College
Padgett saw limited playing time during his freshman season (1994–95) on a roster that included future NBA players Wayne Turner, Tony Delk, Rodrick Rhodes, Walter McCarty, Jeff Sheppard, Mark Pope and Antoine Walker. Padgett averaged 2.0 points per game and 1.2 rebounds per game while appearing in 14 games. He also had academic problems and was not eligible to play during the following year.
Padgett returned to Kentucky for the second half of the 1996-97 season. He became an integral part of that team, playing alongside future NBA players Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, Nazr Mohammed and Jamaal Magloire. Padgett scored 15 points against his hometown University of Louisville, 24 points against the University of Tennessee and 17 points in the NCAA national championship game against the University of Arizona. The 1996-97 Kentucky team finished as the NCAA runner-up. For the season Padgett averaged 9.6 points per game and 5.1 rebounds per game, and was named to the All-NCAA Final Four Team.
Padgett was the starting power forward on the 1997-98 team, and was one of its leading players as it won the 1998 NCAA. During that season, he distinguished himself nationally with good inside play, strong rebounding, and surprising outside shooting skills for a big inside player. On the season Padgett averaged 11.4 points per game, 6.6 rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 48.0% from the floor, 39.4% from 3 point range and 83.7% from the free throw line. In the NCAA tournament, he scored 19 points in a regional semifinal matchup against UCLA, 12 points - including a go-ahead three pointer to cap a 17 point comeback - in a regional final against Duke University, and 17 points in the NCAA national championship game against the University of Utah. Honors Padgett won that season included being named First Team All-American (Wooden), All-NCAA Final Four Team, All-NCAA Regional Team, Second Team All-SEC (Coaches), Third Team All-SEC (AP), All-SEC Tournament and Academic All-SEC.
During Padgett's senior season he tallied his 1,000th career point at Kentucky. That 1998-99 team lost the NCAA regional final. In his senior season, he averaged 12.6 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game and 2.6 assists per game. Highlights of the season included scoring 29 points and grabbing 10 rebounds against the University of Kansas in a second round NCAA tournament game. Padgett was also named to the All-NCAA Regional Team, was First Team All-SEC (Coaches) and Second Team All-SEC (AP) and Academic All-SEC. He was also named the Most Valuable Player of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
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Famous quotes containing the word college:
“Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“No girl who is going to marry need bother to win a college degree; she just naturally becomes a “Master of Arts” and a “Doctor of Philosophy” after catering to an ordinary man for a few years.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)