‘I’ll do whatever this team needs.’ UK’s Brooks to make season debut at Florida.
Doctors have cleared Keion Brooks to play, Kentucky announced Thursday night. The only returning player with any experience playing for UK will dress and be eligible to play at Florida on Saturday.
“I met with him today and it was a little bit emotional,” UK Coach John Calipari said in a news release. “We have all been patient with this but obviously we all wanted Keion out there with us, no one more so than him. Now he is.”
Brooks has missed Kentucky’s first nine games this season recovering from a calf injury.
The timing of Brooks’ return caught the eye. He capped last season at Florida by scoring 10 points (his fifth double-digit game) and playing a career-high 27 minutes. He contributed two three-pointers to Kentucky’s second-half comeback from an 18-point deficit.
“Here’s the kind of person and teammate Keion is: When he and I talked about how he would fit in with what we’ve been doing as a team, his comment was, ‘Coach, I really trust you. I’ll do whatever this team needs me to do.’” Calipari said in the news release. “Pretty amazing stuff when you think about this is someone who came back as the leader of our team and the only guy who played minutes with us a season ago. All Keion cares about is trying to help this team win.”
Brooks averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 31 games as a freshman last season. He started six times.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 8:16 PM.
