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Coach Kenny Brooks

Kyhoward

Kyhoward

Blue Chip Prospect
Feb 3, 2018
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What an impressive person as displayed at the press conference. His demeanor and saying he was not a “stomper” like his college coach, Lefty Driesell was both funny and descriptive of his approach during games. I believe a coach can either help relax the team or rattle them resulting in playing tight. Not saying you have to be a choir boy on the sidelines but a coaches’ histrionics affect both the players and subconsciously the referees. With NIL and the portal, I am sure he has lost some players over the past several years, but this is the type of coach that will appeal to potential recruits.

He emphasized team, getting players that fit or having complimentary skills, and development of players. These are ingredients that make successful teams. We are seeing in the men’s game that teams with experience and who have played together for more than 1 year are tough to beat.

He has been ultra successful at both of his coaching stops. I believe his hire will begin paying dividends next season, not meaning the Lady Cats are going to catapult to the top of the conference but will compete and play hard and together. Perhaps Coach Brooks can entice Scheer and Petty back, bring some Va Tech players with him and recruit the portal and high school. If I had a daughter with Division 1 talent, we would definitely listen to his presentation of the program. Believe that great years are ahead for the program and expect fans to fully support this team!
 
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VT fan here. Posted some of this elsewhere but appropriate here. Also a fan of Kenny Brooks - will follow him at UK and hope he does well.

I'm interested to see how KBs style translates to SEC play, especially against LSU and USCe. I love his style - but not everyone does. in the most general terms, I think he plays a more "Euro" style of bball and not the "American" style that many do.

The one criticism he generally gets is his style does not hold up well when the game is "physical." You can find many interviews of him complaining about the women's game being too physical. So we'll see how he adapts to SEC play.

As far as UKs roster, I expect him to at least bring his current recruiting class for VT to UK. He has a top 40 recruit out of FL, Lexi Blue, and there is a 6'7" player coming from Portugal (more Euro style). She's not ranked but generally it is believed she would be a Top 20 player if she was.

Also we expect many of the current roster to come with him. If they do you will have a competitive team from the start. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
 
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mstevenhill said:
VT fan here. Posted some of this elsewhere but appropriate here. Also a fan of Kenny Brooks - will follow him at UK and hope he does well.

I'm interested to see how KBs style translates to SEC play, especially against LSU and USCe. I love his style - but not everyone does. in the most general terms, I think he plays a more "Euro" style of bball and not the "American" style that many do.

The one criticism he generally gets is his style does not hold up well when the game is "physical." You can find many interviews of him complaining about the women's game being too physical. So we'll see how he adapts to SEC play.

As far as UKs roster, I expect him to at least bring his current recruiting class for VT to UK. He has a top 40 recruit out of FL, Lexi Blue, and there is a 6'7" player coming from Portugal (more Euro style). She's not ranked but generally it is believed she would be a Top 20 player if she was.

Also we expect many of the current roster to come with him. If they do you will have a competitive team from the start. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
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Lexi Blue is a perfect name to come be an NIL star in Lexington KY


Appreciate the insight though. I’m not a huge WBB fan but it will be interesting to see if the spread finesse game holds up
 
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Don't want to dump my bucket but happy to answer any questions about KB or any players that come with him.

One additional note - KB generally works to get to a 7 player rotation, maybe 8. His best players log alot of minutes. I think it hindered some of our younger players. Our point guard, Georgia Amoore, rarely came out of the game and the heir apparent to her, Samyha Suffren (top 75 recruit per ESPN), rarely played. Among those that followed the program closely it was assumed she would portal out. And she has entered the portal, so far the only one. I don't think she will follow KB to UK but who knows.
 
This seems like a good hire and Matt Jones said we are paying him more than any coach without a national title so I’m glad we are investing properly but to me watching women’s basketball is like watching the men’s game if they were forced to play in 15 pound cement shoes.
 
I don’t follow women’s basketball too much, but I did see a thread on Reddit where vt fans were devastated to lose him. More than a handful of them said his teams were the reason they started watching women’s basketball. Definitely seems like a home run hire.
 
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Finally watched the press conference introducing the new head coach for UK Women’s basketball team. Coach Brooks was very impressive during the Q&A. I believe we have someone that will take us to the next level. Will see how the team does but based on his credentials I have full faith he will get the job done.

The only question I have what happened with Matthew Mitchell? I thought he was returning as head coach? Did he dropped out of the process or something?
 
sosoblue said:
Finally watched the press conference introducing the new head coach for UK Women’s basketball team. Coach Brooks was very impressive during the Q&A. I believe we have someone that will take us to the next level. Will see how the team does but based on his credentials I have full faith he will get the job done.

The only question I have what happened with Matthew Mitchell? I thought he was returning as head coach? Did he dropped out of the process or something?
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Yeah, there was a couple of people that came on here and said that Mitchell would be the coach. Who is those people that misled?
 
Any word on his assistants? Is he bringing his staff from Tech, or is he hiring all new staff. You would think there would have been some word about assistants by now.
 
That didn't take long! What do we know about Ms. Hassett? And what is the preferred site for following women's college basketball recruiting? I've never really followed recruiting all that closely on the women's side, but I believe things are about to get interesting with Brooks here.
 
They have a 6’7” freshman who had her first start the first game of the tournament and scored double figures in the second round against Baylor. She entered the portal with a “do not contact “ tag. Wondering if this means she is following KB.
 
UKfan215 said:
That didn't take long! What do we know about Ms. Hassett? And what is the preferred site for following women's college basketball recruiting? I've never really followed recruiting all that closely on the women's side, but I believe things are about to get interesting with Brooks here.
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Coach Brooks IMO needs to get Petty and Scherr to drop out of the portal and return. If he can do that and bring in Moore, that will give him 3 high caliber SEC players to build around.
 
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Kyhoward said:
What an impressive person as displayed at the press conference. His demeanor and saying he was not a “stomper” like his college coach, Lefty Driesell was both funny and descriptive of his approach during games. I believe a coach can either help relax the team or rattle them resulting in playing tight. Not saying you have to be a choir boy on the sidelines but a coaches’ histrionics affect both the players and subconsciously the referees. With NIL and the portal, I am sure he has lost some players over the past several years, but this is the type of coach that will appeal to potential recruits.

He emphasized team, getting players that fit or having complimentary skills, and development of players. These are ingredients that make successful teams. We are seeing in the men’s game that teams with experience and who have played together for more than 1 year are tough to beat.

He has been ultra successful at both of his coaching stops. I believe his hire will begin paying dividends next season, not meaning the Lady Cats are going to catapult to the top of the conference but will compete and play hard and together. Perhaps Coach Brooks can entice Scheer and Petty back, bring some Va Tech players with him and recruit the portal and high school. If I had a daughter with Division 1 talent, we would definitely listen to his presentation of the program. Believe that great years are ahead for the program and expect fans to fully support this team!
Click to expand...
Well written synopsis, thanks for sharing. I agree--great hire, impressive person, and certainly a coach that is seeing a super opportunity to excel in the SEC mega-conference.
 
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kywildcat41086 said:
Oh how I love the first commitment to be some size…. Something we have really lacked in a while while only 6’3” still a very good start in the right direction!
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Brooks has been successful getting true 5's in the 6-5 to 6-7 range. So this girl will probably be a forward all the way. She had committed to VA Tech from a JC. Said that Amoore was big in her going there because she is an Aussie also. She averaged something like 20 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks last season. Brooks told her she would be used as a 4.
 
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To be honest it’s going to be more fun keeping up with what the women’s team does this off season. They’re going to have a whole new look come next season. I’m really pretty excited to see what Coach Brooks has in store! They’re definitely going to go from not competing to competing in just one season guaranteed!
 
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Hopefully the 6-7 commit Brooks had will now come here also. I think she is a big time player. We could be not only super talented next season but huge also. Amazing.
 
yes_takeaside said:
Absolutely. Mitchell had some very good teams severely limited by lack of a 5.
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We are going to be one of the bigger teams in the country regularly it looks like. Today he offered the 4 star 5-11 guard Jernigan from NC. She is a great scorer all over the floor and a lot of the big programs are recruiting her. It said that Brooks has been on her for quite a while and she was super excited to get the offer to play here. Brooks also offered Johnson from Sacred Heart.
 
I thinky Carys Baker, Clara Silva and Lexi Blue are possible. Actually I'd be surprised if we didn't get Lexi Blue. Silva and Baker I'd rather be in our shoes than anyone else.
 
permdaddy said:
I thinky Carys Baker, Clara Silva and Lexi Blue are possible. Actually I'd be surprised if we didn't get Lexi Blue. Silva and Baker I'd rather be in our shoes than anyone else.
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Guess Silva is only 6-6, I had either read somewhere she was 6-7. Noticed that UConn wanted Silva but she committed to Brooks and VA Tech. Shows that Brooks can literally beat Geno for recruits. Blue is said to be FL's best player in the class. Talked like she is a swing type player at 6-2, the three position maybe. Hassett at 6-3 said to be a 4, a really good rebounder.
 
BigBlueManSouthCentralKY said:
Guess Silva is only 6-6, I had either read somewhere she was 6-7. Noticed that UConn wanted Silva but she committed to Brooks and VA Tech. Shows that Brooks can literally beat Geno for recruits. Blue is said to be FL's best player in the class. Talked like she is a swing type player at 6-2, the three position maybe. Hassett at 6-3 said to be a 4, a really good rebounder.
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I've seen her listed as 6-7 several places. Either way UK has never had size like this to truly compete with the best of the best. Even when Mitchell had it rolling we were a speed them up, trap, turn them over type team that struggled to compete inside against elite comp.
 
permdaddy said:
I've seen her listed as 6-7 several places. Either way UK has never had size like this to truly compete with the best of the best. Even when Mitchell had it rolling we were a speed them up, trap, turn them over type team that struggled to compete inside against elite comp.
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The highlights I watched with Streck looked like she is going to be a star player. Very tough post up player that can score going either way and shooting with either hand. Also a serious shot blocker. Makes me wonder if Silva and Streck could play some together? A double low post with those two at that size would be tough to penetrate and score. Both block shots and both are good on offense. And the way Hassett rebounds, we could totally dominate on the boards.
 
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