Sights and sounds from Rhyne Howard Day

Sunday afternoon sure was a special one at Memorial Coliseum.

The crowd on-hand was lively for what was the final home game of Rhyne Howard‘s spectacular, record-setting career as a Kentucky Wildcat. On a day that was aptly named after her, she let her on-court talents explain why she’ll go down as one of the program’s greatest players of all time. Howard unloaded for a season-high 32 points, including a program-record eight 3-pointers, in what wound up as UK’s most dominant SEC win of the season: a 28-point drumming of the lowly Auburn Tigers.

But it wasn’t just her performance during the game that created an exciting atmosphere. Nearly 6,000 members of the Big Blue Nation made sure to show up early for Rhyne Howard Day festivities as the multi-time All-American and two-time reigning SEC Player of the Year said her final goodbyes. Howard was joined by several members of her family, including her mom and dad, at midcourt prior to the game for a moment of recognition.

Once the action began though, she was all business. Howard set multiple single-game 3-point shooting records en route to her 32 points. She poured in 16 of UK’s first 30 points as her team took a double-digit lead early and never once trailed the rest of the way. While Kentucky surely had its fun, this was still an important win. Beating Auburn and extending the team’s win streak to six games should solidify its chances of making the NCAA Tournament next month.

“We knew it was a must-win and that it was emotional for everybody really. But everybody was locked in and everybody was focused and on the same page,” Howard said after the game was over. “And we just wanted to go out with a bang. We knew the fans were gonna be hype so we wanted to be equally as hype.”

With the win, Kentucky WBB cemented its spot as the seven-seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament, where the ‘Cats will face the 10-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs on Thursday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

After the game was over, Howard and her head coach, Kyra Elzy, said a few words to the leftover fans. Howard expressed gratitude for her time at Kentucky and the friendships she formed, particularly with her best friend and teammate, senior guard Blair Green, who has sat out all season with an Achilles injury.

Howard’s relationship with Green goes well-beyond basketball, too. In fact, when Green suffered her injury prior to the start of this season, Howard told Green she would wear her No. 5 jersey once Senior Day rolled around. And sure enough, Howard came through on that promise, rocking No. 5 all game long with “GREEN” printed across the back of her jersey. The two were part of the same 2018 recruiting class and have been extremely close ever since.

“I knew I was gonna wear Blair’s jersey for a long, long time. I told her probably not long after she got hurt, ‘I’m wearing your jersey for Senior Night,'” Howard said postgame. “She’s always been there, that’s my sister, we came in together, we lived together all four years, and she wasn’t able to play in my last home game with me. But her jersey deserves to be worn.”

The jersey swap was also a nod to the late Terrence Clarke, a one-time Wildcat guard who quickly became good friends with Howard while the two were together at Kentucky. Clarke donned the No. 5 on his jersey, as well, before unfortunately passing away in a car accident last spring.

Fun day at Memorial. Rhyne Howard scores a season-high 32 points in her last game at Memorial wearing Blair Green and Terrence Clarke’s No. 5.

4 years of greatness. pic.twitter.com/4CEXP4kIQV

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) February 27, 2022

Make sure to check out all of the fantastic pictures that Dr. Michael Huang snapped for KSR along the way. It sure was a fun send-off for one of the most talented basketball players to ever come through Lexington.