The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
Persons are additionally studying…
“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.
The Southeastern Convention and the Large Ten generate a lot income for his or her faculties that these two leagues have separated themselves from the ACC and different main conferences.
That truth was not misplaced on Kenny Brooks, who stepped down as Virginia Tech’s girls’s basketball coach Tuesday to take the reins at SEC member Kentucky.
“This example got here and to be sincere with you, the panorama of faculty athletics is altering,” he mentioned Thursday at his introductory Kentucky press convention, which was streamed on Kentucky’s athletics web site. “With the management of the SEC and the place it is going alongside … the Large Ten, you form of wish to align your self to have the ability to compete on the highest degree yr in and yr out.
“I appeared into all these elements and every part that it introduced — the assets to have the ability to exit and compete persistently — and I simply thought in my intestine it was the suitable transfer.
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“It was going to take one thing that is extraordinarily particular for me to maneuver and I believed this was the suitable alternative.”
Brooks steered Tech to 180 wins in eight seasons. He guided the Hokies to the 2023 Closing 4.
“Once I bought to Virginia Tech, I felt prefer it was a sleeping large,” Brooks, 55, mentioned. “As I continued to analysis every part about Kentucky, I do know the lecturers listed below are fantastic, I do know that the fan base may be very passionate. I do know that assets will mean you can get to a degree the place you possibly can compete with anybody. I do know it is within the wealthy historical past of the SEC. And the SEC’s management and the place it is going, you wish to be aligned with that to attempt to create one thing very, very particular.
“Once I added all that up, what I got here up with was it was going to be a sleeping large. It simply must be woke up.”
In accordance with The Athletic, Brooks will make $1.3 million within the first yr of his five-year contract with Kentucky. He’ll make $1.4 million in his second yr, $1.5 million in his third yr, $1.7 million in his fourth yr and $1.8 million in his fifth yr.
Brooks had signed a three-year contract extension with Tech in July that was to run by way of the 2028-29 season. The deal was for $6.4 million in complete pay over these six years, starting with the 2023-24 season. He was set to reap $975,000 in complete pay for the second yr of the deal. He was set to make $1.2 million in complete pay within the ultimate yr of the deal.
Brooks mentioned he was “very, very snug” at Virginia Tech.
“When you concentrate on Kentucky, you concentrate on basketball,” Brooks mentioned. “Once I was approached a few state of affairs that might presumably be with Kentucky basketball, I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying. We had a beautiful factor going … at Virginia Tech. It was very, very particular. … We created a buzz for girls’s basketball that’s a lot wanted and far deserved.”
Brooks, who steered Tech to the ACC regular-season title this yr, replaces Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired on March 11.
The SEC boasts girls’s basketball powers similar to South Carolina and LSU. Oklahoma and Texas are coming aboard.
“The SEC is the perfect girls’s basketball league within the nation, and it simply bought stronger with the additions that we introduced in,” Brooks mentioned.
However Brooks mentioned “the sky is the restrict” for his new program.
“With the assets ready to burst, … you possibly can capitalize on it,” he mentioned. “Nobody thought we had been going to go to the Closing 4 at Virginia Tech.”
Brooks mentioned NIL cash is a “excessive precedence” for his new program.
“This league is considerable with some groups with their NIL alternatives,” he mentioned. “If you are going to be aggressive, … you must be within the ballpark.
“It is a necessity … to have the ability to compete in the perfect league within the nation.”
Brooks met Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari on Thursday.
“I will lean on him,” Brooks mentioned. “I am trying ahead to selecting his mind … about Kentucky basketball. As a result of after we discuss Kentucky basketball, it is an umbrella that you just wish to be beneath.”
Brooks hopes the Kentucky basketball model will assist him in recruiting.
“With the model of Kentucky, I feel you can recruit a higher-level child,” he mentioned.
An $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum, which is the place the Kentucky girls’s basketball, girls’s gymnastics and ladies’s volleyball groups play, is predicted to be prepared for the autumn.
“I am unsure I might be right here if it weren’t [being renovated],” he mentioned. “It is an arms race generally for services.”
Brooks’ household flew with him to Kentucky on Thursday, together with his spouse; their youngest daughter, Gabrielle Brooks, who was redshirted as a freshman on the Tech crew this season; their center daughter, former Tech girls’s basketball participant Chloe Brooks; Chloe’s fiance, former Tech males’s basketball standout Hunter Cattoor; and their granddaughter.