October 23, 2008
Bob McClellan
Rivals.com College Basketball Editor
MORE: SEC notes: Western Division wants to close the gap
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There is something undeniably old school about Kentucky sophomore big man Patrick Patterson.
Of all the players who attended SEC Media Days, he was the least flashy. Many wore suits and ties with colors Crayola hasn't even considered yet. Patterson wore a sweater and dark slacks. He wasn't sporting any bling, either.
Patrick Patterson feels healthy again and is ready to play a big role for the Wildcats.
He doesn't have a problem with being old school. It fits him.
"For me, I feel that basketball is basketball, two points is two points," Patterson said. "You don't need to be flashy all the time. It's how you carry yourself on the court. I don't need to do that. A lot of players do the flashy stuff. But I never have growing up. I just played the game, not showboating, not throwing up any signs or any stuff like that. I never did that in my life.
"I always had respect for the game. Put the basketball in the rim and just play the old-school style. Back in the day, they never did anything like that. They just played the game."
Patterson played it quite well as a freshman for the Wildcats last season. He averaged 16.4 points and 7.4 rebounds and posted six double-doubles. He also averaged nearly 36 minutes per game as the Wildcats were especially thin in the frontcourt.
The numbers are impressive. They're numbers his old idols, players such as Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon, can admire.
His season was cut short, though, when a stress fracture was discovered in his left ankle as the calendar turned to March. Patterson had helped carry the Wildcats into college basketball's most meaningful month, then had to go to the sideline. It was a cruel twist. Without him, UK went quietly in the first round of the NCAA tournament, losing 74-66 to Marquette.
"The rehab was tough," Patterson said. "From my surgery all the way up till now, day in day out with trainers. They sent me a program back home in West Virginia when we got out of school to do with trainers at a local facility – ankle movements, Therabands, water treadmill to keep me moving. From running in the water, to running on the treadmill to running on the court, it has been a long and tough process."
From what coach Billy Gillispie has seen and what Patterson has said, Big Blue Nation can breathe easy. Patterson, who was the SEC Co-Freshman of the Year last season, is back to his old-school self.
"He wasn't 100 percent to go until recently," Gillispie said. "But now he's used to running and shooting, and his timing is back. He's very close to being 100 percent back. Physically, he has been. Now it's just getting used to playing again.
"I don't care how good you are, it takes a little while to get back. Michael Jordan was gone for a couple of years and it took him a little time, not much time, and it won't take Patrick much time, either. He's progressing on a daily basis."
Patterson plays every possession as though it could be his last. He works tirelessly on the boards, and he establishes offensive position on the low block as well as anyone in the SEC.
Gillispie said Patterson was forced to play out of position at center last season. Gillispie hopes to keep Patterson strictly at power forward this season.
"I don't think we saw Patrick exhibit all the skills he had last year because he was relegated to … center," Gillispie said. "I think he's a power forward. He's a really outstanding shooter from 15-18 feet, and he'll be able to show that this year because we'll have a little bit more in the post. We'll have more options and some guys who can be a low-post presence, which will allow him to play his most advantageous position."
SEC coaches should shudder at the thought of Patterson in a more advantageous position.
"There was nothing that I could see that didn't impress me about that kid," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "He was, in addition to a great player, a great competitor. He carried himself the way I appreciate players carrying themselves. He's not overly demonstrative or talking or running his mouth. He did everything in a professional way. Throw on top of that how good he is and I liked him a lot.
"These days, that's a very rare combination. He's a special player, I don't know what it's like to coach him, but he looks like he'd be a great guy to coach as well."
Gillispie has no complaints.
"He's a great listener, as good a listener as I've ever been around," Gillispie said. "He listens with his eyes 100 percent of the time. You don't have to tell Patrick too many things over and over. Usually you tell him once and it sticks with him forever.
"Patrick totally immerses himself on the basketball court to listening to instruction. He's able to listen and watch people demonstrate and pick things up right away. He gets better because he works hard and does listen and because he's very hungry. He's committed and as good a teammate as you could ever have. I would say if you ask him a question about what's most important to him, he'd say that his team does well because that's what he exhibits every day, no matter whether it's on the court or off."
Patterson doesn't seem as if the admiration of his own coach or other coaches in the SEC affects him. He appreciates it, certainly, but he's not letting anything go to his head.
"We all know he's the main guy on and off the court," guard Jodie Meeks said. "We feed him in the post and it's our role to hit open shots.
Patrick Patterson missed the end of last season after suffering a stress fracture.
"He's a humble guy and I like that about him. He was on the cover of Athlon and I didn't even know. I saw it and asked him about it, and he was like, 'Yeah, it's me.' "
The humility was instilled in him by his father growing up in Huntington, W.Va. Buster Patterson, retired from the Navy, was the law to Patrick. The son did his chores and did them on time, or there were consequences.
"My dad was strict," Patterson said. "He tells it how it is. He's not the nice dad. He's the nice dad every now and then, but mostly he's a dad who looks out for you and pushes you to do the right thing. He's not afraid to say what he wants you to do and give you punishments when you don't do it."
So Patrick kept his room neat, did the dishes, took out the trash, vacuumed. If he didn't, he found himself confined to his room, no TV, no electronics and no cell phone.
"Patrick has been very closely guarded by his mom and dad," said Lloyd McGuffin, Patterson's high school coach. "Buster is a no-nonsense guy but easy to get along with and down to earth. But Buster is not going to put up with him going out and acting silly."
Patterson said there wasn't much going out, anyway.
"I'm probably only person in my class who had a curfew," Patterson said. "My friends were going out late at night to parties, and my father assigned a curfew every night – 10 p.m. It really hurt my senior year.
"I was mad. I was frustrated. My friends would be calling and texting, saying, 'We're going out, you want to come?' I'd say, 'No, I can't. If I sneak out, I'll get caught because he's always up late at night.' But looking back on it, it shaped me to the man I am today."
That is to say the kind of kid his parents and the city of Huntington can be proud of.
"As far as I'm concerned he's just the kind of kid that wants to please everybody, do anything that's asked of him," McGuffin said. "He's a throwback. There's no other way to describe him. He likes to be in the gym. Whether in practice or a game he doesn't play around
So I brought my Cornhole boards that I built and painted with the idea that I would get some of the players to sign one of them and I was lucky enough to get almost all of their signatures except for Meeks, Harris, and Porter. As you can see in the picture below I got Patterson’s picture signing my board. Pretty cool.
Below you can see Me standing beside a towering Matt Pilgrim. He is a beast and every bit as big as Patterson. On the other side was my partner Kevin Galloway and Pilgrim's partner was Jason Stevens from our group. 
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