Playing for Kentucky isn't easy

— -- LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The man, an airport worker, opened the door to the plane and Kenny Walker, a teenager from the tiny rural Georgia town of Roberta, ducked his head so he could fold his 6-foot-8 frame through the doorway.

He hadn't quite gotten out when the airport worker stopped him.

"Are you a basketball player?" he asked.

Walker said that he was, offering his name and his hand to shake.

"Kenny Walker, the UK recruit coming in? The one averaging 28 points and 17 rebounds?" the man said to Walker. "I just read about you on Cats Pause. Do you mind signing an autograph?''

Amazed but also a little skeptical, Walker scratched his name on a piece of paper and headed to the baggage claim, where he met up with Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall and his assistant, Leonard Hamilton.

He told them what had just happened, how some stranger not only knew who he was and knew his stats, but wanted his autograph -- even though he was a recruit, not yet committed to play at Kentucky.

"So I asked them: 'Did you put him up to it? Was it a setup?''' Walker said recently, recalling a story from more than 30 years ago. "And they told me: 'No, not at all. That's just Kentucky.'''