This former Kentucky player can be described as ‘poetry in motion’
University of Kentucky students in the English 107 class (Introduction to Creative Writing) pondered this question on a pop quiz during the 2019 fall semester:
EXTRA CREDIT: What poetic form is also the name of a current UK basketball player?
Answer: Sestina.
Prof. Frank X Walker, who taught the class, explained Thursday. A sestina is one of the more popular forms of poetry. As a UK basketball fan, Walker thought Nate Sestina was aptly named.
“I thought he had a great shot even from deep,” Walker wrote in a text message. “I almost got real nerdy on you and said there was something poetic and ironic about the fact that the sestina poem ends in a tercet, a triple-line stanza.”
The former UK player’s father, Don Sestina, said the family name dates back to his grandfather, Andrew Sheztina (pronounced SHAWS-tana). As a 14-year-old, the grandfather immigrated from Hungary to the United States. He anglicized the name at Ellis Island.
“I look at it this way: Nate is poetry in motion,” Don Sestina said with a laugh.
Nate Sestina said he learned as an eighth-grader about his name’s ties to poetry. A history teacher told him. When he attended Bucknell, a professor teaching romantic literature also mentioned it to him.
“I was, like, well, I hope you don’t expect me to write a poem,” Sestina said. “Because, No. 1, it’s going to be terrible. And No. 2, I don’t have a whole lot of rhythm and flow. So, I’m a little out of my element.”
The question in Walker’s UK class drew a mixed reaction from students. The basketball fans had a knowing smile, he said. The non-fans “seemed offended,” the professor said.
Sestina said he thought it was “pretty cool” to add a sports reference to a quiz. Then, he added, “I hopefully would have gotten that answer right.”
‘Somewhat aspirational’
On Wednesday, the NCAA announced the long-awaited parameters for a 2020-21 college basketball season: Preseason practice begins Oct. 14, first games no earlier than Nov. 25, no exhibition games nor closed scrimmages, no more than 27 regular-season games.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, stopped well short of saying this plan was set in stone.
“Well, we’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. “I’d say it’s somewhat aspirational because it’s just so unpredictable what we’re all living through.”
The NCAA will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and be open to adjusting the plan, Gavitt said.
The NCAA chose Nov. 25 as a starting date because most fall semesters will be completed by then and the student body absent from campuses, Gavitt said. UK’s fall semester ends Dec. 4.
Limiting or prohibiting fan attendance “is not a national issue,” he said. That’s because outbreaks and adhering to health guidelines vary around the country.
“It’s very much a local, state by state, county by county issue,” Gavitt said. “So, that’s going to be up to the institution to determine.”
Russian transition
Ex-Cat Nate Sestina signed with a professional team in Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, UK announced Thursday.
“I’m super excited about it,” Sestina said Friday. “It’s an opportunity to really kick-start my professional career, and hopefully turn it into a long, prosperous one.”
Sestina said he signed a contract to play for two and one-half months. The team reached out to him after an injury sidelined one of its big men, former Columbia player Luke Petrasek.
Sestina had turned down earlier offers to play overseas as he trained in Las Vegas the past two months. “I wanted to just get my foot in the door somewhere here,” he said.
Sestina’s new hometown will be Nizhny Novgorod, a city 250 miles east of Moscow. He does not speak Russian.
To which, his father, Don Sestina, quipped, “I told him the only thing he has to learn in Russian is ‘pass me the ball.’”
Sestina has other priorities in dealing with the language barrier.
“I’m just trying to figure out what to say for ‘grocery store’ and then ‘coffee.’”
Sestina is a devoted fan of a coffee store in his hometown of Emporium, Pa., called Aroma Cafe.
“Oh man, that’s the thing I’m worried about the most,” he said. “I might just go over there with 10 pounds of coffee.”
UK-UCLA
Kentucky’s game against UCLA was scheduled for Dec. 19. Then the Pac-12 announced that its teams would not play before Jan. 1.
Now, the Pac-12 appears to be moving toward reconsidering that Jan. 1 starting date. Commissioner Larry Scott issued a statement this past week saying there could be an earlier return to practices and games. He credited support from governors Gavin Newsom of California and Kate Brown of Oregon.
“We are eager for our student-athletes to have the opportunity to play this season as soon as it can be done safely and in accordance with public health authority approvals,” Scott said.
Stay tuned.
Too costly?
Mississippi State Coach Ben Howland said he was an avid watcher of games in the NBA’s so-called “bubble.” But he suggested that setting up “bubbles” might be too costly for college basketball.
Howland said he was told “by someone who knows” that it cost the NBA $150 million to set up the its “bubble.”
“With revenue being down because of shortened seasons in football and lack of fans, I don’t think money is flowing easy,” Howland said.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, also questioned whether a “bubble” in college basketball made financial sense.
But Gavitt said college basketball learned valuable lessons from the NBA “bubble” such as players and personnel on benches wearing masks, referees having bags over their whistles and the scorer’s table behind behind plexiglass.
‘Father figure’
After the 2014 season in Japan, former UK player Reggie Hanson gave up coaching. He turned his attention to helping others as a “life coach.” He said recently that his passion as a basketball coach was “being that father figure.” So, he is taking courses to become certified in mental health services.
One of his daughters, Jaitesha Janeen Hanson, has a degree in psychology, is pursuing a master’s degree in clinical psychology and hopes to eventually earn a doctorate.
Together, father and daughter support her StayWhole Mental Foundation, which is in Tampa, Fla.
During a recent telephone conversation, Hanson stressed that athletes must deal with off-court issues. Being a star athlete does not bring immunity from life’s problems.
Hanson recalled his smiling persona as a UK player in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“That’s my personality,” he said. “But a lot of people always felt there’s nothing wrong. … Smiling was a way to keep people kind of at a distance. Because if they think everything is OK, then they can kind of leave you alone a little bit.”
Remembering ‘The Blur’
His death on Sept. 5 at age 59 brought back memories of former UK player Dwight Anderson. Those included:
▪ Being considered one of the best players from Ohio. “You all can include LeBron James in that one, too,” said Branson Wright, who did a documentary on Anderson called “The Blur.”
▪ A salute to Anderson’s football prowess.
“A lot of people don’t know this: He was a helluva option quarterback,” said Elton Alexander, who as a sportswriter for The Dayton Daily News covered Anderson’s high school career. Anderson played football as a freshman and sophomore. He played it well enough to draw intense recruiting interest from Oklahoma, Alexander said.
▪ Former Indiana star Isiah Thomas being among the people who helped pay for Anderson’s stay at the Houston-based John Lucas Treatment Center. When Anderson went to Houston for help in dealing with drug and alcohol use, he was met at the airport and taken to the center by former UK teammate Dirk Minniefield.
Happy birthday
To former LSU coach John Brady. He turned 66 on Thursday. … To Dickey Beal. He turned 58 on Friday. … To former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino. He turned 68 on Friday. … To Derrick Hord. He turned 60 on Saturday. … To Adam Williams. He turned 35 on Saturday. … To Jared Carter. He turns 34 on Sunday (today). … To Jack Givens. He turns 64 on Monday. … To former Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew. He turns 46 on Monday. … To former Arkansas star Sidney Moncrief. He turns 63 on Monday. … To Dakari Johnson. He turns 25 on Tuesday. … To Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin. He turns 49 on Wednesday.
