College basketball is like Christmas — it brings families together
Question: How many college basketball teams have a father as coach and his son as a player?
Answer: Enough so that you could have a top 25 poll for just those teams.
Of course, Kentucky is no stranger to father-son combinations. Adolph and Herky Rupp. Eddie and Sean Sutton. Tubby and Saul Smith. John and Brad Calipari.
This UK season had the Cats playing Southern, coached by former Kentucky star Sean Woods, whose son DeSean Woods is on the team, albeit sidelined for the season because of injury.
Their latest opponent, Western Kentucky, is coached by Rick Stansbury. One of his sons, Noah Stansbury, is on the team.
Smith leads High Point against Kentucky next Friday. His oldest son, G.G. Smith, is the team’s associate coach, and he played for his father at Georgia.
On Feb. 8, Kentucky will play at South Carolina, coached by Frank Martin. His son, Brandon Martin, is on the team.
Then there’s the Hurleys, who make the father-son dynamic multi-generational. Arizona State Coach Bobby Hurley and UConn Coach Dan Hurley played for their father, Bob Hurley, at St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, N.J. Now, Bobby Hurley’s son, Bob Hurley, is on the Arizona State team. Likewise, Andrew Hurley is on his father’s UConn team.
With the holiday season synonymous with family gatherings, it’s a good time to ask: Why are there so many fathers coaching sons? A suspicion would be that guilt plays a part. Coaching is so time consuming, it’s a way to be with each other.
“No question,” said Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann, who does not expect to coach his only child, 11-year-old daughter Nora Jane Holtmann. “I don’t think there’s any question. I’ve heard that from coaches.
“I think they look at those opportunities and say this is a great opportunity for me to see my son every day. That’s a great thing.”
Rick Stansbury did not question the thought that wanting time together leads fathers to have sons on teams. “I think that’s true,” he said. “I’ve always had my kids with me.”
The Western Kentucky coach meant that almost literally.
“Even when they were babies, they went to every game,” he said.
When he coached at Mississippi State, it was not unusual for one or more of Stansbury’s three sons to sit with him at postgame news conferences or be on the team bench during games.
Why?
“Because I am spending so much time away during the weeks, on game days I want them with me,” he said. “It’s something that was meaningful to me.”
Success in Rupp
By defeating Western Kentucky on Wednesday night, Kentucky avoided making the “wrong” kind of history. It would have marked the ninth time UK lost two straight times against the same program in Rupp Arena. In their last game at UK, the Hilltoppers won 64-52 to open the 2001-02 season.
The eight times Kentucky has lost two straight games in Rupp Arena to the same program have been against Florida twice (2005-06 and 2006-07, plus 1987-88 and 1988-89), Kansas (2004-05 and 2016-17), LSU (1978-79 and 1979-80), North Carolina (2005-06 and 2007-08), Texas A&M (1978 UKIT and 2012-13), Vanderbilt (2005-06 and 2006-07) and Tennessee (2019-20 and 2020-21).
Florida won 71-67 at Kentucky last season and will seek a second straight victory in Rupp Arena on Feb. 12.
Tennessee can make history by beating Kentucky on Jan. 15. If that happens, the Vols will become the first visiting program to beat UK three straight times in Rupp Arena.
No matter the home court, only two programs have ever won three or more straight games at Kentucky. Georgetown College won four in a row during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency (1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906). Tennessee won three straight: two games in three days in February of 1920 with the third coming in 1923.
Timeout
Enhanced competitiveness and an increase in dribble-drive action were big takeaways from Kentucky’s blowout victory over North Carolina last weekend.
But another change might have been overlooked.
After Kentucky lost at Notre Dame the previous weekend, John Calipari second-guessed his decision not to call timeout after the Irish went ahead 64-62 with 11.7 seconds left.
Freshman TyTy Washington rushed down and took a heavily contested shot that missed. Notre Dame’s celebratory dunk at the buzzer punctuated a 66-62 victory.
Against North Carolina, UK’s 18-point lead had narrowed to 40-29 with less than a minute left in the first half.
UK called time with 20.5 seconds left on the game clock and 18 seconds remaining on the shot clock.
The resulting play was similar: Sahvir Wheeler barely got off a heavily-contested shot that missed.
Before the game, Washington said he expected a timeout if that type of situation occurred.
The scramble in the final seconds at Notre Dame began with Washington taking an inbounds pass from Keion Brooks.
“I looked right at Coach Cal,” Washington said. “And he just waved his hand.”
Washington said he was — and is — comfortable with charging ahead.
“I’ve been in that situation before …,” he said. “I got to the rim (at Notre Dame). … I wasn’t being, like, strong going in there. I was going in there trying to get fouled instead of trying to just complete the play.”
Was he fouled?
“There was a little bump,” Washington said. “But it was not enough to call a foul. I’ve just got to be stronger and play through that.”
C.M. remembered
Alabama lost 79-78 against Davidson on Tuesday in the C.M. Newton Classic. Tide Coach Nate Oats saluted the late C.M. Newton, the former UK player and later athletics director between coaching stints for Transylvania, Alabama and Vanderbilt.
Newton recruited the first Black players for Transy and Alabama.
“Such a pioneer in Alabama basketball history …,” Oats said of Newton. “He did a lot of positive things.”
Hall of Famers?
Valerie Still, the career scoring leader in UK basketball history for either the men’s and women’s teams, is among people on the ballot for enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame next year. She scored 2,763 points and averaged 23.2 points per game for UK in the early 1980s.
Other people on the ballot include former UK assistant (and now Florida State coach) Leonard Hamilton, retired referee John Clougherty and Marcus Camby, who led John Calipari-coached UMass to the 1996 Final Four.
The Veterans Committee put three Kentucky Wesleyan teams (1965-66, 1967-68 and 1968-69) on the ballot.
Finalists will be announced Feb. 18. Members of the Hall of Fame class of 2022 will be announced at the Final Four in New Orleans. The induction weekend is Sept. 9-10.
Injury update
Western Kentucky’s 7-foot-5 center, Jamarion Sharp, crumpled to the court with 13:20 remaining in Wednesday’s game at UK. He badly sprained an ankle.
Coach Rick Stansbury said that Sharp is questionable to play in WKU’s opening game in Conference USA play: at Southern Miss on Dec. 30.
Belated congratulations
To Gary Kidwell. The longtime member of the media covering UK sports was inducted into the Morehead State Alumni Hall of Fame in October.
Kidwell helped establish the Lewis County Little League program and helped revitalize the Lewis County High School football program.
In 2011, he was named to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Two years later, he was named to the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.
Happy birthday
To Western Kentucky Coach Rick Stansbury. He turned 62 on Thursday. … To Cliff Hawkins. He turned 40 on Friday. … To ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. He turned 58 on Friday. … To Northern Kentucky Coach (and Tates Creek High School grad) Darrin Horn. He turned 49 on Friday. … To Rodney Dent. He turned 51 on Saturday. … To former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell. He turns 90 on Saturday. … To former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. He turns 80 on Monday. … To Kansas Coach Bill Self. He turns 59 on Monday. … To Gonzaga Coach Mark Few. He turns 59 on Monday. … To former UK assistant coach Jim Hatfield. He turns 78 on Tuesday. … To Travis Ford. He turns 52 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published December 24, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
