A LOOK AT THE STATE'S MOST INTRIGUING STARS AND STORIES BETWEEN NOW AND NEXT YEAR'S DERBY
Here in Kentucky, we mark time from Derby to Derby.
So welcome to my second edition of The Kentucky 25, a list of those I expect to be figures of intrigue in the year between yesterday and the first Saturday in May, 2008.
25. Tubby Smith. My sense of the average UK fan is that they are glad to turn the page on a new chapter in Kentucky basketball -- while wishing their former coach a fresh start in Minneapolis.
24. Jared Carter and Perry Stephenson. Barring a late signing coup, UK's chances of having viable front-line play (and a good men's basketball season) depend on one (or both) of these sophomore big men developing in a rush.
23. Michael Bush. How much money did the former Louisville football star lose (literally tens of millions) when his slow-healing broken leg knocked him out of the first round of the NFL Draft and down to the first pick of the fourth round (by the Raiders)? Whether Michael Bush can make it back will be a poignant story to watch.
22. Girls' head basketball coaches from public high schools. They will build a monument to the next public school coach to win a Girls' Sweet Sixteen. It hasn't been done since the late John "Hop" Brown took West Carter to the 2000 state title.
21. Julien Leparoux. From the moment the jockey great retired, finding the "next Pat Day" has become the quest on the Kentucky horse racing circuit. This year's hot candidate is Leparoux, the 23-year-old Frenchman who won the spring riding title at Keeneland.
20. David Elson. Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell and Athletics Director Wood Selig led the charge for WKU to move to I-A football -- but it is Elson, 35, who has to coach the Hilltoppers through the transition. It starts with the 2007 season opener (gulp) against defending national champion Florida in The Swamp.
19. J.B. Holmes. When you win in your fourth outing on the PGA Tour (which Holmes did in 2006), suffice to say it raises expectations. Can the Taylor County High and UK product consistently raise his game to the level of a top-10 player?
18. Terrence Williams. The ebullient Louisville forward is easy to like -- but his shot selection isn't. Is he destined to be Rick Pitino's next Rodrick Rhodes, an enigma whose inability to discipline his game keeps a talented team out of the Final Four (a la Pitino's 1995 UK team, led by Rhodes).
17. Rich Brooks. For the first time since his initial season in Lexington (2003), the UK football coach should enter a year without speculation about his job. But facing a ridiculous schedule, can Brooks build off the momentum from last season's eight-win surprise?
16. Angel McCoughtry and Crystal Kelly. It's not impossible that the first-team All-America forwards in women's college basketball in 2008 will both play in the commonwealth -- McCoughtry (22 ppg, 10.6 rebounds last season) at Louisville, Kelly (24.1, 9.4) at Western Kentucky.
15. Omobi Okoye. The 19-year-old ex-Louisville Cardinal was the story of the 2007 NFL Draft while going 10th to the Houston Texans. Now we see if a boy among men (at least age-wise) can thrive in the middle of an NFL defensive line.
14. Rick Pitino. Even allowing for the 2005 Final Four trip, I'd rate Pitino's first six years at U of L (three first-weekend exits from the NCAA tourney; two NIT trips) as a bit disappointing. However, the coach has a Final Four-caliber team returning and a second trip with Louisville to college basketball's final weekend totally changes the tone of Pitino's U of L tenure.
13. Jodie Meeks. Flashed star potential in his rookie season as a Kentucky guard. Will he take it to the next level under Billy Gillispie?
12. Keenan Burton and Mario Urrutia. It's not impossible that two first-round picks in the 2008 NFL Draft at wide receiver will both play in the commonwealth in 2007. How many bar debates will center on the question of whom is better, UK's Burton or Louisville's Urrutia?
11. Whoever gets elected Governor. Will have bigger issues than athletics to deal with, but the perennial issue of whether slot machines/other gambling will be allowed at thoroughbred racetracks (and other spots around the state) could at last come to critical mass.
10. Matthew Mitchell and Jeff Walz. Mitchell, 36, is the new women's basketball coach at Kentucky; Walz, 35, is the new man in the same job at Louisville. Can't have a more perfect scenario to compare and contrast the tenures of head coaches at archrivals, can you?
9. Derrick Caracter. Has the talent to take Louisville men's hoops to the proverbial next level. Also has the capacity with his penchant for off-court issues to sink a highly promising season.
8. Darius Miller. Mason County swingman figures to be the most highly recruited high school basketball player produced in Kentucky so far in the 21st century and is a "statement recruit" for the new coaching staff at Kentucky.
7. Andre Woodson. A year ago at this time, many were predicting that Woodson was going to lose the job as Kentucky's starting quarterback to Curtis Pulley.
Now, if he can lead UK to back-to-back bowls (and maybe upset somebody his fan base hates like, oh, Louisville or Tennessee), Woodson could go down as one of the most significant QBs in Kentucky's modern football history.
6. Brandon Webb. Having earned the National League Cy Young Award for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006, the Ashland native and former UK pitcher can cement his place among baseball's truly elite pitchers with a strong follow-up in '07.
5. Brian Brohm. No pressure here. Mel Kiper Jr. is already touting Brian Brohm as the potential top overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Recall how such early lauding as "the man" worked out for quarterbacks Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn.
4. Chris Lofton. The former Mason County star has one more season at Tennessee to torment and haunt his home state.
3. Jerry Carroll's attorneys. The Kentucky Speedway mogul's antitrust throwdown (OK, lawsuit) against the France family that controls NASCAR is an all-or-nothing roll of the dice that has huge implications for the commonwealth.
2. Steve Kragthorpe. The new Louisville football coach takes over Cardinals football with the program at its all-time high. Coach Krag might want to call Tubby Smith to get tips on what life is like when one does that.
1. Billy Gillispie. Being head men's basketball coach at Kentucky is the best job in the country when things are going great -- and the worst when things are going anything below great. The best plan for Billy G. is to get to great, and soon.
