Kentucky looks for Sparks in rebuilt backcourt

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Don't joke with Patrick Sparks, because he doesn't think it's funny.

Patrick Sparks aims to be even better -- and balder -- than he was at Western Kentucky.(Getty Images)

That whole "white men can't jump" thing that occasionally comes up, most recently from Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, of all people? Not funny.

Sparks is all basketball, all the time, which is why Kentucky fans are going to love him -- and why the media will have to endure him. But that's OK. He'll have to endure us, too.

An intense young man, this Sparks. He spent 30 mostly solemn minutes answering questions last week at Kentucky's media day, resisting any road the press wanted to take him down if that road didn't somehow lead to Rupp Arena.

Sparks is the Western Kentucky transfer who sat out last season after averaging 13.6 points and 5.9 assists for the Hilltoppers as a sophomore. Curiosity about Sparks -- a local kid who wasn't recruited out of high school by Kentucky despite setting all kinds of records -- arose last October when he scored 23 points in the Wildcats' annual Blue-White scrimmage while playing against senior Gerald Fitch.

Now eligible, Sparks already has been anointed as the Wildcats' best guard by none other than Smith, who says only three players have locked up starting spots -- forwards Chuck Hayes and Kelenna Azubuike, and Sparks.

That ratchets up the interest in Sparks to a whole new level, which is why he was surrounded by the largest media horde last week and endured get-to-know-you questions about his newly shaved scalp and unlikely basketball look.

Breathlessly, we report some of the give-and-take.

On Smith's lighthearted comments earlier in the day that Sparks "doesn't look like a very athletic guy" and won't be on the receiving end of any lobs:

"Yeah," Sparks said wearily, "I know I don't look like much of a basketball player."

On his bald head: "It was time for a haircut."