By Alice Wilson
The world of Women’s College Basketball has blown up with the likes of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese becoming household names. However, a rising Aussie star, Georgia Amoore, has been mixing it up with these big names, and made her own mark on the Women’s College basketball landscape. And with commentators already projecting her to be a first round WNBA pick, the Aussie instead could exercise her right to play one last year at NCAA level.
Amoore, who attended Virginia Tech College for the last four years has written her name in the history books and become a notable name in women's college basketball.
Originally from Ballarat Australia, Amoore rose to popularity after leading her Virginia Tech basketball team, ‘The Hokies’, to the final four in the women's March Madness basketball tournament in 2023, the program's first final four appearance in history. This year, Senior Amoore and the Hokies fell to Baylor University in the second round of the NCAA tournament, unable to match their previous season standing.
As this was Amoore’s senior season at Virginia Tech, she was eligible for the 2024 WNBA draft where she would have been a first round pick. However, an NCAA rule allows players impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, to return to college for a fifth ‘COVID eligibility year’. After the Hokies 2nd round loss to Baylor, it was announced Amoore had entered the transfer portal, the database for players wanting to transfer between colleges and universities. This confirmed that Amoore had not declared for the WNBA draft and was planning to utilise her fifth year of eligibility. Whilst it came as a shock to some that Amoore was not looking to spend her final year of college basketball at Virginia Tech, to others it did not.
It was announced early in March that Amoore’s Virginia Tech coach, Kenny Brookes, was on the move and going to take over the head coaching role at University of Kentucky after being with Virginia Tech since 2016. This announcement came with speculation that Amoore may use her fifth year of eligibility to transfer to Kentucky and play under Coach Brookes for one last season.
Amoore has previously mentioned her close relationship with Brookes sharing how he “is my second dad”. Hence the opportunity to play under him one last time and rebuild a winning foundation at Kentucky was what delayed her WNBA entry by a year. Amoore announced her transfer to Kentucky via social media late March.
Amoore is a valuable addition to Kentucky, bringing her insane work ethic and long list of accomplishments, to help Kentucky transform into a contender, similar to what she did with Virginia Tech.
Amoore’s long list of impressive accolades started to build back in her freshman year in 2021, where she made the 2021 ACC All freshman team. Since then, Amoore has added many career highs and set multiple records including becoming the first VT WBB player to record a triple double.
Amoore has made several ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) all tournament first and second teams in her time at Virginia Tech as well as receiving MVP of the 2023 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.
However Amoore’s accomplishments are not just limited to the college environment. Amoore has represented Australia on various occasions. A shot at the Paris Olympic team even being on the cards after being named to a 26-player squad late March. One of Amoore’s national team stints was representing Australia at the 2018 FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Belarus, where the team picked up Bronze.
With a promising future in the world of basketball, eyes will be on Amoore in her final college season at Kentucky and long into the future, with WNBA and national team opportunities being very likely possibilities.
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