FORT WORTH, TEXAS
Saturday’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game between No. 5 seed Kentucky and No. 1 seed Texas will showcase two of the country’s best point guards.
Kentucky senior Tonie Morgan and Texas graduate student Rori Harmon — who matched up during the Longhorn’s regular-season 64-53 home victory over UK seven weeks ago — were both named as finalists for the 2026 Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award on March 9.
Morgan and Harmon’s regular-season battle marked the first time they’ve ever played against one another, though they’ve each ranked among the best passers in the sport for the majority of their college careers.
Morgan spent the first three years of her college career at Georgia Tech, coached by the now-retired Nell Fortner. As a freshman in the 2022-23 campaign, Morgan dished 3.8 assists for the Yellow Jackets. That figure tied for No. 138 nationally. As a sophomore, she pushed to No. 36 in the country at 5.2 per game, and ranked No. 19 as a junior with 5.6.
“She’s a great point guard,” Harmon said. “Matched up with her already one time, but she has a lot of patience. And I think that’s what you need to have to be a great point guard, and I think she’s a great point guard, but she facilitates the ball really well. She gets downhill. She gets her teammates involved.”
Harmon immediately put herself into the top 40 (No. 39 overall at 5.0 assists per game) as a freshman with the Longhorns during the 2021-22 season, and skyrocketed up to No. 4 nationally as a sophomore with 7.4 assists per contest. Though Harmon sustained a season-ending knee injury in December of her junior year, she averaged 7.8 assists through 12 games. She returned last season healthy and back for more, and ranked No. 13 nationally with 5.9 assists per game — and, in part because of that, was also named a 2025 Lieberman finalist.
“I mean, Rori, she’s a great player,” Morgan said. “She’s experienced. She’s great on defense, very quick laterally. She’s fast. She’s a good competitor to play against. I like how she plays. She’s nice on the court.”
This season, Morgan is second in the nation with 8.0 assists per game and Harmon No. 11 with 6.1 . And now they both find themselves in position to guide their respective teams to one of the most successful seasons in recent program history.
For Morgan — who opted to join Kentucky and head coach Kenny Brooks in hopes of further development and increased WNBA Draft stock after Fortner’s retirement — this year’s postseason journey marked just the second NCAA Tournament appearance of her career — not to mention her first and second March Madness wins.
Morgan’s leadership and growth over the course of one season with Brooks and the Kentucky team has resulted in a new Kentuck single-season assists record.
Harmon’s five-year span with Vic Schaefer and Texas has lifted an already-storied program to consistent, elite status. On the floor, Harmon guided the Longhorns to an Elite Eight appearance in 2022, a second-round berth in 2023 and the program’s first Final Four since 2023 last season. Harmon also helped the team to an Elite Eight as a leader on the bench — and mentor to then-freshman small forward-turned-point guard Madison Booker — in 2024.
Harmon holds the Texas career assists and steals records, and is also the first player in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to eclipse 1,500 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 350 steals over the course of a college career.
This season, Morgan and her teammates’ Sweet 16 berth is Kentucky’s seventh overall, and its first in a decade. Texas has its sights set on a return trip to the Final Four, and its second-ever national championship (first since 1986).
As point guard prospects, the two couldn’t be more different.
At 5-foot-9, Morgan hails from Tallahassee, Fla. Her role at Georgia Tech demanded a score-first mentality; through three seasons, Morgan was a top-two leading scorer. At Kentucky, surrounded by several scoring options, she doesn’t often need to be the top scoring option, but that’s not to say she can’t be — as evidenced by her buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat LSU on the road New Year’s Day. Morgan is more than capable of taking over a game, but she simply loves to, and happens to excel when she has to, facilitate.
“She’s a consummate teammate,” Brooks told the Herald-Leader. “She wants to make sure they are good and they’re getting better.”
This season, Morgan is averaging 13.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in addition to her 8.0 assists in 34.5 minutes per contest.
The 5-foot-6 Harmon is from Houston, and she is a true extension of Schaefer on and off the floor — “seeing someone who just is so passionate and competitive, that’s me in a nutshell,” Harmon said of her coach on Friday. She may not be a regular double-figure scorer, but Harmon separates herself on the defensive end. Schaefer often praises Harmon’s student’s defensive intensity and her ability to disrupt even the strongest opponents.
Harmon is averaging 8.4 points and 3.2 rebounds to go with her 6.1 assists in 29.4 minutes per game.
Morgan and Harmon are two of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which is awarded to the nation’s top floor general each year as voted on by Lieberman herself and a committee of Division I coaches and media members. Morgan and Harmon are joined on the shortlist by Notre Dame junior Hannah Hidalgo, South Carolina senior Raven Johnson and TCU graduate student Olivia Miles, all who reached this year’s Sweet 16 with their respective teams.
Morgan, Harmon and their teams will compete for an Elite Eight berth on Saturday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, at 3 p.m. ET. The Longhorns defeated Kentucky 64-53 on Feb. 9 in Austin during the regular season.
Lexington Herald-Leader
Caroline Makauskas is a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She covers Kentucky women’s basketball and other sports around Central Kentucky. Born and raised in Illinois, Caroline graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in Journalism and Radio/Television/Film in May 2020.
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