Kenny Brooks wishes the NCAA Tournament would go to super regionals for the women’s tournament

Kenny Brooks wanted Kentucky to keep winning and was not ready for the season to end when UK lost to Texas in the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals. However, he admitted he was “exhausted” and so was his staff because of the work it takes to succeed.

“We went to the Final Four three years ago (at Virginia Tech), and I remember during this time, it was moments to just really reflect,” Brooks said during the NCAA Tournament. “You had an opportunity to just really look at the police escort that you had coming in and you got to embrace it.”

This year when Kentucky beat West Virginia to advance to the Sweet Sixteen Brooks and his staff met for “hours and hours and hours” about recruiting.

“With so many things going on, you haven’t really had an opportunity to sit back and reflect. As much as you work and how hard you worked to get to this point, you want to smile about it sometimes, but you’re always thinking about what’s on the horizon for tomorrow,” Brooks said. “It’s ever-changing, and that’s the frustrating part, because you can never get a grasp on any of it. You think that you have it. Then all of a sudden it’s like somebody pulls a rug out and says, ‘No, we’re changing it and now it’s going to be this way now.’

“It’s extremely frustrating because we, my staff in particular, they’re very hard-working and we want to get out ahead of everything, but we can’t. We always seem like we’re one step behind because there are so many changes in what’s going on.”

Brooks hopes going forward coaches will be able to enjoy postseason success more without having to worry about what is changing.

“I told my staff, and I didn’t even really realize it, I’ve been a head coach for 24 years, and this is the second time that I’ve been to the Sweet 16. I wanted to enjoy it, and it’s really hard because of everything that’s going on,” the Kentucky coach said.