[Westside]

What are your thoughts on Cassidy Rowe having her scholarship pulled by Coach Kenny Brooks?

[-STAT-]

Very unfortunate situation all around.

Rowe has dealt with so much in her career, dealing with knee injuries that had set her back only for her to come back stronger, being in the spotlight at a young age, her dream always wanting to play for Kentucky, then realizing that dream and being a part of the Lady Cats, a great representative of Eastern Kentucky. Even with 2 coaching changes and the ever-revolving door of the transfer portal, Rowe still stuck it out through it all. Even tho her playing time dipped quite a bit this past season, she was still a fan favorite, and from all accounts I have seen and read the last few days, a great teammate, consummate professional who was a great veteran presence on this team, even with so much roster turnover.

I understand that Coach Brooks done as good of a job as he could in his first season, got some great players in the portal, won over 20 games, got to the round of 32 in the Tournament, had a great season. By looking at the roster they lose quite a bit, and that left open 7 scholarships for next season, I'm sure he will hit the portal hard to fill out the rest of the roster, but all this could've been avoided. Even if the scholarship was still pulled, I bet she would still want to be on the team even as a walk-on, but that would still be doing her a disservice.

All in all it was definitely a bad look, I feel bad for Cassidy who has committed & dedicated so much time and effort and really became a great influence on young girls, especially here in the mountains who have that dream of playing for Kentucky, that it can come true with hard work. Brooks has received a lot of heat for this, and rightfully so, but as long as he keeps winning, I guess that's all that matters.

[The_Messenger]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

[Van Hagar]

This isn’t as uncommon a practice as you might believe. Scholarships are year to year. My daughter played softball at UK, suffered a career ending injury midway through her freshman year, and UK would not renew her scholarship going forward. Maybe under the circumstances we could have fought it, but she didn’t want to continue there just for academics. My point is, this happens. I hate it, and it’s a bad look for the program, but it’s a part of the ‘business’ that college athletics really is. It’s what can you do for the university, not what can the university do for you.

I think what really galls me about this situation is Rowe only has one year left, and UK had almost no bench this year to begin with. Her knee injuries have probably derailed her chances of being a real contributor, but is Brooks bringing in so many new players there isn’t room for someone who has dedicated three years to the program? It really sucks.

[jetpilot]

Crappy move but she handled it perfectly and with so much class. Her Instagram post that someone posted on X made my eyes misty.

[jetpilot]

One other thought: Commonplace or not, I can't imagine Mark Pope doing this to someone. Maybe I'm wrong, but I cant imagine it.

[Van Hagar]

Oh, I think you are 100% right. I think he would fight for his walk-ons and managers, much less his scholarship players.

[Bluecat]

I understand this happens but I feel this is a bad look on Brooks, especially with Rowe being a senior and a KY girl. Not that is all that matters but she dedicated to being part of this team. Even if she wasn't in the plan for PT how would it have hurt to keep her?

[4 Quarters]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him  for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

Cal pulled scholarships when he arrive in Lexington.

[Old School Hound]

It's a business. Nice guys finish last ( or, no better than tied for sixth). Is winning championships still the goal, or just pussyfooting around?

[plantmanky]

1. If you dont understand that scholarships are year to year, thats on you the athlete.

2. Stoops pulls about 10-12 scholarships every year on football players, you never hear about it.

[jetpilot]

It's a business. Nice guys finish last ( or, no better than tied for sixth). Is winning championships still the goal, or just pussyfooting around?

Nice guy finished above Cal (tied for 9th) in SEC and won more tournament games than Cal did in years. All for $6,000,000+ less. Huge business improvement in year 1.

[jetpilot]

Read Cassidy Rowe's Instagram post here: Perfect

https://x.com/KHutchisonKSR/status/1906100132828872945

[Waitaminute]

I’d hire a HS girls coach in the state, then just make a team full of KY HS players. Then get killed every game. And then complain about the state of the program.

Leave him alone and let him coach. He brought UKs women back.

[-STAT-]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him  for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

Cal pulled scholarships when he arrive in Lexington.

Wasn't a scholarship player, but there was a walk-on that was on the roster still from the previous regime (Billy G) that was literally told that even tho at that time, Cal didn't keep walk-ons on his team, that he would still meet with that player to discuss what they could work out. This was less than a week after Cal was hired. Three weeks went by and no meeting was ever arranged, player went to find out what was going on, was told by Robic that he was no longer on the team. Never even had a meeting with the coach and then was told by the assistant that he wasn't even on the team anymore. Might have been the very next season or the season after, Cal had walk-ons on his team. I guess Cal just thought that he didn't owe this player anything, but if you agreed to have a meeting even if it was to tell him that they just didn't have the spot available for him, then so be it, but nothing was ever done about it on the staffs end, the player had to try and find something out on their own, and was basically told to pack their bags. 

This was a Kentucky kid by the way also.

[4 Quarters]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him  for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

Cal pulled scholarships when he arrive in Lexington.

Wasn't a scholarship player, but there was a walk-on that was on the roster still from the previous regime (Billy G) that was literally told that even tho at that time, Cal didn't keep walk-ons on his team, that he would still meet with that player to discuss what they could work out. This was less than a week after Cal was hired. Three weeks went by and no meeting was ever arranged, player went to find out what was going on, was told by Robic that he was no longer on the team. Never even had a meeting with the coach and then was told by the assistant that he wasn't even on the team anymore. Might have been the very next season or the season after, Cal had walk-ons on his team. I guess Cal just thought that he didn't owe this player anything, but if you agreed to have a meeting even if it was to tell him that they just didn't have the spot available for him, then so be it, but nothing was ever done about it on the staffs end, the player had to try and find something out on their own, and was basically told to pack their bags. 

This was a Kentucky kid by the way also.

I don't remember this deal.  The kids I'm referring to were Dukota Euton and Vinny Zollo.  I will add neither of these kids had any business on the Ky. roster.  A year or so later he pulled the plug on the Wilsher kid that transfered to Gonzaga.

[-STAT-]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him  for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

Cal pulled scholarships when he arrive in Lexington.

Wasn't a scholarship player, but there was a walk-on that was on the roster still from the previous regime (Billy G) that was literally told that even tho at that time, Cal didn't keep walk-ons on his team, that he would still meet with that player to discuss what they could work out. This was less than a week after Cal was hired. Three weeks went by and no meeting was ever arranged, player went to find out what was going on, was told by Robic that he was no longer on the team. Never even had a meeting with the coach and then was told by the assistant that he wasn't even on the team anymore. Might have been the very next season or the season after, Cal had walk-ons on his team. I guess Cal just thought that he didn't owe this player anything, but if you agreed to have a meeting even if it was to tell him that they just didn't have the spot available for him, then so be it, but nothing was ever done about it on the staffs end, the player had to try and find something out on their own, and was basically told to pack their bags. 

This was a Kentucky kid by the way also.

I don't remember this deal.  The kids I'm referring to were Dukota Euton and Vinny Zollo.  I will add neither of these kids had any business on the Ky. roster.  A year or so later he pulled the plug on the Wilsher kid that transfered to Gonzaga.

I remember both of those situations very well. 

As for Wiltjer, I think his first mistake was going away so far from home to play for Kentucky.

[Westside]

Pulling scholarships is a "Death Sentence" for college coaches. If you think opposing coaches will not use this against UK and Brooks, then he is greatly mistaken. When the word gets out that he will easily pull scholarships, blue chips players will not come or they will transfer out at the first signal of problems. This decision will haunt him  for the next 3-5 years. If I was a blue chip players, I would not trust Brooks.

Cal pulled scholarships when he arrive in Lexington.

Wasn't a scholarship player, but there was a walk-on that was on the roster still from the previous regime (Billy G) that was literally told that even tho at that time, Cal didn't keep walk-ons on his team, that he would still meet with that player to discuss what they could work out. This was less than a week after Cal was hired. Three weeks went by and no meeting was ever arranged, player went to find out what was going on, was told by Robic that he was no longer on the team. Never even had a meeting with the coach and then was told by the assistant that he wasn't even on the team anymore. Might have been the very next season or the season after, Cal had walk-ons on his team. I guess Cal just thought that he didn't owe this player anything, but if you agreed to have a meeting even if it was to tell him that they just didn't have the spot available for him, then so be it, but nothing was ever done about it on the staffs end, the player had to try and find something out on their own, and was basically told to pack their bags. 

This was a Kentucky kid by the way also.

Landon Slone

[The_Messenger]

Time will tell if these type moves hurt Brooks' image as a trusted recruiter. I say it will and any talented player that he recruits needs to know that he is not above stabbing them in the back. Of course everybody has their own opinion of him but I'm not a big fan.

[plantmanky]

Time will tell if these type moves hurt Brooks' image as a trusted recruiter. I say it will and any talented player that he recruits needs to know that he is not above stabbing them in the back. Of course everybody has their own opinion of him but I'm not a big fan.

He didnt recruit her though did he?