Virginia Tech charged into nationwide title rivalry final month, a lot because it had a yr in the past en path to this system’s first time within the Remaining 4. Now, essentially the most storied period in Hokies historical past hit a moderately gorgeous conclusion.
Head coach Kenny Brooks is leaving this system to take over at Kentucky, the college introduced on Tuesday. Brooks, 55, led Virginia Tech since 2016 and constructed probably the greatest packages within the nation. He went 180-82 over his eight-year profession, together with 56-13 over the previous two years, and led the Hokies to 4 straight match berths.
“We employed Kenny in 2016 with the intent of revitalizing our girls’s basketball program,” Virginia Tech director of athletics Whit Babcock stated in a press release. “Evidently, Kenny, his workers and student-athletes created a tradition of excellence on and off the courtroom. He was an unbelievable mentor to the younger girls in our girls’s basketball program and a terrific consultant of our division and college. We want Kenny and his household properly on this subsequent chapter of his profession.”
The exit compounds a troublesome month for Virginia Tech after they have been in line to contend for a nationwide championship. Elizabeth Kitley, a fifth-year senior and three-time ACC Participant of the Yr, tore her ACL within the last recreation of the common season and was unavailable for the postseason. Their possibilities at a deep run within the NCAA match plummeted and No. 5 Baylor ended their season in need of the Candy 16.
Brooks and the Hokies performed coy on the harm till after Choice Sunday after they secured a No. 4 seed that allowed them to host. He introduced it the identical morning experiences surfaced he was the principle goal for the Kentucky job after that struggling SEC program parted methods with Kyra Elzy on March 11.
These two last video games in entrance of a sold-out Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg served in hindsight as an official goodbye to the people who constructed this system. Brooks, Kitley and fifth-year senior Cayla King are all leaving, and it appears the next likelihood that time guard Georgia Amoore, who has an additional yr of eligibility below the COVID-19 waiver, will as properly.
Within the early years, Kitley and Amoore have stated they spent their freshman and sophomore years providing donuts on campus to entice friends to the Coliseum. This system grew to become so profitable behind the quartet that they grew to become rock stars on campus. Amoore (19.8 ppg, 6.8 apg) and Kitley (22.8 ppg, 11.4 rpg) have been some of the harmful duos within the nation over the previous two seasons who lifted Virginia Tech to its first ACC match title in 2023 and its first ACC common season title this month.
“She and Liz each have transcended our program into one thing that lots of people, most individuals, in all probability everyone would have thought is unimaginable,” Brooks informed Yahoo Sports activities in January.
They have been even higher this yr. Kitley, Amoore and King have been the one returners from the Remaining 4 squad, however Brooks believed this group stuffed out by transfers and freshman was the deepest squad he had ever had. Clara Strack stuffed in for Kitley within the NCAA match and performed properly as the subsequent star for Virginia Tech, although its unclear who will lead the crew as head coach. The participant expertise within the ACC is deep, and the Hokies might want to make a stable rent to maintain competing at a excessive degree.
As for Amoore, Brooks stated in January they have been speaking by way of her choices by way of staying in faculty or leaving for the WNBA. It is a dialog he had in earlier years with Kitley and Aisha Sheppard, a participant he additionally offers credit score towards for serving to develop this system.
Amoore and Brooks are extremely shut, and he describes her as his “mini me.” After they scrimmage in follow, he stated he’ll usually maintain her out in order to not over-use her and he or she’ll name performs. It is the identical play he would name about 70% of the time, he stated. It is possible Amoore follows him to Kentucky, although she could be an asset to a WNBA crew in want of some extent guard.
Even when she stays at Virginia Tech for one final go, this system will not look the identical.
“I stay assured within the trajectory of our girls’s basketball program and when mixed with our assets, particularly NIL, that the way forward for our girls’s basketball program is shiny,” Babcock stated.
Kentucky is attempting to compete once more in an SEC led by South Carolina and LSU, two packages battling for the nationwide title once more this yr. Matthew Mitchell resigned in November 2020 citing his well being, and Kentucky fared properly in Elzy’s first two years along with his recruiting class. They went 37-21 with an SEC match title. However they went 24-39 with six mixed SEC victories over the 2 years since then.