‘Trying to learn our teams.’ No. 20 UK hosts No. 18 Louisville in sold-out rivalry game.
It took until his seventh season season at the helm of Virginia Tech for Kenny Brooks to defeat Louisville.
That game — an 81-79 victory over Jeff Walz’s Cardinals on Jan. 12, 2023, in Blacksburg, Virginia — was, in a way, the final jewel in the Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball crown; Brooks and his staff had already defeated each of the remaining 13 programs around the league at least once.
As Brooks’ 20th-ranked Kentucky team prepares to face No. 18 Louisville in a sold out Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night, the UK head coach said Thursday that he considers Walz a friend, and that Walz welcomed him into the league with advice and conversation when he moved from James Madison to Virginia Tech in 2016. Walz, who has led the Cardinals since 2007, is the winningest coach in the program’s history, with more than 460 games won. Brooks called Walz one of the pioneers of the ACC.
“He’s a great coach, and he’s done so much for the game, the ACC,” Brooks said. “When I got into the ACC, he welcomed me into the ACC with, you know, kind of like a little mentorship. And not that I called him all the time, but when we got a chance to talk, I learned a lot from him. And he’s always been a winner in that league. They were the very last team that we beat. We beat every team in the ACC, and they were the last ones that we beat. And it just goes to show the longevity he’s had.”
Though Brooks — and the majority of this new-look Kentucky team — has never experienced what it means to play in the Battle of the Bluegrass, he brings to the table a, perhaps, more valuable trait — experience against the team that, for a long while now, has remained in the national spotlight, within the Division I rankings and always a fierce competitor in the battle for the game’s top prospects.
And despite the fact that it took seven seasons for Brooks to take down Louisville, he did it. Actually, he did it twice during that 2022-23 campaign, which resulted in Virginia Tech’s first-ever ACC Tournament championship (a 75-67 victory over the Cardinals on March 5). And then Brooks did it again, on Feb. 18, 2024, last season with an 86-70 win at the KFC Yum Center.
A member of both Virginia Tech and UK? Kentucky graduate point guard Georgia Amoore, who Walz said Friday would be “the best player on the floor.”
“I’ve seen him move,” Walz said of Brooks. “I wish he could play. So, I would take him at the point instead of Amoore at this point in time. So, if he’s interested in trading with her, I’d love to see him lead that team out there. No, I mean, they’re gonna be well-coached, and he’s gonna have the best player on the floor. Amoore is gonna be a first-round pick (in the WNBA draft), she probably would’ve been last year, if she came out. He did a great job of keeping her, and allowing her to come to Kentucky with him. She runs that whole thing. She did it at Virginia Tech, she was fantastic for them.”
Through Kentucky’s 3-0 season so far, Amoore has averaged 11.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, one steal and one block per game. Despite shooting only 34.3% from the field and 17.6% from 3-point range, she’s giving the Wildcats what she needs to give them.
“Every year, she starts off slower than what she finishes because she’s like, ‘OK, I have to make sure,’” Brooks said. “She’s a consummate point guard. We created the scoring point guard out of necessity, but if she had her druthers, it would be, ‘OK, let me set everybody else up.’ She would love to get a great pass, as opposed to get a shot. And she just morphed into a scoring point guard, and then when we come here to a new situation and getting to know everyone else, she’s like the caretaker and she’s the one making sure that she’s getting her opportunities she wants to get.”
Amoore’s efforts will be bolstered by the help of leading scorer, sophomore center Clara Strack, who’s averaging 17.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists, one steal and 3.3 blocks. Strack and Amoore are joined in double-figure scoring by graduate shooting guard Dazia Lawrence — 12.7 points, one rebound, 1.7 assists and one steal per game — and true freshman center Clara Silva — 12.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, two assists and 4.7 blocks.
“I expect it to be a great basketball game,” Walz said. “I think every time these two teams play, no matter where someone’s ranked, it’s always a competitive game. You’re gonna get the best out of both teams. I think a lot of it’s changed in some ways of trying to make sure that all the players understand the importance of the game. It’s not just another basketball game on the schedule; we’re fortunate to have a few of our returners that have played in this for a few years that totally understand it, but, at the same time, we’ve got a lot of freshmen who are gonna be competing in this game for the first time. And trying to get them to understand the gravity of the game, the excitement that’s gonna be behind it. I expect a great crowd, and it should just be a really, really competitive and fun basketball game.”
The Cardinals (2-1) are led in scoring by freshman guard and McDonald’s All-American Tajianna Roberts, who’s averaging 15.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.7 steals, and 6-3 graduate forward Olivia Cochran, a Cardinal through-and-through, who’s averaging 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, one assist and 1.3 steals per contest.
Louisville’s sole loss this season came via an opening-day disappointment against top-five UCLA in Paris, France. The Bruins, who play a calculated offense that weaves through a dominant post presence in the form of 6-7 junior center Lauren Betts, may provide the most insight for what works (and what doesn’t) against a Louisville roster with young guards and experienced posts as it continues to work toward a more cohesive unit. Against lesser competition — a 75-51 win over Southern Indiana and an 86-64 takedown of Tennessee-Martin — the Cardinals have consistently found ways to control the pace and overwhelm their opponents.
When asked what would be the difference between a win and a loss, Brooks answered honestly.
“We got to make more baskets than they do,” Brooks smiled. “I don’t know, I really don’t. It’s so early. It’s so early. I’m sure if I go listen to his press conference, he’s probably saying he’s trying to learn his team. I’m trying to learn our team. Usually, when I play Jeff Walz, it’s in January or February and March, and we know what our teams are. Both of us, you know, we’ve never played each other in November, and so it’s just going to be something totally new.
“But the only thing, the only constant I know, is they’re going to play hard. We’re going to play hard. But most of the game, look at them on tape. Look at us on tape. You might play the game 10 times, and it might be 5-5, I don’t know, but it just seems that even and we’re just trying to learn our teams.”
Saturday
No. 18 Louisville at No. 20 Kentucky
When: 6 p.m.
TV: SEC Network+
Records: Louisville 2-1, Kentucky 3-0
Series: Kentucky leads 34-25
Last meeting: Louisville won 73-61 on Dec. 10, 2023, in Louisville
