John Pelphrey is appreciative of the opportunity to bring his team to Rupp Arena tonight. (Tennessee Tech Photo)
Before Mark Pope won a national championship as a player at Kentucky, John Pelphrey and the “Unforgettables” laid the foundation for other teams to follow during the Rick Pitino era.
“He’s one of those incredible guys that came here and turned the program when it was really, really in the cellar,” Pope said during his radio show on Monday. “He’s also an incredible person, and he’s had an incredible coaching run.”
Pelphrey, now in his sixth season at Tennessee Tech, has coached at Arkansas and served as an assistant coach under Billy Donovan at Florida and will return to Rupp Arena tonight when the Golden Eagles take on the Wildcats.
Pelphrey is looking forward to returning to the place where he competed as a prep standout at Paintsville High School and later Kentucky, where his playing career ended in the Wildcats’ infamous 92-91 loss to Duke in the 1992 NCAA Tournament.
When Pope called Pelphrey to schedule a game with his current squad at Tennessee Tech, Pelphrey balked, before agreeing to schedule the homecoming contest.
“This is not just another place, and certainly the building – I’ve had a long relationship with it,” he said. “Everybody knows my love up there with my alma mater, so I’ll have to deal with some of that and certainly try to prepare myself. There’s a lot of emotion there, from being a six-year-old high school kid, played like seven games and obviously spent five years here as a Kentucky basketball player … It’s a special place, and I’m very, very appreciative of the opportunity.”
Pelphrey recalled the team’s 85-71 win over Kansas a year after a 150-95 drubbing in Lawrence in Pitino’s first season at Kentucky. He also recalled victories over Louisville and Indiana during his playing career with the Wildcats.
“You’re out there, it is just like, I can’t believe this has happened to me, and I love it, and I want more. I just want more,” he said. “I was a little bit of a junkie. … everybody kind of thinks I’m a little bit corny from time to time, but I was literally like a kid at Kings Island. I knew the park was going to end, and I was just racing around trying to get a few more rides, and that’s literally the way I spent five years here. I could have done this for a lifetime.”
He also recalled the ride home following the loss to the Jayhawks on Dec. 9, 1989.
“Coach Pitino turned over a water cooler at halftime, and it was full of Gatorade, and it hit the floor and exploded,” Pelphrey recalled. “Billy Donovan’s over there trying to count up deflections, and he never moved. The Gatorade just went right over his Gucci shoe and he never flinched. It was amazing. After the game, we get on the bus and coach Pitino is asked, ‘coach, are we ready to go?’ He says, yeah, I’m ready to go – go find a cliff and drive this bus off.”
Following his playing career, Pelphrey served as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State under the late Eddie Sutton, then followed Donovan to Marshall and Florida before coaching stints at South Alabama and Arkansas. He returned to Florida and served as an assistant at Alabama before taking over at Tennessee Tech in 2019.
When he returns tonight, Pelphrey, whose jersey hangs in the rafters of Rupp, wants the spotlight on his team.
“It’s not about me, it’s about our team,” he said. “It’s about us being able to figure out what we can do well and where we need to get better at these games. They are great evaluations and kind of show you the things that are important.”
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GAMETRACKER: Tennessee Tech at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: SECN, UK Radio Network. Coverage: www.kentuckytoday.com
3 Responses
One of the all-time most memorable, and definitely UNFORGETTABLE, CATS of all-time. Pelphrey actually has a lot of that same DNA that Pope has as far as how he feels about the KY program, and the way in which KY BBALL affects HIM emotionally. But it's really MORE and at the highest level it could ever be because of Pelphrey actually being FROM KY, and getting to live out that real-life dream that so many from here have over generations, but that few actually get to live out. I mean, who of us die-hards HASNT dreamed it? When I was a kid growing up in LOU and just shooting bball around in my backyard by myself or with my Dad, u don't think I was out there pretending to be Rex Chapman or Ed Davender or Kenny "Sky" Walker or James Blackmon? U bet your ass I was. Those are the guys that I grew up watching–Sky Walker, Blackmon, Davender, Roger Harden–those were the first CATS that I ever knew in my life–Kenny Walker was bigger than life to me, he was a GOD, and I idolized him like no other. He was my first UK hero. He was my generation's Dan Issel. Second-leading scorer in UK history, and only other CAT besides Issel and the Goose in the 2,000-pt club. Honestly, u could start a Mt Rushmore of KY BBALL with those 3 guys right there. And seriously, throw Mashburn on there for your fourth, and those are your four greatest individual names and talents of the post-Rupp era up to, and then I think after them would have to be Tony Delk and Tayshaun Prince. Which, speaking of, when are they going to retire Tayshaun's jersey? Talk about 20 yrs overdue. #21 should be in the rafters right along with this Unforgettable here, and the others too. And u could seriously make a case for Keith Bogans too–take a look at where he ranks on the all-time scoring list. He is higher than people remember. But without a doubt, they have seriously missed the boat on Tayshaun. And once you start dropping names, u realize ones you have forgotten, like Kevin Grevey. For my Dad's generation, for the ISSEL generation, Grevey was right behind the HORSE and the GOOSE. I think Issel, Walker, Givens, Grevey, Mashburn, Delk, Prince, and Bogans might be the most IMPORTANT INDIVIDUAL names and talents in KY history between 1970 and 2000 because of what they meant to the program while they were there, and the IMPRINT AND IMPACT they had on the program relative to where the program was at the time they were there. There are more lists for more eras for sure, and thats for another era, but just spanning that 30-year era between Joe Hall and Tubby Smith, that would be my top list. There is a case to be made that Jamal Mashburn could be considered the single-most important Wildcat to ever play at KY, and guys like John Pelphrey would understand why I say that. MASH was an "Unforgettable" as well, but in a different way. And I always said that Reggie Hanson and Derrick Miller were a part of those "Unforgettables" as well, because of the contributions they made to the beginning of the Pitino rebuild. Especially Reggie. For what they accomplished in Pitino's second season-finishing with the best record in the SEC while they were still on probation and ineligible to actually win the championship, or compete in the postseason tournaments–yet they finished 14-4 in the conference and printed out Tshirts with SEC #1 on them, and cut down the nets in Rupp Arena after the last game of the season, which they won against AUB 114-93. That was a very memorable season and accomplishment, and it's one I think has been forgotten over time, and has not been appreciated in the way it should have. And people forget that MASH was a freshman on that team, and that it was he and Reggie who manned the middle for the team that season. And MASH's presence that year is what pushed that team over the edge to accomplish that. And MASH made Reggie 100 times the player that he would have finished as, because Reggie had to go against MASH every day in practice, and Reggie could hold his own with anybody, including Shaquille O'Neal, in spite of his overall physical build, or maybe lack thereof I should say–but he proved more than once that what he lacked in physical attributes he made up for with HARD WORK, and dedication, and sacrifice for a TEAM. That's what all those guys did–they stayed at KY at a program that was dead and buried–Pelphrey came there in 1988 when Rex Chapman and Ed Davender were still on the team, and saw the likes of Eric Manuel and Chris Mills pass through, and by the time his career was over, the team had become his, as well as the other three and MASH–it was THEIR team by 1992, and they earned it and deserved it, so Pel lived, saw, and survived through it all, from beginning to end. So I hope BBN gives him a big, warm reception tonight when he is introduced, because Pel invokes memories of a time when college bball was still college bball, and of a time when guys were still playing the game for the right reasons. And by the way, the final score of the 1992 DUKE game was 104-103 OT.
The unforgettables played for Kentucky. Kids today play because they get paid.
# Truth
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