2025 marked the final year of the first quarter of the 21st century. It wasn’t just a symbolic change in the calendar; change defined what it was like to be a Kentucky sports fan over the last year.
Not long ago, Kentucky had the longest-tenured basketball and football coach in the SEC, with the second-longest-tenured athletic director. As we prepare for 2026, Mitch Barnhart is the only one still working in Lexington.
Two First-Year Basketball Coaches
The year began with two new basketball coaches in the middle of their first seasons. Kenny Brooks revitalized a women’s basketball program that had sunk to the cellar of the SEC.