By Jimmy Robertson
For the first time since he arrived in Blacksburg, Kenny Brooks started a practice without Regan Magarity on the court.
For the first time in the past two seasons, he began a practice without the services of Taylor Emery.
That duo provided much production over their careers – try 2,974 points, 1,640 rebounds, and 320 assists – and one may have expected Brooks to feel a little out of sorts when the 2019 Hokies began fall practice Sept. 24 without either in attendance.
Not so much, though, the longtime veteran coach said, providing a somewhat surprising response.
"What you end up watching – and it's actually a joy to watch – is younger kids grow into their roles," Brooks said. "When you've been doing it for 20 years, you've seen it [players depart] before, so you're used to it. It's a joy to watch kids grow and mature into a different role, and that's what is going to happen with us."
He's certainly spending a lot of time learning about his team, as the Hokies lost five seniors off last season's squad that finished with a 22-12 record (6-10 in the ACC) and a fourth consecutive WNIT berth (three under Brooks). In looking back, the 2018-19 season represented a little bit of a disappointment, especially considering the talents of Magarity and Emery and the expectations of making the NCAA Tournament, but injuries to Alexis Jean, Rachel Camp and Kendyl Brooks left the Hokies short of the production needed to pull out victories in several games.
The lack of a deeper bench probably was the single largest contributing factor as to why the team lost two conference games in overtime, one conference game by two points and another by four points. Tech lost seven of 10 conference games by nine points or less.
"The basketball gods just weren't on our side," Brooks said. "When you start off like that [0-7 in ACC play], sometimes it's really hard to recover from a situation like that — when you start 0-7 in a really tough league, and four or five of those games, you had a chance to win, and things didn't go your way. Our kids could have folded, but they didn't. We won the last six out of nine and finished strong and gave ourselves a chance. We didn't have room for error going down the stretch. We probably had a couple of games that we could have won, and we just weren't able to get over the hump. But overall, I thought the program took steps in growing and learning how to win."
Now he gets ready for his fourth season, and his 2019-20 team features an interesting collection of parts. The Hokies have three seniors, but only one of whom – daughter Kendyl – has played for him. The other two, Taja Cole and Lydia Rivers, came to Tech in the offseason as graduate transfers.
In all, the roster includes nine players who haven't played a minute of basketball for Virginia Tech.
"It is a concern, but it is exciting," Brooks said. "You don't want it to be that way. We had a big class to replace, and we knew that going in. It's kind of how things fell."
Dara Mabrey, Trinity Baptiste, Aisha Sheppard and Kendyl Brooks form the core of this year's team, and all four of them started at least 11 games last season. Mabrey is probably the catalyst after a freshman season in which she averaged 11.2 points per game, led the Hokies with 92 assists, and made the All-ACC Freshman Team. She also set a school single-season record with 80 3-pointers, hitting 46.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Kenny Brooks wanted to play Mabrey more in a shooting guard role last season, but the injury to Camp left him without another point guard. He played Mabrey mostly in a shooting guard role during the Hokies' three games on a European trip this summer and envisions her playing mostly at that spot.
"I think it's more natural when she can do a little bit of both," Brooks said. "To have her play exclusively at the 1 [point guard] is really not fair to her because it wears her down, and I think that's what happened to us last year. She had to play the 1 without the services of Rachel, and I think we would have benefitted more with her playing off the ball more and Rachel playing the point. We just weren't able to do that.
"I thought she had a tremendous three games in Europe, and I like that. I think she's adjusting to it, and she's doing what is best for the team. If we can get her off the ball and have Taj [Cole] penetrate and kick, if you've got a 46 percent 3-point shooter out there, that's a pretty good option to have."
Cole came to Tech after spending the past two seasons at the University of Georgia – she began her career at Louisville. As a junior, she averaged 11.5 points and 5.3 rebounds and led the SEC at 7.0 assists per game. She finished eighth in the nation with 202 assists.
Cole entered the NCAA's transfer portal after the season, and Brooks quickly went after her. The Richmond native had attended Brooks' camps when he coached at James Madison, so he knew her and her mom well.
"She's experienced, and she's quick," Brooks said. "The analogy you can use is she's like a fifth-year quarterback going to a new coach. The things she was required to do elsewhere, they're different than what I want her to do. It's just a matter of her trying to get adjusted to the style and the way that I want to play compared to the style that she's used to playing."
Like Mabrey, Baptiste may find herself playing multiple positions. She started 19 games as a sophomore last season and averaged 10.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. She worked mostly in the post, but Brooks may play her some at the small forward position after she shot a team-best 55.3 percent from beyond the arc in 2018-19 (38 attempts).
In fact, so, too, could Sheppard, who made 59 3-pointers as a sophomore, and Kendyl Brooks – provided she returns healthy after recent hip surgery. Freshmen Taylor Geiman and Makayla Ennis also figure in the mix at small forward.
"It could be an unorthodox lineup in a lot of different ways," Brooks admitted. "We could play smaller. It could be Aisha, it could be Kendyl, or it could be one of the freshmen. Or we could go unorthodox in another way and put Trinity there.
"We played Trinity on the perimeter a lot in Europe in the summer. If you look back on our statistics [last year], she was our highest 3-point percentage shooter, and that came off a year when she never even shot one in junior college. But she's got a nice stroke from 3, she's poised, and she knocks it down. Decision making and ballhandling will be a little different for her, but she offers an element there that makes us bigger and stronger and able to rebound with some bigger teams, so we like that versatility that we have with that.
"We just don't have a traditional 3. If you sculpt out a traditional 3, we don't have that on our roster, but we have a lot of kids who can fill that role."
For sure, he has a lot of kids with the ability to contribute in the post. Arguably, Tech's post contingent represents the deepest part of the team and the most proven. The group features five players taller than 6-foot.
Baptiste headlines the group, but Brooks expects big things from both Rivers and freshman Elizabeth Kitley. Rivers transferred from nearby Radford and averaged 7.7 points and 8.6 rebounds during her three seasons there. As a junior, she averaged a double-double at 12.2 points and 10.4 rebounds on her way to earning first-team All-Big South honors.
Rivers has ties to Tech – her father, John, played both football and basketball in Blacksburg in the early 1990s. Actually, John Rivers and Brooks played against each other four times when Brooks played at JMU.
"I've known her for a long time," Brooks said. "Watched her and competed against her. I've known her dad for a long time. When she made herself available, we were, like, 'Yeah, we'd be very interested.' It was a dogfight to get her. She visited Purdue and a couple of other schools. She had a lot of Power 5 schools that were very interested in her. Why wouldn't you be when you have a 6-2, athletic, experienced, polished post player? It went down to the wire, but we were very fortunate."
Brooks also was fortunate to land Kitley, a 6-5 center out of Greensboro, North Carolina who teamed with another Tech freshman, guard Cayla King, to lead their high school team to two state titles. Both scored more than 1,000 points in their careers, and Brooks called Kitley the most polished post player whom he ever has recruited.
In addition, Brooks gets the services of 6-4 Alex Obouh Fegue, a junior college All-American who averaged 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game for Eastern Florida State in 2017-18. She enrolled at Tech in December, but took a redshirt season and now has two years of eligibility remaining.
"Just adding depth, that's something that you need in this league," Brooks said of his recent recruiting emphasis on size. "We had one of the better post players in the league last year in Regan, but she got worn down. When other teams were bringing in their second and third waves, she was still going against them, and then comes the first wave back in after they've rested. It was just a disadvantage."
The group may get a talent boost with the addition of Asiah Jones, a transfer from Southern Cal. The 6-3 Jones averaged 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per game for the Trojans as a redshirt sophomore last season (she missed a season because of an injury).
Jones applied to the NCAA for a waiver to become eligible immediately and had not heard back as of Oct. 15. Brooks likes her athleticism and hopes to get her services this season.
"She's, by far, our most athletic post player," he said. "If we're fortunate to get Asiah eligible, I'll be like a kid in a candy store because I'll have options."
Overall, Brooks expects this team to be much different than last year's group. The Hokies may not shoot the 3 as well after a season in which they smashed the school record with 324, but they may be better defensively and at rebounding, and they hope to take better care of the ball. They do need to find a "go-to" player at the end of games.
Mostly, though, they need to see if all these new pieces mesh well enough to win games.
"Obviously, we have to stay healthy, and kids have to generate some chemistry amongst each other, but it's really going to be a work in progress," Brooks said. "Last year, you knew where the ball was going to go to get certain looks, and you knew what you were going to get from certain people … We are new. We're relatively young in some areas, but … we have kids who are capable. We just have to put it all together and see what we can do."
Brooks certainly has the Hokies trending in the right direction. Prior to his arrival, Tech had won 20 games in a season just once since joining the ACC. Yet it has won at least 20 in each of Brooks' three seasons and 65 overall.
Obviously, he wants his teams to be more of a force in ACC play, and he wants to get to the NCAA Tournament, but he feels that it's only a matter of time before those things happen – not if, but when. And in a perfect world, this season.
"Now I feel like we're really starting to build the program, build it in the mold that we want," he said. "The first three years, if you look back on them, we had some disappointments, but in the grand scheme of things, we won 65 games … I'm watching people take over Power 5 programs, and they're winning nine games in their first year and maybe 12 in their second. It's just a matter of you have to build it.
"So we're obviously going in the right direction, and we're excited about it. In one or two games [last season], if the ball had bounced a different way, we would have reached our ultimate goal, but I really like where we're going with the program."
MEET THE NEWCOMERS
TAJA COLE
Gr., 5-8, Guard
Richmond, Virginia
Graduate transfer, University of Georgia
• Started all 28 games for Georgia last season
• Averaged 11 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7 assists per game
• Led the SEC and was eighth nationally with 202 assists
• Spent her freshman season at Louisville
MAKAYLA ENNIS
Fr., 6-0, Guard/Forward
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
• Chose the Hokies over Wake Forest and Washington
• Played for the U17 Canadian national team in the summer of 2018
• A 4-star recruit according to Prospect Nation
ALEX OBOUH FEGUE
R-Jr., 6-4, Center
Chatearoux, France
Eastern Florida State College
• Chose Tech over Texas Tech, Minnesota and UC Riverside
• Averaged 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore
• Earned honorable mention All-America honors from the National Junior College Athletic Association
• Played in 24 games for Chipola College as a freshman before transferring to Eastern Florida
TAYLOR GEIMAN
Fr., 6-0, Guard/Forward
Hanover, Pennsylvania
• Chose Tech over West Virginia, Iowa, Texas Tech, JMU and Princeton
• Averaged 13 points per game as a senior
• The York-Adams League Division I Player of the Year
• Scored more than 1,000 points in her career
ASIAH JONES
R-Jr., 6-3, Forward
Sacramento, California
Transfer, Southern Cal
• Averaged 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per game as a redshirt sophomore
• Missed her true sophomore season with an injury
• Played in 29 games as a freshman
• Attended high school in South Carolina and averaged 11.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3 blocks per game as a senior
CAYLA KING
Fr., 5-11, Guard/Forward
Greensboro, North Carolina
• Teamed with Elizabeth Kitley to lead Northwest Guilford High School team to two state championships
• Averaged 11.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game as a senior
• Two-time Most Outstanding Player in the NCHSAA Class 4-A championship game
• Scored more than 1,000 points in her career
ELIZABETH KITLEY
Fr., 6-5, Center
Greensboro, North Carolina
• Teamed with Cayla King to lead Northwest Guilford High School team to two state championships
• Missed a portion of her senior season with a knee injury
• Averaged 18.4 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game as a junior
• Scored more than 1,000 points and grabbed more than 500 rebounds in her career
LYDIA RIVERS
Gr., 6-2, Forward
Kinston, North Carolina
Graduate transfer, Radford University
• Started 67 games in her career at Radford
• Averaged 7.7 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during her career at RU
• Averaged a double-double as a redshirt junior (12.2 points, 10.4 rebounds)
• Earned first-team All-Big South honors as a redshirt junior
