'You can't just plug and play.' Kenny Brooks details his philosophy on the transfer portal

Immediately following his hiring, Kenny Brooks hit the ground running in Lexington. Before he took the Kentucky job, Brooks was in the middle of building a top-10 recruiting class at Virginia Tech. As expected, he managed to flip just about all of his commits and even brought over some of their roster.

In his first year at Kentucky, Brooks has established that he’ll be looking to recreate the magic he had in Blacksburg.

Of course, building a roster from scratch is difficult. Only two players from last season’s roster, Cassidy Rowe and Saniah Tyler, are returning. It does help that Tanah Becker, who committed to the ‘Cats under Kyra Elzy, is sticking around as well. Luckily, Brooks was able to reel in five players who were either playing or committed to the Hokies too.

That leaves us with a bit of an issue, however. There are only nine players on and signed with the team. Typically, Brooks has 12-13 players on his rosters, so there are still roughly 3-4 pieces that he is missing. While Amelia Hassett is technically a transfer, she was bound to Virginia Tech after rising up from the JUCO ranks.

That leaves UNC transfer forward Teonni Key as the only transfer that Brooks has truly brought in at Kentucky with no connection to the Hokies. After missing out on five-star high school guard Imari Berry, Brooks will now have to round out this roster in the transfer portal.

Below is the latest KSR 2024-25 Roster Tracker to help you get a better idea of what Kentucky is working with:

After a red-hot start in Lexington, things have slowed down for Kenny Brooks. After picking up three commitments in one day at one point, he now hasn’t had one since April 15th when Key committed. Despite that, it isn’t time to sound the alarms and enter panic mode.

In an interview with the Women’s Hoops Network earlier this week, Brooks detailed his philosophy on the transfer portal.

“You have some new juice coming in,” Brooks noted. “You’ve just got to find the players who really fit what you want to do. I jokingly refer to the transfer portal as like speed dating. You get into it, and you’re essentially developing a relationship with young people over a month and they got to make a decision whether they want to come to you or not… It’s just a different time.”

He added, “It’s not the only recipe for success. You can’t just plug and play. Just because someone averaged 15 points a game somewhere else doesn’t mean they’re going to average 15 points a game for you.“

So, could Brooks just go after every all-conference player in the transfer portal and call it a day? Sure. However, it’s clear that he wants to build a team that will ultimately fit together and function in a winning system.

Soon enough, the roster will be finalized and then we’ll really be able to crack down on expectations. For now, we just have to sit back and let Kenny cook.