Nate Pace Photo
Nate Pace is the sports editor of the Greene County Daily World in Linton, Ind., and says he has been a Kentucky fan since 1995 when he was 5 years old.
He covered the high school career of recent Kentucky signee Joey Hart, a 6-5 guard, in Linton, Ind., and says fans there are “excited” about having him joining coach John Calipari’s team.
Hart averaged 23.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for Linton-Stockton High School and shot over 40 percent from 3-point range. His team went 29-2 and reached the Class 2A state championship game before losing last season.
The next few days I’ll share some of Pace’s insights into Hart to let you know more about him.
Assuming there are not a lot of Kentucky fans in your area there, so what has been the feeling about Joey going to Kentucky?
“There are more Kentucky fans in Southern and Western Indiana than what you might think. Overall, people are excited for a player in Greene County to go to a major program.
“Hart is the biggest recruit in the county since A.J. Graves went to Butler University almost 20 years ago. That was before Butler was a power conference program.
“In Kentucky, when a kid signs with UK the whole town wants to see him sign and be at his ceremony. For Hart, he committed at home and drove to Lexington the same day. A different vibe for sure.
“He signed with Central Florida in November but reopened his recruitment in May. Hopefully, it would have been a bigger event if he committed (to UK) during the school year.”
