Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky was hoping it might climb to a three seed in the NCAA Tournament but Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks was not about having his team end up a four seed and getting to host NCAA Tournament games.
Kentucky will host No. 13 seed Liberty Friday at noon on ESPN, the second game of the Women’s NCAA Tournament. After the Cats play, No. 5 seed Kansas State will play No. 12 Fairleigh-Dickinson in Memorial Coliseum with the winners meeting on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen.
“Five years ago, when we first heard our name at Virginia Tech, I was just hoping to get in, I didn’t care about seeding,” Brooks said Sunday night. “Being on that four line, and being able to host, it means the world.
“It gives you a home court advantage and gives you an opportunity to advance. It’s very, very important.”
Kentucky has an ace in point guard Georgia Amoore who will be playing in her fifth NCAA Tournament. She also led Virginia Tech to the Final Four two years ago.
“Everyone’s going to be experiencing this thing for the first time,” Brooks said. “We’re going to lean heavily on Georgia and her experiences, and she’s going to lead us, and I think the kids are willing to follow her and her lead and her demeanor. I think that’s going to be a big key for us to advance.”
Sophomore center Clara Strack started NCAA games last year at Virginia Tech after the starting center went out with a knee injury. Junior forward Teonni Key was on two NCAA teams at North Carolina but did not play the significant role like she has at Kentucky.
Brooks didn’t know what to expect when he got to UK and had to put together a new team and reshape a program that had hit low times.
“We hit the ground running. We were trying to put together a roster, trying to put together a staff, trying to put together a schedule,” he said Sunday night. “We did everything, we liked where we were, we had some adversity over the summer, so we had time to reinvent ourselves and in reinventing ourselves, we became unique in a lot of different ways and we just built off of that.”
Brooks often played against Liberty and knows what to expect from the Flames.
“Always been in my side. (Liberty coach) Carey (Green) does a tremendous job with that program. You can look at his record and it’s real, it’s no fluke. He does a tremendous job and he’s got that program back,” Brooks said.
“I come to Kentucky and I’m still playing against Carey Green. I played against him a lot when I was at James Madison, played against his teams a lot when I was at Virginia Tech. You know you’re going to play against a very well-coached basketball team. We know it’s going to be a very tough game.”
