‘Leave no doubt about it.’ What will Rhyne Howard’s lasting legacy be at Kentucky?
Everyone knows where Rhyne Howard is going.
The two-time SEC Player of the Year and Associated Press First Team All-American is destined for the professional ranks, and is currently projected as the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s WNBA Draft.
Her destination seems predetermined. But first, there’s more to learn in Lexington.
Kentucky’s talismanic guard, an electric scorer with a laundry list of accolades, spent time this summer working on her voice, both on and off the court.
Howard’s high school coach at Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tennessee, Jason Reuter, described Howard to the Herald-Leader as “one of the most quiet, reserved people that I have ever been around.”
Sometimes, the soft-spoken Howard wouldn’t say more than 30 words during a three-hour car ride from Cleveland to Nashville.
But Howard is changing.
UK head coach Kyra Elzy agreed that it’s not natural for Howard to be a vocal leader, but it’s something that’s become a near necessity for Howard as one of the best players in college basketball.
So the UK program organized a boot camp for her, requiring Howard to speak to the media and meet with people in different professions.
New UK assistant coach Gail Goestenkors ran a leadership council over the summer as well, helping provide Howard the chance to further her maturity and leadership skills.
“Rhyne is more open about what she needs from (her teammates) on the court and what they need from her,” Elzy said during Kentucky’s Media Day on Oct. 25. “Those are some of the conversations that they can have on their own that have really taken some pressure off her shoulders.”
Howard’s on-court credentials can’t be disputed.
A three-level scorer who has been working on her post-up game this summer, the 6-foot-2 Howard is set to be the highest WNBA Draft selection from UK since Evelyn Akhator went third overall in 2017.
Howard has also had plenty of adjustments to make during her college career, from committing to and playing under former head coach Matthew Mitchell for two seasons, to navigating college athletics during the coronavirus pandemic while adapting to a new head coach in Elzy, who suspended Howard for two games at the start of last season.
But for all the change in Lexington, Howard is still here, ready for one last college experience before pursuing professional stardom.
“This year I’m just playing to show that I am the best player on the court and leave no doubt about it,” Howard said at UK Media Day. “That I’m working on it, that I’m giving everything I’ve got for myself and for my teammates.”
Howard’s path to Lexington
Looking back, Reuter wishes he knew what would become of Howard.
“I’d like to tell you that all along I knew she was going to be SEC Player of the Year and (an) All-American and all that. I didn’t know that,” Reuter, who coached Howard for four years at Bradley Central, said. “I think people really don’t know how much hard work goes into that. A lot of it is God given. A lot of it is just a tremendous amount of time.”
He first saw Howard play when she was in eighth grade, and noted that Howard’s basketball IQ at that age was far above average.
Howard’s length was also evident to Reuter, as was the fact that her mother, Rhvonja “RJ” Avery, a former college basketball player at Florida, was tall.
“She said, ‘If you’re not tough on her (Howard), I don’t know if I want her here,’” Reuter said RJ told him when he was introduced to Howard. “She just wanted her daughter to be coached and held accountable, and that’s the best thing that ever happened to Rhyne Howard.”
Thanks to some talented sophomores and juniors already in the Bradley Central program, Howard didn’t start any of the approximately 30 games Bradley Central played during summer camp ahead of Howard’s freshman season, instead being used as a super sub.
But by the third game of the summer, Reuter knew Howard would soon be inserted into the starting lineup, which she was at point guard during November of her freshman season.
While Howard started at point guard for the next four years for the Bearettes, by the time Howard left Cleveland she had played everywhere on the floor: Along the baseline as a shooter, at the four in the post and as a pivot player in the paint, where Reuter said she would “make the right pass 99 out of 100 times.”
Howard also learned important lessons from Reuter and his staff that have carried over to her Kentucky career.
They demanded that Howard look to score the ball more instead of always acting as a facilitator.
“I want Rhyne Howard to be aggressive,” Elzy said last month, while noting the need to have other UK players contribute in the scoring column. “She is an integral part of our offense’s success.”
One of Howard’s trademark scoring spurts that quickly comes to mind for Reuter came during Howard’s senior season, immediately after she wasn’t selected as a McDonald’s All-American.
Reuter said the snub “broke her heart” and upset Howard.
What followed was a scoring tear that included a 41-point effort to lift Bradley Central to a district championship in February 2018. In that game, Bradley Central’s opponent, East Hamilton, the school that Howard played for as an eighth grader, scored just 42 points.
“She played about a five-game statement that said ... ‘You don’t think I’m a McDonald’s All-American? I’m going to show you,’” Reuter said.
Rewriting the record book
Howard’s path to Lexington was a process of elimination.
Kentucky associate head coach Niya Butts recruited Howard after watching her play in an AAU event, with the offers in front of Howard already plentiful.
But, Howard saw reasons to not commit to the biggest schools that pursued her.
South Carolina had too many guards. Tennessee was the last to begin its recruitment.
UK offered the perfect fit, and Howard, who was the eighth-ranked prospect in the class of 2018 by All-Star Girls Report, committed to the Wildcats in between her junior and senior high school seasons in May 2017.
With increased attention placed on Howard’s performances, she excelled during her senior season.
Howard was named the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year and Tennessee Miss Basketball for Class 3A in 2018 after averaging more than 22 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four assists per game during her senior season.
“I think the big stage isn’t something Rhyne ever ran away from ... she just relished, ‘Hey, give me the ball. I’m going to score,’” Reuter said. “I think the bigger the game, the more Rhyne Howard shined.”
That adage has remained true in Lexington.
Having scored 1,655 career points in blue and white, Howard is second in UK history in career scoring average with 19.9 points per game, but that average has been boosted in postseason performances.
In nine career games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, Howard has averaged nearly 24 points per game.
The next step is stringing together team success during postseason runs.
While Howard has won three gold medals as part of the United States women’s basketball team, the Wildcats have only reached as far as the SEC Tournament semifinals and the NCAA Tournament second round with Howard on the roster.
The 2020 NCAA Tournament — in which UK was projected to be a No. 6 seed — was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Just leave it without a doubt that Rhyne gave her all every game. Every practice. On and off the court,” Howard told the Herald-Leader this summer of her senior season goals.
The WNBA awaits
Howard is built for modern basketball.
She has the size and speed to dominate at the traditional guard positions, but also the basketball savvy and skill to succeed all over the court, while still playing at her own pace through contact and double teams.
For her college career she’s a 38.1% three-point shooter, a conversion rate she doesn’t believe will be affected by women’s college basketball moving the three-point line back this season from 20-feet, 9-inches to the WNBA and international distance of 22-feet, 1.75-inches.
Howard has also averaged at least six rebounds in each of her three UK seasons and is now being counted on by Elzy to be a shutdown defensive presence.
“She is unbelievable defensively when she is locked in and playing hard,” Elzy said. “Challenging her to get steals and pick up the ball and be aggressive, and asking her to rebound the ball ... I still think she can be in double figures in rebounding. Those are the challenges.”
Watching from Tennessee, and attending games when he can, Reuter sees the same qualities in Howard now that first allowed her to flourish.
“A lot of times you’ve got to tell kids, ‘This is option A. This is option B.’ You’ve got to almost put parameters on them,” Reuter explained. “But with Rhyne, she was thinking one step ahead of the game. The great ones, they can almost anticipate what’s getting ready to happen before it happens, and that’s Rhyne Howard.
“That’s why she’s as good as she is because she can see the game unfold before it happens.”
In much the same way, everyone in basketball knows where Rhyne Howard is going: The WNBA, and potentially the Indiana Fever, who own the best lottery odds to get the first pick in next year’s draft.
How is Howard dealing with the potential of the future and the expectations of the present?
“Honestly, I don’t think too much about the WNBA because anything can happen,” Howard said. “I could drop to the second round if I don’t do what I need to be doing here. So I just focus on making myself better all the time, making my teammates better.”
With her mind focused on the present, there are things Howard still wants to accomplish at Kentucky.
UK has lost four straight games to in-state rival Louisville, and the Wildcats haven’t beaten the Cardinals since before Howard was on the team in 2015.
“It’s super important, but it’s going to happen,” Howard said of a win this year over the Cardinals and U of L head coach Jeff Walz, who has coached Howard with Team USA. “I cannot lose to him again.”
But above all else, Rhyne Howard is still here because of responsibility.
To the coaching staff that trusts her as a leader. To her teammates who look up to her. And to the UK program looking to use her skill to spark success.
“Rhyne is obviously a talented basketball player, the best in the country for so many reasons, but with that said she has a supporting cast that can help take her to the next level, along with this program,” Elzy said. “She understands in order for her to be her best she needs her teammates around her. There is a good balance there. She has their respect and they play hard for her, but she always plays hard for them as well.”
Notes
▪ UK’s opponent Tuesday, Presbyterian, is a member of the Big South Conference. The Blue Hose went 11-10 overall last season.
▪ Presbyterian finished 44th nationally in both rebounding margin and scoring defense.
▪ This is the first meeting between UK and Presbyterian in women’s basketball.
Tuesday
Presbyterian College at No. 13 Kentucky
What: Regular-season opener
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Memorial Coliseum
TV: SEC Network Plus
Radio: WBUL-FM 98.5
