Sunday after Senior Night

There is something about 6,500 fans chanting "Ad-am How-ard" on a Saturday night in south-central Kentucky. Adam, a walk-on from Ashland, Kentucky spent much of his career on the bench, playing limited minutes only when the Toppers had sealed a victory with a few minutes to go.

So when the Toppers were struggling to put away the Warhawks last night I had a feeling that Howard may not get the curtain-call he deserved. The chants were there much of the last five minutes of the game, and when Courtney Lee hit the second of two free throws, Adam was standing at the scorer's table, ready to check in.

In came Howard, he embraced Lee and the game went, the crowd went crazy.

The clock ticked down, it looked like Howard would go another night with minimal action in the stat column. But as he grabbed a rebound with just a few seconds left he was fouled and had a chance to make two free throws.

People began to head for the exits, thinking more about themselves and trying to get past the post-game traffic. Others stayed to watch a hard-working, blue collar kid hit two free throws. The first one rattled in, the second one was nothing but net.

Coach Darrin Horn talked this week about how diverse this senior class was. Five kids, five different backgrounds.

There was Howard, the unlikely walk-on contributing a lot on practice, and contributing on mop-up duty in the final minutes of games.

There was Boris Siakam, an emotional, firey guy from Cameroon, he came to the States with no basketball experience but picked the game up at nearby Caverna High. Horn remembers seeing the emotion Siakam played with at a State Tournament. Horn said it looked like Siakam was ready to rip a teammates head off. Horn didn't know if he was like that because he was so competitive or because he had a screw loose. Horn confrimed it was because he was competitive and the rest is history. Siakam was a fan favorite without a doubt. He hustled, he loved the game, he loved his teammates.

There was Ty Rogers, a true in-state product from Eddyville. He related to the fan base well, he had that accent like they did, he came from the small-town western Kentucky background. He knew his role on his team. So Saturday when Lyon County shut down they were there to see Rogers. His dad was there too as he usually is but Saturday night he had courtside seats.

Tyrone Brazleton was there too. A Chicago product that knew what hard work and battling meant. You had to love Tyrone, the fire he played with, the hard work it took for him to get to Western. He took the junior-college route, when he finally got to the hill it took some adjusting, theres no doubt he's not adjusting or learning anymore, rather he's leading, and it will be interesting to see where he leads this team down the stretch.

Finally, there's Courtney Lee, the poster-boy for this senior class and the program. He leaves for a probable NBA career as the second leading scorer in school history. Last night nearly an hour after the final buzzer had sounded Lee was still out on the Diddle floor signing youngster's forehead.

Perhaps it was Horn who summed up these five the best: "a special group."