McCLELLAND
Kentucky women’s basketball isn’t just bringing in a new head coach; they’re bringing in a proven winner who builds strong relationships with his players. This signals a promising future for the team and its fans.
Kenny Brooks has been coaching for 26 years, with two decades of experience as a head coach. He boasts a .717 winning percentage with 500 career wins.
When coaching at James Madison, he led the Dukes to five CAA championships, earning him a spot in the JMU Athletics Hall of Fame.
He’s earned multiple CAA Coach of the Year awards, but that wasn’t enough for him.
He took his talents to Virginia Tech in 2016, taking the Hokies to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament and winning an ACC Championship in 2023.
Not only that, he coached seven WNBA draft picks, the highest picks ever in program history, took the Hokies to their first-ever 30-win season, and coached his team to defeat eight ranked teams, a program record for a single season in 2023.
More than just numbers, it’s the personal connections he forms with his players that truly define his coaching style. His relationships with Georgia Amoore and Clara Strack at Virginia Tech were so strong that they followed him to Kentucky.
“It was a no brainer,” Amoore said when talking about her transfer decisions. “I know it took me a minute to make that decision, you know hop in the portal and follow him, but I mean I love him, I was never not gonna follow him if I transferred.”
PARKE
Kentucky men’s basketball looks completely different this year compared to how it has in the last, say, 15 years.
It feels odd to say, even in retrospect, but John Calipari is no longer the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. In his place, Mark Pope is the new man in charge.
Along with a new coaching staff, Pope was forced to start fresh and bring in a new Wildcat roster. When constructing it, Pope made sure not just to target the best players available, though he did get a few of those, but emphasized fit and culture with his Wildcats.
With this, the return to the “blue collar” identity of the Kentucky program may feel off to some youngsters, but it feels very familiar to the fans who were around pre-Calipari. Some may even say it’s what Kentucky was built on.
That’s not to say Kentucky doesn’t still have its superstars, though.
Jaxson Robinson forwent the NBA Draft last year for one more year of college ball and is regarded by most as a sure-fire future first round NBA Draft pick. Koby Brea is perhaps one of the best shooters in the country and was an extremely hot commodity in the transfer portal. Lamont Butler has NCAA Tournament National Championship experience with the San Diego State Aztecs.
While a team mostly composed of transfers has struggled to find success in the modern college basketball landscape, if one was to do it, it would be this Kentucky squad in year one.
This is not to take anything away from the roster Brooks has built for the women, but with injuries impacting that squad and the men’s team mixing star power with a refreshing mindset surrounding hard work, the sky is truly the limit for Pope and Co. in 2024.
