Georgia Amoore Thankful for Time Spent at Kentucky

Georgia Amoore believes playing with Dazia Lawrence has helped make her a better leader this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)

All-American point guard Georgia Amoore has seen plenty of defensive gimmicks used to try and stop her from scoring or at least disrupt her offensive flow. Rather than complain, she tries to “make lessons out of silver linings” to help make her an even better player.

“It’s an honor that I get the defensive pressure I get. It’s an honor that they scout me the way they scout me. It’s an honor that I get grabbed and face-guarded when they pass the ball in. It’s an honor that I came over here, and I got stuck during COVID because if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have the relationships I had,” Amoore said.

She came from Australia to play for coach Kenny Brooks at Virginia Tech and helped the Hokies reach the Final Four. She was coming off an All-American season when she transferred to Kentucky for her fifth collegiate season and was named the SEC Newcomer of the Year.

If UK is awarded an NCAA tourney host site, as expected, she will hopefully get to play in Memorial Coliseum in front of Kentucky fans again.

“Every single thing that I’ve been through basketball-wise, it has shaped me into the player I am, and I think I hear it all the time. I’m too short, I’m not quick enough, I’m not this, I’m not that,” she said. “But it’s like, okay, what am I then because we’re a ranked team, people scout for me. I don’t know if that’s a nobody, then.

“So, I think that for me …  I don’t know if it’s just being Australian or the mentality that we grow up having. Never get too high and never get too low. People are always going to talk to people, or people are always going to say something. There’s going to be days where you feel it, there’s going to be days where you disagree, there’s going to be days where you agree, but I’m this. I’m solid.

“I’m enjoying what I have. You call it what you know, what’s on the other side, you know, the grass is not always greener. It may look like that, but it’s not. I love what I have, I love the experience I’ve had. I’ve loved the staff, the guidance, the coaching.”

Amoore knows her collegiate days are numbered now with postseason play ready to start, and then next year, she plans to be in the WNBA.

“I’ve squeezed every single ounce of whatever orange juice was in that orange. That has been my college career,” she said. “I take pride in that, and I just take little wins every single day.

“So, if that’s what you have to do, then do it, because I’m loving my life right now.”

Amoore believes playing with guard Dazia Lawrence, a Charlotte transfer, has “brought a different side of leadership” out in her this season.

“She’s the more vocal kind. I think I was always a by-example type of person and never necessarily had as big of a voice as I wish I wanted earlier, but she does,” Amoore said. “She brought it out in me for sure.

“It’s been a pleasure just to watch her in how she leads with what she says, how she says it. She’s very articulate, very intelligent, and she just, I don’t see her not getting along with anyone. I think that’s really special about her, and something that I’ve learned from her.”