‘He’s antsy. I’m antsy.’ UK’s wait for Brooks’ on-court leadership continues.
While the coronavirus pandemic seemingly slows time to a standstill, Kentucky basketball can do the same. To alter time, just ask when Keion Brooks will play this season.
Tom Leach, the host of UK Coach John Calipari’s weekly radio show, did so Monday night.
Calipari’s reply included this: “Let’s hope in the next couple weeks he’s going to be available. It may be two or three weeks.”
Listeners might have felt they had been transported into the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” in which Bill Murray relives the same day again and again.
An injured calf sidelined Brooks during the preseason.
During a “virtual” appearance at the Lexington Rotary Club on Nov. 4, Calipari was asked for an update on Brooks. “Keion is not practicing yet,” the UK coach said. “ But (he) should be in a couple weeks.”
During last Friday’s news conference previewing Kentucky’s Sunday game against Georgia Tech, Calipari was asked about Brooks’ return.
“Let’s hope in the next two or three weeks,” Calipari said. “Then we can figure out what we do from there.”
Now, four games into Kentucky’s season, Brooks’ return is still weeks away.
In a text Tuesday, the player’s father, Keion Brooks Sr., said there had been no complication or reinjury delaying his son’s return.
“Injury still the same,” the elder Brooks wrote. “Just waiting on the doctors to clear him.”
In a follow up text, the father added that his son was “just listening to his body.”
Calipari has also said that Brooks and UK are simply following medical advice. “The docs just want him to take more time,” Calipari said on Friday. “They’re just going slow at it, and I understand.”
During a Nov. 18 teleconference, Brooks denied being frustrated.
“I’m a believer that everything kind of happens for a reason,” he said. “I believe God has a plan for me.”
When asked Tuesday how his son was handling the delayed debut to the season, Brooks’ father texted, “He is holding up but wants to be out there to help his team.”
Having lost three of its first four games, it seems safe to assume the UK team needs the help.
Brooks is the only scholarship player who played for Kentucky last season. The Cats have started four freshmen.
“We need his leadership …,” Calipari said of Brooks before adding, “it’s hard to do when you’re not on the court.”
More than once, Calipari has spoken of the challenging 2020-21 pre-conference schedule being formulated with the idea that Brooks would be playing.
“Without Keion, it makes this schedule totally a different deal, and basically not really fair to these guys,” the UK coach said after the opening victory over Morehead State.
Teammates have acknowledged the void created by Brooks’ absence.
“No Keion makes for a different role,” Cam’Ron Fletcher said on Nov. 25. “We just go hard. We’re just a team that fights. That’s it.”
During the preseason, Brandon Boston said of Brooks, “He brings leadership and experience to the team. He really has a big impact on the team.”
During the preseason and especially since the season began, Calipari has returned to the theme of leadership.
On Friday, the UK coach said he would cast a wide net.
“I want 12 guys to learn what it means to be a leader,” he said. “I was hoping that would be Keion. You know what, after the last game (against Kansas), he did take a little leadership role.”
Calipari spoke of an interim play as the wait for Brooks’ return continued.
“For the time being, it’s probably going to be staff driven,” he said of the UK team. “But if we’re ever going to become the team I think we can become, they have to be enabled and it has to be player-driven.”
His freshman season of 2019-20 required patience from Brooks.
“Early on, he questioned and thought too much about things instead of just playing a little bit,” his father said. “And he had to learn to get the speed of college down.”
In the victory at Florida that turned out to be Kentucky’s last game of the season, Brooks scored 10 points (his fifth double-digit total) and had career highs in minutes (27) and three-point baskets (two).
“I was glad to see his growth,” his father said, “and was proud of how hard he worked to get to where he was.”
Meanwhile, the wait for additional growth as a sophomore continues.
“He’s antsy,” Calipari said on his radio show Nov. 30. “I’m antsy.”
Postponed again
Kentucky’s game against Detroit Mercy on Dec. 15 in Rupp Arena has been postponed, UK announced Tuesday. The matchup, originally scheduled for Nov. 27 in the Bluegrass Showcase and then rescheduled because of COVID-19 safety protocols, was delayed a second time due to concerns with COVID-19 protocols and calendar logistics.
The postponement is due strictly to testing and safety logistics, UK said. Both UK and Detroit Mercy will continue with their current practice and playing schedule.
Since it has plans to play against Detroit Mercy later in the season, UK said it will not reschedule a different opponent for Dec. 15.
Next game
Notre Dame at Kentucky
When: Noon Saturday
Records: Notre Dame 1-1; UK 1-3
TV: CBS-27
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 2:11 PM.
