Brooks, Kentucky Women Excited to Be Hosting NCAA Tournament
The Kentucky women’s basketball team gathered on Sunday night to find out where they will begin the postseason. The answer turned out to be right at home.
Kentucky earned the number four seed in its region and the Cats will host the first two rounds of the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament inside Historic Memorial Coliseum. UK begins play on Friday, facing Liberty at home. Hosting the first two rounds is a big advantage, according to UK head coach Kenny Brooks.
“It’s a big difference. 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. 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.”
Brooks knows that having Georgia Amoore playing the point for his team will be crucial. Amoore will be playing in her fifth NCAA Tournament and Brooks expects her to lead this team in the postseason.
“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 and I think that’s going to be a big key for us to advance.”
When Brooks arrived in Lexington last spring, he had a lot of work to do and was able to put together a talented roster, but he didn’t consider hosting the NCAA Tournament in the beginning.
“You didn’t know what to expect,” Brooks said. “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. 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.”
As for Amoore, she believes that playing in the Southeastern Conference has prepared this team for the postseason.
“It’s been the best thing for us. You see all of the SEC teams in, let alone top four seeds, there’s quite a lot of us. It’s a competitive conference. Just having to go out and play every game like it’s a championship game, that’s put us in the best position to be ready for the high-intensity atmosphere.”
Brooks is very familiar with the Flames, a team he has coached against a number of times.
“Always been in my side. Gary 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. I come to Kentucky and I’m still playing against Gary 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.”
The Cats are happy to be hosting and looking forward to getting back on the floor inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.
