1988-89 KENTUCKY OUTLOOK
Big shoes to fill
^ ^     The year is 1945. . . ^<<^Pf^ A nine-year old Kansas fourth-grader ^CtHnamed Eddie Sutton shoots baskets after
^ ^_^ school in hopes of someday becoming a
basketball star. Nine hundred
miles away in Lexington,
Kentucky, Adolph Rupp is the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. He's talking about his team for the upcoming season. It's a young group, he says, of the youngest he's ever coached. It will be tough to come close to the 19-2 record from a year before.
But the challenge is exciting.
Forty-three years later, nine-year-old Kansas fourth-graders are still dreaming of becoming basketball stars. Nine hundred miles away in Lexington, Kentucky, Eddie Sutton is the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. He's talking about his team for the upcoming season, It's a young group, he says, one of the youngest he's ever coached. It will be tough to come close to the 27-6 record from a year before.
But he's up to the challenge.
A senior and a junior comprise the entire upperclass of this 1988-89 edition of the Kentucky Wildcats, providing a challenge a Kentucky coach
hasn't faced in 40 years. In addition to being young, the Kentucky roster is also relatively small and not too deep. Naturally, these are concerns for Sutton; but they're also sources of motivation and excitement.
"As I approach this season, I think there's a feeling of concern," he says. "After you have lost six of your top eight players and you only have one senior and one junior, and the rest of your squad consists of freshmen and sophomores, you're concerned about the lack of experience. I don't believe there's ever been a team I can remember coaching that was as youthful as this one. When you play in one of the toughest leagues in the country, and perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule I've seen since I've been at Kentucky, that does make for some concern on our part.
"I'm very anxious, however, to get started on the 15th of October. I think this will be a very enthusiastic group that will be eager to learn. Certainly
we have enough talent to be competitive."
Sutton's returning talent will
have some big Nikes to fill. It was bad enough losing Winston Bennett (15.3 ppg., 7.8 rpg.), Ed Davender (15.7 ppg., 2.2 rpg.), Rob Lock (10.9 ppg., 6.5 rpg.), Cedric Jenkins (3.4 ppg., 3.5 rpg.) and Richard Madison (2.9 ppg., 3.2 rpg.) in one fell swoop. But the biggest loss occurred when super-soph Rex Chapman declared himself eligible in May for the Nation-, al Basketball Association draft. To the dismay of thousands of adoring Ken-tuckians, Chapman took his 19 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game to the Charlotte Hornets, who drafted him eighth overall. Four of UK's 1987-88 starters, in fact, were snatched in the three-round NBA draft, with Lock going to the Los Angeles Clippers, Davender continued on page 6
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