30 Tim Stephens

Tim Stephens was born Timothy S. Stephens on June 16, 1958, in Pulaski County, Kentucky to Orville Dewey Stephens and Ruth Bernice Jones.  He grew up in Revelo in McCreary County, Kentucky.  Stephens played for the Wildcats from 1976 to 1978 and was a reserve guard on the 1978 national championship team.

Stephens, a southpaw shooter, was a two-time All-State basketball player from McCreary County High School in Whitley City, Kentucky. He was the state’s leading high school scorer in 1976 at 35.6 points per game and 18 rebounds.  In 34 games, Stephens scored 1,213 points.  Three times he scored over 50 points.  He averaged 25 points per game as a junior shooting 52 percent from the field.  At the time, he was considered one of the best players to ever come from the 12th Region.  Following the state tournament, Stephens was awarded the Ted Sanford Award, an award given to a tournament participant based on citizenship, basketball ability, academic achievement, and sportsmanship.

On March 28, 1976, Stephens signed an SEC letter of intent to play at Kentucky.  He was signed at home by head coach Joe B. Hall and assistant Dick Parsons.  “I’ve followed UK since I was 10 years old,” Stephens said. “It has been my only thought to play at Kentucky. Now that I’ve reached that level, I’m as excited as can be.  Gary King and I were good friends and I’d go over to his house.  We would play along with the game, shoot socks into a can, things like that.”

“Stephens is a potential guard,” said Coach Hall, “and one who can play the big guard. He is a proven quick forward and will have the opportunity to swing both positions. He and Shidler will give us the outside shooting potential we lacked last year. They should reopen our inside game by taking the pressure off our big men.”

As a freshman at Kentucky, Stephens suffered a knee injury in practice and missed 18 games.  He did manage to see action in 12 games where he played 109 minutes.  He scored 30 points total on the season.  Despite the knee injury, Stephens was awarded the Jaycee Freshman Leadership Award following his first season with the Cats.

As a sophomore, Stephens played 106 minutes in 19 games, one of which he started.  He played but never recovered fully from the knee injury.  He averaged 1.2 points as a backup guard.

Stephens started his junior year off strongly but became dissatisfied with his playing time.  Stephens had played 57 minutes in Kentucky’s first six games, hitting 56 percent of his shots and averaging 5.2 points per game, but did not play in Saturday’s 81-76 upset of Notre Dame on December 30, 1978.  The next day, December 31, 1978, Stephens gathered his belongings and went home to Revelo.

“Once I started not getting to play, I figured, ‘There’s no use spending the rest of your time up here just sitting on the bench,’ ” Stephens said.  “I went to see coach Parsons (assistant coach Dick Parsons). He told me to wait, but I had already waited.  I didn’t make up my mind until late that evening, but after I did, I decided to get on with it.”  Stephens later announced that he would transfer to Cumberland College to finish his career.

In a little over 2 years at UK, Stephens played in 37 games and averaged 2.2 points per game, 0.9 rebounds per game, and 0.8 assists per game. His field goal percentage was 38.7%, and his free throw percentage was 57.9%.

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