Keion Brooks’ play breathes life into Kentucky. ‘We’re going to be OK.’
Before the game at Florida on Saturday night, Keion Brooks spoke with teammate Davion Mintz.
“I’m just going to go out there and have fun,” Mintz recalled Brooks saying of his belated season’s debut. “I have nothing to lose. I’m not supposed to be playing right now.”
After a standout performance that infused the UK team — and surely the Big Blue Nation — with gaiety, Brooks confirmed Mintz’s retelling.
“I mean, what did I have to lose?” Brooks said after Kentucky defeated Florida 76-58. “… I didn’t want to add any pressure on myself and try to play so well.”
Without trying too hard to do so, Brooks played so well. He scored 12 points. He grabbed six rebounds, which tied for the team high. His four assists were a team best. He filled out his busy stat line with a steal and a block.
Brooks pooh-poohed numbers in a box score being an objective.
“I’ve been telling teammates my focus is not scoring or getting assists or getting rebounds,” he said. “I just want to go in the game and say, ‘Guys, calm down! We’re going to be OK.’ That’s literally all I wanted to do.”
UK Coach John Calipari offered an example of an intangible contribution made by Brooks. He said he assigned Brooks the duty of inbounding the ball when Florida tried to rally by pressing.
“Because he was the one I knew would throw to the right guy,” Calipari said. “And that’s what he gives us.”
Mintz, who shares point guard duties with freshman Devin Askew, suggested that this calming effect was a two-way street.
“It kind of gives me a comfort being out there and passing him the ball,” Mintz said of Brooks.
As the ball goes to Brooks, Mintz described his state of mind as “Oh, god, that’s Keion. He’s about to do something good with it.”
Mintz summed up Brooks’ contribution at Florida by saying, “He gave us a whole different element to the game. Keion was amazing.”
Brooks, who had been sidelined by a calf injury, entered the game when Florida called a timeout at the 14:19 mark of the first half, Kentucky had just taken its first lead at 13-10.
Barely 30 seconds later, Brooks scored when he dunked a lob pass on a UK fast break.
When Florida got within 53-41 in the second half, Brooks and another revived UK player — Brandon Boston — combined for eight points in a 13-0 run that sealed the victory.
Calipari spoke of the calming presence provided by Brooks, a graybeard as a sophomore.
“How about he calms them down on the court,” Calipari said. “So, he takes it off our staff.
“That’s what makes it amazing at Mississippi State. How we pulled that off without him.”
Brooks acknowledged the contribution he can make off the court as a player who can interpret Calipari’s language, verbal and body, for the team’s many newcomers.
“Playing for Cal before, I can kind of navigate some of the struggles they have,” he said.
Of course, the waters have been unusually turbulent as the Kentucky team navigated its early-season struggles.
Calipari used graphic imagery to say not all of college basketball wants to see a Kentucky revival. That he used the past tense suggested the revival is under way.
“I know there were probably people who put dirt on the coffin,” he said. “And we pushed the coffin open and said, ‘Hey, you’re not putting dirt on this.’”
Kentucky lost six straight games for the first time since 1923.
“We got our war wounds, and came out battling in a couple losses we had,” Mintz said. “Now, this is a new team. This is a new year.”
Calipari has been preaching a fresh start. He spoke of UK being undefeated in January, never mind it following a winless December.
Kentucky’s largest margin of victory at Florida since a 79-54 victory in 1997-98 gave that contention credibility in capital letters.
It also fit a theme of renewal. The beginning of Southeastern Conference play. The emergence of Dontaie Allen as a sharp-shooting antidote to the team’s poor perimeter shooting. The new year ushering in a realistic hope for a new direction. And at Gainesville on Saturday night, Brooks being not only a new piece, but key cog going into the future.
“I could always tell, slowly but surely, we were headed in the right direction,” Brooks said. “Especially with a new year, people make resolutions.
“Everybody came here with a new mindset. That we’re going to continue to push through and play together and make the right plays and trust our coaching staff that they’ll put us in the right position.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Keion Brooks’ play breathes life into Kentucky. ‘We’re going to be OK.’."
