As a dyed-in-the-wool Lute Olson/Arizona Wildcats basketball fan, I loved watching Kenny Lofton's performances on the hardwood in the mid-80's. He was unbelievably quick...athletic and game-savvy. His 35" vertical leap kept his relatively short 6 foot frame in the picture with other, taller, stand-out teammates like Sean Elliot, Brian Williams and "The Wookie" (Sean Rooks).
One particular picture stands out in mind in a home game against USC in those days: one of the Trojan guards was bringing the ball back down court after a UA 3-pointer, alone to face the phenom Hoop-Cat lurking in the back-court. Before the guard could even blink a dry eye, Lofton, in an absolute mind-numbing blur, shoved the ball backwards between the guard's legs, quick-dribbled twice toward the basket and slam-jammed it, backwards over his head, into the strings. The Trojan guard, half back on his heels, was still "dribbling air" on Lofton's descent from the hoop, with the most profound look I've ever seen on a player in 23 years of watching college basketball ...[insert headline: "Roof Blown Off McKale Stadium in 2.2 Seconds"...].
I met Kenny once after the season outside the "Wildcat Store" beneath the football stadium. He was about to slide his sleek "diminuative" stature into a fire-engine-red convertible at the time but took a moment for me when I asked him about his future. "...yeah, things are real good ... thank's for comin' to the games ... Grandma's fine ...... but I think I'm gonna play BASEBALL."
(huh???...)
» Bob Shank is not an author - but he IS a dyed-in-the-wool Arizona sports fan when he's not supporting the Raytheon engineers who build Tomahawk Cruise missiles in Tucson.
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Copyright © 2002 by Bob Shank, Jr.. Posted April 15, 2002.
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