Tennessee prepares to retire Chris Lofton's jersey vs. Kentucky

The Tennessee basketball program announced it would be retiring the jersey of Maysville’s own Chris Lofton this season — and you’ll never guess what game they chose for the ceremony.

That’s right, none other than the Kentucky Wildcats this Saturday, January 14 in Knoxville. Certainly no coincidence that the former Volunteer standout was infamously passed on by Kentucky under Tubby Smith out of high school, leading him to the program’s bitter SEC rival.

There, he proceeded to earn AP All-America honors during his sophomore, junior and senior seasons and was named the 2007 SEC Player of the Year. He scored 2,131 career points during his four seasons as a Vol — a mark that still stands as the fourth-most in program history.

The 6-foot-2 guard scored a total of 151 points against Kentucky specifically, an average of 18.9 points per contest against the Wildcats over the course of his four-year career. His biggest performance came as a sophomore, scoring 31 points on 11-18 shooting and 7-10 from three in a 75-67 win in Lexington.

Now, the school will hang his jersey in the rafters with his former rival school in attendance on Saturday.

Chris knew something was up… pic.twitter.com/iiPbLHf2F0

— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) September 15, 2022

“We all should be excited for Chris,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Lofton. “When you think about it, I’ve never met anyone that can say an ill thing about Chris. When you come into a situation like we did eight years ago, and you want to build something special, but you also know you need past players and people involved to help you do that, he embraced us.”

A former Mason County Royals star who led his team to a state title in 2003, Lofton was inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

“He really, from the time he came around, one, because he loves this university so much. The second thing is he loves being in the gym,” Barnes added. “I think our players had a chance up close to see a real professional go at his craft and see what he needs to do. But lay that aside, the kind of person he is and what he stands for, his love for the Lord and the way that he’s real, he’s as real as can be. Then you throw in the fact that he had to fight cancer.

“He’s such a great person. And it’s more, the way he loves the program. I don’t know of any era (of Tennessee basketball) that doesn’t love him because of the way he loves this place.”

He’s set to be honored in a rowdy environment at Thompson-Boling Arena, one giddy for the opportunity to make a bad season even worse for Kentucky. Barnes, though, believes he’ll be getting the team’s best when they arrive in Knoxville this weekend.

“Rivalries aren’t rivalries unless you beat each other. That is what I think,” he said. “We have competed against each other now since we have been here. It has gone on forever. You go back through the years, there has been times when maybe, Kentucky has double the wins I think. If it is going to be a rivalry, you have to beat somebody. For that to happen, we are going to have to continue to play good basketball because they are going to play.

“They are going to get better. I don’t care what has happened up to this point. I know John Calipari and I know how he is. Nobody is going to work harder. Nobody is going to put more into it. He is locked in on one thing and that is figuring out how to get these guys better and I fully expect them to be better when they come in here tomorrow.”

Will they? We’ll find out Saturday, with tip-off scheduled for noon ET on ESPN.