Well, it’s Alex Poythress’ much anticipated (in a good way) farewell season. This will be Poythress’ last season with the Cats and with BBN in Lexington. After missing out last season with a devastating ACL tear, some thought Alex would redshirt and have another year of eligibility, but everything indicates he will forgoe the redshirt, thus making this his final season. It was an up and down career at Kentucky, more up than down, but it was all worth it. Let’s meet Alex Poythress one last time.
FRESHMAN
Alex came in with his fellow recruiting class members, Willie Caulley-Stein, Archie Goodwin and Nerlens Noel. Though Noel was the more heralded recruit, Poythress was a very close second. Alex came out strong in his first few games, one in particularly, the Duke game. Kentucky was down for most of the game against Duke, but would have been in big trouble if it weren’t for Poythress, who at times in the game was single handedly keeping Kentucky in the game. After that game however Alex would have games where he would show up, and then have games where you forget that he was on the team. Ultimately, after Nerlens Noel went down with an ACL, Kentucky headed to the NIT that season, and as you well know, the rest is history.
SOPHOMORE
Here is what our very own Terry Brown had to say about Poythress’ sophomore season:
"In 2013, Poythress’ play was a bit uneven, but most of that can be chalked up to a roster whose pieces didn’t seem to quite come together. He showed flashes of greatness, but wasn’t nearly consistent enough to help push that team into the NCAA tournament. Surprisingly, Poythress returned for his sophomore season and, without public dissension, moved to the bench when Calipari asked him to, for the benefit of the team. It took a few games to find his niche, but by the time the Cats played Connecticut in the 2014 NCAA title game, Alex was an integral piece of the team and his contributions couldn’t be underestimated."
Alex’s sophomore season was statistically his best season here at Kentucky, mostly for the reason that he tore his ACL his junior season, which we are getting ready to talk about. Like Terry said, that season ended in a heartbreaker by losing to UConn in the Championship game.
JUNIOR
Unfortunately for Alex he was off to a monster start to the season with the trip to the Bahamas and the regular season, but tore his ACL in practice a couple days before Kentucky faced off between North Carolina. He did help cheer his teammates to a NCAA record 38-0 record before Kentucky fell in the final four to Wosconsin. Nevertheless you can bet his teammates were playing to win for him.
SENIOR
If Alex can stay healthy this season he will be one the biggest factors, if not the biggest factor to the success of the 2015-2016 season. I’m sure he will making those gravity defying dunks. I mean honestly have you ever see. Someone dunk where it looked like they were gliding in the air every time they dunked? Hopefully he can do what Nerlens Noel did and come back stronger than he was when he went down, which I expect he will. I see Alex averaging around 16 points and 9 rebounds a game. I see Alex going in the mid to late first round of the 2016 NBA draft. Until then, enjoy this last season with him because it’s going to be a good one!