The rise of Patrick Patterson
By Travis
In anticipation of seeing Patrick Patterson play for the first time in almost nine months on New Year’s Eve (I’ll be covering the game for The Cats’ Pause because Matt May is in Nashville for the Music City Bowl), I thought I’d reflect on my personal impressions of how well the freshman forward has played.
How far has Patrick Patterson come? Well, I definitely had no idea who the 6-foot-4 freshman was four years ago, and I was living in the same town and it was my job to know he was.
So, you can imagine where that put him on the national recruiting radar. So, at the end of his freshman year — when he had grown to 6-6 and earned third team all-state honors in West Virginia for Huntington High — I made some calls to see if his impressive freshman season had registered at all nationally.
Brett Dawson, the University of Kentucky beat reporter for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, who at the time was covering Illinois for the Champaign newspaper, was my first call because Patterson had expressed interest in both Illinois and Michigan State.
Dawson, a good friend and mentor while he was working for The Cats’ Pause and I was a student at UK, had never heard of Patterson, and Patterson hadn’t been noticed by either of the coaching staffs at the two Big Ten schools. And Patterson wasn’t on UK coach Tubby Smith’s radar either, according to TCP’s Matt May, another close friend from my days in LexVegas.
Now, Patterson is the toast of the town. He’s easily been Billy Gillispie’s best player so far this season and the centerpiece of Gillispie’s rebuilding effort.
Patterson’s probably been one of the nation’s 10 best freshmen in a loaded class that includes former Huntington High School teammate O.J. Mayo, Indiana’s Eric Gordon, Memphis’ Derrick Rose, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, UCLA’s Kevin Love and Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless.
UK fans have been so impressed that they’re afraid he might not stay around long enough for the Wildcats to complete the turnaround with him on campus.
Even I, whom got to see him before the rest of Cat Nation and was impressed enough to figure he’d soon be a top 100 recruit, am surprised with how good he’s immediately become at the collegiate level. Patterson made huge leaps forward each high school season, none bigger than from his freshman to sophomore season when it became obvious he was getting overlooked. But soon UK, Wake Forest and Florida came calling. A year later, everyone would be knocking on his door, including Duke and North Carolina.
It was when Patterson became a recruiting star that I began to have my doubts. I knew he could play, but now he had become more sought after than any high school senior. Sure, he’d be an impact player but not a star (or at least not for three or four seasons). Right?
People asked who he reminded me of, often asking if former UK forward Chuck Hayes was an accurate comparison. Sure, but he’s more athletic and taller than Hayes with a higher ceiling. More like Charles Hurt, I figured. Little did I know Hayes would be an NBA starter.
In fact, Emeka Okafor was who came immediately to mind. Afterall, Okafor was a late-bloomer like Pat, and arrived at UConn as a dominant defender and rebounder with a limited offensive game.
So, that’s how I imagined his freshman season progressing. So, the fact that his defense has been the weakest part of his game is a huge surprise, even if it’s been very good.
But Pat’s offensive game grew by leaps and bounds over the last 18 months. I remember when he was too timid to dunk, then when his offensive game consisted of a 10-foot radius from the basket. But he’s developed a 15-foot jumper, post moves, and I even saw him take a defender off the dribble from the top of the key at least once.
UK might still be 4-5 without him, but who knows. He’s come a long way.