Kenny Brooks’ Culture Wins: Kentucky Skipped the Rebuild and Made the NCAA Round of 32

It’s all about culture for Kenny Brooks and the Kentucky Wildcats. In year one of a rebuild, there wasn’t much of a rebuild at all. 

The Wildcats earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the privilege to host the first two rounds. They nearly stumbled in Friday’s opener, edging out No. 13-seed Liberty by a single point, but they’re still dancing — and advancing to the Round of 32.

At the heart of it all is one thing: culture.

“We preach culture,” Brooks said. “We talked about it, and when you head into this day and age with the freedom of movement with the transfer portal, you still have to do your due diligence and you have to get players. We go in and look for players who are going to fit what we want to accomplish. We went in, and I’ve often said that we don’t try to get the best player, we try to get the right player.” 

Despite 11 new faces — freshmen and transfers alike — and two season-ending injuries before the first tip, the Wildcats never lost their grip on their identity. Instead, they adapted and quietly overachieved in what was projected to be a transitional year for the program.

“When we signed the last kid in May, I thought to myself, man, we’ve got a pretty good team,” Brooks said. “I thought we had a top 10 team, I really did, on paper. And then we had two injuries that could have been devastating. But we had time to reinvent ourselves, and were able to reinvent ourselves over the summer and into the fall because of the leadership of those two young women [Georgia Amoore and Dazia Lawrence] and the way that they’ve done it.” 

Among those leaders is All-American guard Amoore, who followed Brooks from Virginia Tech. She’s averaging 19.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and a steal per game — and playing like she has something to prove in her last season of college basketball.

“I think the move to Kentucky was the best decision for me and I’ll stand by that,” Amoore said. “I threw myself into a situation, obviously, where it was brand new. I trusted Coach Brooks. I’ve always trusted him. He’s literally never steered me wrong.”

Lawrence transitioned seamlessly from a mid-major to an SEC contender. Clara Strack, another Virginia Tech transplant, is one of the best defensive players in the nation. The bench isn’t deep, but it’s a roster built with purpose.

“We were trying to build something that was going to be sustainable and not just build a great team,” Brooks said. “We wanted to help build a great program.”

The Wildcats gave it everything they had on Friday to gut out a 1-point win over No. 13-seed Liberty, but if they want to make the Sweet Sixteen, they have their work cut out for them. 

“We get to play Sunday,” Brooks said. “That’s the best thing we can take from this. It is…Obviously the first round opponent, it’s good to get that under your belt. I think they’ll have a different mindset and different emotion level when it comes to Sunday. So that’s the good part about this.”

Sunday’s challenge is a tall one: No. 5-seed Kansas State and 6-6 post Ayoka Lee. But Kentucky is always ready to fight.

“Before the season, we were all saying how we didn’t want this to be like a regular rebuilding year,” Strack told On3. “We expected to win. We wanted to win. I think we still are just wanting to win.”