Fortune-telling: Who will be the 2020 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year?
No matter how potent one’s crystal ball, predicting the next winner of the Lexington Herald-Leader Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year Award is guesswork.
Last January, would you have dreamed that Kentucky Wildcats football wide receiver Lynn Bowden would be the 2019 winner after switching positions midseason and thriving as a read-option quarterback?
Yet after Bowden went 6-2 as UK’s starting QB, led the Wildcats on an epic, game-winning drive to beat Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl and won the Paul Hornung Award signifying college football’s most versatile player, sports media members from around the commonwealth voted him the 2019 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.
In 11 months, it will again be time to choose the one who represents the best in Kentucky sports. Here are (more than) 12 who could emerge as top contenders to be the 2020 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.
12. Dale Romans. After the 2019 Kentucky Derby fiasco, our state’s signature sporting event could use a feel-good story in 2020. If Louisville native Romans can get the mercurial Dennis’ Moment into the winner’s circle to claim the trainer’s first Derby victory, that would qualify.
11. Chris Briggs. After coaching the Georgetown College men’s basketball team to the 2019 NAIA Division I national championship, Briggs just missed cracking the top 10 in Sports Figure voting, finishing 11th. If the Tigers repeat as national champions, that could move Briggs up.
10. Ja Morant. The ex-Murray State guard, third in 2019 Sports Figure voting, seems on the way to winning NBA Rookie of the Year honors in a dazzling first season with the Memphis Grizzlies.
9. Justin Thomas. The 2017 Sports Figure of the Year winner has set such high standards on the PGA Tour that he would probably have to win a major, maybe two, to again win the award.
8.John Calipari/Chris Mack. It pretty much takes a national championship for a college basketball coach to win Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year. In this wide-open season, both the Kentucky and Louisville head men have viable chances to deliver that.
7. Micale Cunningham. Louisville quarterbacks have won the Sports Figure Award twice (Stefan LeFors in 2004; Lamar Jackson in 2016) and been second twice (Chris Redman, 1999; Jackson, 2017). After a strong sophomore year in 2019, Cunningham returns with talented skill players around him and should be primed for a big year.
6. Nick Richards. The UK men’s basketball junior center is in the midst of a breakout year. If Richards’ high-level of play continues through season’s end, he would seem likely to become the first Kentucky men’s hoopster to crack the top 10 in voting since Tyler Ulis (second) in 2016.
5. Walker Buehler. The Los Angeles Dodgers pitching ace has been fourth (2019) and ninth (2018) in the past two Kentucky Sports Figure votes. Should the Henry Clay product A.) lead the Dodgers to their first World Series title since 1988; B.) win the National League Cy Young Award; C.) or both, he would be a strong Sports Figure contender.
4. Lamar Jackson/Anthony Davis. After a stellar second-professional season with the Baltimore Ravens, ex-U of L star Jackson came reasonably close (finished second, 294 points out of first) to becoming the first professional athlete who did not grow up in the commonwealth to win the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year Award.
NBA star Davis’ best finish since leaving UK for the pros was fourth in 2014. However, if Davis and LeBron James lead the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA title in the same year of the death of franchise icon Kobe Bryant, it will be one of the biggest national sports stories of the 21st century so far.
If they stay healthy, Jackson, a Pompano Beach, Fla., product, or Davis, from Chicago, seem the most likely to break through the “pro athlete from out of state” barrier in Sports Figure of the Year voting.
3. Dan McDonnell. With a team ranked No. 1 nationally in multiple preseason polls, McDonnell looks to have a major chance to coach Louisville to its first College World Series championship.
2. Rhyne Howard. The UK women’s basketball star finished ninth in 2019 Sports Figure voting off a stellar freshman season. As a sophomore Howard is having an even better year and was third in the nation in scoring (23.2) entering Thursday night’s game at Missouri.
1. An Olympic athlete. Multiple athletes with Kentucky ties could be primed for memorable showings at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
If they survive the cutthroat Team USA qualifying, ex-UK hurdlers Kendra Harrison and Sydney McLaughlin would be gold-medal contenders. Should they make the American swim team, former U of L stars Mallory Comerford and Kelsi Worrell Dahlia could medal.
Fencer Lee Kiefer, a Lexington product, could make it onto an Olympics medal podium, too.
