PREVIEW: The Kenny Brooks era begins against USC Upstate

Ladies, gentlemen, and Kentucky basketball fans everywhere, the Kenny Brooks era is officially here! After a long offseason of talking about what this team is made of, now, it’s time to see it.

Without further ado, here’s a look at the USC Upstate Spartans, the first team standing in Kentucky’s way during the 2024-25 campaign.

Bio Blast

To start the 51st season of Kentucky Women’s Basketball’s varsity status, Brooks is opening a new decade for the squad, and hopefully a new beginning. Last season, the ‘Cats finished 12-20 (4-12 SEC). Despite making a short run in the SEC Tournament, former coach Kyra Elzy was relieved of her duties and made the switch to Duke as an assistant. Kentucky brought in Kenny Brooks to shine a new light on an otherwise dim program, and so far, he’s done just that.

On Monday, fans are finally able to see Kentucky Women’s Basketball in action. For real this time. While we’d previously seen the team at Big Blue Madness and the Blue-White Game, no one has truly seen this team on the court. More specifically, no one even knows who Kenny Brooks is going to be starting, but we have gotten some clues from Brooks himself.

It’s basically a shoo-in that Virginia Tech transfer and All-American Georgia Amoore will be the starting point guard, but who’s going to play alongside her? While no one quite knows for sure, we can assume based on the minute distribution of the Blue-White Game, that the starting lineup will be as follows:

Kentucky’s Potential Starters

• Georgia Amoore: 5-foot-6 guard
  • Graduate transfer from Virginia Tech; 18.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 6.8 APG
• Dazia Lawrence: 5-foot-8 guard
  • Redshirt Senior from Charlotte; 18.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 2.7 APG
• Lexi Blue: 6-foot-2 guard
  • Freshman from Lake Highland Prep;  13.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.8 APG
• Amelia Hassett:
  • Junior transfer from JUCO Eastern Florida State College; 13.7 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.2 APG
• Clara Strack: 6-foot-5 center
  • Sophomore transfer from Virginia Tech; 9.4 PPG and 6.8 RPG
• First off the bench – Clara Silva: 6-foot-7 center
  • Freshman from Portugal – played for Unicaja in the Spain-LF Challenge League; 9.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.5 APG

As for USC Upstate, the Spartans’ Rebekah Gordon (8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game), Jeni Levine (8.5 PPG), and center AC Markham (5.8 PPG) are the three players to watch. Fortunately, Kentucky should be able to earn their first win in this textbook season opener. So far, the ‘Cats are 4-0 all-time against USC Upstate, and could add another win to that record on Monday.

Scouting Report

For Kentucky, their biggest advantage (literally) that they have over USC Upstate is size. The Spartans’ tallest player is freshman Madison Miller, who stands at just 6-feet and 4-inches tall. Still, aside from Miller, there are a couple players that Kentucky will need to prioritize defensively.

One of those players is senior Rebekah Gordon, who scored 17 points against the ‘Cats last season. The 6-foot-1 forward average 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season. That was a bit of a dip from her sophomore season when she averaged 10.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG, but she is still an effective offensive weapon that Kentucky will have to account for.

Additionally, the Spartans acquired junior guard Aubrie Kierchst from intra-conference foe Presbyterian this offseason. At just 5-foot-6, Kentucky’s guard should be able to out-physical her and grind her down, but it won’t be a given. She averaged 8.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game a year ago.

The Spartans are a young team considering they only bring back two seniors (Rebekah Gordon and AC Markham), so experience lies in Kentucky’s favor as well. Additionally, last season, USC Upstate ranked 315th out of 349 teams in Assist/Turnover Ratio (.59), so this is a team that struggles to take care of the ball and produce offensively.

Additional Information

Place	Tipoff	TV	Radio	Live Stats
Historic Memorial Coliseum (Lexington, KY)	5 p.m. EST	SEC Network+ (Jeff Piecoro, Christi Thomas)	98.5 ICONS (Darren Headrick)	StatBroadcast