Kentucky exhibition game Friday serves to commemorate, celebrate
Kentucky playing Kentucky State on Friday is more than a exhibition basketball game. It’s also part of a remembrance and a celebration.
During the 2019-20 school year, UK is celebrating its 70 years of an integrated student body. A photograph of Lyman T. Johnson, the first black student at UK, is on the game ticket.
While warming up on court before the game, the UK players will be wearing T-shirts commemorating Adamstown, a black neighborhood in what is now the heart of campus that was home to skilled laborers from 1872 to 1943. UK eventually bought the land — which is between Rose Street and Lexington Avenue along what’s now known as the Avenue of Champions — and built Memorial Coliseum on the site.
Adamstown is named for George M. Adams, a slave holder and Union supporter during the Civil War. His former slaves bought the land and made it a community.
Kalvin Graves, a historian who has studied Adamstown, noted how residents could not attend UK in its segregated days. But there was an attachment between the community and university. When UK played football games, people in Adamstown would get on top of their homes in order to watch the action across the street at Stoll Field.
Of the celebration/commemoration of UK’s integration, Vice President for Institutional Diversity Sonja Feist-Price said, “We’re recognizing some of our trail blazers. People who have made a significant sacrifice to the vitality and vibrancy of the university that we have today.”
One such trail blazer is Pierre Whiting, who lived in Adamstown and is believed to be the first African-American employed by UK. Born in 1861, he worked at the school as a janitor for 57 years, Graves said. Whiting’s jobs included carrying water to black workers making bricks for the construction of buildings on campus.
“He became like a folk hero at UK,” Graves said of Whiting.
A plaque commemorating Adamstown’s history stands at the northeast corner of the Memorial Coliseum-Craft Center complex.
“Sometimes our history is forgotten,” said Feist-Price, who is a UK alumna and now instructor. “But that is why it is so critically important that we take time to reflect on our history. In doing that, it gives us an appreciation of the journey traveled.”
UK (and others) No. 1?
Next Tuesday’s Champions Classic features the top four teams in The Associated Press preseason Top 25: No. 2 Kentucky against No. 1 Michigan State, and No. 3 Kansas against No. 4 Duke.
During a teleconference promoting ESPN’s telecast of the games, Jay Bilas suggested multiple teams will be ranked No. 1 during the season.
“We’re going to see a rotating No. 1 this year,” the ESPN analyst said. “And Kentucky is going to spend time at No. 1.”
Many UK teams?
Assistant coach Tony Barbee said one of Kentucky’s strengths this season will be adaptability.
“We can play a lot of different styles,” he said Thursday. “We can play small. We can play big. We can play a traditional game. That’s what’s a plus for this team.”
Barbee used Nick Richards’ ankle sprain as an example of how this versatility can be a factor in UK’s favor.
“If one guy is down, we can play a different style,” Barbee said. “We’ve been working on that in practice.”
Rebound performance
In the first exhibition, Kentucky lost the rebounding battle to Georgetown College 45-39.
When asked about rebounding, associate coach Kenny Payne said, “We’re teaching habits. Right now, the habit is looking at the ball. Well, while you’re looking at the ball, somebody (on the opposing team) is running to get an offensive rebound.
“Our habit has to be hit first and block out and attack that basketball and get that rebound.”
The dividend goes beyond merely gaining a possession.
“(Defensive rebounding) is vital for us to get out in transition, where we’re really good,” Payne said.
Etc.
Mike Morgan and Mark Wise will call the game for the SEC Network.
