Tonie Morgan with coach Kenny Brooks at UK's Senior Day. (Vicky Graff Photo)
How good is Southeastern Conference women’s basketball?
Consider that Kentucky (21-9) is ranked 17th in this week’s Associated Press rankings and has wins over LSU, Oklahoma and Louisville — all top 10 teams most of the season. Yet Kentucky is only the No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament and will be playing 16 sees Arkansas (12-19, 1-15 SEC) today at 11 a.m in Greenville, S.C., on the SEC Network.
If coach Kenny Brooks’ team wins, it will play No. 8 seed Georgia, which won 72-67 at UK in January when Teonni Key was out with a dislocated elbow, Thursday at 11 a.m.
Kentucky lost 60-56 to No. 3 South Carolina Sunday on Senior Day when point guard Tonie Morgan had a rare off game. She finished with six points on 3-for-11 shooting, four assists and four turnovers. She played only 24 minutes, well below her season average of 34 minutes per game.
Morgan, a Georgia Tech transfer, set a new UK single season assists record this season and has 245 assists going into today’s game. She appreciates the opportunity Brooks gave her this season.
“It meant a lot to me because I felt like it was a perfect fit,” Morgan said before UK played South Carolina. “He was a point guard himself, so he knew what I needed, the skills I needed to be at the level I want to be at.”
She said he had helped her not only with game strategy but also with her leadership qualities and “how that translates to the next level” where she hopes to play.
Brooks had a special relationship with Georgia Amoore, his point guard at Virginia Tech who followed him to UK last season and set the single season assists record that Morgan broke this year.
“He’s a girl dad, so he knows how to relate to us. He knows how to talk to us, so it’s been good that he’s respectable and he’s a great guy,” Morgan said.
Morgan had her national moment in the spotlight when she hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer at No. 5 LSU to start SEC play. She said that was “definitely” one of her top moments at Kentucky going into postseason play.
