NASHVILLE — Her best attribute is an unshakable desire to succeed, a drive that extends from the court to the film room to the classroom.
Carly Morrow registered a 4.00 GPA during her first semester at Kentucky, making more A’s, her father joked, than he did over his entire time at Alabama. Senior Chelsea Chowning called Morrow the hardest worker on the team and coach Matthew Mitchell said he’s witnessed very few players in his career that competed like her.
“She’s a real bright spot in my life,” Mitchell said after Kentucky toppled Georgia in Friday night’s SEC quarterfinal. Morrow, averaging 3.6 points per game, did not score in one minute of action in Kentucky’s loss to LSU on Saturday night.
Morrow overcame a torn ACL at Chattanooga’s Girls Preparatory School to earn significant minutes off the bench during her freshman year at Kentucky, leading the team in scoring with 11 points in the season opener. She scored a season-high 12 points against NCAA-bound Minnesota and 10 vs. nationally ranked Old Dominion.
But Morrow’s minutes diminished during SEC play partly due to a potential flaw in her game: an unshakable desire to succeed.
Morrow tries so hard, demands so much out of her game, that she can be overbearing on herself when she makes the typical freshman mistakes.
“One thing we’ve been working on is to make sure her greatest strength doesn’t become a fault,” Mitchell said, “because sometimes she just tries so hard that it can be something that’s tough for her to get through. But I love coaching her.”
And her teammates admire the 5-foot-11 guard because of that attitude. She endured a severe knee injury and a coaching change at Kentucky following Mickie DeMoss’ abrupt departure before she ever stepped on campus.
Her minutes have been sporadic for most of the season. She only recently regained full confidence in her knee following the injury and started playing without a brace when the season started.
But she never wavered from her work ethic, never stopped practicing hard, never really left the gym much at all.
“It was just a couple of months ago when I really started driving again and started to become more physical,” Morrow said. “I’m driving a little bit more, rebounding a little harder and my teammates have been great helping me get over that.”
They wanted to help after watching her put in all those hours, according to Chowning.
“It’s really easy to appreciate a freshman like that who comes in and works harder than anyone else on the team at improving her game,” she said. “She’s also a really big team player. She’s had some ups and downs as far as she might play one game 20 minutes and might not get in the next game. But she’s done a great job of being steady and coming to play every day. It’s admirable for a freshman to be that mature.”
Leaving the court after scoring two points in Kentucky’s quarterfinal win, Morrow said goodbye to a large contingent of family and friends and stopped to fulfill an autograph request.
“Kentucky fans are great,” she said. “This is so much fun. There’s no other way to describe it. I’m really loving playing with this group of girls and playing with Coach Mitchell and his staff and I’m just having a lot of fun.”
