Kentucky has hired Virginia Tech women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks, Virginia Tech announced Tuesday. The deal is for five years, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Brooks was a big swing for Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, who understood the importance of investing in a women’s basketball coach during this time of significant growth of the sport. Kentucky is also in the process of completing an $82 million renovation of the Memorial Coliseum, where the UK women’s team plays its home games, which is expected to be finished ahead of the 2024-25 season.
The Wildcats are expected to make Brooks the third-highest-paid coach in the SEC behind LSU’s Kim Mulkey ($3.15 million per year) and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley ($3.1 million per year). While the exact dollar amount is not known, the contract will be more than the $1.1 million a year that Brooks was making at Virginia Tech. After leading the Hokies to their first ACC tournament title and Final Four appearance last season, Brooks signed a contract extension with Virginia Tech last July that would’ve kept him in Blacksburg through the 2028-29 season.
Brooks will replace Kyra Elzy, who was fired after four seasons on March 11 after the Wildcats finished this season 12-20 and failed to make the…
