Touching tributes and records set: Inside Rhyne Howard’s historic Senior Day for Kentucky
Rhyne Howard hatched the plan months ago, the one that honored her fallen friend and injured teammate.
For what was likely her final basketball game in Lexington, Howard switched from her usual No. 10 jersey — the one that’s become synonymous with college basketball excellence — for a No. 5 jersey with the name “GREEN” hidden behind Howard’s golden hair.
The gesture was in honor of deceased former Kentucky men’s basketball player Terrence Clarke, a friend of Howard, and her current teammate and longtime roommate Blair Green, a fellow senior who hasn’t played this season due to injury.
It was back in late October, when Green suffered a ruptured Achilles that ruled her out for the season, that Howard devised the plan to wear Green’s name and number for Kentucky’s Senior Day game against Auburn on Sunday in Memorial Coliseum.
“She’s always been there. That’s my sister. We came in together. We’ve lived together all four years and she wasn’t able to play my last home game with me, but her jersey deserves to be worn,” said Howard, who joked that the jersey had special powers.
Conceiving this plan was one thing. Memorializing it with a historic performance was another.
Kentucky’s 90-62 win over Auburn was filled with vintage Rhyne Howard moments: A record-setting six three-pointers in the first half, a record-setting eight three-pointers in the game, a season-high 32 points and countless microcosms of what’s made Howard so special for four years at Kentucky.
“That goes to show you the type of kid and person that Rhyne is,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said. “For her to honor Blair Green tonight, her senior teammates came together, they’ve been through good and bad at Kentucky and for her to pay honor to her tonight on Senior Night, I thought that was fitting and said a lot.”
Sunday’s likely finale for Howard inside Memorial Coliseum was a regal affair, complete with paper crowns and posters for fans in honor of the “#CrownHer” social media movement that has followed Howard in recent years.
The game was promoted as Rhyne Howard Day, encouraging fans to come and see the second all-time scorer in UK basketball history (men’s or women’s) one last time.
The typical Senior Day fanfare meant Howard got to pose for photos with a framed jersey before the game, received a send-off tribute video after the game and briefly spoke to the 5,268 people in attendance (UK’s largest home crowd of the season) to thank Big Blue Nation for their support.
But it’s what Howard did during her 28 minutes on the court that spoke most to her Kentucky legacy.
A stunningly efficient 11-for-20 shooting performance from the field while shooting 8-of-13 from three-point range spoke to Howard’s value as a scorer.
Howard’s 16-point opening quarter allowed her teammates space to operate offensively, resulting in junior forward Dre’una Edwards scoring 25 points and freshman guard Jada Walker contributing 15 as UK recorded its sixth straight win and its largest margin of victory since early December.
The trio each had two steals as well, exemplifying the frenetic defensive style that Elzy wants to help the UK offense function.
Albeit against an overmatched opponent in Auburn, a team UK beat on the road with just seven scholarship players in late January, it was a look at the idealized version of Kentucky women’s basketball, with Howard still at the center of it.
“Off the court, she’s so bubbly, so fun to be around. On the court, she’s a dog, she’s going to go fight,” Edwards said of Howard. “It’s been great to see her rise to the top and it’s been amazing to see everything. I’ve been seeing her for three years and it’s amazing.”
Howard’s collegiate career includes at least one more game, which will come in the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday night, with potentially another crack at the NCAA Tournament in the weeks to follow.
But the accolades and statistics that accompany Howard’s name have long bordered on lunacy.
A select few: 2,185 points, 272 three-pointers made, nine games of 30 or more points, 757 field goals made and 70 games in which Howard led UK in scoring.
Sunday’s scoring barrage also confirmed the SEC scoring title will go to Howard over LSU’s Khayla Pointer and Mississippi State’s Anastasia Hayes.
Howard’s main rival for the scoring crown — former Mississippi State player Rickea Jackson — entered the transfer portal in late January. Jackson was averaging a league-best 20.3 points per game when she entered the portal.
Given all this, it’s remarkable that it takes prodding to get Howard to commit to a favorite memory from playing at UK.
On Friday, during a media conference previewing her Senior Day, Howard ultimately settled on her highest scoring game as a Wildcat as her favorite college memory (43 points as a sophomore at Alabama in January 2020). The 43 points scored by Howard that night tied the UK program record.
But we’re still very much in the process of Howard adding to that trove of memories.
Kentucky’s current six-game winning streak has surged the Wildcats back into the NCAA Tournament picture, and a second-round SEC Tournament win over Mississippi State later this week should lock the Cats into the 68-team tournament field, something that was nearly unthinkable less than three weeks ago.
It means Kentucky fans will get to relish Howard for a little bit longer, while the projected WNBA Draft lottery pick continues her pursuit of reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time.
For a long while Rhyne Howard’s senior season didn’t follow the plan.
Now it is.
Of course it is.
Howard had it planned from the start.
Thursday
Kentucky vs. Mississippi State
What: SEC women’s basketball tournament
When: 7 p.m. EST
Where: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville
TV: SEC Network
Seeding: UK, seventh; MSU, 10th
Last meeting: Kentucky erased a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat MSU, 81-74, on Feb. 15
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
