All-American Brose sets realistic goals
Published 8:00 am Tuesday, December 23, 2025
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Kentucky junior Creslyn Brose is an All-American gymnast who dreams of eventually being an actress. (MARISSA GILCHRIST/Kentucky Athletics)
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Aaron Harrison was all smiles while doing the “Y” at the Kentucky-Indiana men’s basketball game. He believes UK has what it takes to make a postseason run this season. (VICKY GRAFF)
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Setter Kassie O’Brien (center) became the first Kentucky women’s volleyball player to be named national freshman of the year. (ETHAN RAND/Kentucky Athletics)
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Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy doesn’t believe Kentucky’s Mark Pope forgot how to coach during the offseason. (VICKY GRAFF)
Creslyn Brose is coming off a sophomore season that saw her score a perfect 10 on floor exercise during Kentucky’s Senior Night, was the NCAA Pennsylvania Regional floor champion and finished 15th at the national championships to earn All-American honors.
Now she’s hoping for an even better junior season as she also inherits a bigger leadership role for coach Tim Garrison.
“I set goals for myself. I think we all do because it is important so you can keep reaching for something,” said Brose, a North Carolina native. “I feel like if I don’t set a goal, I am just going to stay static. I set different goals for different events each year depending on what I am striving for. I didn’t quite achieve last year all I wanted.” Brose, a North Carolina native, said.
Brose doesn’t publicly share her goals, but says they are “nothing crazy.” Instead, it might be to focus more on her form and focus more on her cues during matches.
“On floor, my goal is to always have fun out there. I try not to put too much pressure on myself because I know what I can do. I’ve proved it to myself in the gym and out of the gym, so I just want to have fun on floor,” Brose said. “I try to keep realistic goals. I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I get a little frustrated if there is something I can’t achieve. I try to make slightly smaller goals and if that is something that I achieve, then that’s awesome. My goal is more set on maybe keeping a more positive mindset throughout my routine. If I achieved that and didn’t get the score I wanted, I’m proud of myself for achieving my goal.”
Former teammate Hailey Davis calls Brose a “showstopper” on floor.
“From the minute that I met her, I knew that she just had a special personality about her that needed to be seen. This girl belongs on Broadway because she has just a stage presence that you don’t come by very often,” Dailey said.
That “stage presence” will be needed in Brose’s professional aspirations because her dream is to be an actress. She’s minoring in theater at Kentucky.
“I love my acting classes. They’re awesome, definitely a little different and definitely a little weird sometimes, but I love it. My dream is to be an actress, and I would love to do it right out of college,” Brose said.
She was homeschooled until seventh grade and then the schools she attended did not have theater.
“I have never done any acting, so I really don’t know what really built this dream for me but I have had it since I was 6 years old. I came to college and saw acting classes were available. so I thought why not try it to see if I really want to do this,” the Kentucky junior said. “I have loved it so much and now know acting is something I definitely want to pursue.”
Brose won’t deny that she enjoys maybe “showing off” a bit during her floor exercise when her full personality is on display.
“I love floor because you do get to show your personality but also play a character, which I love. That’s kind of where I think it started that I wanted to do acting because it corresponds to you performing in front of people on floor and I love that,” Brose said. “There are people I know here and there in the acting world, which is really cool, and I will probably reach out to them right before I graduate to get an idea for what I might be able to do.
“I definitely want to network in that area of my life and it is something I would love to do right now, but I just can’t because of our competition season and practice schedules. I don’t want to take away from what I am doing gymnastics-wise because I think we have a team that can have a great season and I definitely want to do my part.”
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Aaron Harrison played in 79 games in his two seasons at Kentucky. The Cats lost to Connecticut in the 2014 national championship game and were 38-0 when they lost to Wisconsin in the 2015 national semifinals. He had 979 points, 218 rebounds, 129 assists, 86 steals and 18 blocked shots in two seasons. Harrison was a career 41% shooter from the field and 33% shooter from 3. He also got to the foul line 277 times in two years and made 78.7% of his free throws.
Kentucky finished his freshman season 29-11 and only 12-6 in SEC play. The Cats lost three of their final four regular-season games, including a 19-point blowout at Florida to end regular-season play, before winning five straight games in NCAA play as a No. 8 seed.
Even though the recruitment of him and his twin brother, Andrew, created a huge buzz with Big Blue fans as did their decisions to return for a second season at UK, Aaron Harrison had not been back to Rupp Arena for a UK game since 2015 before he returned to watch the Cats beat Indiana a few hours after he was in Memorial Coliseum watching UK volleyball sweep Creighton to reach the Final Four.
“The whole day was super fun, said Harrison, who also put on a youth clinic for the Police Activities League. “I got to enjoy the volleyball game and then see a game in Rupp Arena for the first time since I actually went to school at UK. It was super loud in there for basketball just like the support was for volleyball going to the Final Four.”
Harrison had played at Rupp Arena in The TBT in 2024, but he was glad to be back for the renewal of the UK-Indiana rivalry won by the Cats.
“I can’t really explain the fans here, they’re just incredible and I love coming back here,” he said.
He got a rousing ovation when UK cheerleaders brought him out to be the “Y” during the second half.
“I found that out at halftime? It was kind of last minute, but it was cool,” Harrison said. “The fans here, they show us the love for sure. I wasn’t surprised they cheered. They have supported me online and supported me everywhere I have been. Everywhere I do, there’s someone from Kentucky. It’s the best fan base in the world.”
Harrison, who also was part of a toy drive for Jarrett’s Joy Cart before the volleyball and basketball games, wanted to see the UK-Indiana game to see how the team would react to recent adversity/criticism. Fans had huge expectations for the Cats his freshman season, but the team just did not play that well consistently until postseason play started.
“I could really relate to this team just being in a situation where your back is against the wall. Everyone is saying that you need this, you need that, and we got to change this or change that. Everyone’s saying it and you hear it,” the former UK star said. “Everyone is saying this team could play harder. It’s interesting because I definitely know how that feels.
“I can still see us making a (postseason) run with the type of fight we had against Indiana. I think we can build off that and just keep playing with more confidence.”
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Freshman setter Kassie O’Brien’s play helped solidify UK’s run to the team’s first Final Four berth and championship game appearance in five years and only the second Final Four berth in school history. She did not open the season as the starting setter, but earned that position four matches into the season.
“I did have a lot of expectations for myself and getting that starting spot was a big one. All the awards and accolades I got were just props to my teammates. I couldn’t have done any of this without them. They were there pushing me along the way,” O’Brien said. “The coaching staff is just amazing. Every day when I got to the gym, I just wanted to get one percent better so I could be better for the team.”
O’Brien not only was named the SEC Freshman of the Year, but was also the national freshman of the year in voting by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. She became the first Kentucky player ever to be named national freshman of the year.
O’Brien’s confidence grew as the season progressed. Associate coach Kyle Luongo encouraged her to not try to do so many things and instead concentrate on being great on the things she would do.
“I think each game just unlocked a little bit more of me. It’s cool having (All-Americans) Eva (Hudson) and Brooklyn (DeLeye) around me along with all these girls that have the same energy because I want to be the same way. When I see Eva out there screaming and yelling, I want to do the same things,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien had 54 assists in UK’s national semifinal comeback win over Wisconsin and was at her best in the final two sets of the five-set win.
“Kassie was on the run a lot tonight. She had to run down a lot of serve-receive balls,” coach Craig Skinner said after the win. “She was pretty tired throughout the match. For her to keep her composure and execute in the fifth set again says a lot about her resiliency. Nothing really fazes her.”
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Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy admits he was shocked when Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope was so hard on himself and his team after an early-season loss to Michigan State when the Cats did not play well.
“I thought maybe he would just say something about this is not who we want to be or are going to be and the next time you see us we will be better or something like that,” DeCourcy said.
Pope and his players have seemed discombobulated at times this season but DeCourcy, one of the nation’s most respected college basketball writers, has no doubts about Pope’s coaching ability.
“He just needs to be Mark Pope. I think he is a fantastic coach and good person and that combination is going to serve Kentucky well for a long time,” DeCourcy said. “What bothers me is the number of people who have this idea that he was never the right guy (for Kentucky), should not have been the coach and needs to move on.
“Last March he was this guy who did wonderful things and everybody in the state thought he was great and wonderful. Then suddenly in the offseason he got dumb and forgot how to coach. That is not logical thinking and now how life works. You can lose confidence, but you don’t lose intelligence.
“Kentucky fans just need to give him a chance. Even if the whole year does not work out, thinking no one (recruits) will want to come to Kentucky next year is not realistic.”
The national basketball columnist also doesn’t think Kentucky’s failures so far this season have been due to the team’s payroll.
“That’s too easy just to say that. I think it is more a fracturing of confidence. Confidence changes everything in sports, but that is the least understood and least appreciated part of the game. Maybe Kentucky has not been making shots because the players’ confidence is broken,” DeCourcy said. “I don’t think players have stopped caring. I think some have just had a dip in confidence. The team’s confidence dipped when things did not start off well. You even see that happen at the professional level.
“I don’t know why anybody cares what they spent on the roster. We don’t know exactly what they make. The roster is what it is. What they spent is immaterial now. It’s just an easy weapon to use against them and that bothers me way more about the criticism of this team than anything else.”
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Teonni Key had a productive first season at Kentucky, but coach Kenny Brooks wanted her to “broaden” her game this season and was confident she would.
“She put in so much work to expand her game, to fine tune her game, to be confident in some of the things that she hasn’t done well. Because of that, because of her work ethic, we’ve kind of given her carte blanche. Just go. Just play. You make a mistake, it’s on me,” Brooks said before the season started.
“If you make another mistake, it’s on the other coach. We want her to just play with confidence because when she does, so many wonderful things can happen.”
Key is averaging 11 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.0 steals per game while playing 23 minutes per game. She’s shooting 56% from the field and 71% at the foul line.
Brooks believes when Key is at her best she gives Kentucky a chance to beat any team it plays.
“No question in my mind that she’s going to have a year that’s going to be impacted not just by her play but by her leadership, and that’s just as important to us because I half jokingly said she’s going to run for President,” the UK coach said.
“She could because she’s that striking of a personality, and everyone wants to follow her. She’s our leader, enforcer, she’s the one that the girls look to. She really has that demeanor that people are willing to follow her.”
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Quote of the Week: “We’re coming here to compete for championships, right? I’ve seen this program, I’ve been in this league, and I know what coach (Will Stein) can do. I couldn’t be more fired up,” former LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan, on joining Stein’s staff at Kentucky.
Quote of the Week 2: “I like a lot of things about him. He has developed some really good quarterbacks. He is going to bring a fun style of play into Kentucky,” former UK quarterback Tim Couch on the “George Plaster Show,” talking about new UK coach Will Stein.
Quote of the Week 3: “That might be one of my favorite games I played as a Kentucky Wildcat. It was our first time really feeling some adversity throughout the season. We were down at halftime, and we got down in the second half and we just rallied together, took the game over. …It was just a surreal moment, being able to play in a big-time Kentucky game, one that I had watched so many times as a kid,” former UK point guard Lamont Butler, on last season’s win over Duke.
