New UK Women's HC Kenny Brooks also addressed the media today about his first group of Wildcats...
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KENNY BROOKS: First and foremost, thank you guys for coming out. Very exciting time for us, basketball season, fall. You just smell basketball in the air. Appreciate you guys coming out. For me. It's been a heck of a six months. Whirlwind to say the least. But I think the biggest thing is just the welcoming from Big Blue Nation and how everyone has been so interested in what we're doing, welcoming us to Lexington, and just the Big Blue Nation has been awesome.
I'm very proud of what we've done in six months. Put together a roster. In this day and age, freedom of movement, sometimes you've got to start all over, and we went out and we went in the portal, and we didn't want to always just get the best players, we wanted to get the right players, players that could come in and represent this university, our program, help us start something special, and I thought we did a really good job assembling a really good roster.
It's a group of great kids who just work. I don't know how good they are. I don't know how good they're going to be. I do know right now as we speak I am undefeated, so that's a good thing.
But I really am excited about their progress and their potential. They go out and they work hard every day, and what they don't know, they ask questions, and they want to continue to get better.
It's been a really good couple weeks to begin the season. A lot of new faces. I think with the exception of Georgia and Clara Strack, no one knows anything about anyone, but they're working hard to get to that point. The camaraderie is tremendous. They've been working hard. I think we're going to put a product out there that's going to excite Big Blue Nation.
I don't know how good we'll be in the beginning, but I do know that we'll make everyone proud because we're going to work really, really hard, and we're going to progress into something that I think is going to be very special.
Very excited for that. Very excited for the future. It's been a really good couple weeks.
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Q. Coming here, you already obviously have tons of high-level women's basketball experience, but what was something that you had to learn when you got here, something that maybe caught you off guard?
KENNY BROOKS: That my disguises don't work when I'm walking around the Summit, when I'm at the mall. Honestly, we had tremendous success as you mentioned at Virginia Tech. Blacksburg was a little bit different. I was able to walk around in obscurity, and I could just do whatever. Here it doesn't matter where I go, no matter where I am. Someone is going to come up and talk about the excitement surrounding just basketball in general at Kentucky.
It's been very welcoming, very welcoming. People will come up to me and they'll just talk about the excitement. They saw one of my kids at PetSmart or Target or somewhere, and just the approachability that we've created with our kids.
We want to continue that. But just the excitement. Big Blue Nation is a little bit different. Everyone wants a piece of it, and they watch it.
It's funny, I come here, and I don't watch a lot of TV, no offense. I'm always watching film. But there's obviously a lot of outlets here because everyone says, I saw you on TV, I saw you this and here. But it's been very welcoming for me.
Q. You've been around great teams. You know what the mentality is, etc. You said you weren't sure how good you'd be this year. Where do you see this team in the grand scheme of teams, the talent level? Two, is there anything here structurally that you think can stop you from playing for a Final Four and a National Championship?
KENNY BROOKS: Well, the comparison, you're always wondering because this time of year you keep going against each other, so if your offense is good, your defense must be bad. If your defense is good, your offense must be bad. There's been a lot of comparison. I've gone back and watched film of previous teams, previous really good teams, and the only thing I do know is I know that the little monster we have at the point guard position is really good. When you have -- like a football, if you have a good quarterback, you have a good chance. We have a really good point guard, we have a chance. Everyone else is just young, young in their experiences, young with their new positions, young with their new expectations.
We have a young lady Clara Strack, who I don't know if anybody saw her last year, she was pretty much a backup to an All-American last year and she didn't get a whole lot of time, but when Liz Kitley went down, she stepped up and I think she averaged 18 and 10 in the NCAA Tournament. I think she's continued on that stretch.
She provides that. I just have to see it consistently.
That's just the understatement. You just don't know how good you're going to be because you're going against each other. As soon as we have some live tape against someone else, then you can start figuring out how you're going to be, but I love the potential. We had a lineup in practice the other day, I've never had this before, I've never seen it before, we had Georgia at the point guard spot and then we had Amelia Hassett at the 2 and she's 6'3½". At the 3 spot we had Teonni Key who's 6'4", at the 4 spot we had Clara Strack who's 6'5", and then we threw Clara Sylva in at the center at 6'7". That's a really tall team for a lot of men's mid-major programs. So for us to be able to put that out there, have that capability, it's a lot of fun.
Then structurally here, Kentucky is Kentucky. That's why I came here, to have an opportunity to be part of a blueblood and to be able to go and compete on a national stage consistently, and that's something that I desire as a competitor.
You always want to beat the best, you want to be the best, and you want to sustain it. I think we have the opportunity to do it here.
Obviously this building with the upgrades has really put us in position to attract high-level recruits, along with a reputation of Kentucky, along with what we've done in the past as a coaching staff. So the sky's the limit for us, and that's something that I wanted. I wanted that opportunity, and I think we can get it here.
*****
KENNY BROOKS: First and foremost, thank you guys for coming out. Very exciting time for us, basketball season, fall. You just smell basketball in the air. Appreciate you guys coming out. For me. It's been a heck of a six months. Whirlwind to say the least. But I think the biggest thing is just the welcoming from Big Blue Nation and how everyone has been so interested in what we're doing, welcoming us to Lexington, and just the Big Blue Nation has been awesome.
I'm very proud of what we've done in six months. Put together a roster. In this day and age, freedom of movement, sometimes you've got to start all over, and we went out and we went in the portal, and we didn't want to always just get the best players, we wanted to get the right players, players that could come in and represent this university, our program, help us start something special, and I thought we did a really good job assembling a really good roster.
It's a group of great kids who just work. I don't know how good they are. I don't know how good they're going to be. I do know right now as we speak I am undefeated, so that's a good thing.
But I really am excited about their progress and their potential. They go out and they work hard every day, and what they don't know, they ask questions, and they want to continue to get better.
It's been a really good couple weeks to begin the season. A lot of new faces. I think with the exception of Georgia and Clara Strack, no one knows anything about anyone, but they're working hard to get to that point. The camaraderie is tremendous. They've been working hard. I think we're going to put a product out there that's going to excite Big Blue Nation.
I don't know how good we'll be in the beginning, but I do know that we'll make everyone proud because we're going to work really, really hard, and we're going to progress into something that I think is going to be very special.
Very excited for that. Very excited for the future. It's been a really good couple weeks.
*****
Q. Coming here, you already obviously have tons of high-level women's basketball experience, but what was something that you had to learn when you got here, something that maybe caught you off guard?
KENNY BROOKS: That my disguises don't work when I'm walking around the Summit, when I'm at the mall. Honestly, we had tremendous success as you mentioned at Virginia Tech. Blacksburg was a little bit different. I was able to walk around in obscurity, and I could just do whatever. Here it doesn't matter where I go, no matter where I am. Someone is going to come up and talk about the excitement surrounding just basketball in general at Kentucky.
It's been very welcoming, very welcoming. People will come up to me and they'll just talk about the excitement. They saw one of my kids at PetSmart or Target or somewhere, and just the approachability that we've created with our kids.
We want to continue that. But just the excitement. Big Blue Nation is a little bit different. Everyone wants a piece of it, and they watch it.
It's funny, I come here, and I don't watch a lot of TV, no offense. I'm always watching film. But there's obviously a lot of outlets here because everyone says, I saw you on TV, I saw you this and here. But it's been very welcoming for me.
Q. You've been around great teams. You know what the mentality is, etc. You said you weren't sure how good you'd be this year. Where do you see this team in the grand scheme of teams, the talent level? Two, is there anything here structurally that you think can stop you from playing for a Final Four and a National Championship?
KENNY BROOKS: Well, the comparison, you're always wondering because this time of year you keep going against each other, so if your offense is good, your defense must be bad. If your defense is good, your offense must be bad. There's been a lot of comparison. I've gone back and watched film of previous teams, previous really good teams, and the only thing I do know is I know that the little monster we have at the point guard position is really good. When you have -- like a football, if you have a good quarterback, you have a good chance. We have a really good point guard, we have a chance. Everyone else is just young, young in their experiences, young with their new positions, young with their new expectations.
We have a young lady Clara Strack, who I don't know if anybody saw her last year, she was pretty much a backup to an All-American last year and she didn't get a whole lot of time, but when Liz Kitley went down, she stepped up and I think she averaged 18 and 10 in the NCAA Tournament. I think she's continued on that stretch.
She provides that. I just have to see it consistently.
That's just the understatement. You just don't know how good you're going to be because you're going against each other. As soon as we have some live tape against someone else, then you can start figuring out how you're going to be, but I love the potential. We had a lineup in practice the other day, I've never had this before, I've never seen it before, we had Georgia at the point guard spot and then we had Amelia Hassett at the 2 and she's 6'3½". At the 3 spot we had Teonni Key who's 6'4", at the 4 spot we had Clara Strack who's 6'5", and then we threw Clara Sylva in at the center at 6'7". That's a really tall team for a lot of men's mid-major programs. So for us to be able to put that out there, have that capability, it's a lot of fun.
Then structurally here, Kentucky is Kentucky. That's why I came here, to have an opportunity to be part of a blueblood and to be able to go and compete on a national stage consistently, and that's something that I desire as a competitor.
You always want to beat the best, you want to be the best, and you want to sustain it. I think we have the opportunity to do it here.
Obviously this building with the upgrades has really put us in position to attract high-level recruits, along with a reputation of Kentucky, along with what we've done in the past as a coaching staff. So the sky's the limit for us, and that's something that I wanted. I wanted that opportunity, and I think we can get it here.
