22 Alex Poythress

Alex Poythress was born on September 6, 1993, in Savannah, Georgia, to Regina and Antoine Poythress. He later moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where he starred at Northeast High School and developed into one of the nation’s top basketball prospects. As a senior, Poythress earned Tennessee’s Gatorade Player of the Year award and was named the TSSAA Class AAA Mr. Basketball. A consensus five-star recruit, he received scholarship offers from many of the country’s premier programs before committing to the University of Kentucky on November 11, 2011. “Kentucky was just a place I felt comfortable with,” Poythress said after announcing his decision. “Coach Calipari is a good coach. I like their offense very well. I just felt like I can get better there.”

Poythress made an immediate impact for the Wildcats during the 2012-13 season, appearing in all 33 games with 31 starts while ranking second on the team with 11.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He became the first Kentucky freshman since Dwight Anderson in 1978-79 to score at least 20 points in four consecutive games and posted career highs of 22 points against both Lafayette and LIU Brooklyn. His freshman campaign established him as one of the Southeastern Conference’s brightest young forwards and set the stage for an outstanding four-year career in Lexington.

As a sophomore, Poythress embraced a new role as Kentucky’s sixth man, appearing in all 40 games while helping lead the Wildcats to the 2014 NCAA championship game. He delivered several clutch postseason performances, including six points in the final five minutes of Kentucky’s dramatic Sweet 16 comeback against Louisville, eight points and seven rebounds in the Final Four victory over Wisconsin, and eight points in the Elite Eight win over Michigan. Earlier in the season, he posted a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds in the season opener against UNC Asheville.

Poythress’ junior season took a heartbreaking turn in December 2014 when he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during practice, ending his season after just 11 games. The injury was a devastating setback for both Poythress and a Kentucky team with national championship aspirations. Yet while rehabbing, he continued to excel academically, earning SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition for the third consecutive year and graduating with a degree in business marketing in just three years.

Choosing to return for his senior season, Poythress completed one of the most inspiring comebacks of the John Calipari era. He averaged 10.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 60.1 percent from the field, one of the best single-season marks of the Calipari era. He scored a career-high 25 points in a victory at Alabama, dominated Georgia with 20 points and seven rebounds in the SEC Tournament, and recorded 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds against Eastern Kentucky. Off the court, he was named to the Academic All-America Second Team, became a finalist for the Arthur Ashe Jr. Player of the Year Award and the Senior CLASS Award, and remained one of only five scholarship players to spend four seasons under Calipari at Kentucky.

Poythress finished his Kentucky career with 966 points, 597 rebounds and 77 blocked shots, becoming just the 12th player in school history to record at least 900 points, 500 rebounds and 70 blocks. During Senior Day in 2016, he received an emotional tribute from former teammates Kyle Wiltjer, Aaron Harrison and Karl-Anthony Towns on the Rupp Arena video boards while standing at center court with his family. The crowd responded with a thunderous ovation, honoring a player whose perseverance through injury, commitment to his teammates, academic success and unwavering dedication to Kentucky basketball made him one of the most respected Wildcats of the John Calipari era.

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