Rhyne Howard's greatness will be remembered for decades to come

Before Rhyne Howard first stepped foot in Lexington, Kentucky Women’s Basketball hadn’t seen a player of her caliber come through town in nearly 40 years.

Valerie Still, who played at UK from 1979-83 and is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,763 points, was the most impressive talent the program had ever seen. She averaged 23.2 points over her four-year Wildcat career and led Kentucky to its only SEC Tournament championship win in 1982. Nearly four decades went by before the Big Blue Nation saw another woman as impressive as Still take the hardwood.

Rhyne Howard first came to Kentucky as a five-star prospect, yet severely underrated. ESPN had her ranked as the No. 32 overall player from the class of 2018. She was named the 2018 Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year and Tennessee Miss Basketball following a spectacular senior season. The soft-spoken, typically shy high schooler was dominant for the Bradley Central Lady Bearettes down in Cleveland, TN, but some outside observers didn’t shower her with the recognition she fully deserved.

That would become a theme over the next four seasons — doubters channeling on the few things Howard doesn’t do as opposed to the myriad things she does at the highest possible level. But it didn’t take fans long to notice that the program had something special in Howard. She wasn’t your typical Kentucky WBB backcourt recruit — not a small, wiry guard who embraces playing full-court defense for an entire 40 minutes.

Instead, she was a 6-foot-2, three-level scoring guard who could defend all five positions. Howard was a unique superstar from the moment she touched the ball. I’ve had the special pleasure of being able to cover Howard all four seasons she’s been in Lexington, watching her development and maturity firsthand over the years. The first sports team I ever focused on for KSR was Kentucky WBB during Howard’s freshman year.

With that in mind, while I’m only 26 years old and hopefully have plenty of basketball to watch in the future, I can confidently say I have never personally watched a better overall basketball player than Rhyne Howard. Her basketball skills have grown year over year, but so has her confidence and maturity. She went from a quiet budding star to a bonafide pro eager to talk her shit and back it up. She became a fixture in her communities.

“Definitely as someone who cared more about just basketball,” Howard said earlier this week about how she wants to be remembered. “I care about people’s well-being, I’m always trying to be there for my friends, my teammates. I don’t care to be remembered for what I did on the court.”

“It speaks for itself,” Howard’s head coach, Kyra Elzy, quipped.

Later on Sunday, Kentucky WBB will honor all that Howard has done during her time as a Wildcat in what is being dubbed as “Rhyne Howard Day”. This isn’t your typical Senior Day, as Howard is the only one expected to participate, but the festivities sure will be exciting. Tipoff for her final home game is set for 4:00 p.m. EST at Memorial Coliseum, but the fun begins at 3:40, so make sure to show up slightly early.

Proof of the 👑#BBN #CrownHer https://t.co/gbkfOOJnZo pic.twitter.com/49pHEpITXe

— Evan Crane (@EvanCraneKY) February 23, 2022

Rhyne Howard over the years

Howard’s freshman season was one for the record books: the unanimous SEC and National Freshman of the Year under then-head coach Matthew Mitchell. The rookie averaged a team-best 16.4 points and 6.6 rebounds alongside all-time great Wildcat guards Maci Morris and Taylor Murray. It was her combination of scoring, passing, rebounding, and impeccable basketball IQ on both ends of the floor that quickly made her out to be a special talent. Howard set school and league records for the most SEC Freshman of the Week honors earned in one season with eight total.

Little did we know, she was just getting started.

Howard quickly went from Freshman of the Year territory to being considered a frontrunner for Player of the Year. Her sophomore campaign was arguably the most impressive of her Kentucky career as she posted 23.4 points per game, second-most in the country for that season. Facing the losses of Morris and Murray, Howard elevated her game to a level not seen since Still was wearing the same jersey.

She posted at least 20 points in 21 of her 27 games played that season, including back-to-back outings of 37 and 43 points against Tennessee and Alabama, respectively. Howard finished the year on a string of eight consecutive 20-point games before COVID-19 canceled a would-be NCAA Tournament run. Her 85 3-pointers set a single-season program record. For everything she accomplished, she was an easy choice for her first SEC Player of the Year award and a spot on the All-SEC First Team. However, some national folks didn’t exactly feel the same.

Despite being crowned as the best player from the SEC, Howard was snubbed by the WBCA, which named her an honorable mention for All-American. She didn’t take the snub lightly, either. Howard voiced her belief that she was a unanimous First-Team All-American, and it was tough to argue against her resume. Considering she played half the season coming off a fractured left pinky, her achievements were even more impressive.

“For them to just leave me out, I was hurt a little bit,” Howard said at the time, according to ESPN. “But then I was like ‘All right, now you all really have just made me mad because now I was really taking it easy and now I can’t.'”

Guess whose shoes these are? Find out at 2:00 ET ESPN with @sportney_lyle and me 1st round NCAA TOURNEY. @HeartofaBengal vs @KentuckyWBB pic.twitter.com/VTLFc2wiEx

— CAROLYN PECK (@CAROLYNPECK) March 21, 2021

Moving on to Howard’s junior year, the environment around her changed, but her basketball talents only improved. Matthew Mitchell surprisingly stepped down from his post just weeks before the start of the 2020-21 season due to health reasons. That move brought in longtime assistant Kyra Elzy as the interim, who was quickly named the full-time head coach. The timing wasn’t ideal, but a team with Rhyne Howard was always going to be in good shape.

Kentucky began the season strong under the guidance of Howard, who was on an early mission to make her case as one of the nation’s premier players. She dropped 33 points against Mississippi State then 32 more against South Carolina two games later. Howard’s overall scoring dipped down to 20.7 points per outing, but her numbers across the board boomed. Her playmaking prowess began to show itself on a possession-by-possession basis. At this point, she was widely being considered a future top draft pick for the WNBA.

The snubbers had no excuse this time around, but they sure did try and muster some up. Along with her 20-plus points per game, Howard also averaged 7.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.5 steals on a shooting split of 44.4/37.3/77.9. Another minor injury did little to slow down her production. Howard was tabbed the SEC Player of the Year for the second straight year and named a First-Team All-American by multiple outlets, but it wasn’t unanimous. Both ESPN and Sports Illustrated listed her as a Second-Team All-American despite her being considered one of the four frontrunners for National Player of the Year at the time by the Naismith Trophy.

“I got a lot of thoughts about it, but we’re going to keep it cordial,” Howard said after yet another snub. “I definitely think it’s political. I am upset about it. I’m hurt about it.”

Fittingly, her senior year has been the most adverse by far. The roster was thin from the season-opener before injuries and suspensions broke up any hope for continuity. Kentucky began the season 7-1 but quickly fell into a rut that saw Dre’Unda Edwards suspended for multiple games, several players sit out games with various injuries, and COVID-19 either cancel or postpone four games on the schedule. Eventually, the ‘Cats slipped to a 9-11 overall record.

But then the team got healthy and Howard finally had the help she needed to thrive.

Kentucky has since won five games in a row with a chance for No. 6 this afternoon. Howard has been playing at an elite level once again, averaging a team-high 19.9 points and 8.0 rebounds per outing this season on a shooting split of 43.4/34.7/80.9. She’s fully expected to go either No. 1 or No. 2 in the upcoming 2022 WNBA Draft because of it. Kentucky is now 14-11 on the season and 7-8 in SEC play. Howard has recorded a double-double in three of those five wins, including 29 points on the road in a blowout victory against a good Arkansas squad.

It’ll be tough to argue for Howard to win a third consecutive SEC Player of the Year award if only due to the team’s up-and-down season. But you better believe she’ll be an All-American for the third straight time. She eclipsed the 2,000-point mark earlier this year, which she did in under 100 games played. Her name is now plastered all over the Kentucky history books.

The biggest knock on Howard’s Kentucky career has always been the lack of postseason success. Barring a surprise run in the NCAA Tournament next month, Howard could finish her UK career having never once played in the Sweet 16. Granted, COVID-19 stole one of those opportunities and a coaching change halfway through her time in Lexington played a factor in that. But it’ll admittedly be a disappointment if Kentucky never makes a deep tournament run with the best player in 40 years on the roster.

The story isn’t over though. If Kentucky can beat Auburn later on Sunday during Rhyne Howard Day, the ‘Cats will be considered near-locks to sneak in the postseason, which didn’t seem possible just a month ago.

None of it would be possible without Howard, though, and she won’t be forgotten for a long time because of it.