Unanswered questions will now forever define the 2019-20 basketball season in Kentucky
As a story without an ending, the 2019-20 basketball season in Kentucky will now be forever defined by unanswered questions.
Ended abruptly before it had reached its conclusion by the cancellation of postseason tournaments because of the need to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the just concluded hoops season will now always live in the realm of speculation in our hoops-centric state.
Let’s run through just some of the commonwealth’s basketball story lines that were left hanging.
Did the strong showing by Kentucky’s supplementary players — freshmen Keion Brooks (10 points) and Johnny Juzang (10 points) plus graduate transfer Nate Sestina (nine points, six rebounds) — in UK’s improbable 71-70 comeback win at Florida in the regular-season finale reflect a team that was destined to return the Wildcats to their first Final Four since 2015?
After a tumultuous end to the regular season, would UK point guard Ashton Hagans have gotten his groove back in March Madness?
Would Chris Mack and a veteran Louisville roster have produced the deep postseason run that the U of L fan base — tormented by the prospect the Cardinals program might face additional NCAA sanctions for alleged rules violations uncovered in the FBI investigation college hoops — so fervently craved?
Led by dynamic lead guard Dana Evans, would 2020 have seen Louisville women’s coach Jeff Walz lead his team to the program’s fourth Final Four and its first NCAA title?
Could the “Kentucky Mr. Basketball Triplets” of Camron Justice (2015), Carson Williams (2016) and Taveion Hollingsworth (2017) have gotten Rick Stansbury and the Western Kentucky men over the hump in the Conference USA Tournament after the Hilltoppers’ NCAA tourney hopes were dashed each of the prior two seasons with agonizing defeats in the league tourney finals?
With first-year coach Darrin Horn calling the shots, would 2020 have been the year that Northern Kentucky produced its first (Division I) NCAA tourney upset in its third trip to the Big Dance in the past four seasons?
Could coaches with Kentucky ties have become the major March Madness stories of 2020?
At age 71, might ex-UK assistant Leonard Hamilton have been on the verge of leading ACC regular-season champion Florida State to the coach’s first Final Four as a head man?
Could ex-Kentucky Wildcats big man Mark Pope have become the breakout coaching star of the 2020 Big Dance by leading BYU deep into the bracket?
Would the Georgetown Tigers and Coach Chris Briggs have succeeded in defending their 2019 NAIA Division I National Championship by winning it all again in 2020 as the favorite?
(This feeling of aspirations left unresolved is not just a basketball phenomenon. The University of Kentucky rifle team was ranked No. 1 in the country and the favorite to bring home UK’s third NCAA title in that sport, only to see the national championships canceled minutes before they were to start).
The KHSAA’s suspension of the boys’ and girls’ Sweet 16s in Rupp Arena left some dramatic plot lines without concluding scenes.
This year’s boys’ state tournament would have begun with 16th Region champion Ashland Blazer (33-0) four victories from becoming the first undefeated Kentucky boys’ basketball state champion since Brewers (36-0) in 1948.
The high school sports governing body left the door cracked open on trying to finish the basketball state tournaments at some point by suspending the tourneys, not canceling them.
However, if play does not resume, Ashland Blazer fans will be left wondering eternally if this year’s Tomcats could have made history by finishing the perfect season?
Would Martin County, having become the first team from their county to qualify for a boys’ Sweet 16 in 37 years, have been able to make some magic in Rupp?
On the girls’ side, would McDonald’s All-American Maddie Scherr have been able to return from an ankle injury to lead Ryle to back-to-back state championships?
What might leading a team to a second straight state title have meant to Scherr’s legacy in Kentucky high school basketball history?
We will never have answers to any of those questions.
Fact is, the inability to conclude the 2019-20 basketball season will have an impact that reaches into future basketball seasons.
Consider: Valerie Still’s 2,763 career points as a Kentucky Wildcats women’s basketball player has long been considered an unbreakable record.
However, UK’s current women’s hoops star, the transcendent Rhyne Howard, might have a chance to challenge Still’s career scoring mark.
Through two seasons, Howard has 1,158 career points. She will need a robust 1,606 points over her final two college seasons to surpass Still.
That will not be easy, or even likely, for Howard to attain.
However, supplanting the unattainable Kentucky Wildcats sports record might seem more likely for Howard if the UK women’s team had not lost a chance to play, perhaps multiple games, in the 2020 NCAA tourney.
