WBB's Green Ready to Assume Role of Experienced Kentuckian
Last season, Kentucky women’s basketball’s Blair Green got an in-person look at what it means to be the most seasoned Kentuckian on the UK team. Green got to watch her long-time friend Maci Morris serve in that role during Morris’ senior season in Lexington.
As the 2019-20 season approaches, Green, despite being just a sophomore, will now serve as the most experienced player from the Commonwealth on this year’s team. After seeing how Morris handled the role, Green believes she is ready.
“Maci definitely took that role, her junior and senior year, and having her teach me through it, I can feel myself kind of going into that role,” Green said. “She was a great leader and I always look up to her and what she did. I’m just trying to follow in her leader footsteps.”
Green, who hails from Harlan County, is proud of her Kentucky roots.
“A lot of pride,” she said. “We take a lot of pride in being mountain girls and coming from (a place) where a lot people don’t think that can happen. Just proving a lot of people wrong and being a role model to kids back home.”
At Kentucky’s annual Big Blue Madness, Green sported a shirt bearing the area code of her home area, 606, something that made an impression on the people of Eastern Kentucky.
“I’ve gotten a lot of reactions, everyone loved that,” Green said. “I’m glad. I took a lot of pride in that. People were texting me all the time about how big that was to them, so I loved that.”
Green averaged 5.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game last season. She hit 16 of her 44 shots (36.4 percent) from behind the arc as a freshman, while making 15 of her 17 free throws (88.2 percent). She scored her career high of 13 points in her first college game, a win over Alabama State. That was one of four double-digit scoring efforts that Green posted in her first season at UK.
As she prepares for her second season in Lexington, Green has been working hard to improve her game.
“I’ve been trying to get up a lot of shots, becoming more versatile because I know they’re going to need me at the wing this year,” she said. “Just working on my game, getting stronger, working on my ballhandling and making my shot more accurate.”
Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell is excited about Green’s potential to help the team even more this season.
“Blair is a hard worker and someone who can really shoot the ball and score,” Mitchell said. “We hope that she can continue to develop that ability and be one of those real offensive weapons for us on that end of the floor and then a tough defender, with her length and athleticism she ought to be a really great defender for us.”
Mitchell has seen a difference in Green since the offseason.
“She’s improved her body, she got stronger last season, she’s more athletic, she’s quicker, stronger and is just a better athlete,” Mitchell said. “She has great athleticism, she has great length and athleticism, and she really works at shooting the ball, she’s in the gym constantly shooting the ball.”
With all of the hard work and improvements in her game, Green is ready to step into the role of most experienced Kentuckian on the roster. Green hopes she can make the people of Kentucky proud, just as Morris did during her UK career.
