Kenny Brooks stresses the importance of bringing over most of his Virginia Tech staff

On Tuesday, Kenny Brooks sat down with our friends at BBN Tonight for an interview in which he discussed a number of topics. Among those topics was the new coaching staff he’s built.

Brooks’ staff consists of a lot of the same faces he coached alongside during his tenure at Virginia Tech. In fact, of the 11 other staff members officially listed by UK, five of them followed Brooks from Virginia Tech.

• Lindsey Hicks (Associate Head Coach)
• Radvile Autukaite (Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator)
• Kendall Dillard (Assistant Coach & Director of Player Development)
• Will Sims (Director of Scouting & Program Analytics)
• Tim Clark (Special Assistant and Chief of Staff)

Making the transition to Kentucky hasn’t been easy for Brooks, as he has noted many times. Him saying “it’s been a whirlwind” is his version of Mark Pope talking about his players “understanding the assignment”. Every coach has their sayings, it seems. Point being, Brooks has had to do a lot of adjusting heading into his first season at Kentucky.

However, by bringing over most of the staff that he had at Virginia Tech, Brooks has been able to eliminate unnecessary stress by establishing a sense of familiarity with the program.

“We really are a big family,” Brooks said of him and his staff on BBN Tonight. “When you can operate in that manner, there’s a lot of familiarity. I think that’s gonna bode well for us in the beginning because in a transition, if you’re trying to get to know a new place and new people, that’s double the whammy.”

He continued, “We’re learning a new place, but we’re learning it together because we have such a familiarity with each other, and I think that’s gonna be a big part of our success.”