Rhyne Howard (Vicky Graff Photo)
Rhyne Howard doesn’t forget. She was the best player in the Southeastern Conference last year and is ranked as one of the nation’s best returning players this season.
Yet when the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American Team was announced at the end of the 2019-20 season, Howard was left off even though other than SEC players made the team.
It was an obvious slight for Howard and Kentucky and one the UK junior remembers well going into this season and didn’t mince words when asked about that by ESPN analyst Carolyn Peck, who won a national title as coach at Purdue.
“It is definitely a huge motivator for me because I just felt like that was so disrespectful towards me and towards my game,” Howard said Monday. “My teammates know how hard I was working and my coaches know how hard we were all working to make sure we did get as far as we would like as a team and just to make sure I never took any days off or anything like that.
“For them to leave me off, I was hurt a little bit but then I was like, ‘alright, now y’all have really made me mad because I was just taking it easy but now I can’t and I have to come at y’all.'”
Not sure about you, but I can’t wait to see a “mad” Howard play this year because she was dominating at times last year.
What would it mean to her to get UK to its first Final Four?
“It would mean a lot. Even an SEC Championship would mean a lot. University of Kentucky women’s basketball hasn’t won that since 2012 so to bring that and a national championship in the same year would be phenomenal,” Howard said.
“It would prove how much we worked for it and took the time to put the work in and never give up and just do what everyone says we couldn’t do.”
