For those first few weeks at Kentucky, coach Kenny Brooks was a bit lost.
Not in building a basketball program or a roster; he had done that before. But quite literally, Brooks was lost. He needed his GPS to drive to and from work, and more than once he found himself turned around when making his way from his office to the practice facility in Memorial Coliseum.
During campus visits with recruits, he made it very clear he wasn’t so much giving the tour as he was on the tour with the players he hoped to sign with the Wildcats. If he was asked about a certain building or directions on campus, he’d defer to his assistants.
“I felt like I was one of the student-athletes,” Brooks said. “I was getting on the back of the golf cart, acting like a student-athlete, because I had no idea what was what.”
Life had moved pretty quickly in March. Brooks’ season with Virginia Tech, where he had coached for eight seasons, ended March 22. He accepted the Kentucky head coaching job March 26 and was in Lexington two days later for his introductory media conference. In addition to getting his bearings, he also needed to hire assistants, meet players, recruit players, get to know his new colleagues and boosters — the general rigmarole for every new coach.
More than two months have…
