SEATTLE — Kenny Brooks likes to tell his Virginia Tech team to “stop and smell the roses.” It was fitting, then, that when there was no basketball left to play on Monday night, his top-seeded Hokies having defeated No. 3 seed Ohio State 84–74, he savored the moment he worked tirelessly to accomplish. At 8:41 local time, Brooks placed his left foot on a ladder positioned under the basket closest to Virginia Tech’s bench and began his deliberate climb to the top. He embarked on a slow ascent, one that mirrored the journey of the 54-year-old coach, who took over an ACC bottom-feeder in 2016 and in seven years guided it to the program’s first Final Four berth.
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At Virginia Tech, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” is a school anthem of sorts. So it should come as no surprise that as Brooks reached the final step of the ladder, the song echoed over Climate Pledge Arena’s loudspeakers. He snipped the net off entirely from the rim it had previously hung on. He waved it at his players, the school’s band and the dozens of others wearing maroon who had flooded the arena’s floor. In all, it took Brooks 59 seconds to get his feet back on the ground. Every second was well worth it.
WE GOIN’ TO DALLAS!!! pic.twitter.com/zsqYyMNN3w
— Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball (@HokiesWBB) March 28, 2023
“The fact that we can bring joy to Virginia Tech to Hokie Nation, that song comes on, it means everything,” Brooks said. “It means everything.”
Brooks likes to say he’s a “Virginia guy.” He’s never been afraid to leave the state, but since beginning his coaching career as a part-time assistant coach for his alma mater James Madison in 1993, he’s never left. After four seasons as an assistant coach for the men’s program at Virginia Military Institute, he rejoined JMU’s women’s program as an assistant. By March 2003, he took over the program’s head coaching duties full-time. Over the ensuing 14 years, Brooks finished with a winning record in all but one season. The Dukes became a dominant force in the CAA, going 60-3 in conference play over his final three seasons.
In 2016, Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babco*ck reached out to Brooks about the school’s head coach opening. Brooks decided it was time to “test my wits against the best.” It helped that both he and Babco*ck attended JMU, and that Babco*ck’s father was a mentor. “If I was going to leave it was going to be for a place that I felt comfortable with,” Brooks said.
When he arrived in Blacksburg, Brooks felt that there was nothing he couldn’t achieve with the program. Yet there was little reason to think Virginia Tech would climb to the heights it reached on Monday night. Before he took over, the school hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2006. It had only gotten past the second round once, in 1999. The ascent would take work and involve gradual steps — a WNIT appearances in his first three postseasons and NCAA Tournament berths in 2021 and 2022 — but it would prove worthwhile. “He just has crafted everything and stuck by his vision and what he wanted no matter what other people had to say,” senior center Elizabeth Kitley said.
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Read more: Women’s basketball experts’ Final Four and championship picks
Brooks is Virginia Tech’s coach, but he is as much a teacher as he is anything else. He conducts individual workouts with his players after practices. “He does the move, and I copy it exactly,” junior guard Georgia Amoore said of Brooks, who played his last collegiate game back in 1991 “This man is so fit.”
With 4:26 to play in the first quarter on Monday night, Brooks pulled Kitley aside during a timeout and showed her how he wanted her to pass when she was facing double-teams in the paint. With 1:49 to go in the third quarter, he calmly demonstrated how he wanted Kitley to defend.
Against the Buckeyes, Virginia Tech couldn’t have gotten off to a faster start offensively, making each of its first seven shot attempts. But the Hokies finished the quarter 1 of 9 from the field and trailed 25-23. Despite the slight deficit, Ohio State eased up on its vaunted press as Amoore easily slivered through it. On Saturday, UConn unsuccessfully tried to break Ohio State down via the pass. Amoore, who finished with 24 points, relied on the dribble.
Back on Jan. 26, Virginia Tech, then No. 4 in the country, lost to Duke by double-digits. Amoore scored just seven points and tallied just a single assist in the defeat. Brooks is not a yeller. But he is “super blunt,” Kitley said. So he made clear what he thought had to change going forward: “We need to be physical on the offensive end.”
Kitley said the loss to the Blue Devils stung, but the team hasn’t lost since and has racked up 31 wins in all. In the second half against Ohio State, Kitley showcased how far she had come. She scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and finished with a team-high 25 points and 12 rebounds, setting a school record for double-doubles (56). As Kitley, Brooks and five other Hokies paraded into the press conference room to reflect on their victory, the team’s star center sat to her coach’s right. “We wouldn’t be where we are without that mindset from him,” she said.
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Prior to the Sweet 16, Brooks said when he was rising through the coaching ranks, “there [weren’t] many people that were doing it or advocating for people that looked like me.” He is still the lone Black male coach at the power-conference level. With the win Monday night, he became just the third Black male coach to take a team to the women’s Final Four. He plans on continuing to use his platform to champion more coaches that look like him. “I keep screaming it from the mountain tops,” he said. “I think that we have tremendous people out there that are looking for opportunities.”
Brooks’ opportunity almost never came. Power-conference schools would have openings, but not reach out. “I had schools right across the mountain that wouldn’t call me,” he said. They know his name now, though. They watched as his arms shot up to the sky when the final buzzer sounded and he faced the Hokies faithful behind him and soaked in the scene.
Before walking into the arena’s tunnel and heading to a locker room water shower, Brooks thanked the school’s band for supporting them throughout the night. He chatted with a young fan, at one point asking her, “Did you have fun?” Brooks wanted her and her mother to stop and smell the roses too.
The Hokies are off to Dallas where they will face LSU on Friday night, but there’s a new moment the program will treasure. “It was more of a dream,” Brooks said. “And now that dream’s come true.”
(Photo of Kenny Brooks:Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
Ben Pickman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the WNBA and women’s college basketball. Previously, he was a writer at Sports Illustrated where he primarily covered women’s basketball and the NBA. He has also worked at CNN Sports and the Wisconsin Center for Journalism Ethics. Follow Ben on Twitter @benpickman
