PuddingTime
10-12-2006, 10:52 PM
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/colleges/university_of_kentucky/15728648.htm
By Jerry Tipton
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
After its winter of discontent in 2005-06, Kentucky basketball needed a feel-good wave to ride into this coming season. Maybe it came yesterday, three days before Big Blue Madness tips off a new season.
Mark Krebs, a guard from Newport Central Catholic, learned yesterday that he had made the UK team as a walk-on. He got the news on his birthday, which was celebrated with a family dinner last night.
"Oh, it's great," Krebs said. "It's a dream."
Krebs will not participate in Madness. He will sit out this season as a transfer from Thomas More College. Barring a surprise, he will be on the team beginning in 2007-08 as a sophomore shooting guard.
Krebs' persistence made this dream come true.
After graduating from high school in 2005, he attended Thomas More because the Division III school was close to home. He wanted to be nearby because his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. By the end of the fall semester, he realized he could "play somewhere."
Kentucky, the school of his boyhood dreams, was the somewhere he wanted to play. He wrote a letter to UK Coach Tubby Smith in February. In his reply, Smith noted how Krebs was a promising prospect.
That was an understatement, according to Newport Central Catholic Athletic Director Rob Detzel. "He's the nicest kid you could have," said Detzel, who coached the basketball team when Krebs played."
Besides averaging 19 points as a senior, Krebs was a "fantastic shooter," said Detzel, who added that the player made 51 percent of his three-point attempts as a junior.
"He's a 4.0 student," Detzel said. (Actually, Krebs said his grade-point average was 3.9). "And he doesn't drink."
After not hearing again from Smith for about two months, Krebs said, "I took the initiative." He worked with personal trainer and put 25 pounds on his skinny 6-foot-5 frame over the summer.
When he reported to UK for student orientation in August, Krebs went to the basketball office with letters of recommendation. Smith took a wait-and-see attitude.
Then Krebs played well enough in pick-up games and worked out well enough to be invited to walk on.
Asked if this made for a wonderful birthday present, Krebs blurted out, "Oh, my god, yes."
By Jerry Tipton
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
After its winter of discontent in 2005-06, Kentucky basketball needed a feel-good wave to ride into this coming season. Maybe it came yesterday, three days before Big Blue Madness tips off a new season.
Mark Krebs, a guard from Newport Central Catholic, learned yesterday that he had made the UK team as a walk-on. He got the news on his birthday, which was celebrated with a family dinner last night.
"Oh, it's great," Krebs said. "It's a dream."
Krebs will not participate in Madness. He will sit out this season as a transfer from Thomas More College. Barring a surprise, he will be on the team beginning in 2007-08 as a sophomore shooting guard.
Krebs' persistence made this dream come true.
After graduating from high school in 2005, he attended Thomas More because the Division III school was close to home. He wanted to be nearby because his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. By the end of the fall semester, he realized he could "play somewhere."
Kentucky, the school of his boyhood dreams, was the somewhere he wanted to play. He wrote a letter to UK Coach Tubby Smith in February. In his reply, Smith noted how Krebs was a promising prospect.
That was an understatement, according to Newport Central Catholic Athletic Director Rob Detzel. "He's the nicest kid you could have," said Detzel, who coached the basketball team when Krebs played."
Besides averaging 19 points as a senior, Krebs was a "fantastic shooter," said Detzel, who added that the player made 51 percent of his three-point attempts as a junior.
"He's a 4.0 student," Detzel said. (Actually, Krebs said his grade-point average was 3.9). "And he doesn't drink."
After not hearing again from Smith for about two months, Krebs said, "I took the initiative." He worked with personal trainer and put 25 pounds on his skinny 6-foot-5 frame over the summer.
When he reported to UK for student orientation in August, Krebs went to the basketball office with letters of recommendation. Smith took a wait-and-see attitude.
Then Krebs played well enough in pick-up games and worked out well enough to be invited to walk on.
Asked if this made for a wonderful birthday present, Krebs blurted out, "Oh, my god, yes."