practice the other day,” Brooks said. “I’ve never had this before, I’ve never seen it before. We had Georgia at the point guard spot. And then we had Amelia Hassett at the 2, and she’s 6-foot-3-and-a-half. At the 3 spot, we had Teonni Key, who is 6-foot-4. At the 4 spot, we had Clara Strack, who is 6-foot-5. And then we threw Clara Silva in the center at 6-foot-7. And that’s a really tall team for a lot of men’s mid-major programs, and so, for us to be able to put that out there and have that capability, it’s a lot of fun.”

When asked about that lineup in particular, Strack said it’s just one way the Wildcats can set themselves apart against competition.

“That lineup, especially,” Strack said. “If Amelia’s at the 2, we have four girls on the court who are 6-3-plus. And I think that that’s really something special. I think that’s not something that a lot of teams can match. I think the fact that all of our height is also so versatile, that that can be really important with offense and defensively.”

All about communication

Brooks noted during his Tuesday remarks that he wanted more from his roster vocally. Sure enough, communication was the major sticking point during open practice. From “No way you can play defense if there’s only one person talking,” to “I want somebody to say something!” Brooks wants his rotations on the same page. The good news, though? He’s confident that his team is full of high-character people.

“They’re great kids,” Brooks said. “A little bit too introverted for my liking. It’s kind of crazy because you don’t really want wild, wild people, but there on the court I want them to be a little bit wilder. But they are great kids and they work very hard, and they’re pleasers. Attitudes, they’re good attitudes. They work really hard, and they just want to please. They want to please each other, they want to please the coaching staff, and that’s something you can always work with.”

Brooks said the fact that his players are “pleasers” allows him the freedom to experiment.

“When you have that mentality,” Brooks said. “We can go out, we can try different things. We can try things that are unconventional and they’ll have a good attitude and try to get to it. But it’s been a very pleasant couple months being with them, and I think it’s going to continue to grow.”

What they’re working on is making sure the players aren’t too polite in action, and are willing to infuse their personalities and toughness into game play.

“I think we have such polite kids,” Brooks said. “One of them will make a tremendous move and they’ll get fouled, and they’ll look at the other one and they’ll just kind of look like, ‘Pardon me, excuse me.’ But I want them to say, ‘And-one!’ Just a little bit of a ‘Hey, you can’t guard me!’ In a very nice way. We’re never going to show up our opponents, but we want them to know, a little bit, that we’re pretty good. But they’re coming around. They’re coming around. We haven’t had any girls who are practicing trash talking yet, just trying to get them to show their personalities a little bit more.”

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