Kenny Brooks finally cleared the air that Clara strack  is his girlfriend and she’s pregn………more

Kenny Brooks finally cleared the air that Clara strack  is his girlfriend and she’s pregn………more

 

 

Kenny Brooks’ inaugural season came to a close Sunday afternoon in front of a packed Memorial Coliseum.

 

The No. 4-seed Wildcats (23-8) lost 80-79 to No. 5-seed Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — the program’s first round- of-32 appearance since 2021 — an overtime heartbreaker that put a cap on a season which not only returned Kentucky women’s basketball to the national stage, but offered a glimpse of the heights to which Brooks aims to lift iFollowing the game, Brooks expressed his gratitude to both his team and to the fan base, and celebrated the fact that, this year, “We built a foundation.”

 

“Big Blue Nation was terrific tonight,” Brooks said. “They were loud. They got to witness a great basketball game. I think we’re going to build off of that. It’s been a terrific year. I love Lexington. I love what Big Blue Nation is willing to pour into women’s sports. So I think it’s something for us to be excited about, and overall I think it was a success. It was a lot of fun.”

 

With only Cassidy Rowe and Saniah Tyler opting to return Lexington upon the firing of former head coach Kyra Elzy, Brooks took a program that had only six conference wins over the previous two seasons, and revitalized it. From Virginia Tech, he brought with him All-America point guard Georgia Amoore and rising star center Clara Strack, plus his daughter Gabby, and flipped Hokies signees Amelia Hassett, Lexi Blue and Clara Silva. Brooks then went out and signed Dazia Lawrence, Teonni Key, Jordan Obi and Dominika Paurová, and retained Elzy commit Tanah BecWith this reworked roster — and 11 new coaches and staffers — Brooks posted five ranked victories, oversaw the rewriting of several program records, sold out reserved season tickets and four additional games. Amoore and Strack highlighted a starting lineup in which everybody elevated in one way or another, and Brooks earned commitments from a pair of five-star prospects set to join the Wildcats over the next two years — including 6-foot-3 wing Kaelyn Carroll from Massachusetts, the No. 15 overall prospect in the class of 2025 and a McDonald’s All-American.

 

All that said: Who’s coming back for year two of the Kenny Brooks era?

 

The only knowns are that the program must say goodbye to Amoore and Lawrence, each of whom used their final year of eligibility this season.

 

The team also faces its first potential departures by choice: Clara Silva, the Wildcats’ 6-foot-7 freshman from Portugal, entered the NCAA transfer portal this week, as did junior guard Saniah Tyler and freshman guard Tanah Becker. Entering the portal does not automatically mean a player is leaving but in most cases does.ker.t.