Fiftieth Anniversary of Kentucky HS Basketball's Peak Season: Part III -- The Players

A big part of why 1976 may well be the highest peak year in Kentucky high school basketball is because of the abundance of great players, players who starred in high school, got recruited to play for some of the nation’s top college teams, and then became stars in college. In the five year period 1974-1978 Kentucky cranked out high Division I players as if from an assembly line. As a sophomore and junior, Male’s Darrell Griffith played against future college stars like Jack Givens, Kenny Higgs, and James Lee. But 1976 seems to have been the absolute peak talent of high school basketball in Kentucky, largely because Griffith was a senior that year. He has to be the first in line when calling the roll of the players who excelled that year.

Darrell Griffith
High School

• Mr. Basketball USA
• Parade All American
• Feature article in Sports Illustrated (Bundles of Mail for a Male Man)
• Three-time first team all state
• 1975 State championship at Male
• Kentucky Mr. Basketball
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Wooden National Player of the Year Award 1980
• National championship 1980
• Final Four Most Outstanding Player Award 1980
• Sports Illustrated Cover (The Great Griffith!)

NBA

• Second overall pick in 1976 draft
• 1977 Rookie of the Year for Utah Jazz
• Averaged over 20 points per game through first five NBA seasons, before suffering a knee injury that kept him out of the 1985-86 season; returned for five more seasons post-injury but was never the same player, averaging only about half as many points for the remainder of his career as he averaged before the injury

In addition to Griffith, the state was otherwise loaded with top talent. In fact, the state could have fielded a whole team of college final four starters and future NBA players from that year and still left out the player most people considered the second best player in the state:

Bobby Turner was not merely Darrell Griffith’s sidekick at Male. Madisonville’s legendary coach, Don Parson, said that while Turner may have lacked Griffith’s flashy moves, he was “just as good” as his more heralded running mate. Ballard’s coach, Richard Schmidt, told me that Griffith didn’t hurt the Bruins as much as Turner did: “He was a really tough kid—tough around the basket.” To Ballard’s Mark Snider, as good as Griffith was, Turner was the more intimidating player to face. 
High School

• Twice voted first team all state; voted second team all state as sophomore
• 1975 State championship
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame 

College

• Started his sophomore and junior seasons at Louisville. 
• Second-leading scorer (behind Griffith) in his junior season. Louisville finished the season ranked 13th in the nation.

And that was the end of the road for him as a basketball player. As Earl Cox reported in the Coureir-Journal: “After the 1978-79 basketball season ended with U of L’s loss to Arkansas in the NCAA Midwest Regional at Cincinnati, Turner quit going to class.” Head coach Denny Crum tried to persuade Turner to enroll in summer school and promised that he could play guard “to prepare him for the National Basketball Association.” Crum’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Despite not playing his senior year, Turner was still selected in the 1980 NBA draft, but he did not make a team; his playing days were over. 

Durand “Rudy” Macklin turned in a 1975-76 season that was likely as strong as any player in any season in Kentucky high school history. If you opened the sports pages of the Courier-Journal that year, more or less at random, you’d read a familiar story: Macklin’s stat line varied a bit from game to game, but it kept to a consistent theme. A sampling of Macklin’s performances reveals such performances as a 25 point, 23 rebound effort against Dayton (Ohio) Dunbar; 35 points and 17 rebounds in a win against Danville; 27 points, 26 rebounds, and 15 blocked shots against top-five rated Newport Catholic; 29 points, 19 rebounds, and 12 blocks against Iroquois; 23 points and 12 rebounds against DeSales; and 30 points, 18 rebounds, and nine blocks against Madisonville. It’s no wonder the Louisville paper called him a one-man wrecking crew. 

High School

• First team all state
• Led Shawnee to the Sixth Region title and a spot in the Sweet 16
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

•  Lousiana State University’s all-time career leader in rebounds
•  LSU’s second place in career points (behind NCAA career scoring leader Pete Maravich)
•  Four year starter at LSU (medical redshirt in 1978-79 season)
•  SEC player of the year in 1981
•  Three time first-team all SEC
•  Second-team All American in 1981
•  Led LSU to NCAA Final Four in 1981

NBA

•  Played 160 games over three seasons for the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks

Jeff Lamp: A junior at Seventh Region champion Ballard in 1976, Lamp blossomed into a star as the season progressed. 
High School

• First team all state as a senior; Second team all state as junior
• 1977 Mr. Basketball
• 1977 State championship
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Number 3 jersey retired at the University of Virginia
• Two-time first team all ACC (and two time second team all ACC)
• Second team All American in 1981
• Starred on UVA’s 1981 Final Four team

NBA

• First round draft pick of Portland Trail Blazers; played 291 games over six seasons with the Trail Blazers, Bucks, Spurs and Lakers

Lee Raker: Another junior at Ballard in 1976
High School

• Two time first-team all state selection
• 1977 state championship
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Four-year starter at the University of Virginia
• Started on UVA’s 1981 Final Four team

Jerry Eaves: Starting guard for Ballard as a sophomore in 1976
 High School

• Two time first-team all state
• 1977 state championship
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Starting guard on 1980 University of Louisville national championship team
• Three year starter at Louisville 

NBA

• Played 168 games over four seasons with Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings

Doug Schloemer: Second-team all state as a sophomore for Ninth Region champion Covington Holmes in 1976
High School

• Mr. Basketball in 1978
• Two-time first team all state selection
• Led Holmes to 1978 state final
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Played four years at University of Cincinnati

Tim Stephens: First-team all stater at 12th Region champion McCreary County
High School

• Two time first-team all state
• Leading scorer in 1976, averaging over 35 points per game
• Runner-up to Griffith in Mr. Basketball voting in 1976
• Inducted into KY HS Basketball Hall of Fame

College

• Played three years at University of Kentucky

That makes eight hall of famers who were either seniors or who started on a state tournament team in 1976. Three (Griffith, Lamp and Macklin) became among the best ever to play at their respective universities, and five started on an NCAA Final Four team. Three played on an NCAA championship team (Griffith, Eaves, and Stephens). Four played in the NBA.  I haven’t done a systematic review of how this stacks up against other years, but it sure seems like a bar that likely has never been topped in any other season.

P.S. In response to a question about why the state doesn’t turn out players at a rate like this anymore—and admitting that I am in no way qualified to answer that question—I would nonetheless propose two contributing factors. First, and probably the more impactful, is that the popularity of basketball in other parts of the country and the world has exploded in the last 50 years. Kentucky’s best athletes have long gravitated to basketball, moreso than in many other corners. In 1976, college basketball was televised on Saturday, with maybe a game on Sunday. The NBA had one nationally televised game a week. There was no ESPN, and, obviously, no internet. That all changed and the prevalence of opportunities to watch likely led to a spike in participation at a higher rate in other states than in Kentucky. Second, six of the eight icons named above are from Louisville, where there used to be a thriving community of highly competitive pick up games that included area high schoolers, former high school stars, collegians, and even some pros. That culture seems to be a relic of the past, replaced by organized summer travel teams that play a national schedule against their peers. I think it is quite possible that something has been lost in the informal transmission of basketball knowledge from one generation to the next, as well as the development of a toughness that young players had to adopt in order to hold their own against older, stronger players. I’m sure there are other, better, theories out there, but these are the two factors that occurred to me.

As great as the great teams and great players were, 1976 also stands out for the unexpected results that came down the pike. The lesser teams were still talented enough and well-coached enough to stand toe-to-toe with the guys they’d soon be watching on television. I’ll pick up that thread after the first of the year.