Kenny Brooks refers to Kentucky WBB as a "sleeping giant" in the SEC

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For the last couple of seasons, the Kentucky women’s basketball program has been everything but competitive in the SEC. Amongst the juggernauts that are South Carolina and LSU, a historically great program in Tennessee, and several others on the rise, Kentucky just didn’t belong — just six combined conference wins over the last two seasons.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past that Kentucky had eight consecutive seasons of finishing in the top four in the SEC from 2009-2017. The ‘Cats even won the SEC regular season championship in 2012 and the SEC Tournament championship in 2022. Of course, things haven’t been the same since then.

The ‘Cats haven’t had a winning record in conference play since the 2020-21 season — Kyra Elzy’s first at the helm — when they went 9-6 against the SEC. However, with the hiring of Kenny Brooks, Kentucky could very well get itself back into the SEC-contender mix.

In his introductory press conference on Thursday, Brooks had an interesting analogy when talking about Kentucky.

“I know it’s in a rich history of the SEC, and the SEC’s leadership and where it’s going, you want to be aligned with that to try to create something very, very special,” Brooks stated. “When I added all that up, what I came up with was it’s gonna be a sleeping giant and it just needs to be awakened.”

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Brooks took Virginia Tech to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and even a Final Four in 2023 before leaving for Lexington.

Plus, after the Hokies went 10 seasons without managing 20+ wins (2007-2016), Brooks went 20-14 in his first year in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech has won 20+ games in every season since that dry spell (minus the COVID year when they went 15-10 with a shortened schedule). He’s won the ACC regular season title (2024) and the ACC Tournament title (2023).

With Kenny Brooks leading the charge, Kentucky may very well wake up from its slumber and return to national prominence in the near future.