Tom Thacker I believe played for Covington Holmes. I saw him play at Memorial Coliseum in the 1959 KY east vs west All star game. He and Bob Rice, 6'6" forward from Sandy Hook, were the most valuable players in that game. Thacker went to Univ of Cinn where he started for three years and won a NCAA championship In 1961? He was 6'2" but had great hops. I think he later played in the NBA with the Royals.
Thacker attended the old segregated Covington HS, William Grant. My cousin played against Thacker in HS and for Xavier against UC. College coach McCafferty asked him how he did against Thacker in HS. Told him he held him to 30.
That game sounds similar to the one lee county played in 1966 with Larry stamper unbelievable nobody from that area did not mention Larry 😃 they lost in the semi because there best free throw shooter missed free throws with game on the line huge heartbreak
Team 2 would have to have Ballard's Jeff Lamp who was All-ACC at Virginia all four seasons 1st team All-American his senior season, 15th pick in the 1981 draft, 8-year NBA career. I'd put him over Lofton. LSU's Rudy Macklin would be on there, too.
Wes Unseld was pretty good. I saw him as a high school junior when they won the state tournie.
Rebounding machine man what a player unseld was for his size might be the best Kentucky ever produced he is definitely up there
No doubt. Wasn’t asking if Unseld > Houston, was asking if they from same region.
There used to be a fellow named Daryl Dawkins who called himself Chocolate Thunder among other things. One night in Washington, his NBA team lost to Unseld and the Bullets. Dawkins raged in the dressing room and ripped urinals and sinks off the wall. Reporters asked Unseld what he thought about it. Unseld said, "Daryl is a nice boy. He calls me Mister Unseld."
I'm a Calloway County graduate, but I would have to go with with Odie Smith out of Farmington. That guy was an NBA All-star game MVP.
Nope, Kenny Rawlings (sp) member of Fabulous Five, some say he's the best defensive gusrd to ever play st UK.
FSU also had a 6'10" forward by the name of Reggie Royals who was a great player. Hugh Durham later on coached the Univ of Ga. I saw an interview a Ga sports writer had with Durham and he talked about the FSU beat down of UK during the 1972 NCAA tournament. Durham said he grew up an avid UK fan and as a kid if UK lost he was so upset he couldn't go to school the next day. He said he always felt bad about being the coach that ended coach Rupp's 40 year coaching career with a loss because he loved the cats so much as a kid and had such great respect for Rupp.
Todd May from Virgie was pretty good. He won Mr. Basketball and was named MVP of the 1982 state tournament on a team that finished 4th. After short stints at UK and Wake Forrest he was drafted in the 4th round of the 1987 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs coming out of tiny Pikeville College (now UPike).
Larry Johnson out of union county was not too shabby either the best or top 3 man he would flat out get after you
Man I remember him I thought he was going to be a great player for Kentucky but just never did happen
Are you sure about that? From the quotes I’ve seen at the time Unseld’s mother was supportive of UK recruiting him. It was Wes himself who wasn’t enthusiastic about playing for UK or in the South.
I have heard two different sides I read where his mother was concerned about his safety in the south at that time and I also heard that Kentucky booed him really bad at memorial when introduced causing Wes to look elsewhere
Valid statement, but actually the best the 4th region had to offer was probably Jim McDaniels who became an AA at WKU and took them to the F4.
Your post got me to thinking. Who are the 5 best players from each of Kentucky's 16 high school regions regardless of what college that they attended.
Todd May had he stayed at UK could have developed into a heck of a player for us. Heard several years back where May said that if he had it to do over again. That he would have stayed at UK.
