‘We have a long ways to go.’ Where Kenny Brooks says UK women still have room to grow.

Expectations are high for Kentucky women’s basketball this season, and Kenny Brooks knows it.

Since his hiring at the end of March, Brooks has spoken openly about how, in today’s college basketball landscape — what with NIL, the transfer portal and their related, nebulous rules and regulations — fans want to see high levels of success right away.

Even the national media seems to expect a quick turnaround for a program which, just last season, posted an overall record of 12-20 (4-12 SEC) ; earlier this week, the Wildcats found themselves ranked No. 22 in the 2024-25 Associated Press preseason top 25, their first inclusion in the poll since All-American Rhyne Howard was on the roster.

Big Blue Nation specifically, of course, holds high expectations for a program that, in its history, has never reached an NCAA Final Four and holds only one SEC regular season championship and two SEC Tournament titles, simply because of the caliber of the Brooks hire itself and all that came with him.

Though it’s been said many times, the fact bears repeating — Brooks’ decision to move from Virginia Tech reverberated throughout women’s college basketball, from a coaching carousel domino effect, to fast-rising assistants and respected staff members around Division I landing in new roles, to high-profile talent in high school, the transfer portal and internationally committing to different head coaches and/or programs.

During his introduction at SEC Women’s Basketball Media Day on Wednesday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he first saw Brooks in person at the 2023 Final Four, during which Brooks’ No. 1-seeded Hokies battled eventual national champion LSU in a game that, according to The Athletic, drew 3.4 million viewers with a peak of 5 million. Not only was it Sankey’s true introduction to Brooks and his unique style of play, but it was also a real, first look for countless basketball fans, as well.

That 2022-23 Virginia Tech team, which went 31-5 overall and 14-4 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, brought fans the first ACC Tournament title in program history, as well as the first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, first trip to both the Elite Eight and the Final Four and only the second-ever Sweet 16 appearance.

Over the course of his 22 years as a head coach, Brooks has amassed a 517-204 record, winning 180 games at Virginia Tech and more than 330 during his 14 seasons at James Madison before that.

“It’s a great time for me to look at an opportunity such as this,” Brooks said Wednesday. “They don’t come very often. When (UK director of athletics) Mitch (Barnhart) called me a few months ago, it was a no-brainer.”

Amid all the excitement surrounding the program and its potential, transfers such as All-America point guard Georgia Amoore (Virginia Tech), 1,000-point scorer Dazia Lawrence (Charlotte) and Brooks, himself, the Wildcats appear to be locked in and ready to take on the challenges ahead.

Brooks and his veteran players can identify what works and what doesn’t. And, now fewer than 20 days from the start of Brooks’ first season as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, he’ll tell you there’s certainly room for improvement.

“I think we really assembled a group that I’m excited about,” Brooks said. “How good will we be right away remains to be seen. What I do know is we’re going to be able to come out, play a good brand of basketball, we’re going to fight, play well. Our goal right now is to try to get better each and every day. It’s really helped that when you have your quarterback that follows you with you, Georgia Amoore, she and I have been joined at the hip for the last four and a half years. The fact she wanted to follow me to the University of Kentucky, it’s a blessing. Now I have another coach, someone who can really talk to the other student-athletes.

“With the exception of Georgia and (Virginia Tech transfer) Clara Strack, no one else has ever played for me. Those two are doing a tremendous job of just really helping coach up the other players. As a result, we’ve had a really good couple weeks of practice. By no means are we where we want to be. We have a great group of young people that are working extremely hard to represent us. We’re looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. As I said before, our goal is to try to contribute, continue to get better every day. If we can continue to do that, I think good things will happen for us.”

The Wildcats’ roster features 11 newcomers, including five — freshmen Tanah Becker, Lexi Blue and Clara Silva, redshirt freshman Gabby Brooks (Virginia Tech) and junior college transfer Amelia Hassett — who have no in-game Division I experience. Furthermore, two of UK’s transfers expected to contribute this season — graduate guard Jordan Obi (Penn), who will be reevaluated in January, and sophomore guard Dominika Paurová (Oregon State), who is out for the season as she recovers from a torn ACL — are no longer options after sustaining lower-leg injuries during the offseason.

When asked in which areas he’d like to see the Wildcats improve ahead of their Nov. 4 season opener against South Carolina-Upstate, Brooks smiled and said, “All of ‘em.”

“We have a long ways to go,” Brooks said. “We’re tinkering. I think it’s well-documented we’ve had a couple injuries that have had us to change how we’re going to play this year. We’re very tall, with the exception of Dazia and Georgia. We’re going to be long, athletic. We’re going to have to try to utilize to our strength. We got kids that haven’t played for me yet. We’re really working on that. We got great leadership. They’re looking to get better and better every day. They’re hungry. We have a lot. We’re not going to be anywhere as good in the beginning of the season as I think we will be in the middle or the end. We’re just going to continue to work hard every day and get better in all aspects.”

With the exception of junior guards Cassidy Rowe and Saniah Tyler, both of whom have played for UK their entire careers, Kentucky’s roster is entirely new. As Brooks mentioned, only Amoore and Strack have ever played for him before, but they’re also the only newcomers who’ve played together in a college game.

Amoore, a projected first-round pick in the 2025 WNBA draft, highlighted the team’s need to continue to build their chemistry in order to maximize on-court success.

“Always can improve in chemistry and energy,” Amoore said. “And I think, you know, a lot of it probably has to do with the uncertainty of what’s about to come, but definitely embracing that. And I can’t be too picky because we’re only going to get experience through playing with each other. We’ve not played. We’ve had practices, and that’s cool, but I’m not going to play against Dazia, I’m going to play with her. So it’s just different.”

Kentucky’s nonconference schedule features two fellow AP preseason top 25 teams — No. 15 North Carolina, which UK will play on Dec. 5 in the 2024 ACC/SEC Challenge, and No. 17 Louisville, which comes to Memorial on Nov. 16 in this year’s edition of the annual rivalry game. Illinois (which received 23 votes in the preseason poll) and Kentucky will face off Nov. 27 as part of the Music City Classic in Nashville. The Wildcats’ remaining nine nonconference opponents should allow some breathing room as the team prepares for its difficult league slate.

Picked to finish eighth in the SEC preseason media poll and one of seven teams in this year’s tougher, deeper SEC to make the AP preseason poll, Kentucky’s thoughtful and realistic approach to building a successful foundation keeps in mind that, once the conference opener against Mississippi State rolls around Jan. 2, there won’t be much — if any — breathing room at all.

When asked about where the Wildcats need to improve ahead of the season opener, Lawrence said just that.

Though Lawrence moved from Charlotte, with whom she spent time in both Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference, she understands what’s demanded of the new-look Wildcats when facing an even deeper, more loaded SEC.

“There’s no gimme games in the SEC, as in other conferences,” Lawrence said. “But every game, you got to come out and compete.”

They may not be prepared to tackle that challenge just yet, but every member of the team expects to reach that standard by the time conference play rolls around.

“(We’re) still just getting more competitive with each other,” Lawrence said. “We’re too nice to each other, so just getting that more aggressive edge, like just coming out, just getting that aggressive edge. ... The SEC is a dogfight every night, so we just got to come out and be ready to fight.”

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