Column: UK’s ‘forgotten star’ force behind recent SEC dominance

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Let’s not forget about Patrick Patterson.

You wouldn’t think you could, when the sophomore forward consistently turns in a double-double, although not always in the same way he did during Wednesday night’s 73-64 win against Auburn.

How could you forget a player that had 21 points and 18 rebounds? But people forgot about Patterson. Sometime during Jodie Meeks’ explosion in the past week, people forgot how such an explosion could even occur — the constant double and triple teams Patterson faces in the post, the sagging defenses, the special attention opposing coaches have to give him.

In the past week, Meeks has gotten all the attention, which is well deserved, and has been put into everyone’s National Player of the Year discussion. On Wednesday, Meeks again delivered with 31 points, including 5-of-8 from behind the arc.

But that kind of production has become expected from Meeks. People knew that if healthy, the junior would be a huge scoring machine. This year, it has finally shown. But in college basketball, no one player can carry a team by themselves. Good teams have a superstar player (Meeks fits that bill), but there has to be someone else.

The Cats are lucky enough to have two superstar players. Everyone forgot about the other. On the road, Meeks has dominated in almost every game. At home, Patterson has been King of the Bluegrass.

No one works harder than Patterson in the post. The Tigers pushed, elbowed and muscled Patterson all night long, treatment he has to be used to by now, and yet Patterson turned in a huge night. Everyone knows Patterson is going to touch the ball almost every possession down the court. Almost every possession, Patterson still puts the ball in the hoop. The term both UK head coach Billy Gillispie and opposing players like to use to describe Patterson is flattering to the sophomore — “beast.”

“That man’s a beast,” Auburn guard Rasheem Barrett said. “Plain as day, he’s a beast. You can double and triple team him and he still scores.”

Nothing against Meeks, but Patterson is the reason UK is still undefeated in conference play. His defense has limited the opponent’s lead post player since Southeastern Conference play opened. His rebounding — Patterson’s 18 rebounds were almost half of UK’s total — both on the offensive and defensive glass gives UK a major edge.

There is not a better example of this than Patterson’s play in the Auburn win. Sure, Meeks was lights-out again, but when Auburn took the lead or when UK couldn’t pull away, the Cats looked to Patterson for rebounding, defense and points.

“Tonight was the best I’ve seen Pat play all year,” Gillispie said. “Bless his heart. He has a hurt finger, and it doesn’t affect him one bit. Yeah, ‘beast’ is a good word for it.”

Jodie, your scoring ability may be impressive, but UK’s return to national prominence relies on one man and one man only.

Patrick Patterson.

Kenny Colston is a journalism junior. E-mail kcolston@kykernel.com.