His shoulders required surgery, but Male star still carried Bulldogs back to Sweet 16
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Sweet Sixteen stories
The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories. Click below to read the stories published so far.
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Editor’s Note: The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories.
Aging Major League Baseball pitchers do not experience as much shoulder trouble as Male High School basketball star Howard Fleming has endured.
Problems with his right shoulder limited the versatile 6-foot-5 point guard to 14 games last year as a junior.
“My right shoulder, I just dislocated too many times to where, every time I popped it back into place, it healed in the wrong spot,” Fleming says. “(The doctors) just said from too many dislocations, I tore my labrum.”
Fleming, an Illinois State signee, then dislocated his left shoulder while playing AAU basketball for Kentucky Hoop Dreams in Orlando before his senior year.
“I did my therapy all the way,” Fleming says, “then right before the (high school) season was going to start, in practice, I did a spin move and I think somebody hit it and it just dislocated again.”
The surgery Fleming required to repair the torn labrum in his left shoulder limited him to 13 games in the 2019-20 season.
He made them count, however.
The guy with two balky shoulders helped carry Male — one of the most-tradition-rich programs in Kentucky high school basketball — to its first 7th Region championship since 2002.
As Coach Tim Haworth’s Bulldogs avenged a regular-season loss by beating Ballard 71-61 in the 7th Region finals, Fleming recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
He also had three assists and three steals.
Fleming’s return turbo-charged an already stacked Male roster.
“A 6-5 point guard, great defender, can score, shoot it and he loves to pass the ball,” Haworth says. “We were good (without him), but he took us to another level.”
Restoring a proud tradition
In eight seasons (2010-2018) as head coach at Hopkinsville, Haworth had a good thing going. The Tigers won the 2nd Region five times and Haworth (200-58) became Hoptown’s second-all-time winningest coach.
However, when Male Athletics Director John Kelsey approached him about possibly replacing Willie Feldhaus as the Bulldogs’ head coach, Haworth was intrigued.
Male’s basketball legacy is imposing. The Bulldogs have played in a state-record nine Sweet 16 finals, winning it all four times (1945, 1970, 1971 and 1975).
Four Kentucky Mr. Basketball winners — Wesley Cox (1973), Darrell Griffith (1976), Winston Bennett (1983) and Jason Osborne (1993) — wore the purple and gold of Male.
Yet, when Kelsey traveled to Hopkinsville to woo Haworth in 2018, Male had not won the 7th Region since 2002. The Bulldogs had not even reached a region final since 2010.
“One of the things that appealed to me is that (Male) hadn’t been (to the state tournament) in (16) years,” Haworth says. “I just felt this was one of the most-storied programs in the state and restoring that excited me.”
Keith Cathey, the dean of students at Male, was a senior reserve on the Bulldogs’ 2001 state runner-up team that featured Larry O’Bannon and Michael Bush. He says the expectation at Male should be to compete for the region title every year.
“No disrespect to any other programs, but it should always be Male and Ballard (competing at the top of the 7th Region) every year,” says Cathey, who has served as a Bulldogs assistant coach in recent years. “Tim came in with that attitude and embraced high expectations.”
In Haworth’s first season at Male last year, the Bulldogs went 22-10 and lost to eventual-state champion Trinity in the 7th Region quarterfinals.
This season, even when Fleming was sidelined, Male boasted a roster filled with both size and shooting.
Senior guard Tyren Moore hit a scalding 49.2 percent of his three-point shots (97 of 197) and led the Bulldogs in scoring (17.9 points per game). “Probably the best scorer I’ve ever coached,” Haworth says.
Kaleb Glenn, a 6-7 freshman, averaged a double-double (13.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game) while shooting a state-best 73.9 percent on field-goal attempts.
“If he keeps improving, he’s probably going to go down as one of the greatest players to ever go through Male,” Haworth says. “I’ve talked to different college coaches, they said he would start for them right now — and these are D-I, mid-major schools.”
Junior guard Cameron Pope (10.9 points), senior guard Jake Evans (8.1 points), and front-court players Noah Courtney (7.2 points, 5.6 rebounds) and Dez Lindsey (5.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, defensive stopper) also played large roles for Male.
“I went to five state tournaments at Hopkinsville, but this was the best team I ever had because everybody accepted their roles,” Haworth says. “Noah Courtney had started all year, but when (Fleming) came back, (Courtney) went to the bench and accepted his role.”
‘We had the best team’
Fleming (15.8 points, 7.0 rebounds) says sitting out so much of his junior season after shoulder surgery helped him handle having to do the same thing as a senior.
“I was more prepared,” he says. “Last year, I was worried I might not make it back. I was more at ease about it this year. After having surgery (the first time), I kind of realized the process. So (this year), I just trusted in the process. I was straight on that.”
Had the coronavirus pandemic and the efforts to contain it not intervened, Male (31-4) would have faced 8th Region champion Collins (27-7) in Rupp Arena on March 19 in the Sweet 16’s opening round. The Bulldogs defeated Collins twice in the regular season without Fleming.
Haworth says, “I’m biased, but I think we had the best team in the state.”
Having returned from surgery on both shoulders to lead Male back to the 7th Region mountain top after 18 long years, the Bulldogs’ point guard thinks that, too.
“When we’ve got all our guys,” Fleming says, “we’re definitely the best team in the state.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2020 at 8:46 AM.
