SEC women’s basketball poses new challenge for UK’s Kenny Brooks. ‘We’re different, too.’

When Kenny Brooks set out to make his first Kentucky women’s basketball nonconference schedule, he kept one thing in mind — make it challenging but not impossible; Southeastern Conference play awaits.

“We play in the toughest league in the country,” Brooks told the Herald-Leader. “You don’t want to load up on super, super (elite) teams all along, and then you’re going to go in (to conference play) and do the same thing ... we’ll be able to learn a lot about ourselves before we get into the SEC.”

A rising star in the Atlantic Coast Conference since his arrival at Virginia Tech in 2016, Brooks is no stranger to the gauntlet of a league schedule that a Power Four conference might present. Though elite talent exists across Division I women’s basketball, the fact remains that, since 2005 — unless Geno Auriemma is at the helm — only power conference teams have won NCAA women’s basketball titles.

Keeping in mind that several schools have changed league affiliations since hoisting a trophy, of the 13 national championships won by power conferences during that stretch, the SEC (Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU) leads the way with six titles, followed by the Big 12 (Baylor, Texas A&M) with four, the ACC (Maryland, Notre Dame) with two and the now-altered Pac-12 (Stanford) with one.

Anchored for decades by the unprecedented leadership of the late Pat Summitt at Tennessee, the SEC has long been considered by many to be the most difficult and deepest conference in women’s college basketball. Regardless of one’s own opinion, it is undeniable that the SEC became both deeper and more competitive ahead of the 2024-25 season due to new entrants Texas and Oklahoma, both of which are considered contenders for a league championship this year.

While Brooks’ hiring is widely considered to be a massive success for UK, questions regarding his ability to translate his success from the ACC to the SEC have been raised. At Virginia Tech, Brooks took his methods and lessons learned from 14 seasons at James Madison (his alma mater) and turned the Hokies into a regular threat in the ACC. Though it took some time in the pre-NIL and transfer portal era, Brooks led Virginia Tech to the NCAA Tournament each season since 2021, including a No. 1 seed and a trip to the Final Four in 2023, where the Hokies fell 79-72 to eventual national champion LSU.

In 22 seasons as a head coach, Brooks has assembled a career record of 517-204 (71.7%). In the ACC, Brooks posted a conference record of 76-60; since the 2020-21 campaign, he built a league record of 49-21 and led the Hokies to their first ACC Tournament title (2023) and ACC regular-season title (2024) as the conference increased in parity and prestige.

Brooks told the Herald-Leader that he tries to tell people the ACC has no shortage of great players and great coaches. Interestingly enough, Brooks said, “there are a few teams in the ACC that play like SEC teams.”

He specifically cited Clemson, which was coached by Amanda Butler from 2018-24 after she spent 10 years at Florida.

“They wanted to press,” Brooks explained. “They wanted to mess the game up, so to speak.”

And the comparisons don’t stop and start with Clemson. Brooks might have moved from a smaller conference (Colonial Athletic) when he left James Madison for Virginia Tech, but the chasm between the ACC and SEC isn’t as wide as some might think. In fact, it’s truly not a chasm at all.

“Boston College, they really just tried to make the game murky,” Brooks said. “Duke and Notre Dame were as physical as any teams in the country, regardless of what conference affiliation they had. Louisville plays the same way.”

Brooks’ official joining of the SEC, of course, isn’t the first time he’s had to face the current standard of SEC basketball. While at Virginia Tech, Brooks was intentional with his scheduling and his teams were experienced come postseason play; his Hokies earned wins against Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. And they battled against Georgia and LSU.

“You can get a feel of the physicality,” Brooks said. “But at the end of the day, you have to make people play basketball. Someone wants to be physical, then you have to use their aggression against them, and maybe you’re in the bonus a lot quicker. You just can’t play on your heels.”

Brooks said he and his staff learned that lesson while playing against Duke and Notre Dame.

“Yeah, it’s different,” Brooks said. “But we’re different, too. And so I think people are going to have to adjust to our style, and what we do and how we run stuff, as well. But at the end of the day, it’s basketball.”

Just as with his trajectory at Virginia Tech, Brooks knows success is built day by day. Though ESPN’s offseason projections have the Wildcats in the way-too-early top 25 and as a No. 6 seed in its bracketology, what matters to Brooks and his staff is the process of building a true team over the course of a season. Regardless of the opponent and its conference affiliation, the approach stays constant. It doesn’t hurt, however, that this isn’t his first brush with what’s to come.

“Every day, just learning and trusting each other, and us trusting them,” Brooks said. “And then all of a sudden, before you know it, you’re in a five-, six-game winning streak, and, you’re just starting to play together and playing your best basketball at the right time. No one wants to peak in December. You want to be peaking at the right time. And this year will be the same. You know, we won’t look as good in November as we will in January, and so that’s just our goal, to continue to get better every day.”

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