Keion Brooks, right, can only help younger teammates like Devin Askew, left, in practice since he'll be out another 2-3 weeks with his calf injury. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky obviously lacked on-court leadership the second half of Sunday’s loss against Richmond — something not totally unexpected since coach John Calipari has 10 players who have never played in a game for him. The one player who has — sophomore forward Keion Brooks — is out with a calf injury and apparently is going to be out longer than originally anticipated.
Originally Calipari had said that Brooks would likely miss the first week of games but then should be back from his calf injury.
Now Calipari says Brooks, who averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game as a freshman, could miss extended time.
“We’ve got to get Keion back,” Calipari said Monday. “Let’s hope in the next two, three weeks he’s back and let’s see what we can do from there.”
Next two-three weeks? No wonder assistant coach Joel Justus was so vague when asked about Brooks after Sunday’s loss and if he would be back for Tuesday’s game against Kansas.
“Our medical staff will update us on Keion if there’s any changes. I think we’re going at it with the same, I guess, protocol in that we’re — that we have been going at,” Justus said Sunday. “I don’t know that I can answer your question there, other than guys that are ready will play, guys that are ready to practice tomorrow at 1 o’clock will practice. We’ll see who is ready to play there on Tuesday night.”
Kentucky better have everybody ready to play against No. 6 Kansas in Indianapolis in the Champions Classic after falling 76-64 to Richmond when it made 21 turnovers, missed foul shots, didn’t make a 3-pointer and didn’t have an assist the second half and only five in the game. Kentucky was outscored 48-32 in the second half by the Spiders, the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic 10.
“I thought even in the first half we went from what we looked like against Morehead where everyone gave it up to where everyone was trying to score. This is what goes on with young guys,” Calipari said.
“They revert back to what they know, which is ‘I’m going to get mine here. I’m gonna get some baskets.'”
And now for up to three more weeks there will be no Keion Brooks on the court to help change that if it happens again.
Calipari says he does not consider this a setback for Brooks.
“The doctors just want him to take some more time,” Calipari said.
Just hoping UK has “time” to wait for him to get back to help get this team going the direction it wants.
