'He's bringing more respect over to Kentucky.' Talia Goodman on Kenny Brooks' first offseason

All offseason, we have raved about Kenny Brooks. As soon as his hiring was announced, the Commonwealth of Kentucky was buzzing in excitement and anticipation. Why? Because of his remarkable track record.

Brooks produced a 180-82 overall record across eight seasons at Virginia Tech, including four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and a Final Four berth in 2023.

He took over a program that hadn’t won at least 20 games since the 2005-06 season, and he went on to win at least 20 games in each of his first four seasons in Blacksburg and made the NCAA Tournament in 2020-21 despite only winning 15 games that season (COVID-19 limited the schedule).

A big part of his success at Virginia Tech was because of his ability to bring in players through the transfer portal. He and his staff were not only getting high school recruits from literally around the world, but Brooks was able to reel in some high-level college players as well.

KSR talked with one of On3’s newest additions, Talia Goodman, about how Kenny Brooks has done in his first offseason in Lexington. If you don’t know Talia already, she knows every in and out of what’s going on in the women’s basketball transfer portal. As the face of On3 HER, Talia looks at things (Kentucky in this case) from a more national perspective.

Maybe not-so-shockingly, Talia is pretty high on how the last couple of months have looked like for the ‘Cats.

The importance of bringing over talent from Virginia Tech

There’s a bit of a running joke around Lexington that Kenny Brooks is establishing “Hokie West” at UK, and that’s because he has brought over five players that were committed to or already on Virginia Tech.

When you have a roster to fill, however, it proves to be very helpful to already have a foundation set for what you’re trying to build.

“It was huge,” Talia said about Brooks bringing over the talent. “It’s obviously hard when you’re starting out fresh anywhere, and we’ve seen that with a bunch of head coaches that have had to do that — even this year.”

She added, “He started off on a really good note and was able to just kind of expand upon that by using the portal. He was able to have kind of a stable start, and then just worry about how to improve after that.”

Gaining the respect of others on a national level

It wasn’t too long ago when Kentucky lost to South Carolina by an average of 55 points over two games while struggling to manage a single road win through the course of a whole season. There was a time when Kentucky made three Elite Eights in four years. Fast forward a decade, and the ‘Cats became the laughingstock of the SEC.

However, by hiring Kenny Brooks and by seeing what he has done in such a short time at UK, onlookers from the national level — whether that be other programs, fanbases, or the media — are starting to finally see Kentucky as a force to be reckoned with again.

“As a coach, he’s bringing more respect over to Kentucky than they’ve had,” Talia noted.

While it is important to remember that the results from this season will dictate just how good this offseason really was, people from across the college basketball landscape are starting to see that Kentucky could make some noise and that they’re worth keeping an eye on.

“Obviously, [Kentucky] had that run a few years ago, but I think he’s definitely playing a part in the national attention that Kentucky is getting now.”

Bringing in mid-major talents is underrated

Of course, there are always the big-name, prime-time transfers that shake up the college basketball landscape. For example, All-American point guard Georgia Amoore.

However, something that people, especially at the national level, don’t value enough is bringing in the proven talent at the mid-major level, and Talia thinks that Brooks has done that about as well as anyone.

“I actually like [bringing in mid-major talent] even more,” Talia explained. “I think it’s a really proven way to find that kind of talent that is maybe overlooked a little more often, and I think we’re seeing that jump happen a lot more lately.”

“Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” Talia also mentioned. But I like that gamble. I like to see that happening more, and I think the two (Dazia Lawrence and Jordan Obi) that he was able to get over there — I feel pretty good about them.”

Talia also mentioned that Lawrence would have made her top 10 remaining transfers list had she not committed to Kentucky yet. So, you have to like the hidden gems that Brooks has been able to discover there.

Who’s the sleeper on this Kentucky team?

With All-American Georgia Amoore, European sensation Clara Silva, and several other high-profile players ready to headline Kenny Brooks’ first team in Lexington, who exactly is the one that’s flying under our radars?

JUCO star Amelia Hassett? Former top 10 recruit Teonni Key? Well believe it or not, on the national level, it’s actually Dazia Lawrence in Talia’s eyes.

“I don’t think people are even talking about [Lawrence] nationally, which is kind of crazy to me because she obviously was someone who stood out for me.”

“I haven’t seen a ton about her being talked about other than you guys — the Kentucky media,” Talia added. “There’s some national media of course that mentioned her, but I don’t think there’s much of it.”

All that means is that Dazia Lawrence is UK’s own little secret, and soon enough, she’ll truly be a household name across the college basketball landscape.

Kenny Brooks appears to have been a grand slam hire for Mitch Barnhart at this point. Of course, what really matters is the wins and losses and championships, but the first step to attaining those things is assembling the roster.

Hopefully, what has been the most exciting offseason in several years can also translate to being the best regular season and postseason in several years as well.