Kenny Brooks celebrated his first UK win earlier this season. Saturday he will be looking for his first win over a ranked opponent at Kentucky. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks might be new to the UK-Louisville rivalry but he’s not new to coaching against Jeff Walz, who has been at Louisville since 2007.
“Jeff is one of the pioneers of the ACC,” Brooks said Thursday.“He also has a lot of great ideas for women’s basketball. The most respect for him and what he’s done for women’s basketball. Sometimes I don’t think he gets enough credit.
“He’s done a great job. He and I, we’re friends. We probably would consider each other friends. I know his daughters, he knows my daughters, and we wish each other luck, except for when we play each other.”
The rivals play Saturday night in Memorial Coliseum in the first major test of the Brooks’ era. The 18th-ranked Cardinals have lost only to No. 5 UCLA in a game played in France while No. 20 Kentucky is 3-0 against teams it should have beaten easily and did.
“Big week for us,” Brooks said Thursday. “Obviously, very excited for our first taste of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry. Although playing Louisville is not new to us, and obviously playing in some very big games a couple years ago, the ACC championship last year, we went down there, and I think it was pretty much a sold out crowd and two ranked teams, so very healthy rivalry between the coaching staffs, the players.”
Louisville has won seven straight games in the series, a streak Brooks hopes to break.
“There is a relationship there (with Walz), but when we get out on the court, he wants to beat me as bad as I want to beat him,” Brooks said.
The UK coach said if the teams played 10 times, it might be a 5-5 split.
“It just seems even, and we’re just trying to learn our teams,” Brooks said. “Usually when I play Jeff Walz, it’s January or February or March, and we know what our teams are. We’ve never played each other in November. It’s just going to be something totally new.”
One edge for Kentucky is that Brooks and his staff have coached against Louisville during ACC play. Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore and center Clara Strack played against Louisville when they were with Brooks at Virginia Tech. Teonni Key played at North Carolina before transferring to UK and also has played against the Cardinals.
“There’s a lot of familiarity, not only with their team, their personnel, their coaching, their style. We know what plays, we know what they like to run. Everything seems familiar,” the Kentucky coach said.
“We played them, I think it was like our third to the last game last year. So, [we] play them quicker in another turnaround. There’s a lot of familiarity in what they do and what we do and how we play each other. So, that helps out a whole lot.”
Brooks said Louisville had experienced post players but young guards while his team has veteran guards and young post players.
“It’ll be a good test for us. By no means will it be the be-all and end-all or the end of everything with the game, but it’s going to be a good test for us to show where we are, what we need to do, win or lose, and just excited for the opportunity,” Brooks said.
