Kenny Brooks addresses Cassidy Rowe departure, delivers passionate message on state of college basketball

One of the biggest stories this offseason for Kentucky was that of Cassidy Rowe leaving the program, which got quite the negative reaction around the bluegrass. Kenny Brooks has now since addressed it for the first time and what led to it from his side as head coach of the Wildcats.

Brooks discussed Rowe not being back on the roster while speaking to the media last week. He didn’t reveal too much as Rowe wasn’t there to further speak for herself. However, he made it clear he thinks highly of all of the members of last year’s team, those who are still there and those who are now gone, and attributed any issue to this era as he tries to build his program.

“In that situation, you know, obviously, Cass is not here right now and it’s unfair for me to even talk about it because she and I were the ones who talked in that situation and she’s not here right now, you know,” said Brooks.

“All of them, I thank them for their contributions. They’re all in different places. I wish them nothing but the best, nothing but the best in what they’re going to do. But my responsibility is to make sure that we continue to grow, you know, as a basketball program,” Brooks said. “There’s no hard feelings on our end with anyone because I learned that there’s going to be a lot of movement. And when, you know, a player comes in, they say can you guarantee me more? And this is not (Cassidy). This is just players in general. Can you guarantee me more opportunities? I say I can’t guarantee them, alright, and then they make a decision to go somewhere else. You know, in this day and age, you’ve got to give them a big hug, you’ve got to wish them well because there’s growth, there’s movement on both sides.”

Rowe, a native of Virgie, Kentucky, spent three seasons playing for UK under Kyra Elzy and Brooks. She appeared in 67 games in her collegiate career with averages of 1.6 points (28.3% FG, 23.3% 3PT), 0.9 assists, and 0.7 rebounds.

However, back at the end of March, Rowe announced on social media that she was stepping away from the program as well as the game of basketball despite having a year of eligibility left to instead focus on finishing her degree to become a physical therapist. Still, losing her caused some criticism of Brooks.

Part of that criticism is that Brooks had not addressed Rowe’s departure at the time. Brooks, though, shared that it’s not something he felt he needed to speak on, whether in-person or online, especially because of how much he loved last year’s team and the season they had.

“One of the things I’ve learned too is that, you try to defend yourself in the media or social media? You can’t. You can’t. And for me to go out and say I’m not going to say anything bad about, you know, one of these young people that I really appreciate their contributions? Because that’s what it looks like, you know. That’s what it looks like,” Brooks explained.

“Last year was the best year I’ve ever had coaching, alright. The best year…and it was because of the young people that I got to work with…I enjoyed this whole group, every one of them,” said Brooks. “But then, when you get to certain points, you know, sometimes there’s decisions that are made. And I’ve gotten to the point in my career that, you know, I have to understand that I’m going to make some tough decisions, alright, and not everyone is going to like them. And, you know, then some people, they’ll try to control the narrative and some people will even say stuff like they know me. They don’t know me. They don’t know the situation. They don’t know everything.”

Again too, this is simply the way of things at this point of college sports, specifically for a new coach of a program. There are a lot of choices to make when it comes to a team and not all of them are going to be popular, even if they’re what could be for the best for the team moving forward.

“College basketball right now, or college athletics in general? It’s different. A lot of movement and it’s different for players, it’s different for the coaches, and it’s different for the fans. You know, a lot of people don’t understand, you know, what goes into decisions, how things are. There’s a lot of movement,” said Brooks. “I as a head coach, when I make decisions, every decision I make? 33% of the people are going to be happy, 33% of the people are going to be mad, 33% of the people are going to be indifferent. But I have to made decisions all across the board that I feel like are going to be best for Kentucky Women’s Basketball.”

Some will continue to take this hard with Rowe being an in-state product who long wanted to play for Kentucky. That said, this was nothing against her, or anyone else who left, with Brooks as it’s just the way some things go in a given offseason.

“I can honestly say, I thank each and every one of them for their contributions. If any one of them, any one of them who that are not here called me tomorrow and said hey, can you do this for me? I wouldn’t hesitate. I wouldn’t hesitate and I would do it for them,” said Brooks. “It’s just, this is life, you know, and my responsibility is to make sure that Kentucky Women’s Basketball is positioning themselves to be as good as they can possibly be and that’s what we did.”