Buckle up, Kentucky basketball fans. You stand on the verge of an unprecedented season.
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2020-21 College Basketball Preview
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s 2020-21 College Basketball Preview special section was published in the print edition on Sunday, Nov. 15. Click below to view all the stories from that section that have been published on Kentucky.com.
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In 2020-21, basketball fans in Kentucky are guaranteed to witness a season like no other.
The commonwealth will add an eighth NCAA Division I program.
Our state will see the past five winners of the Kentucky Mr. Basketball award all playing for in-state universities.
Of most importance, this will be the first season in more than a century played amid the uncertainty of a global pandemic disrupting American life.
In what will be an unprecedented year in Kentucky college basketball, below are 10 storylines to watch:
10. New kids on the block. Under the coaching of Scott Davenport — the former Ballard High School head man and University of Louisville assistant — Bellarmine made four NCAA Division II Final Four appearances and won the 2011 national title.
This year, the private Louisville university is taking on the challenge of moving up from D-II to NCAA Division I. Bellarmine will play hoops in the Atlantic Sun conference, though the Knights will not be eligible for the D-I NCAA Tournament until 2024-25.
9. No Cats vs. Cards. There have frequently been scheduling impasses between Kentucky and Louisville in other sports, but the two schools had played women’s basketball every year since 1974-75.
The Cats and Cards will not meet in the regular season in 2020-21, however.
Before announcing his retirement, then-Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell told the Herald-Leader that UK-U of L fell victim to a pandemic-related, Atlantic Coast Conference mandate that its schools play 20 league games, causing Louisville to ask out of playing Kentucky this season.
So if we are to see a showdown this year between between national player of the year candidates Rhyne Howard (Kentucky) and Dana Evans (Louisville), it will come in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
8. A Lexington connection. Last season, in Darrin Horn’s first year as Northern Kentucky men’s hoops coach, the Tates Creek alumnus led the Norse (23-9) to the the Horizon League Tournament championship.
Had the coronavirus not intervened, NKU would have made its third NCAA Tournament trip in four seasons.
This year, Northern Kentucky will be without its two top players from a season ago. Dantez Walton (16.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg) graduated and Jalen Tate (13.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 3.6 apg) graduate transferred to Arkansas.
To replenish his roster, Horn came to his hometown and signed the best high school senior in Lexington. A 6-foot-3 guard, ex-Henry Clay star Marques Warrick (23.2 points, 4.8 rebounds last season) should become a core player for fellow Lexingtonian Horn.
7. Coach vs. cancer. Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball head man A.W. Hamilton had a scary summer.
A mole on the back of his right ear turned out to be cancerous. Hamilton, 39, was diagnosed with Stage II melanoma. On July 14, he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his right ear.
Subsequently judged cancer-free, Hamilton enters the 2020-21 season determined to use his story to inspire others to visit doctors for preventive health care.
6. A star’s return. After Charles Bassey averaged a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in his freshman season (2018-19) at Western Kentucky, most expected the 6-foot-11 post player to turn pro.
Instead, Bassey returned to school — only to live a nightmare. In last season’s 10th game, Bassey suffered a tibial plateau fracture in his left leg. The Lagos, Nigeria, native had to undergo major surgery and missed the remainder of his sophomore year.
Fully cleared medically for his third college season, Bassey’s return probably makes Rick Stansbury’s Hilltoppers the favorites over North Texas and Old Dominion to win Conference-USA.
5. Look upward, Kyra Elzy. For years, Kentucky women’s basketball teams featured smallish rosters built to apply pressure defense.
Now, with the announcement that 6-foot-4 Maryland transfer Olivia Owens is immediately eligible, UK Hoops has undergone a dramatic transformation.
Kentucky also adds 6-3 freshman Nyah Leveretter and 6-2 Utah transfer Dre’Una Edwards in the post. On the wing, 6-1 Treasure Hunt, a 2020 McDonald’s All-American, joins 6-2 Rhyne Howard.
Suddenly, UK has morphed into a “long team.”
4. Transfer portal. Player mobility is a defining trend of 21st century college sports. This season, our state’s most visible men’s college hoops teams have fully embraced the zeitgeist.
At UK, John Calipari added Creighton guard Davion Mintz as a grad transfer, then acquired 7-foot center Olivier Sarr from Wake Forest via the traditional transfer route — with an eventual eligibility waiver allowing Sarr to play right away.
Louisville Coach Chris Mack imported, arguably, the nation’s top graduate transfer in ex-Radford point guard Carlik Jones (20 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 5.5 apg in 2019-20). U of L also added well-regarded swingman Charles Minlend (14.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg), a rugged 6-4, 220-pound grad transfer from San Francisco.
The most intriguing incoming transfer, however, may be WKU’s Luke Frampton. At Davidson, the 6-5, 200-pound Frampton hit 100 of 266 three-point attempts in 2018-19.
Only one other Davidson player has ever made 100 treys in a season: Steph Curry.
3. Five Mr. Basketballs. The 2020-21 Western Kentucky roster will feature three Kentucky Mr. Basketball winners: Carson Williams (2016, Owen County), Taveion Hollingsworth (2017, Paul Laurence Dunbar), and Dayvion McKnight (2020, Collins).
Meanwhile, 2018 Mr. Basketball Trevon Faulkner (Mercer County) is a junior at Northern Kentucky and 2019 winner Dontaie Allen (Pendleton County) a redshirt freshman at Kentucky.
This is the first time ever that five Kentucky Mr. Basketball winners will play for in-state universities in the same season.
2. Talkin’ smack. With Kentucky having beaten Louisville in 11 of their past 13 men’s hoops meetings, some of the sizzle has come out of our state’s marquee rivalry.
This offseason, head coaches John Calipari and Chris Mack have stepped into the rivalry breach by exchanging barbs in a controversy over scheduling.
Mack expressed the belief that it would not be fair for Louisville to play host to Kentucky this season in front of a pandemic-reduced crowd, then have to play the return game in a presumably jam-packed Rupp Arena in 2021-22.
Calipari questioned whether U of L was trying to get out of playing UK at all.
Mack responded with a sarcasm-laced Twitter video in which he described heavy-handed Kentucky actions designed to force Louisville to play the Cats on the date of UK’s choosing.
While denying he’d watched Mack’s video, Calipari said he’d been told it contained “a lot of whining.”
When Kentucky and Louisville tip off Dec. 26, the preseason coaching back and forth ensures the proceedings will be spicy.
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1. Don’t stand so close to me. The defining factor in the coming college basketball season will be the attempt to play while mitigating the coronavirus pandemic.
Fan attendance in 20,000-seat-plus venues Rupp Arena and the KFC Yum Center will be capped at 15 percent of capacity.
Many conferences are adopting scheduling models that feature teams playing opponents twice on one trip to limit potential COVID-19 exposure.
If non-league games are played at all, many will come with teams entering NBA-inspired “containment bubbles.”
The coronavirus alone ensures that the 2020-21 Kentucky college hoops season will be like none any of us remember.
