Kenny Brooks has had a Fun Year with Cats

Kenny Brooks had coached championship teams at both Virginia Tech and James Madison before coming to Kentucky this season. Yet he says he may never have had a more enjoyable season than this one. Kentucky is 22-7 going into NCAA Tournament play next week.

“This is right up there if not the best year, just because, collectively as a group, everybody just works together. They’re fun,” Brooks said. “I laugh and joke about sometimes I was scared I was going to jinx myself. But they’ve never been late to a meeting. They’re always there.

“Whether I try to surprise you, to get there 10 minutes early, they’re there and they’re ready to go. So when you have that type of mentality, good things are going to happen.”

This is his fifth year with All-American point guard Georgia Amoore, who leads UK in scoring (19.1 points per game) and assists (199). Amoore was named SEC Newcomer of the Year and has even surprised Brooks this year.

“I’m watching her do things I’ve never seen her do before,” he said.

He marveled at the way Amoore, a first-team all-SEC pick by the league coaches, let the “game come to her” at South Carolina rather than being in full attack mode.

“That’s leadership and maturity. But she can do that because she has so much confidence in these kids,” Brooks said.

He brought Clara Strack with him from Virginia Tech and has seen his sophomore center blossom this season into a scoring (15.2 points per game), rebounding (9.7) star. He has watched her “grow right in front of my eyes” all season and she was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year.

“I think she’s going to learn from Georgia and take over a leadership role next year. But you know, it’s just been fun for me all year coming to practice with this group,” Brooks said.  “They’re resilient. They’re fun. This has probably been the least amount I’ve raised my voice all year as a coach.”

South Carolina has dominated the SEC under coach Dawn Staley and should be poised for another big NCAA Tournament run. However, she has been impressed by what Brooks has done at Kentucky in his first season.

“He’s got a really talented squad. They got chemistry, they work well together, and they got a really good point guard,” Staley said. “When you got a point guard that can distribute a basketball, that can create her own shot, that can knock down 3’s, that can read defenses – I mean, she puts people in great positions to just have to make a basket. And when you have a leader like that, it’s going to give you opportunities to win a lot of basketball games.

“(I’m) super happy for Kenny for making our league a better league because it’s not easy. It’s not easy at all, and it’s only getting harder and harder to win basketball games in our league.”

Kentucky will find out tonight if it gets to host NCAA Tournament games and what pairings will be for this week’s tournament.