Kentucky high school legend dueled with more than one UK basketball icon
He was a star on a high school basketball team that received a scholarship offer, en masse, from Kentucky.
As a teammate with UK’s Fab Five, he competed against Ralph Beard.
He was a World War II veteran and an All-American baseball player for Michigan State.
Albert Cummins, whose life has had plenty of eye-catching moments (a childhood friend was one of 18 siblings), will be honored on Friday. Bracken County High School will retire his baseball jersey. Cummins was a star pitcher and middle infielder for a (pre-consolidation) Brooksville High School team that advanced to the 1944 state championship game.
The Brooksville High basketball team had an undefeated (22-0) regular-season record in 1944. The team lost to Olive Hill in the Sweet 16 quarterfinals, but Adolph Rupp was impressed enough to offer each player a UK scholarship.
Cummins, now 93, was inducted into the 10th Region Hall of Fame and the Bracken County Athletic Hall of Fame last year. He recalled being a good-shooting guard.
“Adolph had a long-shot shooting contest one time,” he said of his time as a UK player. “And I won it.”
With World War II raging, Cummins left UK when he was drafted before the end of his freshman year of 1944-45. He served in the U.S. Navy before returning to UK in 1946. He recalled competing against Beard, who had arrived at UK while Cummins was in the Navy and went on to become one of Kentucky basketball’s most iconic players.
Of the practice competitions with Beard, Cummins said, “Every day, every day, we did that. Ralph and I would push each other. Sometimes I’d get mine. And sometimes he’d get his.
“When I played against anybody else, it was always easier.”
These practice competitions could get intense.
“Just playing hard,” Cummins said. “It wasn’t anything that was actual fighting. But sometimes it almost got to that.”
Clint Cummins prodded his father to re-tell a story the family has heard many times about being benched by Rupp. Kentucky was playing St. John’s. Cummins recalled playing well. Then trouble came late in the first half.
The player Cummins was guarding took a perimeter jump shot. Cummins blocked out, but the long rebound went over his head and the head of teammate Alex Groza, who had established rebounding position closer to the basket.
Cummins’ man got the long rebound and hit a shot at the halftime buzzer.
“At halftime, I was the only guy Adolph talked about,” Cummins said. Rupp concluded his halftime oratory by telling manager Humzey Yessin to give Cummins a warmup jacket. “He’s not going back in the game,” a chuckling Cummins recalled Rupp saying.
Cummins recalled the St. John’s player who prompted the benching as Dick McGuire, one of that program’s iconic stars.
Late in the 1947-48 season, Cummins decided to transfer. He moved to Michigan State, where he played baseball in the 1949 and 1950 seasons. As a senior, he led the Spartans with a .367 batting average.
Cummins left a UK program that went on to win the 1948 and 1949 national championships. He had no regrets, he said. “I was glad they won.”
When asked why he transferred, Cummins mentioned a reason that still resonates more than 70 years later. Think Brad Calipari transferring to Detroit Mercy earlier this year.
“Well, I just wanted to play,” he said. “I wasn’t starting, of course. I wanted to play more ball.”
NBA and UK
UK basketball seldom seems to miss a chance to link itself with the NBA. Another chance will come in the upcoming games in Las Vegas.
As of Thursday, more than 50 NBA scouts had requested seats for Kentucky’s game against Utah on Wednesday, Brooks Downing said in an email message. Presumably, most — if not all — will stay for Kentucky’s game on Saturday against Ohio State.
The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs planned to send between four and six scouts to the UK-Utah game, Downing said.
Usually, there’s no more than, say, a couple dozen NBA scouts at an event his firm runs, Downing said.
Downing heads the Lexington-based sports marketing firm bdG Sports, which is managing the UK-Utah game. He formerly worked as an associate director in UK’s sports information department.
Vegas = basketball
Never mind the roulette wheels and blackjack tables, Las Vegas is becoming synonymous with basketball.
Of course, Kentucky plays Utah in T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday. Then there’s the CBS Sports Classic — UK versus Ohio State, North Carolina versus UCLA — on Saturday.
There’s also The Tarkanian Classic (aka “The Tark”), a high school holiday tournament named for former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian that is featuring 169 boys’ and 60 girls’ teams. It will be played this coming week (Tuesday through Saturday) at high schools in the Las Vegas area. Boyd County High School’s boys’ team is scheduled to participate.
So are Bronny James (LeBron James‘ son) and UK signees Brandon “BJ” Boston and Devin Askew. Jaden Hardy, a top-five player in the high school junior class, is also expected to play.
Of course, summers see Las Vegas play host to AAU events, an NBA summer league and a USA Basketball camp.
Plus, the Pac-12, Mountain West, West Coast and Western Athletic will play their conference tournaments in Las Vegas in March.
Orange crushed
Perpetually anxious UK fans might want to look at Syracuse for perspective. The Orange opened the season by losing four of their first eight games. That included three straight losses to non-conference opponents.
As Mike Waters of the Post-Standard reported, Syracuse was off to its worst start since the 1968-69 season. Jim Boeheim, who is in his 44th season as Syracuse coach, joined the program as a graduate assistant the following season.
To show how much college basketball has changed, Syracuse opened the 1968-69 season with five games on the road.
Another footnote: The 4-4 start included three straight losses to non-conference opponents. Since joining the Big East in 1979-80, Syracuse had never lost three straight non-conference games, Waters wrote.
Syracuse snapped the losing streak and improved its record to 5-4 by winning 97-63 at Georgia Tech last weekend.
In-game communication
Ashton Hagans acknowledged a verbal exchange with Fairleigh Dickinson forward Kaleb Bishop during last weekend’s game.
“He started talking and said he got the goaltending,” Hagans said after the game. “(Bishop also) said, ‘It’s going to be easy.’
“I just had to let him know, ‘I’m with whatever.’” Hagans said.
Bishop was his team’s only double-digit scorer. He had 12 points. Hagans scored 11 points and got credit for 11 assists in UK’s 83-52 victory.
Happy birthday
To former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson. He turned 60 on Thursday. … To Ole Miss Coach Kermit Davis. He turned 60 on Saturday. …To Thad Jaracz. He turns 73 on Sunday (today). … To Kelenna Azubuike. He turns 36 on Monday. … To Deron Feldhaus. He turns 51 on Monday. … To Allen Edwards. He turns 44 on Monday. … To Adam Chiles. He turns 37 on Monday. … To UK women’s coach Matthew Mitchell. He turns 49 on Monday. … To former Vanderbilt player and later coach Jan van Breda Kolff. He turns 68 on Monday. … To former Wisconsin player Nigel Hayes (who made the shot that came after the shot clock expired against Kentucky in the 2015 Final Four). He turns 25 on Monday. … To Wendell Lyons. He turns 67 on Tuesday. … To former Arkansas coach Stan Heath. He turns 55 on Tuesday. … To Myron Anthony. He turns 42 on Wednesday.
