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Recent Kentucky signee Georgia Amoore still could be a possible participant in the upcoming Olympics in Paris.
Basketball Australia has a 26-player team that will participate in training camps and tours before naming its final 12-player roster for the Olympic Games that begin July 26. The 26 players includes 11 members of the FIBA 2022 World Cup team which won a bronze medal and numerous players with Olympic experience. The roster also includes athletes currently playing in Europe including Tokyo Olympians Marianna Tolo and Ezi Magbegor.
Amoore is one of the 26 players on the roster. The 5-6 point guard from Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, averaged 18.8 points and 6.8 assists per game as a senior at Virginia Tech. She was first in the Atlantic Coast Conference and fourth in the nation in assists per game and fifth in the conference and 41st in the nation in points per game.
She also shot 41.9 percent from the field and 85.9 percent from the foul line. She made 85 3-pointers, the 20th best total in the nation.
Amoore opted to transfer to Kentucky for a fifth season when coach Kenny Brooks left Virginia Tech to become UK’s new coach.
“She is on the expanded roster and will be accompanying the team to China first and then may get selected to go to Japan and then from there to the select (Olympic) team,” Brooks said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “There is a strong possibility she could make the team and a great opportunity for her to also put herself in position for the 2028 Olympics in LA.”
Amoore is a gifted player. She helped Virginia Tech reach the 2023 Final Four and win its first ACC Tournament title the same year. Last season the Hokies won the ACC regular-season title for the first time. Virginia Tech played in the NCAA Tournament all four years she played there for Brooks.
She became Virginia Tech’s all-time career leader in assists (656), assists/ turnover ratio (1.8) and average minutes played per game (34.3). She also is second in 3-pointers (330) and third in scoring (1,853) on Virginia Tech’s all-time list.
“She and I are very close. She came here (to the United States) about five years ago right at the beginning of the pandemic,” Brooks said. “She came in as an unknown but had a tremendous work ethic and took the program to a new level.
“She’s a tremendous leader and a humble superstar. She wants to be first in every sprint, every drill. She was the reason we made the run to the Final Four and followed it up with an All-American campaign.
“She wanted one more year of college. Our relationship is extremely close. She is like my daughter. It’s kind of like in football and you have a star quarterback who sees things the same way as the coach. It’s something we have built.”
Brooks anticipates Kentucky fans liking Amoore both on and off the court.
“BBN is going to love her and also love her off the floor,” the new Kentucky coach said. “She is almost like the Pied Piper. People follow her and want to be around her and that bodes well for our season.”
One Response
Pope has already surpassed the “putting UK 1st” level which the departed one never even tried to reach, and the new women’s coach has quickly passed up the lackluster job done by the departed one who did not capitalize on having one of the top players in the nation and then watched the program nose dive into cellar territory.
It’s great 2 have 2 coaches who are working FOR UK and have the ability to identify AND recruit talent!