Yet, Virginia Tech is still being overlooked. "No one's picking us," Brooks said on Friday in Seattle. But that doesn't stop the group from being inspired.
"I'm biased, but I think we're the most motivated, locked-in team playing right now," forward Taylor Soule said.
Why? Well, the Hokies are aware. They read everything that's written about them, listen to everything that people say. That doesn't mean that they let it put them off, though; it just fuels the fire that's helped them to a 29-4 record, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and a Sweet 16 appearance for the first time since 1999.
On Saturday in Climate Pledge Arena, they'll face a No. 4 seed in Tennessee whom they beat in Knoxville in December. The Lady Vols stand in their way between their 30th win of the year and an Elite 8 appearance, two milestones that would be the first of their kind in the program's history.
But they're not afraid of the magnitude, even if an ESPN story prefaced the Sweet 16 weekend with, "Is the UConn-Tennessee rivalry about to get its next chapter?" The Hokies joked about it, rolled their eyes and moved on.
"Everyone loves to have an opinion, everyone loves to say something good or bad about you, no matter what you're going to do," Tech guard Georgia Amoore said. "Obviously, we won an ACC Championship; people have stuff to say about that, good or bad. You are a No. 1 seed; people have stuff to say about that, good or bad. ... As a team, we've done a really good job of taking feedback and input and using it to motivate ourselves but not letting it deter what we're trying to do."
Soule, who is in her fifth year of college basketball, said the group chat for this current Virginia Tech team is "just different." Still close with her former teammates at Boston College, she recently tried to express to them how locked in her Hokies are, even when they're away from the floor.
As she explained, the group text is either filled with memes from Tik Tok or tweets about how Virginia Tech is going to lose. For example, an outlet predicted the Hokies would be the first No. 1 seed to fall at the beginning of the NCAA Tournament. Or reporters are already looking ahead to UConn-Tennessee in the Elite 8. No matter which teammate shares the messages, the response is the same: let's go prove people wrong.
"We have a chip on our shoulders, and our opinions are the only opinions that we care about," Soule said.
Amoore knows that winning is the only way to gain the people's respect. That's why she and her teammates are amped for Saturday's clash with Tennessee.
But one of the pieces that sometimes goes unnoticed is Tech's ability to keep its composure. The Hokies were in big moments already this year against good competition in the ACC. They played in Knoxville and won, too. They're not afraid of the big stage, and they know basketball is a game of runs. But they have each other to lean on.
Brooks & Co. have let adversity strengthen them this year. On Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) against a dangerous Lady Vols team that is on a roll, they'll have to be up for that challenge again if they want to keep their season alive. Virginia Tech has never been to an Elite 8, either.
"That's what I've been most proud of," Brooks said. "This group and the way they have handled themselves throughout this whole year. And I still pinch myself. We're 29-4 coming through one of the toughest leagues in the country. And we've had our share of adversity, and they have done a tremendous job at just staying together."