Keion Brooks Jr. is the rarest commodity in college basketball: a patient five-star. A level-headed former blue-chip recruit with the understanding that top-25 recruiting status is all but a promise to play significant minutes at Kentucky; that Brad Calipari’s chest is a mantra to live by as a hooper in Lexington: “Earned Not Given.”
As a freshman, Brooks was quiet on and off the court; a slim presence on a Kentucky team un-typically dominated by lovable upperclassmen. The Hagans-Quickley-Maxey-Richards foursome grew into Kentucky’s most (and only?) productive unit, leaving Brooks in a power forward carousel with veteran sniper Nate Sestina and a 6-10 second-year big EJ Montgomery.