Georgia Amoore is a realistic National Player of the Year candidate

After being named an All-American in 2023-24 at Virginia Tech, Georgia Amoore should be considered a realistic candidate to win National Player of the Year in what will be her lone season at Kentucky. The folks in Lexington aren’t the only ones thinking it, either.

On Thursday, Amoore was tabbed to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List. Voted on by a group of national college basketball experts, the preseason list is meant to identify the players most likely to be in the mix for the country’s Most Outstanding Player Award. Looking at her track record in college, it’s no surprise to see Amoore’s name pop up. She’s one of just four players on the Watch List who were named All-Americans a season ago.

Amoore, who was with new head coach Kenny Brooks at Virginia Tech for four seasons before both made the move to Lexington, was a Third-Team AP All-American during her final run with the Hokies. She averaged 18.8 points and 6.8 assists per outing on 41.2 percent overall shooting. Now at Kentucky, she was named a Preseason All-SEC First Team member. Amoore has also cracked Watch Lists for the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Award and the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award.

In short, there are large expectations for Amoore as she engineers Brooks’ first season coaching the Wildcats. So far, she’s living up to the hype.

Through two games for Kentucky, the native of Australia is averaging 12 points, nine assists, and 5.5 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per outing. She posted a double-double (11 points, 10 assists) in her first-ever game at Kentucky and nearly had another in game two (13 points, eight assists). The 5-foot-6 point guard even had a trio of blocks in her most recent outing. UK won those two contests against USC Upstate and Northern Kentucky by a combined 84 points.

The only negative so far has been Amoore’s shooting numbers. A career 35.9 percent shooter from deep, she’s just 2-11 (18.2 percent) this season. Don’t expect that trend to continue though. She hasn’t had a full season under 33 percent from beyond the arc yet. Amoore is still developing a synergy with all of her teammates not named Clara Strack (who also came over from Virginia Tech). Once she settles in, the shooting numbers will average out.

Amoore is the certified leader of this team. Kentucky will go as far as she can take them. If that ends up being a successful regular season with a deep postseason run, a Player of the Year award is fully within the realm of possibility.