By LARRY VAUGHT, UK SPORTS COLUMNIST
Sydney McLaughlin won the 400-meter hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics with a world-record time of 51.46 seconds — a mark she lowered to 51.41 Saturday at the USA Track & Field Championships — and was the first woman to break 52 seconds. She was also on the 4x400 gold medal relay team. At UK, she was national champion in the 400 hurdles in 2018.
Still, with the senior season and career that Abby Steiner just completed at UK, who had the better Kentucky career — Steiner or McLaughlin?
“It’s Abby, hands down. Abby is the one. She brings excitement. I don’t even know the words to describe her,” said Sharieffa Barksdale, senior manager of alumni relations at USA Track & Field and a former Lexington resident. “Nothing against Syd. They are clearly in two different events but Abby is unbelievable.”
Steiner was named U.S. Track &Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Women’s Track Athlete of the Year for the second season in a row and also won the award for this year’s indoor season. She won the Honda Sports Award for Track & Field.
Steiner won the 200-meter dash at both the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships and was on the winning 4x400 team at the outdoor meet and ran her leg in a sizzling 48.92 seconds that ESPN’s Myron Medcalf called “one of the greatest performances you’ll ever see on a track..” Steiner also has the collegiate record of 21.8 seconds — eighth fastest in U.S. history — in the 200
“The reason why I say that about Abby over Syd is Abby had to overcome a lot of adversity to get where she is. She was not an immediate star and then was injured her junior season but then she jhad a sensational year,” Barksdale said.
Rose Monday was head coach of the U.S. women’s team at the Tokyo Olympics. She has not met Steiner but has followed her career closely.
“She is amazing. She definitely could be an Olympian. She is such a phenomenal sprinter,” Monday said. “She is one gifted young lady who I sense is only going to keep getting better.”
Steiner competed at the USA Track & Field Championships last week in Eugene, Ore., and won the 200 in 21.77 seconds — the best time in the world this year — to earn her first trip to the World Championships next month.
Barksdale says the transition from successful collegiate sprinter to successful professional sprinter is a lot harder than most understand.
“It is just a different ballgame between college and professional,” Barksdale said. “Mentally if you don’t have it when you go against professional athletes you may not shine in the pros like you did in college. You have to be mentally ready knowing some of those pros may have been your idols. That can be intimidating. You can lose focus. It’s a totally different game as a professional. It doesn’t always work out as easy as it did for Sydney.”
Steiner said before the meet she was confident fatigue from SEC and NCAA meets would not impact her. After her win, she told NBC Sports, “Coming off a collegiate season, a lot of people wanted to put limitations on you that you are burnt out.”
Barksdale is confident Steiner is going to be just fine because of the way she can “shift gears” the last 15 or 20 meters of the 200 like she did at the USA Championships.
“Her arms are just pumping like crazy. That is just her. I have not seen anyone’s arm move as fast as her right arm,” Barksdale said. “Her style is not for everybody but why fix something that is not broken. She has perfected her running style and it works for her. I respect Kentucky coaches for not trying to change here. Never let anyone try to change your style of running if it is working.”
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Robert Dillingham’s verbal commitment to Kentucky last week gives coach John Calipari two guards in his 2023 recruiting class as he already had a commitment from North Laurel star Reed Sheppard, the son of former UK Final Four MVP Jeff Sheppard.
Dillingham is rated a top five overall player in the 2023 recruiting class by ESPN and No. 2 point guard. Sheppard is No. 29 overall in the ESPN rankings and 17th in the Rivals ratings.
The best news for UK is that Dillingham told ESPN’s Paul Biancardi already knows Reed Sheppard.
"I have known him since we were younger. He's got sneaky bounce and is a knock-down shooter,” Dillingham told Biancardi.
Kentucky is also recruiting guard DJ Wagner, the No. 1 player in the 2023 class. However, Wagner’s grandfather, Milt, was recently hired at Louisville and was on the 1986 Louisville national championship team with Kenny Payne, Louisville’s news coach.
Dillingham wants to play with Wagner.
"I really feel we could feed off each other by scoring and making assists," Dillingham told Biancardi. "We could easily play together and learn from each other. DJ is crazy good. He is one of the toughest players I have seen. A shot-maker and scorer."
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If senior point guard Sahvir Wheeler is right, it is going to help Kentucky a lot having players like Oscar Tshiebwe and himself back after playing one year under John Calipari.
“When they (teammates) make mistakes, just being able to be like ‘Hey man, it’s good, you’re good.’ It’s all part of the growing process and all part of learning and going into a new environment where you aren’t totally comfortable, you’re gonna make mistakes,” Wheeler said.
“Things are gonna happen that don’t go your way. Us being that calming presence — it’s happened to the best of us.”
Wheeler understands the impact an older, experienced teammate can have when a player is having a bad game because it has happened to him.
“I feel like that’s already happened with some of the workouts. Guys might get a little frustrated, like bro it’s new, it’s completely new. You’ve never ran this hard, you’ve never worked this hard before in your life, it’s all right, we’re gonna be with you every step of the way,” Wheeler said.
“I think Oscar and I have done a really good job and continue to do that with the rest of our teammates, just picking each other up, lifting each other, empowering each other, to work hard and be the best versions of ourselves.”
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He could have been part of Kentucky’s 2022 recruiting class but Frederick Douglass defensive back Ty Bryant chose to take a COVID year and play another year of high school football.
“He is a young kid, still just 17. He will end up being a four-year starter and five-year player for us,” Frederick Douglass coach Nathan McPeek said. “He is good but he is going to be really good in the future.
“Coach (Mark) Stoops and coach (Vince) Marrow know that. He can be a captain-type kid. He is a great leader on and off the field. He’s a great student. He has the ears of his teammates. They listen to him because he puts in the work.”
Bryant’s father, Cisco, was a receiver at Kentucky and understood the benefits of having his son more physically ready for Southeastern Conference football by staying in high school an extra year.
“When his parents came to me about him coming back and maturing a year and then going to UK, I was kind of surprised but I leave that up to the families,” McPeek said. “Selfishly I am kind of glad to have him back because he will make us a better team and I know he will have a great year for us before heading off to UK.”
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New Kentucky assistant basketball coach K.T. Turner says one thing about coach John Calipari stands out to him.
“He is not fake at all. I have always liked that about him. He wins and gets guys to the NBA. I love his personality,” Turner said. “He is really concerned about players and making sure they are working and doing things the right way. Our meetings are player driven.
“Cal is Cal. He wins and he is about the players. I love that about him.”
Turner coached under Larry Brown, one of Calipari’s mentors. He heard a lot of Calipari stories from Brown — including some he joked he could not share. Calipari tried to hire him before at Kentucky but it was for a non-recruiting position that Turner didn’t want to take.
“Coach Brown has unbelievable respect for Cal. He talked about him all the time,” Turner said about his time at SMU with Brown. “When I got to meet coach Cal, it was really great because I had heard so much about him.
“I learned from coach Brown that the big thing was to always be about the players. They are the ones who run the program.”
He’s only been in Kentucky about two weeks since leaving Oklahoma but already likes what he has seen.
“I think the sky’s the limit. I think we have a chance (to win a national title). We have a lot of great pieces. We have a lot of guys that work and play well together,” Turner said. “The culture is real. The guys work. That is what they are here for.”
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Kentucky football players certainly have a lot of special fans in Somerset now after what they did to help “save the day” for a youth football camp.
Former UK standout Lynn Bowden was scheduled to be the guest at the Somerset Youth Football League camp last Saturday for the third straight year when his flight got cancelled. League officials reached out to UK defensive back Andru Phillips and UK quarterback Kaiya Sheron, who played at Somerset, to see if they would come to the camp.
“The football camp for SYFL is for grades 1-6, so the ages range between 5-11 years old. It is a great opportunity for the kids to learn and have fun. When Lynn Bowden couldn't show up this year my son was very disappointed. He was looking forward to seeing him again this year,” said Lela Barnett, who had two sons at the camp.
Sheron and Phillips recruited 11 teammates — DeAndre Square, Jacquez Jones, Juhtan McClain, Chris Lewis, Jamarius Dinkins, Khalil Saunders, Martez Thrower, Jordan Dingle, Jase Bruner, Justice Dingle and Connor Long — to also make the trip to work with the 165 camp participants.
“We were really impressed that the UK players stepped up and took his place when he couldn't be there. They danced with kids, they sprinted along side the kids, they were just being big kids themselves with the little ones and they loved it,” Barnett said. “Seeing the smiles on my kids faces said it all.”
Barnett said all the players impressed her but Phillips, a sophomore defensive back, “made their day” with what he did. She said he danced with her son Noah and carried him upside down across the field. He also talked a lot to Noah and his brother Rylee at various times during the camp.
“All the guys took time out of their busy schedules to come to our town to help with football camp when they really didn't have to,” Barnett said. “They were very friendly and we appreciated it very very much.”
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Quote of the Week: "I see myself being one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball. Just playing at the highest level, just really getting after it and competing. One of my goals coming in as a rookie is just win Rookie of the Year. That's one of the goals and then also (become an) All-Star and later on Hall of Fame,” UK freshman Shaedon Sharpe on a NBA draft Zoom call before he was the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Quote of the Week 2: “I’m confident in my ability, and I think I do have the potential to be a first-round pick. Just got to make sure that I can prove that on the field in everything that I do from here on out,” Kentucky quarterback Will Levis on early NFL draft hype about him.
Quote of the Week 3: “I’m in a great space physically and mentally. I feel cleaner. I feel I have more energy. I’m not on Weight Watchers or anything like that. I’m even faster. I’m even more explosive than I was last year,” UK point guard Sahvir Wheeler on how diet changes have helped him.
